Windows Media Player replacement

[#1]

Fair enough, I've got the Gold version, perhaps that's why I went for that but I can't remember as it was a few years ago now and I try not to use MP3 if possible..

I do remember using (probably) the free version several years ago as a means to avoid iTunes when transferring some music for someone onto their iPod.

[#2]

Why do you avoid MP3? Seems to work OK for me.

The current version (and quite a few earlier releases) is a minefield and not fit for purpose, according to a friend of mine who used to use it for conversion, but they reverted to WMP. Can't really ask her now, as she has converted all her collection and I quote 'I've more music now than I'll ever listen to'.

[#3]

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@jab1 wrote:

Why do you avoid MP3? Seems to work OK for me.

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I just prefer to listen to lossless formats (mainly FLAC) as opposed to lossy ones like MP3, as discussed a few months ago in this thread.  

Another absolutely free program you might like to try is foobar2000.

I mainly use it as a player but it has some powerful features and I'm pretty sure it will do everything you need once you get your head around it, although I think some of the additional features need plug-ins to be downloaded (again, free).

There's plenty of information on how to use it's features if you search Google and YouTube, e.g. this one on how to rip CDs to MP3

[#4]

Understand your first point, @RobPN , but MP3 is good enough for me when out and about. I do still have some physical CDs I prefer to listen to direct (mainly classical stuff).

I have downloaded the installer for Foobar, and it is another one to try, but I just need something simple to let me rip &c with minimum input from me that does the job.

[#5]

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@jab1 wrote:

... but I just need something simple to let me rip &c with minimum input from me that does the job.

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See the linked video in my post above.  

[#6]

@RobPN Just watched the video - much more informative than reading text 😄

Another definite possibility. 👍

[#7]

May be worth a look at....

https://www.any-video-converter.com/

If you want to "cut" individual tracks" so they are all "singles" then you will probably need to use...

https://www.fosshub.com/Avidemux.html

If you want the tracks to show the artiste name... genre... etc....  you can use

https://downloads.tomsguide.com/Easytag,0301-22754.html

And for playing just about any type of music file.....  try

https://filehippo.com/download_gom_player/

Or, if you are Linux... use  "SM Player" from the software manager...

[#8]

Thanks for your info, @shutter .

Never thought of AVC for music ripping, although I know someone who used it for videos and was well satisfied.

No need for individual tracks - I play CDs all the way through.

I'm trying to get something that will rip and name album/track titles all in one go, so maybe this isn't for me - but thanks again for the suggestion.

I did use GOMplayer a while back, but don't download music/videos these days - I use either physical discs in the CD player, or the MP3 tracks stored on the iPad.

[#9]

Cdex

[#10]

@zpeterk I've looked at that and added the site link to my 'Music Rip' folder - if I have no success with, or don't like other options, I'll try it.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[#11]

@shutter - Any half decent ripper will create individual tracks from the source, naming and indexing them accordingly for example this was done using dBpoweramp.

Track Listing

[#12]

Strangely enough, quite a lot of those tracks share their titles with Sci-Fi stories. 😀

[#13]

@VileReynard - Indeed they do, most of their albums released were concept based. I started to listen to them after he sound engineered Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon', you can hear Floydian influences in a lot of his work.

[#14]

@jab1 If you use Windows then EAC will rip a CD and add track names from freedb.org or other sources. Looking at http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/support/faq/ EAC could also do the mp3 conversion.

Dave

[#15]

@jab1 

ps Or once you have ripped the CD to, say, flac, you could use foobar to convert the tracks to mp3