Sorry, you're wrong on this. If you've got one CPU, then running one instance of lame at a time will go faster than running two together. The reason for this is that lame is CPU-bound. It pegs the CPU meter. If you run two copies of lame together, each will take almost precisely twice as long to finish.

I was not aware of that technical reason, thanks for the tip, that explains a lot.

The best way to speed things up is to use EAC on Windows or grip on Linux, which run lame in the background and create a work queue of tasks for lame to process.

How do I do that on winME with EAC and LAME?
I'd really like to "rip the whole CD, (take out the disc), THEN encode it all." ?

This way, my blazing Plextor drive can rip audio accurately at 16-20x, allowing me to plough through 20 CDs in an hour. Then, the computer grinds away running lame all day and I've got fresh MP3s waiting for me when I get home at night.

I think this is what I do, but I'm not sure...
Is there an EAC setting that says "rip the whole CD, THEN encode it all." ?
Because all I can seem to make happen is either

"Rip one track then encode it, rip another track, then encode that, etc."
OR
"Rip one track then start encoding it in the background while ripping the next track, etc."