How To Rip a CD in High Quality Using iTunes

Carrying CD players around is no longer the fad these days. It is more convenient and practical to bring your MP3 player or iPod instead, which can store more than a hundred music files. No need to carry a CD case that contains several CDs that store only 12 songs each. So if you have a collection of CDs that you want to listen to while you are on the go, you can rip the music from the CDs and store it into your music player using iTunes. Here is a simple step by step procedure on how to do this.

* Launch the iTunes program on your computer. Make sure you have installed the iTunes application on your computer. Otherwise, you can find and download the free iTunes software from the Internet. Once you have opened the iTunes program, you can proceed to change its settings.
* Change the default settings to allow ripping. If you are using Windows operating system, click on the Edit button, then choose Preferences on the upper portion of the screen. For Macintosh users, click on the iTunes button and click on Preferences to open the settings menu. Here, you can select the settings you prefer. You can choose to make it automatic for iTunes to retrieve the list of tracks in your CD every time you insert one, and for it to launch the update pop up when updates for iTunes is available in the Internet. From this menu, click on the Import Settings button to launch another menu.
* Choose your preferred music file format. From the Import Settings menu, on the first line, you can see Import Using dropdown list. From this list, choose your preferred format – mp3, wav, aac or others. The most commonly used is mp3 because it is able to compress the file into a smaller one, while maintaining a good sound quality.
# Choose your preferred music quality. On the second line after the Import Using dropdown list, you can see Settings where you can choose the quality of music you prefer. A higher quality means a bigger file, while a lower quality compresses your music file further. A Good Quality (128 kbps) music file is already satisfactory, especially if you are not very particular with music details and you only listen to music with your ear phones. However, if you are going to play the music on a large scale sound system in a bigger area, like a ballroom or stage, then it is advisable to choose a higher music quality to preserve the small details of the music such as background chime sounds and a good quality bass sound.
# Rip music files from a CD. Once you have changed the settings, you are ready to rip music from your CDs with ease. Just insert a CD on the CD ROM, and wait for the iTunes to automatically launch. You can then select which tracks to rip off by clicking on specific files. Then choose the directory in which the music files will be saved. After that, you can enjoy listening to music directly from your iPod or MP3 player.