Michigan Radio & TV Buzzboard

Is there a way I can convert music from a CD to an MP3 file?

Turkeytop wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 15, 2023 2:27 pm

Is there a way I can convert music from a CD to an MP3 file?

You'll need a quality CD ripping software application. I haven't bought and ripped a CD in many years, but there are some good free apps out there.

EAC (Exact Audio Copy) seems to be a preferred choice. And it's free! https://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

Looks awfully complicated

Turkeytop wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 15, 2023 3:15 pm

Looks awfully complicated

You could always send your CDs to a service that will do it for you. Or maybe someone locally could assist you?

Here's an online service that you can ship your CDs to: https://www.musicshifter.com/

Why couldnt use the free Audacity recorder for MP3 with the CD player inputed in as line in????

I suggest FLAC rather than MP3. You will then have the full audio quality of the CD.

I understand that to fit your persona here on the board you need to feign helplessness and technical ignorance, but get some software, spend an afternoon messing with it, and anyone....even you....can do it. The biggest pain in the butt is loading and unloading the CDs, doing the clicking, then repeating it over and over many times.

Also, I recommend ripping EVERYTHING on the CD.....I was a space miser at one time, and kept ending up getting to like a cut from an album that I left off a previous rip session.

I have 4600 songs on my phone. Only use them when I'm on airplanes or ships, but its nice to have.

I want MP3 so I can use an MP3 player.

You can do this in Windows 10 and earlier using Windows Media Player.

How to Rip CDs in Windows 10

You can do this in iTunes or Apple Music as well.

Plate Cap wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 15, 2023 9:29 pm

I suggest FLAC rather than MP3. You will then have the full audio quality of the CD. ....

Are there any streaming services that are better than MP3? I think MP3 is a lot more portable that FLAC, as even most cars going back >10 years can play them, but won't recognize FLAC. You can bump up the sampling on MP3 to get more quality of the the conversion too, if you can tolerate the larger file sizes.

kager wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 16, 2023 7:18 am

You can do this in Windows 10 and earlier using Windows Media Player.

How to Rip CDs in Windows 10

You can do this in iTunes or Apple Music as well.

Been a bit since I used it, but I think it even asks you when you insert a CD if you want to rip it, and makes the process pretty easy. It'll even download the album art and the artist/track details to put in the header of the file too, so that information shows up in the MP3 player display, or you can use it to search or sort the music you've ripped. Not all rippers do that.

There's a super old piece of software I've been using for over 20 years that has a CD ripper built in: Goldwave. Just google search Goldwave v4.26. It says not recommended for newer versions of Windows but it runs just fine. Actually you can go here:

https://www.goldwave.com/release426.php

It natively saves as .wav files but if you download that lame mp3 dll file and copy it right into the Goldwave folder, you can then save your ripped CD's directly as mp3's.

Running the CD ripper option will let you load the entire CD into memory, and while it has been a little while since I've used it for ripping CD's, if I recall it can automatically save each track to its own mp3 file without having to individually do that for every song.

iTunes does a great job ripping music! While FLAC is great, they are also big files.

What about Nero Express? I use that to burn songs from a CD blank disc!!

Solved.

Had I thought it through I'd have realized I already had the solution at hand. This Grundig G2 radio that I've had for over 10 years but had forgotten about. Has a record function and has a Line In jack. You can record the music and save it as either MP3 or a WAV file..

The recording is stored on a micro SD card which can then be removed and inserted into any other device.

matt1 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 17, 2023 7:01 pm

What about Nero Express? I use that to burn songs from a CD blank disc!!

Nero? Did you burn Gnarls Barkley while playing around on MySpace?

Turkeytop wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 18, 2023 9:32 pm

Solved.

Had I thought it through I'd have realized I already had the solution at hand. This Grundig G2 radio that I've had for over 10 years but had forgotten about. Has a record function and has a Line In jack. You can record the music and save it as either MP3 or a WAV file..

The recording is stored on a micro SD card which can then be removed and inserted into any other device.

Seems like that would do the job but at the largest cost in quality. You're making an analog connection between the two devices and then re-digitizing, using consumer-grade equipment.