Help, I'm new to the world of ripping, encoding and making customized cds

[Sbud]

I would like to take some of my favorite cds and save them onto my computer to play directly and then to make cusom cds. Unfortunately, I am awfully new to this area and the "techs" at the hardware/software stores are useless. As such, your advice and answers to the following questions would be appreciated.

Searches of this forum have led me to these conclusions. It appears that I must make two choices - what to rip with and what to encode with. Cdex appears to do both the ripping and encoding with good results. Or, I could use EAC for ripping and LAME for encoding for maybe even better results.

Questions

1. Which is the easiest solution - Cdex alone or EAC + Lame. Please remember I'm new to this area.

2. Should I encode to mp3 or wav? I have a ton of room on my hard drive, if this matters.

3. Once the mp3 or wav files are on my harddrive, what program do I use to "play" them or to "burn" to the cd? Do I use the program that I extracted the data with or something else, like Nero or Roxio?

Forgive my stupidity, thanks for your input.

 

[Workin']

<< 1. Which is the easiest solution - Cdex alone or EAC + Lame. >>

CDEX is easier.

<< 2. Should I encode to mp3 or wav? >>

CD audio IS .wav data, so your copies should be bit-for-bit accurate if you stay with .wav files. MP3 is a &quot;lossy&quot; compression scheme that discards vast amounts of data. 1 minute of .wav data extracted from a CD takes up about 10 MB of disc space, 1 minute of MP3 takes up 1.5MB, more or less (it depends on a few factors chosen during the encoding).

<< 3. Once the mp3 or wav files are on my harddrive, what program do I use to &quot;play&quot; them or to &quot;burn&quot; to the cd? >>

I use Winamp to play all my audio files. You can use just about any burning software to make the CD's. Adaptec (Roxio) or Nero or one of many others. You do know that in order to be played in a regular cd player the files have to be burned to the CD in the proper format, and you can't just copy mp3 files (or .wavs, for that matter) to a CD and expect it to work in an audio CD player.

Hope this helps, I know it probably raises more questions than answers, post the questions as you have them and we'll get you through it.

 

[StrangeRanger]

Whether you choose the mp3 or wav format depends on your tastes. Are you an &quot;audiophile&quot; and really care about your music, with expensive sound card and very nice speakers and maybe a seperate amp? Or do you just want good sounding tunes on your rig? Choose the mp3 format if you just want good tunes on your rig.
If you decide to go the mp3 route there is not as much need to use EAC and Lame if you don't want to bother with 2 pkgs. Since it's going to mp3 anyway, there is no real need for the perfect extraction. But if you are going to keep them in wav format I'd suggest either EAC or CDDAE for the ripping.
The most popular software for burning would probably be Nero. It's good, but there are others if you want. Adaptec, CDWin, Golden Hawk etc. etc. Nero would be fine.
To listen to mp3's there are a zillion players out there. Just do a search. Winamp is probably the most widely known.
j

 

[Shudder]

I use CDEX all the time. Cdex

ANd if you do the VBR at VBR 1 or so, with a minimum of 128 high of 320, Joint Stereo, High quality.. You'd be very hard pressed to notice a difference between the actual CD. For 90+% of the people, I think this mp3 format will be damn fine.

Then when I want to go to a CD I just use nero, pick an audio CD as my format and drop the mp3s right in there.. it'll convert them for you so you don't need to worry about it.

Very easy process.

 

[Sbud]

Where do I get winamp?

 

[weovpac]

http://www.winamp.com I've tried most of them and like Winamp.

 

[riddelrp]

thanks guys, I was also looking for encoding software, CDEX is great . . . I have a C.L. S.B. LIVE! X-Gamer w/ creatives FPS2000 speakers via digital DIN and I can not tell the difference in the MP3's (using the settings told by Shudder) and the CD when it is in.

PS: what do the different VBR settings do?

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[Ronstang]

I was a newbie just a few months ago also. Now I rip CDs and encode mp3s almost nightly. After trying just about every solution out there, including ones mentioned here, this is my advice:

Use EAC for getting the CD tracks onto your harddrive. Once configured properly for your CD drive and burner this program cannot be beat. If you need help setting up EAC read the tutorial here.

Use Razorlame to make mp3s out of the ripped tracks using the following settings for the LAME encoder 3.88:

-V1 -b 128 -mj -h --athtype 3 --lowpass 19.5

I usually queue up all the tracks I want to convert into mp3 into Razorlame and then set it to shut down windows when done, then I go to sleep.

 

[PliotronX]

The best link I can recommend is r3mix.net.

 

[fow99]

<< I would like to take some of my favorite cds and save them onto my computer to play directly and then to make cusom cds. Unfortunately, I am awfully new to this area and the &quot;techs&quot; at the hardware/software stores are useless. As such, your advice and answers to the following questions would be appreciated.

Searches of this forum have led me to these conclusions. It appears that I must make two choices - what to rip with and what to encode with. Cdex appears to do both the ripping and encoding with good results. Or, I could use EAC for ripping and LAME for encoding for maybe even better results.

Questions

1. Which is the easiest solution - Cdex alone or EAC + Lame. Please remember I'm new to this area.

Try Yamp. The interface is neater.

2. Should I encode to mp3 or wav? I have a ton of room on my hard drive, if this matters.

You will be ripping into .wav file from your CD and convert it into .mp3 file coz it is 10 times smaller in size.

3. Once the mp3 or wav files are on my harddrive, what program do I use to &quot;play&quot; them or to &quot;burn&quot; to the cd? Do I use the program that I extracted the data with or something else, like Nero or Roxio?

To play, user winamp.
To burn, either will do. I use WinOnCD.

Forgive my stupidity, thanks for your input. >>