This section of the FAQ answers questions about making MP3s.

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I want to give something back to this group. How do I make an MP3?

First of all, don't feel obliged or obligated. If you don't know how to make MP3s or if you don't really have something new or different to post, you really have no obligation to upload.

That said, making MP3s from scratch involves a couple of steps. The first is acquiring the sound file (ripping) and the second is encoding the file into MP3 format. Most good software makes this look like one step.

How do I get the music onto my computer hard drive?

The preferred method of making MP3s is to do it from a digital source (CD) and capture it digitally (Digital Audio Extraction: DAE). This process is also known as "ripping". All modern CDROMs support DAE. If yours does not, you need a new one. They are dirt cheap.

NOTE: Unless you specifically state otherwise, those who download your MP3 will automatically assume that it was digitally extracted from a CD. If your music source is a tape or vinyl record or something OTHER than a CD, or your capture process includes the use of a sound card or other non-digital methods, you really should inform people in your Subject line, in the zero-file or in an .nfo  along with your binary post. If you do not do this, people will definitely let you know that you should have.

How do I determine if my drive and system support digital audio extraction (DAE)?

Most CD ripping/encoding packages will tell you if you have a problem.

If you are experiencing problems you might also try downloading a utility called aspichk.exe and ASPI drivers from Adaptec. This is not normally a big problem with modern equipment and operating systems, but it doesn't hurt to check.

What do I use to rip and encode audio tracks?

There are many different software choices, and each has its pros and cons as well as its fans and detractors. Current rippers of choice are EAC, CDex, dbPowerAmp, Audiograbber and some others. Regardless of the program you use, current opinion has it that LAME is the best encoder to use. It has been optimized for quality over any other considerations. Your own preference may differ, just make sure you are listening carefully and using decent equipment to play your files back before making any judgments.

Many programs rip and encode in the background making it seem as if the MP3 was being encoded in one step but it is always being done as CD > wave > MP3 behind the scenes. Using EAC or CDex, for instance, it is simple to select "Extract to compressed file" and have it all done at one time. Some folks prefer to extract the wave files and then use a front end (such as RazorLame) or a command line encoder to turn all those wave files into high quality MP3s at a time when they are not using the computer for anything else. But most of the rest of the world is in more of a hurry.

Find links to download these and other rippers/encoders in the Utilities section.

I've ripped the audio track but the sound file is messed up. It seems jittery and has pops or skips. Why?

It could be a number of things. Check your CD. You need a good clean source to start with. If the CD is in good shape, it may be jitter or it may be caused by trying to rip faster than your system is really be capable of, or it may be a software incompatibility. Try slowing the process down if you can. Try a different piece of software if you continue to have problems. Read the Help file and see if your software specifically addresses things like jitter and offset (EAC, for instance, does). Spending some time reading the help file can solve a world of difficulties. Avoid disk-intensive operations while ripping in the background If you aren't getting good wav rips though, you will never get good MP3s out of them. Keep trying until you find the problem and resolve it.

Some good helpful information and detailed explanations are found in the sample chapters of The MP3 and Internet Audio Handbook found here: http://www.mp3handbook.com/.

I like more bass. Should I adjust the equalization (EQ) while making an MP3 to upload?

Please don't. People generally want to hear an MP3 that is as faithful to the original CD as possible. Even though you may feel that something helpful (like normalizing the songs) will make them better, that decision should be left to the final recipient. If they want to tweak their MP3s, they can do it themselves. If you have tweaked or adjusted the song before you encoded it, please make that information known when you post it. And if you are not going to upload it, do whatever you want!

I've heard that not all encoders/codecs give equal quality results. Which encoder/codec is best?

While there is no way to arrive at an absolute answer to "which is the best" the contributors the absm.* groups at this time mostly use LAME. In the end, all you can do is either trust your ears or go along with the consensus.

Use your ears and do some testing. A good set of headphones can give you information that a set of computer speakers won't. And if you don't have the time for that, then ask around in absm.d and see what the current consensus appears to be, but always listen to your MP3s before uploading them.

I don't have a lot of time or patience for testing, which codec do you recommend?

LAME.

What settings do I use?

Use the lowest bitrate that gives you a faithful reproduction of the original. That saves news server space, as well as upload and download time. Constant Bitrate (CBR) and Variable Bitrate (VBR) are a matter of taste, but you can find lively discussions favoring one over the other. The use of the presets such as preset-standard or preset-extreme will give you excellent quality files with no need to worry any further about parameters. The presets have been tuned at a code level in LAME and will arguably produce results far better than many (or most) of the different parameter combinations you run across. Like anything else, though, nobody but your own ears and your own taste can tell you what is best for you.

One note: If you really think the highest bitrates (224 or 320Kbps or preset-insane) sound that much better and are worth the extra file size then perhaps you should consider checking into lossless encoding where the resulting files (.ape, .shn, .wvc, .flac and others) are larger than MP3s but there is no loss in quality from the source file. These files are shared in the alt.binaries.lossless groups, not in the absm.* groups.

Should mono material get encoded at the same bitrate as stereo material?

No. Mono originals only require half the bitrate of a stereo recording to get the same quality. If you encode your Stereo MP3s at 192kbps, then the comparable mono file would only need 96kbps. If the original recording was in mono, there is no reason to use stereo encoding which will only produce two identical channels using twice the space.

For material with little high frequency content and waves with a 22050 sample rate, 64k is recommended. Some spoken word material with no special background effects can be recorded at a low bitrate without suffering loss of quality. Experiment with Joint Stereo, Mono, and VBR to get a good encode with a small resulting file size. A useful rule of thumb: do not waste server space or force long download times by recording at too high a bitrate if the source material does not need it. On the other hand, do not allow quality to suffer by worrying only about file size, either.

I have some tapes that I want to post as MP3s. How can I do that?

MP3s originating from cassettes are very problematic. If you have some cassettes that have something that doesn't seem available anywhere else then there are some good tutorials on line that detail the pitfalls and solutions for doing this. One is on this site in the tips section, here. Many more can be found with some Google searching. Try putting <cassette to MP3> in a Google search box and prepare yourself to sift through about 1.5 million hits.

Most important, if you choose to go this route and post your results, please make the source of your MP3s clear when you post. Quality will be dramatically lower than ripping from CD.

I'm making some MP3s from a vinyl source. Is there any easy way to make my files sound better?

Easy? No. When making MP3s from vinyl sources much time and effort are usually required to get the best sounding MP3 possible. There are some posters who do a fantastic job at making MP3s from vinyl sources, and they take their time and make sure they're done right before posting their files.

Again it is important that if you decide to share files from a vinyl source they should be clearly labeled as such.

For more tips look on the utilities page under "vinyl to mp3". See also the tips section .

I've made my MP3s, they sound great, and it's time to upload. Is there a naming standard? What information should I include in the name?

There is no universally accepted naming standard. It depends completely on how you have your files organized and what you want to put in the file name.

What does matter here is that, however you choose to name the files, you make sure that when you post them the artist-album-track#-track name all appear, but appear only once, in your post headers. If they are in the file name then they don't need to be repeated again in the header. If any of the artist-album-track#-track name information is not in your filename then it should be added to the post header.

If you have the correct information in the ID3 tags and you post the correct information in the post header then it makes no difference from the point of view of sharing how you choose to name your files. There are a large number of file renaming utilities available. Also, most ID3 Tagging programs will rename files based on any number of criteria. Your ripper/encoder will usually be able to name your files automatically. There are a number of renaming programs linked on the Utilities Page.

What are MP3 ID3 tags? Should I bother with them?

Absolutely. If you are ripping your own CDs then most ripper/encoders will add the information to the tags for you and will even look up the information from CDDB or freedb so you don't have to type in a thing. Check the settings and/or help files if you aren't sure how the software you are using does this.

If you are adding ID3 tags to files you downloaded that don't already have them or have wrong or incomplete tags, there are a number of tagging applications, many of them will do freedb look-ups of whole albums and fill in a lot of the fields, most will allow you to fill in a whole CD full of Artist or Album or other repetitive field with one entry. Check the Utilities Page for links to some.

You do have two choices, ID3V1 and ID3V2*. Either one is good as long as the information in them is complete and correct. For more information about both you can look here: http://www.id3lib.org/id3/intro.html.

I've IDed all of my MP3s, and I'm ready to post. Is there anything else I should know?

Yes, a couple of things. First of all, please listen to your files. Are there any skips or pops in them? Do they cut off before the song is over? Do they sound as good as you would like them to?

And see the "Posting MP3 files" section of this FAQ.