What is an MP3 one would ask? The correct answer is a type of compression, MPEG 1 Layer 3, hence MP3, for audio. Today, MP3’s are wide spread through Peer-to-Peer (P2P) services like Napster, Kazaa, Gnutella servers, et al. Not all MP3’s are from P2P services, some may find MP3’s are easier than compact discs or even vinyl records, by converting them into MP3’s. In this tutorial, the author will show how to use Exact Audio Copy in combination with the the LAME compressor.

While Robert Richmond tackled video compression not too long ago, I had encountered quite a few problems with EAC, and put it away for a long time. When I had time to restart using EAC, I decided, it is an awesome piece of software if CDfreaks uses it to test burners and their capabilities to successfully copy music CD’s. When I had installed EAC, I encountered a problem in which EAC did not see any of the optical drives. The solution, install an ASPI layer; I use CompelASPI. As soon as that was installed, I was moving happily, EAC saw the devices. After the installation, I put it away thinking all was good, but after I had purchased some audio CD’s, I decided to convert them into MP3’s. When I installed the LAME encoder, I would see the following.