So I got a new computer with Windows 7. The default music player is Windows Media. I'm not going to download any other players, so with that in mind:

I want to rip my CD's to my computer. When I insert the CD's it gives me several options.

What is the optimal action? Rip to a Windows Media File, mp3, WAV, Lossless, etc? And why? I always assumed I should rip to mp3, that way I can burn them to blank CDs if I want to, to play in a car.

Also, it asks what bit rate and audio quality I want. There is a little left to right slider for audio quality and the slider is set in the middle as default.

Basically, I'm a little anal about my library and I want to rip every CD equally (meaning I don't want some Windows Media files, some mp3's, some WAVS; I want them all the same).

Can anyone suggest the optimal way to do this?

THANKS!!

I know you said you don't want any other players , but you should consider using Winamp

I use it all the time , it's great

I've ripped my entire cd collection to FLAC (lossless) with it

I takes up quiete a lot of room , but less so than wav. and it's losless too

[Edited 8/23/11 9:09am]

Dewrede said:

I know you said you don't want any other players , but you should consider using Winamp

I use it all the time , it's great

I've ripped my entire cd collection to FLAC (lossless) with it

I takes up quiete a lot of room , but less so than wav. and it's losless too

[Edited 8/23/11 9:09am]

Can you explain what FLAC and lossless means exactly?

I'm not against that, but I want to know what the standard is for ripping CDs to a music library. Suppose I save them all as FLAC (and not mp3) and then I want to share a song with a friend who can only play mp3s? Will he or I have to then convert it to mp3?

^

When you convert audio to mp3 it's being compressed (smaller in size)

meaning frequencies in the sound spectrum are cut off , which causes quality loss ;

The lower the bitrate the shittier the sound will be

(i wish i could find a graphic that shows this but i can't find any)

Lossless audio means it's not compressed

Not sure if you can play FLAC in WMP , there used to be a plug-in for doing so

Winamp will play them perfectly though

[Edited 8/23/11 10:08am]

Here's how you rip a cd on Windows 7.

http://windows.microsoft....-from-a-CD

Personally, I prefer foobar2000 on windows to rip to flac or ape files.

As far as what, if you are using mp3, you should rip to about 256k or variable rate. It saves the most space, and sounds pretty close to CD quality.

Honestly, WMA is fine too. You can use the Windows 7 cd burning tool to make regular audio cds from wma, mp3, or wav.

Back in the day, when space was at a premium, people were happy to rip their entire collection to 128k or less so that they didn't eat up their entire hard drive with 5 CDs. WMA has better sound at a lower bitrate than mp3; thus, they take up less space. Sharing these files with multiple devices is hard though. In fact, if you sync music with your iPod, you have to use iTunes and it makes a copy of the file in Apple's mp4 format.

Try a CD at 256k mp3 and see how much space it takes vs comparable WMA. Then listen to both and see if you notice a difference. If you're going to be sharing the files with people a lot, you will probably just want to go with mp3. If you don't care and won't be syncing with iProducts, go ahead and use wma. If you want to be serious business audiophile, rip to WAV, then compress to FLAC.

Good luck!

[Edited 8/23/11 12:28pm]

^

mp3 should be outlawed

it rapes the art that music is imho

why have anything in a less than perfect sound quality ?

Dewrede said:

^

mp3 should be outlawed

it rapes the art that music is imho

why have anything in a less than perfect sound quality ?

I hear ya, but most people want their music on systems that aren't 5.1 surround etc. Really, WMA lossless may be just as good as FLAC, per the specs. But if you're just going to play it on a Windows Phone 7, it's going to be downgraded to regular wma anyway. If you're going to be jogging with your tiny media player and $5 headphones, etc.

But if you're getting the bad ass ZuneHD with $300 headphones... yeah you might be using lossless.

Dewrede said:

^

mp3 should be outlawed

it rapes the art that music is imho

why have anything in a less than perfect sound quality ?

really? c'mon now. U KNOW those FLAC files r huge. they're not he size of a movie or anythig...but seriously. Untill the cost of my 1.5T hard drive drops to $20...i'll stick with mp3 @320...192 even works. I'm not the bionic man or othing...i can hear a difference but it's negligible...to me at least.

[Edited 8/24/11 16:04pm]