Mp3 converters....

[Crater]

Time to time I need to convert my music from wav to mp3, what audio converter you can recommend?

[glc]

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

[XenaWP]

I used CDex for a long time. It's good.

Recently I started using FreeRIP ... seems very good too and a little faster (just a little). Annoying splash upgrade ad though.

[Iamjosh]

Here is another:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

[juppy]

I just use Audacity. Works great. Although, MP3 isn't native to it....you have to download and install the "LAME MP3 encoder" separately (their site tells you how to do it though....it's easy). But I like it because it's fairly easy to use.

XenaWP > You said you used CDex......have you ever had any problems with it's mp3 converter not working right? Because that's why I went to using Audacity......I always loved CDex for ripping, but a lot of times if I used the button that took the music directly from the CD and made an mp3 out of it (compressed audio, I think CDex calls it) it would seem to save it okay, but then VLC couldn't play it. I could take that same "broken" file, load it in Audacity, use Audacity with the LAME encoder to resave it in mp3 format again, and *then* VLC would load it just fine. I don't know whether it's a problem with CDex's encoding process or whether VLC is just being picky or what? This ever happen to you, or any insight?

[XenaWP]

Juppy, I've ripped about 50 CDs to MP3 with CDex and do not remember any glitches in the files. I play them on a Sandisk C250 player. I did downgrade to an older Lame encoder because they most current one worked painfully slower than the older one. You might try downgrading your Lame encoder. The program itself has been updated too, that might be worth a try.

What MP3 settings are you using?

[juppy]

That could be it. The version, well....the file shows Lame 3.98.2, but in the settings it shows Lame version 1.32, engine 3.97 Beta 2. Dunno if that's older or newer than yours. As for the settings, I pretty much left those to default. Changed a few other things on initial setup but I didn't really mess with the mp3 part. Any tweaks I'm missing?

[XenaWP]

With vers. 1.51 of CDex, I found vers. 3.96.1 of the Lame encoder to be faster and glitch-less. It was the 3.98.2 version of the encoder that slowed down significantly for me.

The settings I use for MP3 are pretty much default except I set VBR min 128 max 320, j-stereo, quality High.

However, I don't encode MP3 any more ... I use OGG now and FLAC.

[juppy]

That may be something else too....my CDex is a different version than yours is. Mine's 1.70 Beta 2. My settings don't even let me do a max VBR (it's grayed out), but the min is set to 128. The other two are on stereo and quality normal.

So, is the 1.51 version newer or older than my version? Because on the sourceforge download site the top of the page is 1.70 Beta 4, then below that is 1.51 and below that is my 1.70 Beta 2.

Might have to try that 3.96.1 version of Lame though and see if it helps.

Just out of curiosity, is there any advantage to OGG and FLAC over MP3? Or is it just because you don't have to jack with the Lame MP3 encoder that way?
Thanks for the reply BTW. And sorry to the OP.....really wasn't intending to hijack your thread with my own problems.

[Crater]

Thanks for your offers guys, what about this converter http://www.myformatfactory.com/
Many options and different formats, is it good or bad converter?

[XenaWP]

Juppy, so I too have since upgraded to CDex 1.70b2 now ... but I'm only using it for OGG encoding occasionally. 1.70b2 is fast with OGG, but I haven't tried the 3.98.2 Lame encoder with it. Maybe the updated application uses the updated codec better.

Is OGG better? Well, it's less universal, so that's not as good as MP3. However, my current players both support it (Clip+ and Cowon). But I like what the community says about it: "Ogg Vorbis is a new audio compression format. It is roughly comparable to other formats used to store and play digital music, such as MP3, VQF, AAC, and other digital audio formats. It is different from these other formats because it is completely free, open, and unpatented." and "If you decide to sell your music in MP3 format, you are responsible for paying Fraunhofer a percentage of each sale because you are using their patents. Vorbis is patent and license-free, so you will never need to pay anyone in order to sell, give away, or stream your own music."

FLAC I use just to digitize my highest quality music. It takes up a lot of room, so I use it selectively. Is it better? Well, it's lossless, so it's a way to preserve all the detail in the original. It's open source, which to me is good. Truthfully, I tried to hear a difference in my playback rig (Clip+ and earphones) and to me, OGG and FLAC sounded pretty much the same. Maybe on my big hifi system it would be more noticeable.

[glc]

Why are you looking at converters that cost money when you have been referred to free open source software? I'm getting the impression that you may be posting with the sole purpose of advertising........

[juppy]

Originally Posted by XenaWP Truthfully, I tried to hear a difference in my playback rig (Clip+ and earphones) and to me, OGG and FLAC sounded pretty much the same. Maybe on my big hifi system it would be more noticeable.

Heheh....I probably wouldn't notice the difference then either. I ripped several different MP3 versions of a song when setting up CDex, different bitrates on each one, and I couldn't tell the difference between the so-called high quality and the lower bitrates. Didn't notice any sound quality difference until I set it so low that the music started cutting out in places. Then I was like "Hey! There's the difference now!!".

Honestly, I'm thinking the trouble may lie more with VLC than with the way CDex is encoding the MP3's, because Audacity doesn't have any problem playing them. The speed of 1.70b2 with the 3.98.2 encoder seems fast enough to me, but I haven't got around to trying that older version yet either, so I can't really compare. The "doesn't play in VLC" problem was what I was confused about.

Thanks for the insight on OGG and FLAC. Much appreciated, and I might have to try OGG one of these days just to see how it compares.

[kristain]

dBPowerAmp, CDDA Extractor are the two MP3 convertors

[Rick Hall]

Here is a great ripper/converter. It is free (it once was commercial).
It is the only one I use when converting .wav to mp3.

http://download.cnet.com/Audiograbbe...-10016038.html

[glc]

The free version of Audiograbber no longer has limitations? I remember when you could only rip a few tracks at a time with it.

[Rick Hall]

There are no longer limitations.

There were limitations for the trial version, but it is now a free version (Version 1.83) with full options.
You do however need to download the Lame encoder and extract the files to your AudioGrabber program folder before you can rip to MP3. This is really no big deal because the Lame encoder is also free.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audiograbber