MP3 Questions
 

I wasn't really sure where to ask this, so if this is the wrong place, my most humble apologies.

This is what I want to do. I want to take six music CD's, transfer them onto my computer, make them MP3 format, burn the MP3's onto a CDR, and send them to someone to load onto their computer and MP3 player to listen to.

Now, I know how to burn cd's, and I know how to send cd's, so that part I am okay on. I don't need any smart ass comments like "Put the CD into an envelope, address it, and put a stamp on it." :)

What I need to know is this: How to I get the songs off the cd onto my computer (Windows Millenium), how do I get them into MP3 format, and will the person receiving the CD, who uses McIntosh, not sure which OS exactly, be able to upload them as well?

Rubyee,

To turn the music in to MP3 format, you will need a program that will "rip" the audio tracks off the cd in to the mp3 formate and seve them to your harddrive.If you have Easy Cd creator, there is a built in ripper program that will rip the cd tracks indigualy or in batches depending on what you tell it to do.
HERE is the download.com list of rippers if you don't have one already in your chosen cd burning program. Create a directory for the music MP3's to be saved in, and follow the programs directions.
The annoying part will be sitting there with the program naming each track as the computer makes an mp3 copy of it.
As for your freind. MP3 is a universal iso format, so any computer, regardless of operating system, knows what to do with the music files you send. Obviously the cd's will be data cd's, and the mac should recognize the cd's contents when the cd is inserted. The user can double click on any track to listen to it or highlite and copy the tracks to their harddrive.
And yes this is the right forum to ask such a question in;)

Thank you so much!

I have no questions at all now, and that was just the kind of answer I was looking for.

Cookie for you!

Does anyone know of a free program that can burn the MP3s onto a cd? I have Easy CD Creator 5, but it says I need to upgrade to the Platinum Edition to put MP3s on a cd, so I can currently only put up to 80 minutes on a cd.

CDex is my choice.. I've used it forever, and can convery mp3's to WAV's and vice versa as well

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/features.php

Alright, I'll try that out, thanks!

Try CD X-tractor at http://xtractor.sourceforge.net/

It uses the lame encoder, which is one of the best, and most importantly it's open-source, ie free!

Use this to rip the tracks and your preferred CD writing utility to write them to a CD. Simple!

iTunes. It makes this process painfully simple. Insert CD, change the import format to MP3 (AAC is default) in preferences. Click import, whilst this is going on, create a playlist called "CD for (whoever)". Next change the format of the to be burned CD from Audio CD to MP3 CD in the preferences. After the import is done, drag songs from library to the playlist, click playlist, click burn CD. It may seem like more work, but there are some "first time" changes that needed to be made, subsequent runs will be quicker.

I use musicmatch for ripping cds. 99% of the time when I rip an album it will retain all of the artist, album, track, label, etc information contained on the web about the album.

recommended LAME settings
Hydrogenaudio.org recommended LAME compiles