dbpoweramp help (or any other way to convert CD tracks to mp3)

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So I downloaded dbPowerAmp a while back, and it was so ace and user-friendly that I even I could understand it, and it was generally an all-round excellent thing.

Until the other day, when it just stopped working - apparently some sort of free licence has expired, or something? And then it says that the CODEC required to compress the files is not available. What the hell is a CODEC? I've tried downloading the program again but that solves nothing. How do I get it to work again?

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 4 April 2005 09:04 (twenty years ago)

The codec is the file which does all the techy algorithim (certainly spelt wrong) bits to make a fat old .wav file into something tolerable to the ear (hopefully) at a tenth of the size (mp3/ogg etc).

My sincere advice as a stick-in-the-mud/happy-user-of-said-program would be to f*** this dbPowerArse nonsense and use EAC (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) probably the best, most secure (i.e. error free) CD ripper going on Windows, which also comes with a codec called LAME which is pretty much the 'industry' standard amongst audio geeks for mp3 format.

_Don't_ knock it until you've tried it. It really does make very, very good sounding mp3's. It's usually very easy to hear when it hasn't been used.

It looks very intimidating at first but it's really solid when you have it up and running. I managed to teach a kid who had never used it before the basics over IRC once.

― dbPowerArse nonsense, Monday, 4 April 2005 09:21 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and it is also free.

There have been problems re: licensing of mp3 codecs in the past (I'll spare you the tedious legal history of) I'm not sure if it's something to do with that why you're license ran out, or the program itself.

― dbPowerArse nonsense, Monday, 4 April 2005 09:25 (twenty years ago)

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central.htm

Can't find what you need here?

Sorry, I've never had a problem with the program so I'm not about to leap to another one without a good reason.

― The Silent Disco (Bimble...), Monday, 4 April 2005 09:40 (twenty years ago)

I've downloaded EAC, but it's the most confusing program in the world! I've stared at it for ages now and couldn't even begin to guess how to change a CD track into an mp3.

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 4 April 2005 09:41 (twenty years ago)

xpost: I have no idea which of those codecs to download, that page hurts my head. I had to download LAME again for EAC to work, but dbpoweramp still doesn't work.

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 4 April 2005 09:43 (twenty years ago)

I tend to use CDex, Lex. As tweakable as EAC on the encoding side of things (and it uses the LAME engine), its 'Paranoia' ripping mode is probably as reliable as EAC and it's a hell of a lot easier to set up.

Look here: http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 4 April 2005 09:51 (twenty years ago)

EAC is a godlike program

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Monday, 4 April 2005 09:53 (twenty years ago)

hmm, I appear to have somehow got EAC to work. it's not as pretty as dbPowerAmp though, if it is possible I would still like to get that back! thank-you one and all for the help.

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 4 April 2005 10:37 (twenty years ago)

Try the EAC guide here (patience required, but results are good):

http://www.chrismyden.com/nuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=Elite_DAE&file=painless

― 666 (Robust Cookies), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

I just downloaded dBpowerAMP v10. The newer v11, advertised on the site and at CNET as totally free, is not freeware as advertised, it is trialware. After 30 days the license expires and poof no more conversion. Beyond poor, that is really evil.

Notwithstanding that, v10 is said to be very good, uses LAME, and has codecs for just about everything. v10 IS still available from their site at: dbpoweramp.com/bin/dMC-r10.exe. We'll see how it goes.

― Hunter (Hunter), Saturday, 16 April 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

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