In early 2004, an excellent application became freeware; Audiograbber 1.83.  Using this tool, along with the LAME MP3 encoder, we can easily copy our CDs to our computer's hard drive for use when we make our own CD mixes for those long car rides, or in our MP3 player.   In this tutorial, I will provide you with all the necessary software, free of charge, and teach you how to use it.

Category:  Windows Software

Application:  Audigrabber 1.83 with LAME

Purpose:  Rip CDs directly to MP3

INSTALLATION

To successfully rip CDs to MP3, you need two pieces of software: a ripper, and an encoder.  Sometimes, the ripper and encoder are one piece of software, however, due to licensing with MP3 and the LAME encoder, these files must actually be distributed separately.

Download the following two files:

• audiograbber-1.83.zip - this is the ripper application, with amazing features!  For example:  Digital audio ripping (not analogue like some applications), automatic file naming from freedb (which means when you put the disc in, the song names will be automatically filled out, if the CD is recognized).
• lame-3.97.zip - this is the distributable package for the LAME MP3 encoder.  This lets the ripper application save your music in the MP3 file format, which can in turn be used for MP3 players, burning to CD, and storing on your hard drive while using very little space (about 5mb per song).

By following theses step-by-step instructions, we'll effectively install Audiograbber on your system, with MP3 support:

1. Open audiograbber-1.83.zip by double-clicking on the file, wherever you saved it to.
2. Double-click on agsetup.exe to open the installer.
3. Follow the simple installation procedure.  Leave all settings default, except your language, if applicable.
4. When that is complete, open lame-3.97.zip by double-clicking on the it.
5. Find the file lame_enc.dll within that file (it will be in the file list you see).
6. Extract lame_enc.dll to c:\audiograbber (Windows XP users: Just right click the file and choose COPY, then bring up My Computer and navigate to c:\audiograbber, and then push EDIT --> Paste).

Now, launch Audiograbber (there is a link on your desktop).

This is the first window you will see.  The interface is simple, clean, and has a lot of great features.

Let's configure Audiograbber for your system before we rip anything...  Press the Settings button.

The first thing we want to change is, where to save the ripped music to.  Click Browse.

Windows XP users, go to c:\Documents and Settings\[YOUR-USER-NAME]\My Documents\My Music and then press OK.  This will save your MP3s directly to your My Music folder.

Alternatively, you can put select any folder you like.

Now, turn on the first two Sub Directories options (Artist as directory, Album as directory).  This will now place your MP3s in a nice, organized folder such as My Music\Perry Como\Jingle Bells.

Those should be the only settings you'd need to configure at this point - at least until you're comfortable and familiar enough with the interface to start tweaking it more to your preferences.  So let's store those settings by pushing OK.

Now that the ripper is configured, we need to configure the encoder... Press the MP3 button.

First, set the Grab to option to "Direct Rip and Encode to MP3 file".  This will make ripping extremely fast, as there is no need for an intermediate WAV file.

Now, if you extracted the lame_enc.dll file to the proper folder during the installation steps, you should see "LameEnc DLL Version 1.32, (3/10/2006) Engine 3.97" under Internal Encoder.

Let's configure LAME to create great sounding MP3s.   I'll let you decide on your own here, but let me explain what everything means...

Quality.  The default is Joint Stereo.  Let's change that to Stereo for any music ripping, or Mono if you're just ripping a voice recording (such as a sermon or speech).  Using Mono for voice recordings will cut the file size in half!  Set the checkbox that is set to "Normal" to "High".  This will ensure highest quality encoding and the sacrifice of speed.  Remember, today's computers are insanely fast, so setting to the highest quality setting does not necessarily mean that your encoder will be slow.  Way back when computers were slow, we used to have to use lower quality settings because otherwise it would take hours to encode.  These days, it only takes a few seconds. 

Now, see that slider bar "Constant Bitrate" that is currently set to 128?  That's your bitrate - essentially, it's the quality of the sound that you'll get from the MP3.  It goes a little deeper than that, but we're keeping it simple for you.

The higher the bitrate, the larger your MP3 files will be.

The average listener (ie. YOU) will not know the difference between 192 and 320 kbps.  Therefore, we'll say "use 192 as your highest quality setting".  It will save space, which is coveted when you're loading up your MP3 player and want to fit as many songs as you can.

128 is the standard MP3 bitrate.  It's pretty close to CD-quality - so use that for music if you just want great sounding tracks that are quite small.

Anything less that 128 can be used for speech.  A sermon, encoded in Mono at 56 kbps will sound excellent.  This is because there is much less audio data in speech than there is in music.

So, if you want to rip your CDs in "near CD quality" to MP3, use 128, Stereo.  If you want even better quality (we'll say "CD quality"), you can bump that up a little, to 192, Stereo.

Leave all the other settings as they are, and press OK.  Now, you're ready to rip!

SOFTWARE USAGE (THE RIPPING PROCESS)

Here's the step-by-step:

1. Insert the CD you'd like to rip.  Once the disc has been loaded, you'll see a track list.  If not, press the Refresh button.
   
2. Now, push the FREEDB button.  What this does is simple:  Connect to the Internet and download all the song names automatically for you, so you don't have to input them yourself.  If FREEDB cannot find your disc, enter the information manually - such as Artist, Album, and Rename each "Track 1", "Track 2" to the actual song titles by right-clicking on them.
3. Now that you've got the CD name and song list, you're ready to go!  Press the GRAB button, and you're rollin'! 

Once your CD is finished ripping, bring up your My Music folder (or whatever folder you configured in the earlier step). Windows XP users will see My Music directly on the Start menu. Otherwise, you'll find it in My Documents. Within that folder, you'll now see the artist name as a folder; if you enter that folder, you'll see the folder with the CD name. Going in to that folder will reveal the MP3 files.

To copy your MP3 files to an MP3 player, flash drive, or media card, simply insert your desired media and then right click on the song(s) in your My Music. Then, choose SEND TO from the popup menu, and select your media. This will place a COPY of the song on your media. It will reside in both your My Music and your media. Therefore, you can delete it off your media when you're done, yet be able to put it back on the media at a later date to listen again - without having to "re-rip" it.

If you'd like to burn your own compilation CDs, use a program such as Nero Startsmart / Express, or your preferred burning application. Make sure you use CD-R discs (NOT CD-RW) for optimum compatibility with standard CD players.

Hope this was helpful! Enjoy the flexibility of MP3!