An mp3 ripping yarn

[Robin Laing]

Michael A. Peters wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-12-29 at 19:39 +0000, David Fletcher wrote:
> 
> 
>>I tried doing the same on his computer which is running FC4(replacing 
>>[freshrpms-fc-3] with [freshrpms-fc-4]). Everything seems to install OK but 
>>there is no mp3 option to select in the version 2.10.1 sound juicer on FC4.
> 
> 
> Hmm... - I don't have an mp3 rip option in FC4 sound juicer either
> (using the rpm.livna.org mp3 plugins) - sounds like a bug in
> sound-juicer.
> 
> My honest suggestion though is to rip to flac and then transcode to mp3.
> That's what I do, though I do it all cli.
> 
> Ripping to flac means you never have to re-rip again if you want a
> different bitrate (or a different encoding). Uses a lot of disk space
> though.
> 
> I don't know if a gui front end exists for transcoding (that preserves
> tags).
> 
> Another suggestion is a KDE app - amarok
> 
> I prefer gnome myself, and I like to keep my gui consistent, but there
> is just nothing that even comes close to amarok that is gnome/gtk2+
> 
> amarok is in Extras.
> I believe it not only will rip to mp3 just fine (provided the gstreamer
> mp3 plugins are installed) but will also sync with the iPod as well.
> 
> 
> 

I use "grip"(extras) to rip CD's to flac format.  This is easy and I 
did about 50 over the weekend.  I use flac as it is lossless and 
provides a method to recreate any CD that the kids may want for their 
players.

Then when there is a song that I want to put on my portable player 
(supports mp3/wma/ogg) I use "sound converter"(extras?) to convert the 
files that I want converted into a mirror of my player.  I then use 
"Unison"(dries) to update the player, which mounts as a usb device to 
my preferred list.

All of this is done in gnome.  I needed something easy for my wife to use.

With the correct plugins, grip can rip to mp3 from a drop-down menu.