This software is a free MP3/audio converter. For a free program, this is actually the best I've tried.

In short, this program does the following conversions:
Audio CD --> MP3
Audio CD --> WAV
WAV --> MP3
MP3 --> WAV

It has CDDB lookup (which connects to a CD Database (CDDB) server via the Internet when you insert a commercial CD and it knows what CD it is and the names of all the tracks on it). This program also lets you choose how to name your MP3 files that are "ripped"* from your CDs (although you have to click on "help" to see what the codes are-- it's not that user-friendly in this regard. The codes are cryptic numbers with percent signs: "%7" "%5") which you can look up by pressing the "Help" button.

(*note: "ripping" a CD refers to converting an audio CD to MP3 format, otherwise known as "encoding" the audio to MP3 format)

You can choose your encoding rate (128kBit/second is normal and adequate for most pop/rock music; the higher the rate the higher the quality, but the larger the file size) unlike other free programs such as RealJukebox (limited to just 96). You can choose anything from 32kBit/second to 320kBit/second.

You can also choose your encoder (use the built-in one or download another encoder like BladeEnc), and overall it has a lot of good features that lets you tweak your settings to your heart's content. But it's geared towards intermediate to advanced computer users, as the average home user will be confused with all these customizable controls.

The downside is that ripping CDs with the built-in encoder take a long time. Commercial software are definitely faster. But if you just walk away from your computer while your CDs are ripping, it's not that big of a deal. Another negative is that you often get a "jitter error" with certain CDs, and the program will skip that track so you need to go back and redo that track.

Also, in order to convert an entire CD to MP3, you have to select all the songs first (Control-A) and then hit the "CD to MPEG" button. It took me two tries to catch this usability flaw. Additionally, saying "MPEG" may confuse some users who don't know that MP3 stands for "MPEG Layer 3 Audio."

You can also convert CD audio tracks to a WAV file. A WAV file can be used by your PC as a sound file for editing in a music software, for example. CDex can also convert a WAV file to MP3 and vice versa. MP3 to WAV conversion is necessary before you "burn" MP3 audio files (downloaded from the Internet) onto a CD-R for playing in a regular CD Player.

In sum, this is not the most user-friendly program and a bit slow, but the quality of the MP3s produced are great and worth the small download of this free program.

UPDATE (12/5/2000): The latest stable version is 1.20 You must download this version if you have installed Windows 2000 on your machine. 1.20 seems to encode MP3s a bit faster than the older (1.10 SR-4) version that I was using before. But the interface and usability problems remain unchanged.



Recommended: Yes