I’ve gotten a number of requests from friends who have new portable MP3 players, but don’t quite know how to turn their CD tracks into MP3s.
This little instructional are for you non-geeks. There are already a number of programs out there that offer MP3 ripping as one of their many features. But oftentimes the resulting MP3s are of poor quality or in a fixed, unchangeable, low bitrate. Even worse, some programs might insert DRM into your files. Maybe you don’t have any programs that you know of to make MP3s.
Well, there is a free program available that you can use to make yourself some good quality MP3s from your CD collection. It’s called FreeRip, downloadable from here (if the site is down, just search for FreeRip in a search engine and you can download it from other places as well). Since this is a free program, it wants you to install a spyware program on your computer. But it does play fair with opt-out buttons, so I’ll show you how to tame this program to do only what you want.
Once you have downloaded the program, close other programs, put the .exe file into your C: folder and double click it to start it installing. You’ll see it installs like most standard programs, presenting you with a series of notifications to let you know what it is doing.
When it gets to this box, beware! By leaving the “Install My Search Browser Toolbar” checked, you’ll give it permission to install the spyware. Just uncheck the box and lets move on.
Programs seen to love installing shortcuts all over your system. Uncheck these types of boxes always, because Start > All Programs is the proper way to access your utilities, not a million cluttered icons everywhere.
After FreeRip is fully installed, this is how it presents itself. But you can’t use it quite yet, you need to fine tune it first. Access the Options box through the CD navigation button.
Here is the options box that will appear, and we will have to go through most of the tabs on it. The key focus on the General tab is the “Default Encoding Format” pull down box. To keep this simple, you need to change it from WAV to MP3. (There are good reasons to rip to WAV, for example if you are making a compilation CD). Making the format MP3 makes FreeRip into an instant MP3 maker.
Now we move on the the Output Path Tab. FreeRip will take the audio tracks from your CD and present you with MP3 files, but where will the MP3 files be found on my computer? Well, the Base Path is where you make that decision. My suggestion is you make a new folder on your desktop named “Ripped.” Then click that button the red arrow points to to navigate to “Ripped” on your desktop. When you have chosen the “Ripped” folder, the address will show in the Base Path.
Also here is the Advanced Output File Name Definition. File naming is extremely important when making MP3s. You cannot call your files “Track01.mp3,” “Track02.mp3,” and so forth and hope to manage a collection. This feature will make your tracks somewhat manageable. But where it says “%a\%#-%1%e” I suggest you change the slash “\” to a dash “-”. This will put the groups name at the beginning of the file and keep the tracks together in your folders.
The only thing to worry about in the Device Tab is making sure FreeRip will use the best CD reader on your computer. If you have just one, then you have no choice. I have two on mine, but my plain Pioneer DVD drive reads CDs much better than my LiteOn DVD burner.
The Encoding Tab is very important. It will determine how clear your MP3s will sound. Of course the better the sound, the bigger the MP3 file. This was a big decision five years ago, but with 20-gig portable players readily available, the smart move is just to go big. I set this one at 192 bitrate, and this is bare mininum you should go. Actually I recommend you set it at the maximum 320 bitrate. And make sure the mode box is set to Constant! The Variable setting results in nothing but problems.
The Extensions Tab is this programs second attempt to install the Spyware Search Bar on your computer. Just uncheck the box and you are in the clear.
You will need to add an email address into the indicated field. An email address, you ask? Why, you say? So I can be spammed? No, it has to do with the freedb.org project. It is an extremely helpful website, the benefits of which will be shortly revealed. But they do require an email address. Don’t worry, they’re cool man…
Now we’ve properly set all our options. Click the “OK” button to close out the Options Box. Now insert a CD into your disc drive. Since FreeRip is currently open, it should take charge, read the CD and present you with the following box.
Oh, and here are those benefits I just mentioned. FreeRip submitted the number of tracks and their lengths to freedb over the internet, and freedb answered back that it has found one match for a CD of 16 tracks and those exact lengths. Now FreeRip can use that info to name my MP3 tracks!
So now FreeRip has your properly named tracks lined up, ready for your next command. The boxes on the left will indicate to FreeRip which tracks you want to convert to MP3. So if I check only box five, this program will give me one MP3 for the song “I Woke Up In Love This Morning.” However, I want to rip all the songs on this CD. Rather than clicking sixteen boxes, I instead click on the button the arrow is pointing at. It is a shortcut to choose all the boxes.
Now your choices are made. So how do I make it “GO”? As indicated by the red arrow, it is the icon of the CD with a musical note over it. We click and….
Now the program is running. When WAV is selected on the General Tab in the Options box, this program finishes very quickly. However, since we are in MP3 mode, FreeRip has to both RIP the tracks AND convert to MP3, so prepare to wait a bit to convert an entire CD. My medium-speed computer took nearly ten minutes to finish.
When the Ripping box indicates “done,” just click the dismiss box, and then close the program (or insert another CD and repeat the process).
And here’s your bright shiny new MP3s ready for your indulgence.
One final note, though, is that this is a beginners guide. These files are not perfectly named, and the above peek at the “tags” (information imbedded in the files) as written by FreeRip shows faults as well. “Partridge Family” is proper in the artist field, but there is no need to have the group name at the beginning of every song title.
This is probably a minor issue to many, but if you’d like to be fussy like DJSkyler, the program I use to fix MP3 naming is Tag&Rename.
There are other details I could cover in an “MP3 Advanced Class,” like how to make perfect sounding files, or how to rip scratched CDs. I’ll post that kind of stuff if I get enough requests. Happy Ripping!
