Free CD to MP3 Converter
Editors’ Review
This freebie CD ripping software might not be the speediest on the scene, but conversion to MP3 audio files gives it a boost.
If you opt for MP3, you may wait around longer than you’d like, as the program first extracts songs to temporary WAV files before converting them to the compressed codec. In our tests, the application had no trouble obtaining track information from the Internet. As you might expect, the program lets you set the bit rate and use VBR compression, but the ability to normalize tracks is a welcome surprise. Ditto for the audio-conversion and recording tools, which are quite basic but still work just fine.
Note that when converting files to MP3 or WAV formats, you won’t actually see them show up in a queue, though you can still process tunes in batch mode. The utility can also now compress WAV files into the OGG format. In the end, this piece of freeware makes a strong case for itself.
WHAT’S NEW IN VERSION 5.0
Developer’s Description
This CD ripper allows you to extract audio files from a CD and convert them to MP3, WAV, OGG or WMA formats. It connects to the CDDB database to automatically retrieve title information, and it can save output filenames based on the track. It supports ID3 tag editing and additional Lame options. You can record to the MP3 format with your microphone or convert WAV files to MP3, OGG or WMA files. The program also supports the normalization of audio files.