Rip Perfect MP3s
Everytime. With One Click.
What We Want
We want a mp3 collection that sounds just as amazing in my portable cd player as it does in my car stereo as it does in my top of the line entertainment system. Oh yeah, and it better be organized well. It also better be easy. Is that too much to ask?
Of course that's not too much to ask. If it was, we wouldn't be here, would we? Here's what we're going to do. Turn your CDs into mp3s with cd quality. We're going to automatically look up your CD information on freedb.org after you put the CD in the drive. We're going to rip the music from the CD and then compress it into MP3. We're then going to name, number, and tag the tracks, create folders for artist and album, and throw each track into its album's fodler, right where it should be. And once it's setup, we're going to do the entire process in one click. Did I mention all the software we're going to use is free? So get your CD collection and let's get started!
Downloading the Progs
You need two programs for this process. The first is Exact Audio Copy (opens in a new window). EAC double-checks every bit against the original. If it finds a difference, it reads the data one more time, and then another time if needbe. Because of this, EAC is slower than some other programs, but you won't care because this will be an automated process and our goal is perfect mp3s, right? One catch... you need to send the author a postcard. He doesn't ask for any money for his software, but he does collect postcards, so send him a postcard of your local area. No, not now. Do it in the morning or on your lunch break.
The second program we need is the LAME (opens in a new window) encoder. The newest version as of right now is 3.96, but get whatever the latest stable version is (ignore the beta or alpha listings). Pretty much everyone agrees that LAME is the best encoder on the market and it's free, so that's why we're using it. Simple, no?
Once you have both programs, unzip them into the same directory on your computer. If the previous sentence made no sense to you, email me or grab your resident computer geek to help you out.
Setting up EAC
Exact Audio Copy allows us uber geeks to control most everything and anything we want to. Because of this, it is not very friendly to the computer novice. But that's ok because I'm here for you.
The very first time (and only the first time) you launch EAC, it will test your optical drive(s) (ie. cdrom, cdrw, dvd, and dvdrw). When asked, select Optimization for "accurate results". You'll need to stick an audio cd into your cd drive so that your drive's error correcting can be tested. Once finished, EAC will select the drive it thinks is best for your mp3 ripping needs. You can change what it decides later if you like.
EAC then offers to configure your copy of LAME for you. If will begin to search for your LAME executable. It is faster if you just cancel and point to it yourself though. If the previous sentence is greek to you, just let EAC find LAME for you. When asked, select "standard" as your LAME setting option. Then choose the Expert interface option so that we can go in and change things. Now the fine tuning begins. Let's roll.
From the EAC > EAC Options menu, select the General tab. Check "On unknown CDs", then click the "Automatically access online freedb database" radio button.
Now select the Filename tab, and under Naming Scheme carefully type %a\%c\%n - %t (including the space before the %t). This creates a directory structure that creates a folder from the artist's name, a subfolder with the album's title, and numbered tracks within the album folder. For ex: Beatles > Abbey Road > 01 - Come Together.
Select the Directory tab, and then choose "Use this directory." Point EAC to the directory you want your music stored in.
Go to the EAC > Drive Options menu. The box marked "Drive is capable of retrieving C2 error information" might already be checked. Leave if checked if it is, but if you hear audible flaws in our test recording that we make in a few minutes, come back here and uncheck this box. Do not uncheck Secure mode - ever. If for some bizarre reason it is not selected, then select it. Now. Go. Good. :)
Go to the EAC > Compression Options menu. Select the External Compression tab and make sure the LAME MP3 Encoder is displayed in the "Parameter passing scheme" pulldown box. If it isn't, select it.
Go to the "Bit rate" pulldown menu, and select "Variable Bitrate 192Kbp". There is a chance that your mp3 player doesn't support VBR playback, so select "constant bitrate" at a minimum of 192Kbps if that is the case. If, on the other hand, you simply don't have the hard drive space for that bitrate, select a CBR as low as your ears can handle. But our goal is perfection in sound, and I currently have about 40 full CDs taking up less than 3GB on my drive, so just buy a new hard drive. :p
Go to the EAC > freedb Options menu. Confirm that your email address is there and click the "Get active freedb server list" button. Don't worry, I don't think I have ever received any actual email from them, so don't worry about them clogging up your inbox. You know what? That's it. Let's test it out.
Let's Test it Out
Ok, all of that stuff we just went through is the only time you will have to go through it, so rejoice!!! Now we're going to run through what you have to do in order to actually rip the CD.
Put your audio CD into the drive EAC picked as the best (it tells you in the upper left corner of the program if you have forgotten). EAC should query the freedb server and find your CD's title and track info. If it's reluctant to do so, press Alt-G. If more than one title shows up, pick the one that seems most accurate and click ok. (For example, my Rage Against the Machine album is not "blues", as one of the choices said.)
Now click the "MP3" button on the far left. That's it. Sit back and relax, go eat something, whatever. It's not the fastest, but we aren't after speed, we're after perfection. This could take anywhere from ten minutes to an hour depending on the CD and your cd drive.
When it finishes, go check out your new tracks. If they are blank or there are errors, double check everything we went through. If your settings are fine, then download the Nero ASPI layer (opens in a new window). Put that in the same folder as EAC and try again. You can get troubleshooting help from the forums at the EAC website, or from Chris Myden's website (opens in new window). On Chris's site, click "Elite DAE" from the left column.
There you have it. Now you can create CD quality mp3s with a single click except for a couple of confirmation buttons. And it was all free (well, except the music itself ;)).