There are many programs that can do various things to or for MP3's. There are so many out there and so many possible programs that can help. CDex is the best FREEWARE program that I have found for Ripping, Encoding, (and I have not tried the next one yet) Decoding Mp3s. For those of you who do not know, "Ripping"just means making a CD, into MP3 files on your hard drive. Encoding is taking a media format (most commonly .WAV files) and making them into Mp3s. While decoding is making a Mp3 into a format such as .WAV for easier editing.

When it comes to ripping speed, CDex can be configured various ways for your needs. I have found that it is NOT as fast as AudioCatalyst, but then again, that is a shareware and not free, like CDex. Still, CDex did a fairly good, and fast job with my CDS. Some of the codecs that it uses for ripping/encoding are " Windows MP3 codec"(with the Fraunhofer mp3 encoder), "Blade Mp3 Encoder", and the best encoder in some people's views, "Lame Encoder". Each codec(coder) has various options and limits. Check each one for what they are capable of.

Some of the options that you have is the mode of encoding. This includes the bitrate, frequency, and whether its mono or stereo. The ability to connect to CDDB (a online database, which adds up the length and numbers of the tracks, and determine what the CD is. If two CDs have the same number of tracks, and the same length for each track, it will prompt you with a choose of the two) makes putting your CDs on your computer even easier. I will fill out all the ID3 tag information for Mp3's. You can Normalize the file, meaning you can set the volume to one continuous level, if the music level drops below a certain level, or if it goes above another level. CDex also has a setting for correction for "jitters". Jitters can be caused by dust, or scratches on a CD, and cause "clicks" or "pop" sounds in the MP3 or WAV files that are make from your recording. With CDex you can also adjust certain "illegal" characters that might be in the track name on a cd. You have the ability to set a standard switch. For Example, every time ::= comes up you can replace that with an underscore, for instance.

The Encoders all have their own options and some give options that others do not. One of the most customizable is the "Lame Mp3 Encoder (version 1.16). You can decide how the priority of the encoding, meaning the higher the priority, the less responsive Windows gets, but the faster the encoding process is. There is also the ability to do "on the fly encoding, which means the if you want to make Mp3's directly into mp3's you can. Otherwise CDex will convert the cd file to a WAV file and then to MP3. Sometimes this may cause little clicks in the Mp3 file. If this occurs, CDex advises you to turn this option off.

There are various modes that you can set for CDex. The default, Stereo, setting will set all recordings in stereo, and may not be equal in both sound channels (left and right), if one channel may contain silence, or something of that effect. The Joint Stereo For quasi-mono signals, this will give a significant gain in encoding quality option will set the audio at stereo, and calculate a sum that in CDex words "... will give a significant gain in encoding quality". You can force MS (Microsoft) Joint Stereo on all frames using the Force Joint Stereo Option. You can have CDex down-sample to monoeven if the original recording is in stereo. There are many other options for CDex and the various plugins. I would suggest to "play around" with them (the options) to see what is best for your needs.

Another great feature is the ability to connected to Gracenote (A.K.A. CDDB). This is an online database of all major albums ever recorded. This means instead of typing in track names one-by-one and the album's information, it will add up the number and length of the tracks and try to determine what album it is, and fill in the information for you. If there are two similar albums by chance, you will be prompted by CDDB to choose between the possible albums.

CDex is a must try for anyone who wants a good, and FREE audio program for your computer. Although, it falls sort in some ways to programs like AudioCatalyst (speed wise), it is still a fairly fast and customizable program. Do yourself a favor and try it today.

It can be found at Http://www.cdex.n3.net



Recommended: Yes