Home > Geekboy > Archives > 2006 > January > 31 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USRipping and running MP3s
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Immediately after Christmas, Geekboy fielded a number of calls about portable MP3 players and inflatable girlfriends.
I couldn’t help much with the latter, other than the usual advice of keeping her away from open flame, but I managed to help some of my technically-inept friends convert their CDs into MP3s.
Last week, we learned an MP3 is basically a smaller version of the music you find on a CD. Since the file size is typically a tenth as large, you can fit a lot more of them on a portable device.
Today we’ll discuss a legal method of acquiring MP3s – converting your existing stack of CDs into something you can slap on an iPod. Future blogs will explain how to download MP3s from various sources.
At the dawn of the digital age, the manufacturers of music CDs decided to store music in such a way that people could not easily copy it. So, instead of simply popping a CD in the computer and copying music like a normal file, you need a program that extracts or “rips� the songs.
The parlance is colorful, but misleading, because nothing is being ripped, you are simply “extracting digital audio� from the CD and usually converting it into an MP3 so the file size is reduced.
Most MP3 players come with ripping software. I have used a few and some are junk.
I have always used the free and wonderful CDex. This program has been around awhile and there are likely better commercial options available, but you can’t beat the price.
Using CDex is fairly straightforward, but since I get paid by the word I will keep typing.
CDex HowTo
Step 1) Download and install CDex. The program is very small, unlike a lot of bloatware you may be used to.
Step 2) Fire it up! The initial screen will look something like this if your CD drive is empty. We need to set a few things up so click the “Configure CD Settings� button that is indicated in the picture. You should NOT mess with the default settings unless you know what you are doing or are following these directions.
Step 3) Click to the Filenames tab where we will tell CDex where to save MP3s. You should change the two lines on the screenshot that say “c:\geekboy\�. The button to the right of the geekboy line with “…� on it will allow you to browse to the proper folder on your system.
Step 4) Click to the Encoder tab and find where it says “Bitrate Min.� This is where we set the bit rate of the MP3s we will be ripping. Most users will be happy with 128kbps. If you have the hearing of a dog you can select something higher, like 192kbps or 256kbps. Advanced users can change the “encoder� on this tab too for other file formats, but the default setting is the best for making MP3s.
Step 5) Go to the Remote CDDB tab and enter your e-mail address in the appropriate spot. You can enter a bogus e-mail if you are paranoid. The remote compact disc database is needed to automagically fill out the song’s artist and title fields.
Step 6) Click OK.
Step 7) Slap a CD in your CD drive. Wait a few seconds and the program will list how many songs there are on the CD and other basic info.
Step 8) Look over on the right-hand side of the screen and you will see a button that has a magnifying glass. Click it to activate the remote database magic.
Step 9) Voila! The remote database has done the heavy lifting for you and entered all the song title and artist information. Sometimes the CDDB will ask you to select an album because there is more than one database entry. Try to select the one in your language that has the fewest misspellings! If you have a very rare CD, the database may not find a match.
Step 10) To convert the whole CD into MP3s, click the second button from the top on the right-hand side. Other buttons allow you to convert selected songs or portions of songs. Feel free to explore. After a few minutes, the MP3s will appear in the folder you specified in Step 3.
Once you have ripped a CD down, check out the MP3 sound quality. If you need to make corrections, the time to do it is before you spend an afternoon creating MP3s that skip.
For playback, I prefer to use the free program WinAmp. You can use Windows Media Player but it is a bloated piece of junk.
CDex has been around awhile, but does the job for me. And for playing music on a PC, I have yet to find something better than WinAmp.
What programs do you use to make and play MP3s?
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Hogan
January 31, 2006 07:06 PM | Link to this
I use iTunes, but it is kind of annoying. It wants to convert to AAC audio file. What is that?
By Jeremy
February 1, 2006 08:46 AM | Link to this
Hogan: AAC files are supposedly higher quality at lower bitrates, but they’re not as universally compatible as mp3s. To import songs as mp3s using iTunes, go to Edit —> Preferences and click on the “Advanced” tab. On that screen, click on the “Importing” tab. In the “Import Using” drop-down list, select MP3 Encoder.
By Mona
February 1, 2006 09:42 AM | Link to this
Great Column. Now can we talk about music services. I have two teens that are addicted to illegal music downloads by the tons. They are into the newest music. I have absolutely forbid illegal downloads and delete the software from my computer on almost a weekly basis. So for Christmas, I get everybody new MP3 players and get a year subscription to Napster to go. So far, I hate it. We had to return the MP3 players and exchange them for more expensive compatible ones. We have 3 devices but rights to only two devices with our subscription. We have already had a read error for one of the devices and had to dump everything on it and reload the software from the manufacturer so Napster would recognize it. I did end up buying some songs off Napster above and beyond my monthly fee so I could burn them to a CD and can’t seem to make that work. The customer support for technical help sucks and the kids can’t find the music they want so they are still occassionally doing the illegal music thing. By the way, the illegal music is so much more user friendly than any of the programs I have seen so far. Ugh.
Any recommendations for me and my teens. I don’t mind spending a little more a month for ease of use and good song selection.
By Taylor
February 1, 2006 01:48 PM | Link to this
Geekboy - I use good ole Windows Media player. Stick the CD in the drive, hit the “Copy music” button and sit back. Windows Media Player rips the music down to .wma files, and will automatically update song names/album titles if an internet connection can be found. What’s neat is if for whatever reason you aren’t online when you rip the CD, it will have the album listed at “unknown artist” but once an internet connection is detected at a later date, the song title/album information is automatically downloaded. I used to be a hardcore CDex fan, but out of laziness, I have resorted to Windows Media Player. It works well for me. I suggest others try it if they want a fool-proof method for copying CDs to the computer.
-Taylor
By Andy
February 2, 2006 10:03 AM | Link to this
Most mp3 players nowadays (i don’t know about ipod) can handle any kind of music format. I have an RCA mp3 player that can play mp3, wma, aac, etc… It can also be used as a kind of jump drive to carry acutal files as well.
Just look at what mp3 player you are buying, and check to see what file format it accepts. Unless you are one of those hardcore anti ipod/microsoft people, then just use the conversion formats that itunes/media player create when you rip your own cd’s. If you got the right music player, it will play all music formats anyways.
By bill
February 2, 2006 12:09 PM | Link to this
Hey, I’ve got a cure for the illegal download question. One of the guys at the office is being sued by the recording industry. He’s gonna get off pretty easy. He’s paying $4000.00 and not going to court. That was for 5 (five) songs downloaded by his teenager. Take your kids computer away until they save up $4000.00. Then tell them to have fun.
By Scott
February 2, 2006 03:31 PM | Link to this
I use iTunes. It works well, even on a PC. I have a large collection of music on my computer most of which was loaded from my existing CD collection. I buy a lot from iTunes too and I am usually pleased with it as a place to both purchase and use my music files. it works.
I also have 3 kids and often have to play the role of computer cop in my house. I have found (if this works for you…) that taking away their internet access usually gets the message across with respect to computer stuff, and I try to make the length of their “time off” reflect the ‘offense.’ my .02
By Diego
February 2, 2006 05:41 PM | Link to this
I’m gonna have to agree with Geekboy %100 on this. CDex is easy to use for newcomers to computers and yet has a lot of great options that computer veterans will also enjoy. The problem I’ve had with .wma files and the like is that they just aren’t completely compatible they was MP3s are. Keep up the good work, Geekboy.
By Thoracias
February 10, 2006 10:10 AM | Link to this
I have tried everything from Kaaza to Share Bear, Napster and iTunes…so far I think iTunes is the most user-friendly for downloading. I like the per-song/album charges instead of a monthly subscription. As for recording songs to my PC from CD’s, MusicMatch Jukebox is the default and it’s easy to just hit COPY CD and then I can import those files into my iTunes folder. (I delete them from MMJB once they are in iTunes to save disk space.) iTunes is also my default player and I have yet to run into any problems playing files I’ve recorded.