[cmeisenzahl]

freeware for Panther? I would like to rip the track off of my CDs to MP3s. I don't need a ton of extra features. I would prefer something small that does the basics well.

Wait, I just had a thought, iTunes doesn't already do this, does it?


What about playing back my MP3s? Does iTunes do that, or is there something better? I've never actually run it yet, I'll have to try it when I get home tonight.

Again, I'm a minimalist with these kinds of things. Reccomendations for a simple MP3 player that's freeware much aprpeciated. Unless iTunes does it, I guess I've already paid for that. :-)



Thanks very much in advance, and thanks very much for putting up w/ all of the newbie questions. :-)

Chris

[wataru]

I can't believe you're even asking this question. What do you think iTunes does, anyway?

[cmeisenzahl]

I had assumed it was for downloading songs from the iTunes store and putting them onto an iPod.

But I guess by your answer that it will rip CDs to MP3s and play the latter?

Come on, cut me some slack, I'm a Mac newbie. ;-)

[wataru]

Ok, sorry, you're right.

Yes, it rips and plays MP3s. In fact that's all it used to do. The Music Store only came into the picture with iTunes 4.0, and iTunes existed long before the iPod first came out.

iTunes also burns CDs, and can be used to share music over a local network. And instead of MP3s you might want to consider ripping to AACs, as they give better audio quality at the same bitrate as MP3s.

Note, however, that you can't burn an MP3 CD of AACs, which might be important to you if you have CD players that play MP3s.

[cmeisenzahl]

Thanks very much, I appreciate it!


The Mac continues to be better than Windoze every time I find something new.


Chris

[larkost]

Just to make sure you don't miss it. iTunes defaults to AAC encoding. To change it to encode into MP3 (with a bitrate of your choice) go to Preferences->Importing. The rest should be self-explanatory.

[hab]

Also, iTunes integrates the CDDB database that you access via the drop down menu to auto identify CD artist and track names. Saves alot of typing....

[wilsonng]

If you want the best compatibility with the widest range of MP3 players, then choose MP3. I usually use 160 kbps Highest VBR.

There are also some LAME iTunes encoder plugin using AppleScript. This essentially links iTunes to the Terminal to encode via LAME.

But I also like to use 160 kbps AAC or 192 kbps AAC.

If you want the highest fidelity, then choose Apple Lossless. This compression format doesn't reduce sound fidelity but it takes up quite a bit more space. But Apple Lossless would definitely take up less space than WAV or AIFF and still sound as good as these 2 formats.