14 DAY TRIAL // There are two major reasons for using a ?CD to MP3"-type software: one of them is backup, when you have paid some more than a couple of dollars on your fav singer's album and you'd like to both listen to it every day and everywhere and think of two things; first, the CD will become unusable much sooner, due to its own nature and second, you would rather carry around your small and lightweight portable MP3-player rather than a Discman which - by the way - besides confronting with the first issue, would be a lot less comfortable than the pen-type player you'd carry around your neck. The second reason is ripping for other (sometimes less orthodox) reasons which also exclude both the usage of CDA tracks, carrying a compact disc around and all sorts of similar activities.
Therefore, for whatever purpose you would consider porting your audio CD contents onto the digital format, you will definitely need a software to do this, especially one that works well, fast and if possible - it's free. Needless for me to say that the more formats this software can handle or export to - the better and obviously, the merrier the user. And since MP3 is one of the most used file formats around, most of the ripping software will rip audio CDs to MP3.
The Looks
Free CD to MP3 Converter is one simple-looking piece of code and I must say I appreciated this. Not having too many colors and not being crowded with futile graphic elements can sometimes make the difference between softwares that people like or dislike, as case may be.
Free CD to MP3 Converter looks almost dull, it's true, but this does not affect functionality and this is one good thing. Maybe its icons could have been designed with happier thoughts as - at least for them - brighter and stronger colors could have been used and thus, they could have also become more readable or easier to spot.
Menus and the rest of the tools present in Free CD to MP3 Converter are also rather minimalist in their design and may not appeal the eye-candy lovers that much; yet I must note the clarity of what they state: it is quite hard to get lost in those menus or do a bad thing, unless you severely lack attention. Basically, all the menus and indications are so easy to understand and they will quickly guide you towards obtaining the desired results.
The Options menu is the richest one, having 6 tabs, 3 of which correspond to the Lame MP3 codec, OGG and WMA settings, while the rest regulate the output location, ID3 tagging and CD-ROM selection. Usually values in these tabs are selectable by means of dropdown menus, thus making the general operation much easier.
The Recorder is the place where the minimalist graphic design is felt the most; in my opinion, it is here where a bit of color and some more attentive button-design could have made a very pleasant interface. The actual one does not look bad at all, but is rather not visible than attractive, as similar elements are throughout the world of nice-looking programs.
The Works
Not much can be said when it comes to the workings of this little program as it is simple in everything it relates to, be that ripping or recording or switching between file formats. Technically, all you have to do is insert an audio CD in your drive and then push the Query Freedb button. Once you have obtained the data from the web, you select which tracks you want to be written down on your HDD and press Extract, then grab you coffee and wait or simply do what you like. I was really fond of the decent processing-speed the Free CD to MP3 Converter is capable of, even at high-compression rates - it will not make you wait for a very long time, don't worry.
Besides ripping the content of your discs, the Free CD to MP3 Converter can also help you "move in between" some file formats, such as WMA, OGG and obviously MP3. This means that you can easily turn an existing WAV file on your PC in one of the three formats above. There is no batch-mode for this kind of operation, so I guess little does Free CD to MP3 Converter help when large amounts of files need processing. Remember that this is not a professional software, though...
The recording module will let you (obviously) record a WAV file from a source on your PC and subsequently process it to another format; it is not such a great tool as I found it rather inconvenient and difficult to use, being overall much like the Windows' sound recorder and nothing more.
The Free CD to MP3 Converter can interact with Windows' volume controls, I really don't know why, except for setting up the levels for eventual recordings, but I presume that these particular levels are already set up prior to this operation. Another rather strange menu offers the possibility to clear the Real Player and Windows Media Player history, even if they have nothing in common with this application. Besides the internet databases I have been telling you about, the Free CD to MP3 Converter can also edit tags for each of the files you are working with and sport very handy shortcuts for the most common tasks it carries out.
The Good
It's nice to see a good application at work, especially since it is freeware and does its job pretty well and fast. Nothing that really amazed me in Free CD to MP3 Converter; I'd rather note the smooth working manner and the ease of use.
The Bad
I really did not like the recorder at all and little use have I found for it. As a recommendation, some more daring graphic design would not hurt anyone...
The Truth
You can really get to use this application as it is free and it works smoothly. I wouldn't exactly use it for heavy-duties, but for the daily conversion needs it can easily be one of the best solutions.
Take a look at the screenshots before you decide to download it:
