What is the best free software for ripping CD's and converting to MP3 and MP4?

Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy KnobPflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
edited April 2006 in Nerdery
I need to convert my CD's to MP3 and/or MP4. Is there any good frreware for this? If not, what is good for the least money that works well? Is the premium version of Winamp still one of the best period?

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    CDEx. Use q0 VBR 192-256kbps inside the program.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited January 2006
    Was just getting ready to ask the same question myself.

    Thanks, Thrax, I'll give it a go. :)
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    I'd recommend Exact Audio Copy. It's free and has never failed to rip a CD I've thrown at it.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    Kwitko wrote:
    I'd recommend Exact Audio Copy. It's free and has never failed to rip a CD I've thrown at it.
    :rockon:
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited January 2006
    Next question:

    Do either of these programs do the CDDB thing right?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    CDEx does, I know for sure.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    EAC also does it.
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    EAC uses a DB called freedb, which is essentially an "open-source" version of CDDB. It's definitely on par with CDDB.
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited January 2006
    I'd also recommend CDex, but with the LAME 3.97b1 codec. I'd also get it to --alt-preset standard, or --alt-preset (fast) extreme. I prefer fast extreme, as it's faster, and just a smidge higher quality than APS. It's probably unnecessary, but I like it.

    And yeah, if you're CDs are scratched, EAC is the way to go. For normal people who don't abuse their CDs, though, it's horribly slow...
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    Thank you everyone!

    I will get CDex and EAC to play with. I will probably play with both till I figure out what I like best for what.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    CDParanoia. It's 'the' most perfect CD-ripping program available, but it doesn't encode and it is command line only. For those of us who are perfectionists :)
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    I don't have much call to rip CD's so I don't know how the one I use benchmarks against the others; but the software I use is called FreeRip and can be found here: http://www.mgshareware.com
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    So far I have had great success with both CDex and EAC.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    Personally I always rip to FLAC or OGG. I use CD Paranoia to rip initially then the respective program from the creator of the format to encode it (i.e. Vorbis' own encoder).
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