Converting Stacks of CDs To MP3

[FTLOSM]

I have about 200 CDs in my collection and just got a big 250 external hard drive, I wanted to start moving the cd collection into MP3 format so I can put some on my Rio and in general have them on my external drive all in one place now that I have the storage space.

I haven't converted a cd to mp3 in over 4-5 years, at that time I used a program called Audio Catalyst and I did them in 128 bitrate.

Since it has been so long since I converted a cd to mp3, are there any programs out there that are better than Audio Cat and if so which ones, I would like one that is free if possible and one that does the CDDB stuff so when I insert a new cd I can get all the track listings vs having to type them in by hand.

Also what is the best bitrate to use, 128 - 192 etc?

Thanks for any reply, I have been out of the loop too long on these things.

Bill

 

[Fenixgoon]

i use EAC to rip to wav, then razorlame to mp3, i encode at 256kbps archive quality (about 2mb/minute)

for some reasont hough, razorlame ran VERY slow on my computer (3 hours to mp3 1 cd worth of music) so i use db power amp now

try both, and use whichever one works best.

also, you may want to check out lossless formats (i dont know how they are size-wise compared to mp3s)

 

[screw3d]

EAC with LAME 3.90.3 --alt-preset-standard = :thumbsup: This will give you a VBR which averages to about 192kbps (I think).

Better still, use FLAC for archiving

 

[Schadenfroh]

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

 

[Evander]

1) *meticulous method* using Exact Audio Copy (EAC): http://www.chrismyden.com/bestmp3guide.php
It's a bit bothersome to set up, but you only have to do it once. Also note this method is slow

2) *easy and fast method* download CDEX, in settings select "lame" as encoder with "alt-preset-standard".

These methods are designed to give you high quality VBR (variable bitrate) MP3's that are (or nearly are) audibly indistinguishable from the uncompressed source (CD), but still the bitrate/file size isn't too high (alot of my cd ripped mp3's are going in the 170~224kbps range). I used to use the EAC method but now I only use CDEX. EAC is highly praised for it's skip-free digital audio extraction. But CDEX will report any jitters (almost never on my plextor drive), in this case I'll try to rerip the troublsome track (maybe after cleaning) and that always seems to work, I suppose I could use EAC if it didn't. But the bottom line is that CDEX is easier to use and much faster and gives me quality I'm 100% satisfied with, so that's what I recommend first.

 

[igowerf]

Remember to setup and use CDDB while you rip so all of your mp3s will be properly tagged.

 

[rh71]

I'd also suggest CDex with about 192kbps since you have the space for it anyway.