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What is the best software to convert Audio cd's to MP3?. I have lot of old audio cd's which I would like to convert to MP3 to store it in a library?

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What's your system? – random♦ Jul 19 '09 at 12:52
See also: superuser.com/questions/4515/… – Matthew Schinckel Jul 19 '09 at 12:52
i have both windows and linux(ubuntu) and so anything is fine – kishore Jul 19 '09 at 12:53
Are you looking for a tool to manage your library as well as manage the conversion process (iTunes, Windows Media Player etc.) or just one to rip your CDs? – BenA Jul 19 '09 at 12:55
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Possible duplicate - superuser.com/questions/2100/… – ChrisF Jul 20 '09 at 10:18
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6 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

EAC is a popular choice for CD ripping on Windows. It's particular strength is in producing high quality rips, even of protected or scratched CDs.

It's not shipped with an mp3 encoder, so you need to install one separately, the LAME encoder can be downloaded here.

There's a step-by-step guide to secure ripping with EAC here.

(Thanks to Jamie Ide for the link).

Tagging

Slightly off-topic, but I'd suggest using the MusicBrainz FreeDB gateway as a source of high-quality track listings (since this uses FreeDB formatted data this is inferior to tagging them using MusicBrainz Picard, since it won't tag compilations etc correctly, but it's a good start).

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I was just typing exactly this. :) EAC, FTW! – cschol Jul 19 '09 at 13:28
I was a bit surprised there were 5 answers without anyone suggesting it. – therefromhere Jul 19 '09 at 13:37
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Link to a step-by-step guide to secure ripping with EAC: www2.firehose.us:81/~jiggafellz/eac/index.html – Jamie Ide Jul 19 '09 at 13:57
Just tried it. The user experience was terrible. – Robert Claypool Aug 6 '11 at 21:51
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up vote 7 down vote

I use CDex for this.

It's very easy to use, especially if you have a large stack of cd's to rip. And it's open source.
Once you have your config set up, it basically comes down to

  1. insert first cd
  2. click button
  3. wait 5 minutes
  4. switch cd with the next cd (the tray automatically opens)
  5. go to step 2
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That's how I had iTunes set up when I first got my iPod, but didn't require step 2. I have used CDex in the past though, and it's also pretty simple. – Graeme Perrow Jul 19 '09 at 17:56
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up vote 2 down vote

This is what iTunes was initially built for, you will need to check the encoder settings are set to mp3, then happy converting.

There is also Banshee which runs multi platform, including linux, or you could use Windows media player.

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what is a good encoder? – kishore Jul 19 '09 at 13:08
it depends on what format you want and how compatible you want your files. Personally I use MP3 high quality (160), or AAC high quality (128). – Bruce McLeod Jul 19 '09 at 13:26
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up vote 0 down vote

If you don't want Library functionality, there are tons of tools out there that can handle the conversion process for you. A quick google yields FreeRIP as the top hit.

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up vote 0 down vote

You could try using AudioGrabber. It's Windows only though, but works pretty well, so if you're using Windows, it's a good option.

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up vote 0 down vote

MediaMonkey does a good job. It uses the LAME encoder. The one that comes with the free download is time limited (30 days I think), but you can replace it with any unlocked encoder.

It links to Freedb for the CD information.

It's tagging options are quite good too.

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