I am soon to embark on a massive ripping and encoding crusade of my CD collection, and I understand the technology pretty well, and I think that VBR is the way to go, but I am interested to hear what fellow Empeg users prefer for such a task. Is LAME the best? I prefer something that is GUI based on a WinXP system. Is there a tool available that will also add the artist/track, etc. information via CDDB?

I have both a Plextor CD-ROM and CD-R drive, as they are praised for their extraction capabilities. I just need some advice as to the best software tool for the job. It doesn't have to be free (although that would be nice!)

I have heard some unsavory things about MusicMatch (ads, spyware, etc.) so I am not too keen on it.

Thanks,

Rob

I think most people agree that for ripping, EAC is the way to go, and LAME for encoding. LAME doesn't come with a GUI interface, but you can get one, or just have EAC run LAME for you during the ripping process.

....and a million suggestion came piling in.

Personally I use Audiograbber to rip, it calls upon LAME to do the encoding passing the "--alt-preset standard" setting to it.
It will do a lookup for the artist & track info.

Another option for ripping (and calling LAME) is EAC, which has become much more user-friendly - althoug I do think it has a way to go.

By having a Plextor drive you are a long way toward getting good clean and fast rips.

You are going to get many many suggestions for rippers, but the majority of the replies will recommend LAME for the encode, and more then likely mention the "--alt-preset standard" as well.

Spend your time figuring all this out as you only want to rip you collection once.

And I use Music Match Jukebox set on 100% VBR (decided upon after many hours of expermentation). It gives me files sizes of 5-7 Mb, and an average bitrate of 220 kbps. I tried using EAC coupled with LAME a few days ago and I wasn't satisfied with the results...see this thread

Since you're just starting to embark on your massive rip/encode session, please check out the following FAQ entries before you start:

What is the best way to create MP3s?

How should I name my MP3 files and ID3 tags?

What is the best way to organize and listen to my music?

I just got my new player and I have many gigs of MP3s to install. Is there anything I need to keep in mind?

I actually use windows media player with the Mp3/DVD Xpack and rip at 192Kbps. Seems to fit my needs well, and does a good job fetching stuff from CDDB

getting php error when clicking those links.

getting php error when clicking those links.

Damn, had to reboot the internet again. Try it now.

www.dbpoweramp.com

free, uses LAME, has CDDB, can do VBR, also plugins for other formats such as WMA, ogg, etc...
It can rip from CD or line input. It can also convert almost any format into other formats or sometimes I use it to convert an mp3 at say 192kbps to 64kbps to fit a couple cd's into my Rio 600.

I used to use EAC and had some issues, althought this was years ago so it might be improved. But i've been using DBPoweramp ever since, I love it, does everything I need it to and more. You can also choose how much CPU you want it to use so if your going to walk away from your computer while it's ripping, set it on high and it'll go quicker, if your working on other things while it's ripping, set it on low and i'tll take longer but it won't slow your computer down in the process(noticably).