Best software for CD ripping on Mac?
Thor
My parents have a G4 Mac and they were asking me what's the best software to
extract CD audio and compress to MP3s?
I use MusicMatch Jukebox for Windows which is pretty good. Is there
anything equivalent for the Macintosh?
(By the way, they may get an iPod. Is the software that comes with that any
good?)
Thanks!
Thor
Gerry
"Thor" <REMOVETH...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My parents have a G4 Mac and they were asking me what's the best software to
> extract CD audio and compress to MP3s?
Perhaps not the very best, but easily good enough, is iTunes, which is a
free download from Apple.
> I use MusicMatch Jukebox for Windows which is pretty good. Is there
> anything equivalent for the Macintosh?
> (By the way, they may get an iPod. Is the software that comes with that any
> good?)
It's iTunes. see www.apple.com/itunes/ .
Gerry
John Feversham
The "best" in my opinion is "SoundJam".
Although iTunes was developed from SoundJam, it lacks some of the features
that I use. For example, I like to compress to 64k (or less for mono audio
such as language courses) but iTunes won't go below 128k.
I git SoundJam with my Rio600 MP3 player. At 64k I can get almost 2 hours
of reasonable quality music on it. (I'm old and my hearing isn't as good as
that of a younger person!)
Jack
Udo Schmitz
> Hi,
>
> My parents have a G4 Mac and they were asking me what's the best software to
> extract CD audio and compress to MP3s?
iTunes. They already have it.
> (By the way, they may get an iPod. Is the software that comes with that any
> good?)
iPod is made to work with iTunes.
Regards, Udo
--
"A platform by a company not run by a sweaty shaved ape"
http://www.appleturns.com
Hugo Wolf
> My parents have a G4 Mac and they were asking me what's the best software to
> extract CD audio and compress to MP3s?
Apple provides freeware called iTunes which does this (among other
things). It's not the greatest mp3 encoder but it's _very_ fast.
If they're running osx, they can the use the iTunes front-end with a
very well regarded unix encoder called LAME. Download a very clever
applescript/shell-script at:
http://www.blacktree.com/scripts/iTunes-LAME.1.0.3.sit.bin
> (By the way, they may get an iPod. Is the software that comes with that any
> good?)
iTunes is what comes with the iPod.
--
shapiro
Garner Miller
Feversham <jf...@breathemail.net> wrote:
> Although iTunes was developed from SoundJam, it lacks some of the features
> that I use. For example, I like to compress to 64k (or less for mono audio
> such as language courses) but iTunes won't go below 128k.
It most certainly will. It'll go as low as 8kbps if you like.
Orac
"Thor" <REMOVETH...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Well, for ripping MP3s, iTunes is quite good. It may not have the bells
and whistles of some of the commercial products, but it is more than
adequate for my needs. However, when it comes to burning CDs, I usually
use Toast, mainly because in my experience it is faster. Also, it allows
me to vary the delay between tracks, something iTunes does not do.
--
Orac |"A statement of fact cannot be insolent."
|
|"If you cannot listen to the answers, why do you
| inconvenience me with questions?"
Howard S Shubs
> My parents have a G4 Mac and they were asking me what's the best software to
> extract CD audio and compress to MP3s?
> I use MusicMatch Jukebox for Windows which is pretty good. Is there
> anything equivalent for the Macintosh?
I use N2MP3. Works well for the MP3-encoding part.
--
"Run in circles, scream and shout!"
I hope you have good backups!
Are there any more networked SJFs around?
Abby Razer
more complex software but find that average person finds itunes easy to
use. And itunes interfaces extremely well w/ the ipod which is a great
tool.
Abby
John Feversham
Garner Miller <gar...@netstreet.net> wrote:
Can't see that. Must be "user unfriendly" 'cos I can't find anything below
128k.
In addition, it refuses to "see" some tracks on CD which SoundJam converts
quite happily. I'm not impressed.
Jack
Garner Miller
Feversham <jf...@breathemail.net> wrote:
> > > iTunes won't go below 128k.
> >
> >It most certainly will. It'll go as low as 8kbps if you like.
>
> Can't see that. Must be "user unfriendly" 'cos I can't find anything below
> 128k.
You're not looking very hard. Right in the Preference screen, under
Importing. You can use one of three common bitrates, or the "Custom"
option will open a full configuration window and allow you to pick
anything from 8 to 320kbps, Variable Bit Rates, and more. Took me
about 10 seconds to find the first time I went looking for it.
> In addition, it refuses to "see" some tracks on CD which SoundJam converts
> quite happily. I'm not impressed.
Hey, you get what you pay for. I'm perfectly happy with iTunes, and I
say that as a paid SoundJam MP owner. (The fact that it's OSX native
is also important to me.)
It's certainly your perogative to use something else, but you're
steering this fellow wrong telling him it won't do lower bitrates than
the canned settings. That's why I chimed in. I'm certainly not trying
to sell you on iTunes.
--
Garner R. Miller
Manchester, CT =USA=
Sign the petition: http://www.secure-skies.org
Do it for your own safety. The airport checkpoints aren't enough.
David C.
>
> Although iTunes was developed from SoundJam, it lacks some of the features
> that I use. For example, I like to compress to 64k (or less for mono audio
> such as language courses) but iTunes won't go below 128k.
Since when? My iTunes will compress down to 8k, if you really want.
When choosing the encoding quality, pick "custom" from the list and fill
in the dialog any way you want.
-- David
st...@temple.edu
> Hi,
> My parents have a G4 Mac and they were asking me what's the best software to
> extract CD audio and compress to MP3s?
For me, iTunes can't be beat and it comes on your parents' iMac already.
Hank Gillette
Hugo Wolf <hw...@deutsche.lieder.net> wrote:
> If they're running osx, they can the use the iTunes front-end with a
> very well regarded unix encoder called LAME.
What exactly does LAME do that iTunes doesn't?
--
Hank Gillette
Hugo Wolf
It produces better quality, glitch-free files. And it works on my
G4/Sawtooth (the iTunes encoder doesn't).
For details on LAME see
--
shapiro
Wayne C. Morris
Hugo Wolf <hw...@deutsche.lieder.net> wrote:
> > What exactly does LAME do that iTunes doesn't?
>
> It produces better quality, glitch-free files. And it works on my
> G4/Sawtooth (the iTunes encoder doesn't).
Not in my experience.
I was using a brand-new Windoze machine at work, and used a LAME encoder
to rip some of my CDs so I could listen to them while I worked. The
MP3s were full of glitches no matter what settings I used. I even tried
a few different programs that all used the same LAME encoder, but got
the same results.
I bought a G4 and used iTunes 1.0 to rip the same CDs. It did the job
faster than the PC did, and the MP3s came out perfectly without any
glitches. When I burned them onto a CD to take to work, they played
perfectly there too.
And the PC in question was a more powerful machine than my G4.
John Gilbert
Hugo Wolf <hw...@deutsche.lieder.net> wrote:
> > What exactly does LAME do that iTunes doesn't?
>
> It produces better quality, glitch-free files. And it works on my
> G4/Sawtooth (the iTunes encoder doesn't).
I have iTunes 2 running on my G4/400 at work, a G3-upgraded 9500 at home,
and a G3-upgraded 8500 at home. All of them encode CD-audio and AIFF
files to MP3 very well. 160Kbps obviously sounds very good.
What I do most often is use iTunes to encode MP3 files as 40Kbps, 22KHz,
Mono so that I can put them on my Powerbook Duo 280c. (With only a 320MB
hard drive, I need to conserve space.) The old 68K-based Powerbook plays
them back flawlessly, albeit at 8-bit. Not pops, drop outs, of clicks.
When played back on my PowerMacs I can tell they are mono, but otherwise
they sound great.
JCjr
Hugo Wolf
Wayne C. Morris wrote:
>> It produces better quality, glitch-free files. And it works on my
>> G4/Sawtooth (the iTunes encoder doesn't).
>
> Not in my experience.
>
> I was using a brand-new Windoze machine at work
<shrug> LAME is unix code, quite possibly it doesn't work as it should
in an entirely different os. It works very well in linux and osx.
> And the PC in question was a more powerful machine than my G4.
"Power" doesn't have much to do with it. Any modern machine has
enough horse power for mp3 encoding. More interesting issues are
process scheduling and device access, which are completely different
in Windows.
As for iTunes, see the previous thread about problems. It's fast but
it's not very robust, particularly if you try to do anything else at
the same time.
--
rs
Elkins, H.B.
If they have a G4 of recent vintage, iTunes should have come with it.
If it didn't, it's a free download from Apple.
Having said that, however, I prefer SoundJam MP from Casady & Greene.
It's out of print but you might be able to turn up an old version on
eBay from someone who prefers iTunes and decided to sell their copy of
SoundJam.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
H.B. Elkins mailto:hbel...@mis.net or mailto:HB...@aol.com
http://www.millenniumhwy.net
http://www.users.mis.net/~hbelkins
"There's no doubt he's the best race driver in the world."
--Dale Jarrett, on Dale Earnhardt (RIP 2/18/01)
Waltrip, Kentucky, Anybody but North Carolina
To reply, you gotta do what NASCAR won't -- remove the restrictor plates!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
GrapeApe
>If it didn't, it's a free download from Apple.
>
>Having said that, however, I prefer SoundJam MP from Casady & Greene.
>It's out of print but you might be able to turn up an old version on
>eBay from someone who prefers iTunes and decided to sell their copy of
>SoundJam.
Some prefer some of the interface differences in SoundJam, but as far as
ripping MP3s, the engine in iTunes _IS_ SoundJam, with some tweaks into the OS
to take advantage of altivec and file management.