How to Rip CD Tracks to MP3 files

Okay, so this is a post for the true digital music beginner. But when I sat down with my 10-year-old to transfer some of her favorite songs onto the SanDisk Sansa Shaker portable music player designed for 'tweens, I realized lots of kids (and their parents) are ripping CD songs to MP3 files for the first time at some point. There are several music formats and not all play on every portable music player. So there are times when you want to turn an AAC (Apple) or a WMA (Window) file into a universal MP3 or WAV file to play on different players.

There are a few ways to do it, but the most popular are through Apple's iTunes or Microsoft's Windows Media Player. We used Windows Media Player. Here's how:

1. Open Windows Media Player and make sure you have the most up-to-date version.

2. Go to the "Rip" tab. Click on the arrow and choose your format. We chose MP3. Then choose the bit rate; 128Kbps is often recommended, but I had to go to 192Kbps to have a successful rip. When you click on "more options," you'll see the format and bit choices here, too. You'll also see the path which sends your music files to your PC. The default is your My Music folder, but if you want the files to go somewhere else, click the change button and choose a new path. Here you can also click on "File Name" to make sure the information you want about each track is included in your music files.

3. Stay on the "Rip" tab and insert the CD. (In the previous step, you change settings to always or never automatically rip a CD when it is inserted. If you only want to rip a few tracks, only check those tracks.) The rip will begin automatically. Or if the settings are manual, click on the "Start Rip" button on the bottom ride hand of the screen.

4. Click on "Library" to see your tracks "ripped to library," and in the My Music folder on your PC to find them there.

In iTunes (on a PC):

1. Open iTunes. Go to "File," and click "Preferences." Under the "Advanced" tab, you'll see the path in which your music files will be stored on your PC. Again, the default is the My Music folder. Click the "Change" button if you want to change it.

2. On the second row of tabs, click "Importing." Here you'll be able to set whether you want to be asked to Import a CD or to automatically rip it. Go to "Import Using" and choose whether you want an AAC, MP3, or WAV setting. "Create file names with track number," "Automatically retrieve CD track names from Internet," and "Play songs while importing or converting" were checked on my page, but you can change those preferences or also check "Use error correction when reading Audio CDs" if you're working with an old or scratched CD. Click OK when your preferences are set.

3. Insert your CD.  The album track names and information should appear if you've checked the right boxes in the previous step. You can check only the tracks you want to import or all of them.

4. Click the Import button and import your CD tracks in the format of your choice.

For a more detailed guide, check out these instructions written by our own Ben Patterson for Cnet. The Windows Media Player and iTunes versions he detailed may be different, but the gist of his excellent advice is the same, and the screenshots are helpful.

Related:

Hands-on Review: SanDisk Sansa Shaker 

How to Play iTunes Songs on non-iPod Players 

The Awful Truth About Downloaded Music