Anyone recommend FREE mp3 encoding software for Windows XP

[robd]

Can anyone recommend a piece of FREE software for Windows XP that will
* convert straight from audio CD/CDR to .mp3
or failing that
* convert .wav files to .mp3

I had been using Nero 5.5 but it seemed the convert to mp3 option was limited to a set number of songs and further encoding requires an add-on.

I want to use it to convert songs to .mp3 to load on to my walkman phone. The sony ericsson software supplied with the phone seems to **** up recordings from CDR

TIA

Robert

[WittyBird]

Try This Hope it helps

[straycat]

iTunes?

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally Posted by straycat264

iTunes?

gah. nonsense.

heres your puppy

best and simplest

[Miguel]

Originally Posted by robd

Can anyone recommend a piece of FREE software for Windows XP that will
* convert straight from audio CD/CDR to .mp3
or failing that
* convert .wav files to .mp3

Doesn't Windows Media Player 11 do all these things?

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally Posted by Miguel

Doesn't Windows Media Player 11 do all these things?

dunno - but that sucks even more than iTunes

[Brian Doolan]

Originally Posted by robd

Can anyone recommend a piece of FREE software for Windows XP that will
* convert straight from audio CD/CDR to .mp3
or failing that
* convert .wav files to .mp3

I had been using Nero 5.5 but it seemed the convert to mp3 option was limited to a set number of songs and further encoding requires an add-on.

I want to use it to convert songs to .mp3 to load on to my walkman phone. The sony ericsson software supplied with the phone seems to **** up recordings from CDR

Robert

You'll get as much free software as you want from here

If you encode in 80 bit/s mp3Pro, you'll nearly double the capacity of your Walkman compared to 128 or higher, use Nero's encoder for doing that, you'll get the mp3Pro encoder from the above link.

Enjoy

[onkar]

Originally Posted by robd

Can anyone recommend a piece of FREE software for Windows XP that will
* convert straight from audio CD/CDR to .mp3
or failing that
* convert .wav files to .mp3

I had been using Nero 5.5 but it seemed the convert to mp3 option was limited to a set number of songs and further encoding requires an add-on.

I want to use it to convert songs to .mp3 to load on to my walkman phone. The sony ericsson software supplied with the phone seems to **** up recordings from CDR

TIA

Robert

Hi Rob

I use CDEx, which works a treat and will rip CD's, grab title/artist info from the web, and will encode to most formats including MP3, etc.

Onkar

[bigdjiver]

BTW Parts of the MP3 specification are patent protected. In theory you should have to pay somebody something to get a fully featured MP3 convertor.

Microsoft must pay $1.5bn in MP3 patent case - ZDNet UK

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by Brian Doolan

If you encode in 80 bit/s mp3Pro, you'll nearly double the capacity of your Walkman compared to 128 or higher, use Nero's encoder for doing that, you'll get the mp3Pro encoder from the above link.

Don't you need an mp3PRO decoder to get the best out of that format, otherwise it's just the same as MP3?

Actually, just read up about it... Playing a mp3PRO file with a MP3 decoder will result in playback at half the sample rate. So a 80Kbps mp3PRO file will be played back as a 40Kbps file by a MP3 decoder.

As there aren't any companies currently making mp3PRO hardware (according to Wikipedia) I'd say it's a dead format.

High bitrate MP3 or AAC is the way to go, IMHO.

(Oh, and of course, I'd recommend Apple's iTunes – it's free and it's good. )

[Seahorse]

Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder

[Barry Shnikov]

The difficulty isn't getting hold of free conversion/ripping/etc software, but that without the codec, they can't convert into mp3 files.

The mp3 coding/encoding system was developed by the Frauenhofer Institute, which is entitled to the profits of its intellectual property. Its model is that the software to play mp3 files is available to all, but the software to create them must be licensed.

Don't know about WMP11, but certainly earlier versions of WMP could create mp3 files if there was a Frauenhofer decoder installed in your Windows set-up. I got my Frauenhofer capability when I bought MusicMaster, which several years ago was streets ahead of WMP for organising large mp3 collections (and still offers some advantages, but I don't think its being supported anymore.)

There is, however, the LAME codec, which is Open Source. (Don't know how they duplicated Frauenhofer's capabilities, but who cares?)

So, get hold of the LAME codec (google 'LAME +download'), install it in the right place in the file structure (which will I expect be set out wherever you get the codec from) and whatever software you have can use the LAME codec. That would include WMP11, which is IMHO as good as any Windows music software (though I heartily hope that the next version will fix all the horrible bugs in the library system, sorry, not bugs 'features', which interfere with easy use) and at least has the advantage that you can do everything in one place, rather than have, say, separate ripper, conversion, tag editing, music playing and library management programs.

[Tessalicious]

I'll go with the votes for iTunes on this one - I have my settings in iTunes specifically to make sure anything I import into the library from CD or file goes in in mp3 format, and that's how I keep them. It doesn't make the fuss about it that WMP seems to, except on music bought from iTunes itself (which can be dealt with in other ways, as long as you have a second computer).

[Beowulf]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

gah. nonsense.

heres your puppy

best and simplest

I've used that ever since it wasn't free..

That is I downloaded it.. registered it.. then a month later they released it as freeware.. oh the irony

it's great, and it can utilise the LAME codec too.

[StokeBloke]

Originally Posted by Beowulf1970

I've used that ever since it wasn't free..

That is I downloaded it.. registered it.. then a month later they released it as freeware.. oh the irony

it's great, and it can utilise the LAME codec too.

Although I do use WMP for some ripping as it grabs the artwork and track titles pretty accurately from the net too. Lazy? Moi?

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by StokeBloke

Although I do use WMP for some ripping as it grabs the artwork and track titles pretty accurately from the net too. Lazy? Moi?

So does iTunes.

(Oh, and it's also possible to use the LAME encoder with iTunes, I believe.)

[boardrider]

If you are feeling suitably techie you need:

LAME
EAC
Mareo
Flac

EAC
Exact Audio Copy rips the audio from your CD and verifies it is correct and has not picked up any jitter or glitches. Great for recovering songs from scratched CDs. It then uses Mareo.

Mareo
Utility that allows you to run multiple mp3 or other audio conversions i.e mp3gain on the same input audio stream
So you tell it to convert the audio stream into MP3 via LAME and then flac format for archive purposes.

LAME
Public domain freeware MP3 encoder that is the best out there.

FLAC
Lossless audio compression. This compresses the audio without throwing any data away. Real CD quality not mp3 "CD quality".



I use them to rip my CDs into 192VBR, 128 ABR, 128 CBR and into flac format so I have a lossless archive on my hard disk. All with one pass and one command or click of a GUI button. Even accesses freedb so you don't have to enter track info.


Setup can be involved but not too tricky. Just pay attention to what they tell you on hydrogenaudio.

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally Posted by StokeBloke

Although I do use WMP for some ripping as it grabs the artwork and track titles pretty accurately from the net too. Lazy? Moi?

Audio grabber doesnt do artwork as far as i know, but its always handled track names. There'd be little point in CD ripping software if it didnt get the track names...type them in by hand? nah!

[Miguel]

Next time your'e in WHSmith's look out fot the latest Computer Act!ve Ultimate Guide to Easy CD & DVD Burning. It's very helpful and comes with lots of freeware.
Hope this helps, Mike.