She's so small, tiny and crushed up

[venta]

I'm working at home today, and am therefore finally getting round to putting software back on my PC after the Great Evesham Wiping Incident.

So, I want some mp3-ing software. I've always used CDCopy, and that seems to work pretty well. I'm just curious, would anyone recommend anything in particular. Any recommendations should do the following:

• Run on Windows (XP)


• Be free to download ("I'll give you a pirate copy" doesn't count :)


• Be easy to install (I don't really want to faff around looking for codecs, etc)


• Be friendly to use

Thanks for any help.
And kneeshooter, once I've sorted this out I'll chuck that track at you :)

Comments

[waistcoatmark.livejournal.com]

iTunes is surprisingly good. Obviously it would rather create QuickTime music (or whatever Apple's DRM-riddled format is called), but you only need to tell it once to use the MP3 format and it will happily create MP3s in a variety of (optionally variable) bit-rates from then on.

[davefish.livejournal.com]

I use Musicmatch Jukebox, both for playing and recording. Seems to work, doesn't kill innocent passers-by.

Working form home in a fairly loose sense then :P

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Audiograbber, although you'll need the LAME MP3 codec which is available from that website as well if you want to make decent sounding mp3s.

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

I use Easy CD Extractor which is shareware. All the right options, queries the internet database etc. It does expire after 30 days, but I liked it so much I paid 'em their money a few years ago.

EAC and Lame

[lambertbehnke.livejournal.com]

It works a treat,
it freely downloadable,
easy enough to use and produces high quality recordings

EAC can be found here (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/)).

It costs but a postcard and a stamp (Cardware rather then freeware).

Lame you can download here http://www.bestdownload.com/download.php?sfid=135 (http://www.bestdownload.com/download.php?sfid=135))

Simply unzip lame,
install EAC ... point it at LAME and bingo ...

Lambert

[uitlander]

Exact audio copy. Uses the lame encoding wotsit. Alegedly one of the best out there. Very nice UI, does exactly what it says on the web page. Google should find it for you.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Probably the thing to bear in mind when selecting a CD ripper is that it's pretty much a solved problem. If there's anything particularly bad or missing in the ripper you have, then you'll almost certainly be able to find another one that fixes it and is otherwise just about as good.

Since they almost all use the same codecs (Blade or LAME), the actual audio should be the same for everything, so it's mostly down to usability, cosmetics and how well the ripper deals with buggered (including copy-protected) CDs. And even that's largely down to the drive and it's firmware.

[bloodnok.livejournal.com]

Another vote for EAC and LAME.