MP3Producer

With the myriad of programs out there for ripping CDs and creating MP3s, you have to work hard to stand out from the crowd. I wish I could say that MP3Producer did, but at best it's a faceless man-in-the- middle product.

Not that MP3Producer doesn't rip CDs to MP3, OGG, WMA or wave, or transcode between those formats as stated. It does all of that quite well, as a matter of fact. However, there are free programs that work just as well and MP3Producer forcing you to switch between CD to OGG, CD to WMA, WAV to OGG, etc. modes to deal with various file types became tiresome in a hurry. Most programs let you add files en masse without regard to file type. If they don't support them, they just don't load them.

If MP3Producer were being given away, I'd probably give it a marginal nod, but with free programs such as BonkEnc, Windows Media Player, and others around I just can't see forking over $25 for any ripping program, let alone one with a cumbersome interface.

--Jon L. Jacobi