Are there free programs that will let you take a CD and move the songs to the computer? Then convert them to MP3?

I use AudioGrabber

Edit to add: after you install it, you'll have to download various codecs as AudioGrabber doesn't come with one to convert the songs to MP3 (some are free, some aren't).

Internal encoders
Audiograbber does not come with any MP3 encoder of its own but it can use some other encoders. It is recommended that you download and install LAME's freeware MP3 encoder dll and use that one with Audiograbber. LAME is fast and gives very good sounding MP3 files.
Download LAME's MP3 dll from http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/download.html or http://mitiok.cjb.net. Unzip the lame_enc.dll to the same directory as audiograbber.exe and you will have an internal MP3 encoder that goes all the way up to 320 Kbit/s in Audiograbber.

LAME's official homepage is at http://www.mp3dev.org

Another good encoder that works good with Audiograbber is BladeEnc. This encoder is also freeware so it won't cost you a dime. It is far from as fast as Xing's encoder but many people thinks this encoder produces better sound quality.
http://bladeenc.mp3.no

Other encoders that are supported internally by Audiograbber are Fraunhofers MP3 acm codecs and Qdesigns MP2 acm codec. Audiograbber is distributed with LibVorbis.dll so it can make OGG files for you. Microsofts Windows Media Audio V2 is also supported (which gets installed if you install Winamp). Finally and last SONY's ATRAC3 acm codec is supported and you can get that one from http://www.minidisc.org/atrac3.zip. Info on ATRAC3 can be found at http://www.minidisc.org.

External encoders

Xing technology has made a very fast MP3 encoder that works good as external codec in Audiograbber. You must have their registered version and use x3enc.exe as external encoder (x3enc.exe does currently not come with their trial version). It cost however only $19.95 to register (27 September 2000).
http://www.xingtech.com/products/mp3encoder/

GOGO MP3 encoder (freeware): This one is based on LAME's sourcecode and it has been optimized for speed. Homepage http://homepage1.nifty.com/herumi/gogo_e.html Download: http://homepage1.nifty.com/herumi/soft/gogo2/gogo235-win-con.zip

MP3Enc: Fraunhofers new standalone encoder, slow and expensive ($199!) but with good sound quality. http://www.opticom.de
. Download a demo version from http://www.sonicspot.com/mp3enc/mp3encdemo_3_1_win32.zip

Fraunhofers L3enc was previously used to create MP3's. It can no longer be downloaded from http://www.iis.fhg.de/audio but I keep the link here for nostalgic reasons.

Monkey's Audio (freeware). This is another interesting format that differs from the others in the way that it is lossless compression. Lossless means that a file can be encoded and decoded back without losing quality, just like the .zip format. MP3 is lossy compression which means that some data is lost during encoding and it can never be fully restored. Lossless will of course not compress as much as lossy but Monkey's Audio compress the file by around 50%. And with Monkey's Audio you will not have to worry/listen for artifacts in the song. There are simply no artifacts since what you hear is identical to the original wav file. You can encode and decode as much as you want without losing quality! http://www.monkeysaudio.com. (Set to Mac.exe as external encoder in Audiograbber).

FAAC (freeware). This encoder makes AAC (Advanced Audio Compression) files. http://faac.sourceforge.net.

MPG+. http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/user/73884/audiocoder_eng.html.

There has also been a general Encoder plugin released by Alexander von Gostomski. With his plugin you can use both AAC, VQF and a Real Audio encoder! The homepage has unfortunately vanished but the plugin can still be found here:

http://www.audiogalaxy.com/software/plugins/windows/jaep_plugins.zip

You can also check out http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net and see if there are any new encoders available.

iTunes is available from Apple for PC's

www.apple.com/itunes/download

windows media player will rip to your computer as mp3's.

I started using iTunes for all my MP3 conversions.  It's easy to set up so any music CD you put in the drive is automatically ripped into whatever bitrate MP3 you want and saved on your computer.

Easy as pie.

Tagged...

I don't have an MP3 player yet but my daughter who is 8 asked for one and I am starting to thing they would be great for all of us....  I am not up to speed on this but is it possible and ... well... acceptable for us to convert our CD collection to MP3s for personal use?

We may have 300 to 500 cds that my wife and daughter have collected and it would be nice to get them consolidated to a portable format that could be downloaded to a portable player for taking on trips, the gym, or bike rides but I am way behind in this technology to know what I am getting myslef into and I sure don't want to need to buy new MP3 versions of CDs we already purchased as much as I am sure the music industry would like us to...

FREERIP

Freerip works well. For the newcomer, be aware, the higher the compression the poorer sound reproduction. However for some players/listeners the difference will be negligible.

I use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) with LAME.

Quoted: Tagged... I don't have an MP3 player yet but my daughter who is 8 asked for one and I am starting to thing they would be great for all of us....  I am not up to speed on this but is it possible and ... well... acceptable for us to convert our CD collection to MP3s for personal use?

I don't have one either. My neice got one for Christmas. She is always looking to Uncle Q3131A for techie computer answers. I heard they had alot of trouble with it. So, I figured I was going to get asked to give the overview.

Quoted: windows media player will rip to your computer as mp3's.

+1

Simple and free.

+1 on Audiograbber.

I've used MusicMatch for years and it does OK by me. I've ripped my 2000+ family CD collection and put everything on a server for all to stream from. It works great and with 3 iPods in the house the music server makes it easy to update the song lists.

I use DBPowerAmp. Easy to use, plus it comes with a conversion program, so you can convert wav's to mp3's, and vice-versa.

Quoted: Tagged... I don't have an MP3 player yet but my daughter who is 8 asked for one and I am starting to thing they would be great for all of us....  I am not up to speed on this but is it possible and ... well... acceptable for us to convert our CD collection to MP3s for personal use? We may have 300 to 500 cds that my wife and daughter have collected and it would be nice to get them consolidated to a portable format that could be downloaded to a portable player for taking on trips, the gym, or bike rides but I am way behind in this technology to know what I am getting myslef into and I sure don't want to need to buy new MP3 versions of CDs we already purchased as much as I am sure the music industry would like us to...

Well of you are asking whether it is legal to rip your CDs to MP3 for your player, then of course it is.  You have purchased fair use of that product.

Ripping a CD to your computer is fair use.

If you are looking to store 300-500 CDs in one portable place, then I would recommend a 30+ GB storage device.  I have almost exactly 27.5GB on my iPod on 382 CDs.  I rip all my music to MP3 format at 192 kbps.  This is the most universal format but not the smallest.  Also, 192 kbps is good enough quality that for 99% of people they will never have sound equipment that can reveal compression artifacts.

I can also store MP3 files for use on ANY music player should I ever switch out my iPod or replace it with a different machine.  In other words, unless you have a compelling reason to, such as using Napster-to-Go or REALLY NEED THE COMPRESSION to make all the music fit, avoid AAC, WMA, OOG, ATRAC3... or other formats.  Stick with MP3 if at all possible.

You will maintain forward and backward compatibility and still have good sound from a relatively small file.  Storage is cheap, and so is buying up to the next larger size audio player.

BTW - I use Roxio 7 which came with my computer for ripping MP3s.  I have used iTunes before as well and it works fine.  iTunes does add complexity for me since I manage all my music manually.  I have used the Magix Mp3 Maker software as well, but I have gotten tired of the bugs, and it stopped letting me register with CDDB for some reason after 3 uninstall/reinstall routines.  Crappy tech support there also.

If you decide to get an iPod, then you will have to use iTunes and might as well just use their software if you don't already have something better.  Most other players also have their own software as well and some force you to use them.  It isn't just an Apple thing.

...I don't have an MP3 player yet but my daughter who is 8 asked for one and I am starting to thing they would be great for all of us.... I am not up to speed on this but is it possible and ... well... acceptable for us to convert our CD collection to MP3s for personal use?.....

-There are two types of MP3 players--solid-state ones which are smaller, cheaper ($30+) and more durable, and mini-hard-drive ones, which are larger-capacity, more expensive ($150+) and less durable. For a young child I'd say you're much better off trying the solid-state ones. In practical terms, the solid-state players' smaller song capacity isn't that big of a problem because you can load and unload songs on and off them pretty quick.

-You can buy solid-state 512Mb MP3 players online now for only like $50. Considering a song is 3-5 megs or so depending (on various factors), it'll hold 100-150 songs and it's not risking a lot of money for an 8-yr old to use/abuse it. $256Mb ones cost like $30 online. Walk-in retailers tend to charge a lot more for them than online retailers do.

-You can rip any CD you have to your PC, and convert it to MP3. Don't pay for any file download that you already own the CD of, it is just a waste of money. (I don't think you should pay for file downloads at all, but that's another matter). I rip CD's at 192Kb, which is higher than the 128Kb/sec "standard" rate, but I use my PC for my jukebox, I have no home-stereo system at all. With many of the CD's I own, I only stuck them into the computer one time to rip them, and then they get tossed in a box in the back of a closet.  
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