I first carried a CDex ten years ago when I needed an MP3 encoder so I could upload my music to MP3.com and other MP3 websites. I found CDex on a music sharing site that had many MP3 programs available. The site evaluated all the free and interactive software it listed, and CDex had a good rating: 3 stars out of 5. What I was looking for in an MP3 encoder was something free and fully functional (no demo), easy to use (as I was new to MP3 technology), small download (under a megabyte), and something that I actually worked on. CDex met all my requirements, so I downloaded, and continue to make MP3 files from many songs.
Well, ten years later I still use CDex, although now I use the latest version, which is version 1.51. CDex has come a long way since I tried the first version (version 1.10). It has added some new features, and now it is a complete MP3 encoder/decoder/CD ripper. This does it all! And yes, it’s still completely FREE! I also tried a number of free programs, but none worked as well or were as easy to use as CDex.
Here’s exactly what CDex can do…
Ripping a CD: If you don’t know how to rip a CD, track the tracks from the CD. The ripper actually encodes and mimics audio data and duplicates the tracks on your computer. Copy CD tracks to CD or WAV files, or to MP3 files. The old version of CDex didn’t include a ripping option, so I used a shared program for ripping a CD, which I’m pretty happy with (it’s called CDEx), which is actually faster than the CDex ripper. However, CDex also gives you the option of extracting only a portion of the CD track that could be available for creating MP3 tracks.
MP3 transcoding/decoding mode: This is what CDex does best – producing MP3 files. With CDex, you can either make these MP3 files directly from a CD, or from a WAV file. Since I mostly make MP3 files from my music, I always make my MP3s from WAV files, and CDex does an excellent job. The transcoding process is fast – one of the fastest communication programs I’ve tried – and produces good audio results. Basically, all you have to do is select a WAV file or CD track and enter the “convert to MPEG” command. In the settings, you have the option to convert the MP3 from 128 kbps to 256 kbps. Of course, 128 kbps is the standard for websites like MP3.com, and the higher the file size, the bigger the file. There is also a “normalise” option, which will increase the volume of your clothes to the maximum if something happens to the digital headroom.
The latest CDex version also includes an MP3 decoder – now you can convert an MP3 to a WAV file so you can burn it on a regular audio CD. It is a very handy feature. I often download MP3s from the web and need a good decoder so I can put them on a CD and play them in mono stereo. CDex does this well.
What is the final opinion: CDex is a great free software, which is easy enough even for newbies to use. As I said, I was myself when I first used CDex, but it was not difficult to figure out, and it did not confuse me as I tried to share some reasons. Very stable and bug free program — I’ve been using it for ten years and it’s never let me down. Now, with new features, it’s all in one package that’s still free, available from download lots of music shareware/ freeware websites or from the official CDEX website. Reportedly, the newer version is smaller than one megabyte.
If you need a good MP3 software program to do this, check out everything, CDex! I highly recommend!
Report:
- PAUL DIAMOND BLOW MUSICIAN RESOURCE: website for rock bands, rock music, and the people who love them: paulblow.tripod.com/pdb-resources.html
