Assume you have a whole mess of WAV files that you want to convert. First let's turn them into MP3s.

lame --preset insane *wav

This basically creates the mp3 at 320, which is, uh, insane, but it's the highest quality level. If its not 320, I don't want it. You may choose 192 or above; unless it's speech, I would NEVER use anything less than 192.

Now let's convert your WAVs to FLAC files.

shntool conv -o flac *.wav

If you're using a Debian-based system, you'll probably need to do this first:

sudo apt-get install shntool

Is that not easy or what?

(Check out all of our posts on conversions, WAV, MP3, & FLAC.)

What's new in Amarok 1.4? Oh baby! Amarok is the best - & I mean the best - music jukebox on Linux (too bad it doesn't run on Windows or Mac OS). It's already killer, but some new goodies are coming, like support for metadata in other file formats, support for scriptable lyrics, podcast support, statistics, & lots more. Can't wait!

(Check out all of our posts on Amarok.)

My buddy Rich emailed me today and asked me how to rip CDs to mp3 files so he can to them on his new Cowon music player. Yeah, I know he's a bit behind the times, but the important thing is that he's on the train now. So here's what I told him.

OK, download Quintessential Player:

http://www.quinnware.com/

It's not open source, but it's the best media player I know of for Windows, as it handles EVERYTHING - music, video, ripping, managing, etc. Also download these plugins:

http://www.quinnware.com/list_plugins.php?plugin=126
http://www.quinnware.com/list_plugins.php?plugin=42
http://www.quinnware.com/list_plugins.php?plugin=25 <-- THE MOST IMPORTANT

Install Quintessential Player and then the plugins. Now open Quintessential Player.

Right-click in the player & go to Preferences (or press ctrl p).

On the Settings tab, go to the Encoder section & choose Encode Format.

Make these changes:

Select Encoding Format: MP3 Audio
Encoder Method: Average Bitrate, and move the slider all the way to the right, so that it says ~320 (This will result in mp3s as close to the CD as possible, but they will be much bigger in file size. My attitude is "so what?". I'd rather have good sound, with the trade-off of larger files. If you want smaller files, or if you can't hear the difference, move the slider until it's at 192.)

Press Save & Close.

Now, insert a CD. It should show up in Quintessential Player automatically. It should also connect online & auto enter all the track names, etc.

Right-click on a track, & choose Encode All (or something like that). Choose mp3 with the LAME encoder.

A few minutes later (it's really fast), Quintessential Player will be done. By default, it places tunes in the My Documents\My Music folder.

Quintessential Player will also act as a media library for you, showing you all your music, etc.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you need more guidance.

Scott

(Check out all of our posts on music and mp3.)