Converting songs to MP3

Moneymaker

Yes, iTunes is free and converts several formats to other formats.

AIFF (used on music CDs) is a lossless audio mode whereas mp3 is lossy so, yes, mp3 files are smaller than AIFF.

The_Bloodster

Thanks for that - now begins the task of converting my cd's for my phone!!

donny-gal

As you put your CD's onto your PC and use something like Windows Media Player which is free from Microsoft (though there are others) and select RIP it automatically stores them on your PC as MP3, rather than just copying them to the PC. Saves a lot of HDD space on your PC too.

ollyshaw

I would recommend CDex too.

Olly

superscaper

donny-gal wrote:

As you put your CD's onto your PC and use something like Windows Media Player which is free from Microsoft (though there are others) and select RIP it automatically stores them on your PC as MP3, rather than just copying them to the PC. Saves a lot of HDD space on your PC too.

Actually by default windows media players rips cds to WMA format not MP3. WMA takes up less space for the same bit rate as MP3 files but not every device will play WMA and certainly ipods won't.

BillScarab

Freerip is a decent program for ripping CDs to MP3. I've used Audacity for editing MP3s (basically just shortening them to use as ringtones).

I've also used winamp to rip CDs, it's also a good media player

The_Bloodster

superscaper wrote: »

Actually by default windows media players rips cds to WMA format not MP3. WMA takes up less space for the same bit rate as MP3 files but not every device will play WMA and certainly ipods won't.

So is WMA format actually smaller than MP3?

superscaper

The_Bloodster wrote: »

So is WMA format actually smaller than MP3?

For the same bit rate, yes.

The_Bloodster

Ive already got a load of songs saved on my PC from many of my CDs is there a way I can convert these into Mp3 from WMA without having to find the CD's again? I have a lot in my media library can you do this within Windows Media Player 11?

superscaper

The_Bloodster wrote: »

Ive already got a load of songs saved on my PC from many of my CDs is there a way I can convert these into Mp3 from WMA without having to find the CD's again? I have a lot in my media library can you do this within Windows Media Player 11?

Why would you want to change from WMA to MP3. Unless you want to use the files on something that can't play MP3 then you are better off with the WMA format, also converting from one lossy format to another increases the data loss and is not advisable. You'll end up with much poorer quality tracks then if you rip them from CD again.