MP3 Encoding
 

Hi there!
Could someone out there suggest me a good program for encoding mp3's? Thanks!

Why not use ogg? It's smaller and has better sound quality than mp3 and it doesn't have those nasty licenses used in MP3-technology...

http://www.vorbis.com/

A nice program I use to rip and encode is "grip" which comes with at least Mandrake 8.2. It is only a frontend to the encoder and it supports both ogg and mp3's (with the appropriate encoders installed, ofcourse).

Lame is good to convert wav to mp3.

I would like to second grip, but if you aren't up for a gui (a VERY light gui at that) then I suggest simply 'oggenc filename.wav'

Yes, I too suggest ogg. To rip you would use something like cdda2wav and then use oggenc to encode, but grip does it nicely with fewer clicks, and an easy to use gui.

Cool

Thanks very much! I just wanted to ask one more question. Does Winamp support ogg? Thanks!

yes , winamp3 supports ogg out of the box, and realplayer will too...
also codecs for winamp (2) can be found on vorbis

Any one who knows if Microsoft Media Player does, or will, support ogg in the future?

Is there a test file somewhere I can try? I am on w2k right now, so I can let you know...

I would imagine it does support it now though.

Cool

<update>
I found one via a search on google, about 10 pages in. Getting the file now, will let you know in a few.
</update>

And a bad assumption it would have been! By default (most likely with no plugins) it appears unable to do it. I can't install anything on this computer, so I am guessing the tech junkies didn't put a plugin for it on here.

Cool

Okay, you're probably right. I guess Microsoft eventually will try to convert the whole world to WMA sooner or later so they don't want to advertise for ogg :)