Yeah.

I really don't like ripping to anything but a plain, uncompressed WAV file, then using Lame later (after edits, et cetra) to convert to mp3. There is a difference, particularly when it is considered that your ripper is doing twice (or more work, encodig as wel as ripping, increasing the chances for a dropout or other anomaly.

Also, I encode to mp3 "wide open," meaning using a 320kHz bandwidth and quality switch 0. The command line is: lame -b 320 -q 0 -m s -p xxx.wav xxx.mp3. The -p option is optional depending on if you want CRC checking. (Yes, Lame is a commmand-line tool, but will run in CMD.EXE in XP just fine. I use 4dos on my 98 box.)

I know all this must sound like Greek to a noob, but in six months with diligent effort, you'll understand it, and perhaps even why I make these recommmedations, and perhaps even dispute them :-).

ID3 Tags are areas of the mp3 file where extra (texutal) information is stored such as Artist, Album, Year, Song Name, Comments, et cetra. It is recommended to stick with ID3v1.1, rather than ver 2.

have fun.