CD to mp3 software?

[erbiumfiber]

Hi,

I'm the last person in the world about to buy an mp3 player. I have language CDs that I want to listen to on the train and want to be able to repeat tracks easily so I can practice speaking (the speaking part I'll do at home). And I feel like a total dork actually carrying around a CD player.

I went out onto the Internet and there is a VAST array of software for converting CD tracks into mp3 files so I am a bit overwhelmed.

So I am asking for recommendations for software and any practical advice for converting my CDs to mp3s. Yes, I know everyone did this years ago, it's just that I don't listen to music on portable devices so I never had a need for an mp3 player. There is also a Japanese language website from which you can download language lessons so I'd like to know if there's any special software I need for that.

I know I am a dinosaur, please be patient with me.

[MNJetter]

If you've got Windows, just use Windows Media Player. I've never had a problem ripping tracks from a CD and turning them into MP3s before, and you don't need to buy or pirate anything that way.

[erbiumfiber]

Thanks, is it user-friendly? And I guess the mp3 player just comes with instructions and/or software for getting these mp3 files onto the player?

[MNJetter]

I don't own an MP3 player, so I'm not sure on that end. But getting the tracks from the CD onto your computer in MP3 format is very easy. There should be a "rip" tab in Windows Media Player, and that will lead you to the place where you can put in a CD and choose which tracks to put on the computer. And if you can find the options menu, you can choose the file format (mp3) and quality, and where to put them on your computer, and that kind of thing.

[erbiumfiber]

OK, thanks. I just bought an mp3 player from Amazon that can record voice (so I can listen to my horrible Japanese) and it was $33. The reviews said it just acts like a drive when you plug it into the USB port and Windows Media Player just lets you save the mp3s to that "drive." The only problem was that some user comment said that Windows Media Player default was to save as some other kind of file (WMA or somesuch) and you had to tell it that you wanted it saved as an mp3. Didn't sound like a difficult problem and the mp3 player apparently accepts both formats but you can squeeze more mp3s in (I think) than the other type of file.

I was going to buy an mp3 player recommended by another forum member from Amazon.jp but I was worried there would be no English-language instructions. As a total newbie, I better stick with English.

And I'm glad to hear of another person who does not own an mp3 player. I thought I was the last person in a first-world country not to own one.

I figure it can't be THAT difficult to use if everyone owns one and is downloading music right and left.

It's kind of ironic that I work in a high-tech job and yet do not really use very much technology in my everyday life...

[akitaka]

The best compression for audio is either musepack or ogg vorbis, but only specified players support those formats (even if their open-source). mp3 and wma aren't much different in size/quality to me, so it shouldn't be a big deal aside from possible music tag issues (which are totally editable in windows media player). Right-click > properties on the file in WMP will let you change stuff from the album to the title...but that's up to you.

What player did you get? These days, a lot of plug-in players are about, but getting a reliable one that'll last and not break after a month is a matter of a little research. If anything, I always advise people to avoid most chinese-market items as they're usually built cheaply.

There are two modes of transporting music; MTP (which is through the use of software like Windows Media or itunes and the like), or UMS/MSC, which is how you'd drag and drop files like a thumb-drive. With the former, I have no clue on what the user's comment was, because WMP cannot (and will not) change the file format during transfer. If it's about burning CDs, then yes, you have to set the burning properties to "mp3" and preferably medium to high quality. Other than that, it's actually quite simple.

Despite knowing all of this I still think any and all players should be simple with drag-and-drop functional. Sometimes, using software can be a pain.

[erbiumfiber]

I got a SanDisk Sansa m250 2GB which was cheap ($33) and had a record function for listening to my lousy Japanese pronunciation.

There were a ton of reviews so I'm guessing a lot of people own them. Like all portable electronics, I don't expect it to last more than a couple of years.

Newer models had way too many features (like the ability to play video). I just want to listen to some crappy language CDs, don't really need a lot of bells and whistles...

[Plekto]

Audiograbber. This works pretty much out of the box. download the latest LAME codec/drivers to get high-end recording capability.

Get this. Pay the small shareware fee. Enjoy.

[akitaka]

Good choice imo. While the sound quality isn't top notch, it's selling well for a reason. $33 for 2 gigs is a *steal*.

I'd have suggested a sansa express for expandability in case you needed more room, with similar functions, but for voice at roughly 128kbps of audio quality, 2 gigs is plenty. I did some pretty obsessive product research before choosing my player of choice, tested units at the local Best Buy and Circuit City like a mad man, and can say that you won't be disappointed. It'll last you a long time being flash memory, though as rechargeable batteries are finite, will reduce in life after maybe a year and a half of use. That's not shabby at all, period.

Hopefully the CD ripping goes well. For music, I suggest 160kpbs minimum, and for voice recording, 96kbps minimum. These are just the amount of data between the seconds, so the more you have, the better the quality, but the more room it takes.

Edit: Audiograbber's good and all, but I don't see clear advantages unless you're very picky about your sound and encoding filters. Even I was fine with my sister's sansa clip with some simple 196k files tested with some expensive phones. But for the count, I use dbpoweramp.

[erbiumfiber]

Thanks for the input. Sounds like I made a decent choice- actually Amazon kind of makes the choice for you by putting the most popular products first so that you're more likely to pick those. There was a 512 Mb one for about $19 but I think it's worth the extra $14 to get more memory.

Maybe I'll break down and put some music on it as well so the memory will come in handy. I used to listen to music all the time in the U.S. but I only listened while I was driving. Since I don't have a car in Japan, my music listening time has gone down to zero. I do miss it but I really only like to listen to music while I'm doing something else. Maybe with this little player, I'll listen at work. Would brighten up my day considerably.

[Riinuka]

If you need a codec pack, I highly suggest searching out the Klite set. They integrate with Windows Media Player (normal or classic), so you don't have to actually download any other players. Makes for a wide range of support. Free, too.

[Plekto]

Audiograbber works and does literally anything you want. No nanny-ware or odd proprietary formats or copy protection, either(ITunes comes to mind of what not to get, for instance). With the right codec(LAME is free), you can record nearly CD quality if you want (320k, dual stereo) as well as VBR and so on - into any format that you wish.

Or you can get a crack and not pay the shareware fee, but most crack sites hit you with malware these days, so...

True CD quality is 640K.

320K is basically chopping off the shimmer from the cymbals and mostly subsonic sounds, so most people won't hear the difference. ie - on a CD, you can tell what brand of cymbals they are using while at 320K, it's just a cymbal of the same quality. In audio terms, 320K is like high speed tape. Since many older recordings were at this quality to begin with, you don't lose anything and can safely compress further.

There are lossless encoding methods that can compress music down to about this size. Beyond this, data is being thrown away in larger and larger amounts.

256K is a nice compromise. Given the immense capacity of players today, it's silly to carry thousands of songs that you'll never play at the expense of quality. Equal to metal tape or an LP single. Not CD quality, but good enough for most uses.

192K is making compromises. I have a song, for instance, by the Stance Punks(good band - buy their CDs if you can.. I did) that the lyrics are impossible to hear clearly at 192K. At 256K it sounds fine though obviously compressed too much for my liking. But compress it further to 192K and it literally dissappears behind the bass and midrange. Don't believe people who claim it's CD quality. Most people can plainly hear the difference side by side between bitrates. Comparable to a LP or standard tape.

128K is a 5:1 compression ratio. Most computer data compression programs like Rar and Zip and so on average about a 3:1 ratio. 5:1 is well beyond this limit and there's only one way to accomplish this - start throwing out massive amounts of data that can't be reconstructed, even by the most advanced algorythms. It's like saving a photograph as a quality level 2 JPEG. Open it up again and there's no way even Photoshop with its dozens of fancy settings and filters can get back a reasonable version of the original.

128K is way too low. I use this for audio books and radio shows and so on. Just avoid it entirely. Don't even waste your money on a download unless it's at least 256K or better. Even then, don't pay much. If you buy a song, it should be CD quality, IMO.

[erbiumfiber]

I think I'm mostly going to be listening to language tapes. Based on what I'm hearing on the CD, they're not all that high quality. Then again, I'm mainly listening on the train- a pretty noisy environment. So I probably don't need too high a level of quality.

Sort of reminds me of when I used to buy super cheap classical music cassette tapes and listened to them in the car. They sounded fine until one day I brought some inside and listened to them on a stereo- they were awful! But I still listened to them in the car because, in that noisy environment, they were "good enough."

I probably do not possess a good enough ear to discern the different quality levels- I will never be an audiophile.

[Christian]

http://www.rockbox.org/

This is a nifty little firmware replacement for any mp3 player. I run it on my Sansa e260 and it works beautifully. It adds quite a few new things, although (true to form), the layout looks like it was designed by a programmer (because it was).

Also hi, I'm new.

[Chuckles]

I'd say just stick with WMP.


When I put discs in my tray it pops up asking me if I want to rip CDs, pretty simple process. Here's what you want to do though :

1. Open up WMP.
2. Go to Tools -> Options in the menus up at the top.
3. In the box that pops up, go to the Rip Music tab.
4. On that tab, go down to the Format box. Make sure MP3 is selected.
5. On that same tab, look at the bottom. Should be a slider for quality. You'll want to select about 192kbs or so. You don't sound like you're after super high quality stuff. Just try that and listen to a song, should give you an idea of the sound quality.

Hit Apply/Ok, etc. That will set your rip settings to MP3, that'll be great for your player.

To test out the process, still in WMP :

1. Go to the Rip tab. (In between Library and Burn)
2. Put in an Audio CD.
3. It should bring up a big list of tracks... Select which tracks you want by checking/unchecking them and hit the Start Rip button. The rest should take care of itself.

[akitaka]

erbiumfiber: I'm not an audiophile, as sex with musical instruments doesn't sound like my kind of fun. While I do prefer quality-5 ogg (lancer filter), I can listen to any 128kpbs file just fine as long as I'm not using sensitive phones. I also enjoy cheap wine because you can buy it in boxes and never feel guilty if it spills :D
Oh yeah, and the sansa m250 seems to work in UMS; meaning you should be able to drag and drop sound files without having to use WMP to transfer, which is usually the quicker and easier option.

Plekto: Try to read from my context. She's buying and using from a consumer standpoint; it just has to work with the minimals, without all that legwork regarding formats and the like. I'm very much aware between quality differences of LAME encoded mp3 using vbr/cbr to lossless qualities, along with the various filters used for OGG (aoyumi tuned-vorbis being the current top).
We're nerds, she isn't, so I'm trying not to confuse her and anyone else who may need the help by not launching into an informative spiel. If she wants to use Audiograbber she can, but in mine and my sisters (who don't delve in machines either) experience, WMP does the job just fine.

Christian: e200-line sansas work with rockbox, whereas I haven't read m-series doing the same. Even if it does, again, it's extra legwork that isn't worth it unless you're looking for file/video support.

Chuckles: Thanks for the guide :-) couldn't have listed it better.

[Takuto]

I use Nero to rip my mp3 tracks. Just go into the extra options menu and select "Save track as." You can then select the file format, audio codec, bitrate, volume, etc and then press okay. It'll take like 3 extra seconds worth of clicking, but it's far more customizable than Windows Media Player imo.

If you need a codec pack, I highly suggest searching out the Klite set. They integrate with Windows Media Player (normal or classic), so you don't have to actually download any other players. Makes for a wide range of support. Free, too.
Any codec will have the same effect regardless of which player you use. If you choose to download KLite, just make sure you only install the ones that you really need because the default bundle contains many filters that conflict with each other.

[Christian]

Christian: e200-line sansas work with rockbox, whereas I haven't read m-series doing the same. Even if it does, again, it's extra legwork that isn't worth it unless you're looking for file/video support.

This is true. The main reason I use it is because it allows my Sansa to support larger microSD cards (default firmware only supports 2gb cards). It is a lot of extra work, but I'll admit that I'm a sucker for the whole customized feel bit.

[Vincent]

use audiograbbber, its fast and easy and a tiny program that costs 0 dollars, dont know where people are talking about paying for this shit. its called www.isohunt.com, get with the times people

[Pierrot le Fou]

I have a mac.

I put in the CD. The computer says, "iTunes can open, ok?" and I say "Yes!"

Then the CD opens, and there's a nice button saying "Import" and I do that, and then I have my mp3s.

I realize you don't have a mac, erbium, but I just find it mind-boggling when I read a thread like this and look at the massive hassle involved in a common task on windows.

[Chuckles]

It's not really a massive hassle on windows, the step by step guide is just to make it fool proof. As with your situation, I can do the same thing. I slap a disc in the drive and a box pops up asking what I want to do, all I do is hit "rip with Windows Media Player" and WMP starts up, hit the button and it rips it. The first part about changing the format was a one time thing, it basically changes it from ripping to WMV to ripping to MP3 (or WAV, etc etc etc.)

[erbiumfiber]

Hey thanks for the step-by-step guide. I was worried about how to change the setting to mp3. I'll let everyone know how I make out once my mp3 arrives from the US (I'm sending it to our U.S. office and the secretary there will stick it in the FedEx box with a bunch of legal papers so it should escape customs).

The i-pods are still too expensive for me, I'm kind of cheap (out of necessity, paying for college tuition- although my daughter has an i-pod...hmmm. But then it was a birthday present for her and I really didn't know about alternative mp-3 players).

Stupid question but can you download stuff from i-tunes onto non-i-pod mp3 players? I guess I'll be finding all this out when I play around with my player when it comes. Anyway I suppose there are a ton of places to buy mp3's on the Internet, just never bothered to go out looking until now...

Oh, and what are podcasts? I keep hearing about them. Do you need an i-pod or will any old mp3 player do it?

[Riinuka]

Most podcasts are done in the MP3 or WAV format, both of which most players will/should support.. You shouldn't have issues there.

iTunes.. I wouldn't suggest using it to get music on to other players. Windows Media Player can support the player you've bought, and it can also organize your music and get it into playlists. If you feel the need to use something else, I think the Sansas come with Rhapsody... Someone correct me on that if I'm wrong.

With Rhapsody, you don't have to have an account with the service to use the software, and it can pretty much do what iTunes does - organize your music, etc.

Lots of people get their songs from iTunes, yes, but then again lots rip their CD collections and then share the rips between themselves. Not too legal in the long run, but it's cheaper I suppose..

[haterllnation]

I never needed iTunes and for something to be rather simple, it had too many barriers to cross (especially free use of MY music). I found my solution in Floola. I haven't looked back since. It isn't 100%; I didn't need the stuff that iTunes was offering besides the obvious. If I need podcasts, I can use other software. Some people love it; I am not one of those people.

[stsparky]

Do you want a 1 or 2 GB iPod shuffle (http://store.apple.com/0120-APPLE-1/WebObjects/japanstore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=3587D031&node=home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_shuffle)? Start at ￥5,800 and max out at ￥7,800. iTunes can make what you want to do simple. As you don't want to geek out. Keep it as simple as possible.

Now I cop to bias, working for Apple as I do. But you're making it too hard on erbiumfiber ...

[erbiumfiber]

Ah, I probably didn't look at those lower-end models. I was shopping on Amazon because usually I have no problem getting them to ship to Japan (although I did on this order). I was afraid to buy anything in Japan because it might have Japanese-only instructions or, heaven help me, a Japanese-language display. I'm sure I'll have plenty of trouble with the English.

In fact, I'm a little nervous about ripping these language CDs as the track names are probably all in Japanese and I'll need to re-name them or they might not open (when I get files with kanji in the title I sometimes can't open them on my computer- these are usually pdf files- which I just re-name and they open fine).

My music tastes are obscure (Baroque religious choral music ftw) so probably not a whole lot of people to share files with and maybe not so much to download. And I am so lame that a lot of my music is still cassettes-from analogue recordings- so I won't be making mp3 files out of those. And not a lot of spare money to buy CDs (making my last tuition payment of the year on May 5th and just spent about 80,000 yen on yet more Japanese lessons...)

[akitaka]

I have a mac.

I put in the CD. The computer says, "iTunes can open, ok?" and I say "Yes!"

Then the CD opens, and there's a nice button saying "Import" and I do that, and then I have my mp3s.

I realize you don't have a mac, erbium, but I just find it mind-boggling when I read a thread like this and look at the massive hassle involved in a common task on windows.
(shrugs)

WMP did the same for me (only you click "rip" instead of "import"), until I told it to stfu, and did some drag-and-drop. It only looks like a hassle because Plekto and I jumped in the picture :karate:

IMO, $58-ish USD is too much for a gig of music player space (let alone one without at least an lcd screen to ease navigation of more files, especially since recordings can be numerous). Maybe in Japan, but even I've seen cheaper in a duty-free mart at the narita airport. Funny coincidence is that it was also an m-series sansa =\

...and if I'm not mistaken, itunes embeded mp3 files need players that are either apple-proprietary, or able to play DRM (rights management shit)-inscribed files. Most of the time it's not an issue, though I've found more than a few podcasts that needed re-encoding on my part to make them work for my player.

[stsparky]

Erbiumfiber?

iTunes is a free download (http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/). Try it and see how it handles your existing files.

There are ways to get analog music to become digital. But try and find digital versions of your existing music first.