COPY COPY MOVIES & MUSIC
30 MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC APRIL 2006
Do you listen to audio CDs in your CD-ROM drive, or carry a portable CD player while you jog? Of course not. You
rip your audio CDs to MP3, and then transfer the fi les to your hard drive, your MP3 player, and your laptop. Because
ripping audio fi les is quite pedestrian these days, you probably know how to do it. But do you know how to do it the
Maximum PC way? Here’s how to rip audio fi les so they’ll sound as good as uncompressed WAV fi les.Rip Perfect MP3s
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
An audio CD
Exact Audio Copy (free, http://www.exactaudiocopy.de)
LAME encoder (free, http://mitiok.cjb.net)EAC’s setup wizard will
automatically start when
you install the program.
Choose the option “I prefer
to have accurate results.”
Skip the step to install
and confi gure LAME by
removing the checkmark—
we’ll install it later. You
have to enter an email
address in the next screen
to gain access to the Freedb CD database, which will automatically
populate your MP3s with artist, album, and track-name info. Choose
the option labeled “I’m an expert...” and click Finish.STEP 2 INSTALL EAC
Exact Audio Copy is our favorite tool for ripping audio CDs
because it’s dead accurate, produces fl awless rips, and
warns you of the presence of potential problems—think
skips, clicks, or pops. It’s not the fastest solution, but we’ll
trade accuracy for speed every time. Download EAC. Next,
download the open-source LAME MP3 encoder, so you can
encode your ripped fi les. Unzip both programs into the same
folder on your hard drive.STEP 1 DOWNLOAD EAC AND LAME
STEP 3 CONFIGURE EAC
Choose “EAC
options” from the
EAC menu.
Deselect the
option labeled
“Lock drive
tray...,” so you
can open the drive
tray should EAC
hang on a
scratched CD.
Leave the other
options at their
defaults. Click the
Tools tab and place a checkmark next to “On extraction, start
external compressors...” ( EAC will read the next track while the
compressor is working on the previous track, speeding up the
ripping process). Click OK.STEP 4 DOWNLOAD EAC AND LAME
STEP 5 CONFIGURE EAC
Now you’re ready to start ripping. Drop a CD into your optical drive
and give EAC a moment to download information about it from
Freedb. In the main EAC window, choose the tracks you wish to rip
and then click the MP3 icon in the vertical toolbar. Browse to the
folder where you want the fi les stored and click Save.Choose “Compression options” from the EAC menu and click
the External Compression tab. Place a checkmark next to
“Use external program for compression,” choose “Use Defi ned
Encoder” from the drop-down menu, browse to the folder where
you downloaded LAME , and click lame.exe. We’re going to
encode our MP3s using variable bit rate ( VBR ), and we want
LAME to write metadata (artist, track title, etc.) to the ID3 tags, so
type this exact text into the “Additional command line options”
fi eld: –V 2 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta
“%a” --tt “%t” --tl “%g” --ty “%y” --tn “%n” %s
%d Ignore the rest of the options here, but click the ID3 Tag tab
and remove any checkmarks. Click OK.