How to create MP3 from audio CD: He just bought your favorite artist’s latest album. What a style! And what music! But now you would like to convert it to MP3 and copy it both to your PC’s music library and to your smartphone. It’s possible? Let me think a little … but of course yes! The answer this time was really obvious!
If you want create MP3 from audio CD, all you have to do is insert your nice disk in the computer and give it “in the meal” to one of the many software that allow you to “rip” music CDs. If you don’t know, the term “rip” indicates the procedure by which you extract a multimedia content from a diskette and convert it into a compressed file format (in this case the MP3) so that you can easily archive it on your computer or other devices.
Although at first glance it may seem like an operation intended only for experts, in reality the ripping of music CDs is within everyone’s reach. Indeed, it is so simple to perform that often there is no need to even download new programs to your PC: just rely on the tools included “standard” in Windows and macOS. Do not you believe it? Then take five minutes of free time and try it for yourself following the directions I’m about to give you.
How to create MP3 from audio CD on Windows
Let’s start with good news immediately: if you have a Windows PC, you can create MP3 from audio CD without installing any application. All you need is Windows Media Player: the media player included “as standard” in all versions of the Microsoft operating system (except those “N”, which are however not very common).
To “rip” an audio CD with Windows Media Player, all you have to do is start the program and select the icon diskette from the left sidebar. Then you have to click on the button Copy settings from CD located at the top right and you have to select the file format you want to use for the output files: to set the MP3 format to the highest possible quality, select the item MP3 from the menu Format and the voice 320kbps (optimal quality) from the menu Audio quality.
Now you just have to put the check mark next to the titles of the tracks you want to transform into MP3, click on the button Copy from CD (located at the top) and wait for the conversion procedure to be completed. The tracks extracted from the CD are saved in the folder Music Windows (inside a subfolder titled as the source album).
How to create MP3 from audio CD on Mac
Do you use a Mac? Then I advise you to “rip” your audio CDs with iTunes. Yes, you read that right! iTunes! Apple’s historical multimedia software – perhaps not everyone knows it – includes a very useful function that allows you to transform the audio tracks of music CDs into compressed files in MP3, AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless format or in WAV (uncompressed) format.
To set the output format on MP3, open iTunes, go to the menu iTunes> Preferences located at the top left and click on the button Import settings located at the bottom right. Then set the voice MP3 encoder in the dropdown menu Import using and choose the quality in which to “rip” the tracks of your CDs by selecting one of the available options in the drop-down menu Settings: I advise you to select the item Customize and to set the stereo bit rate up 320kbps in order to obtain MP3s in the highest possible quality.
Once you have adjusted the settings relating to the output files, insert the audio CD you want to “rip” into your Mac. ITunes should automatically detect the diskette and offer you the import of the songs on your computer: at that point, you just have to click on the button Yup and wait for the “ripping” procedure to be completed by the program. MP3 files will be saved in the iTunes library folder (which by default is / Users / yourname / Music / iTunes / iTunes Media / Music /).
If iTunes does not automatically detect the CD, you can start converting the tracks on it by clicking on the icon diskette at the top left, putting the check mark next to the titles of the songs to be “ripped” and pressing the button Import CD located at the top right.
Note: iTunes, as you certainly know, is also available for Windows. If you use a Windows PC and you have already installed it on your computer, you can use it by following the instructions I have just given you (the procedure to follow is the same as on Mac). However, if you have not yet installed the program on your PC, I do not recommend it, it is better to rely on Windows Media Player.
How to create MP3 from audio CD on Linux
Linux also offers several solutions to “rip” audio CDs and turn them into MP3 files. For example, if you use a distro like Ubuntu, you can rely on free software Soud Juicer that extremely quick and easy to use.
To install Sound Juicer on your PC, open theUbuntu Software Center, search for Sound Juicer in the search bar and click on the button Install placed in front of the application name. To complete the operation you will have to type the Ubuntu administration password.
When the operation is complete, you need to install the MP3 codec necessary to convert the audio CDs. Then open System settings (the gear icon located in the left sidebar), click on the icon Software and updates and put the check mark next to the items Community maintained, free and open source software (universe) is Software with copyright or legal restrictions (multiverse) in the card Ubuntu software.
Next, open the Terminal, give the command sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras and press S to start the installation of the MP3 codec for Ubuntu. When asked to accept the terms of use of the software, select the item OK in the Terminal.
Well: now you can take action! Then start Sound Juicer through its icon appeared in the Ubuntu sidebar and went to the menu Sound Juicer> Preferences located at the top left.
In the window that opens, make sure that in the drop-down menu CD drive your computer’s CD / DVD drive is correctly selected, set the option MPEG Audio Layer 3 in the dropdown menu Output format and select the folder in which to save the songs after the conversion.
Once you have configured all the conversion parameters, go back to the main window of Sound Juicer by clicking on the button Close, put the check mark next to the titles of the songs you intend to “rip” and press on the button Extract to start converting them to MP3.
If Sound Juicer cannot load the tracks on the disk and therefore does not allow you to select them, try selecting the item Disc> Re-read from the menu located at the top left.
If you want to change the composition of the file names obtained with Sound Juicer, go to the menu Preferences program and select one of the available items in the menu Filename.