How to convert real audio to MP3 easily and free

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akitapip

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Perhaps my experience might help others looking to have all those EWTN lecture series and/or all those archived Catholic Answers Live shows in MP3 format for listening on an MP3 or MP3-CD player in the house or car. I found a free conversion software program called Streambox Ripper (available for free download from many internet sites-- just do a search in Yahoo or Google). It converts different formats (from and to), including the real audio (ra) to MP3. The quality of sound is darn-near CD! It will do a batch conversion as well (so you can download all the shows and let your computer convert them overnight). I guess to convert all the Catholic Answers radio shows to MP3-- from 1998 to 2005-- might take 30 to 36 hours of continuous work by your computer.
 
By the way, according to an article by Fr. Peffley, listening to 6 hours of audio is equivalent to reading a 250-page book. So most of the EWTN series (13 lectures x 30 minutes) are equivalent to reading a full-length book on that subject.
 
Btw, since alot of people use dial-up I have a recommendation for you. Buy a small USB/jump drive (now you can get MP3 players which can double as USB/jump drives) and go to an internet cafe or community college or friend with a high-speed connection where you can download the real audio programs and the Streambox Ripper software onto the USB/jump drive and then later load them onto your computer so you convert them, burn them out on a CD, load them onto an MP3 player, or whatever.
 
Hey I will check that out, I have wanted Catholic Answers in MP3 forever and have just the ones they put out recently in MP3 format.
Thanks a lot
Scylla
 
Another grrod program is nch.com.au/switch/which is freeware and can be used for conversion. This one also converts .dss files from Olympus voice recorders.

Many of these files have already been converted and are posted at www.catholicaudio.us

If you want to do any audio editing a great program is audacity.sourceforge.net/ although to save as MP3 you need to do a couple of extra setup steps to incorporate the LAME program which is an MP3 encoder.
 
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scylla:
Hey I will check that out, I have wanted Catholic Answers in MP3 forever and have just the ones they put out recently in MP3 format.
Thanks a lot
Scylla
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Imagine how much you’d learn by being able to listen to all the past apologetics CA Live shows and the EWTN lecture series! Recently I was able to buy a brand new Sylvania CD/MP3-CD/AM/FM small boombox-size radio for $12 at a local discount outlet (Value City). Now I need to find an extra dozen hours in the day and I’m set!

Btw, I am so bummed that the Robert Sungenis lecture series has been pulled from EWTN (and the catholicaudio.us site is no longer working). THAT was probably the best apologetics program available.
 
I just tried that Catholic audio site, it worked for about a minute then quit, I tried it yesterday and it didn’t work at all. I guess I will try later.

Now I am going to fill up my head with all this great Catholic radio!

God Bless
Scylla
 
Thanks for the tip, I downloaded the converter.

Actually because of this thread, I got up off my sloth and finally downloaded one of the CA MP3’s of interest (the one where Jimmy Ray talks about the pictures in the OT that lead to the NT), burned it on a CD, and happily listened to it in my car on the way to work! It was outstanding!

Thanks
 
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awalt:
Thanks for the tip, I downloaded the converter.

Actually because of this thread, I got up off my sloth and finally downloaded one of the CA MP3’s of interest (the one where Jimmy Ray talks about the pictures in the OT that lead to the NT), burned it on a CD, and happily listened to it in my car on the way to work! It was outstanding!

Thanks
Click to expand...
I convert the CA and EWTN programs from Real Audio to 48 kbps MP3. The quality is better than FM radio, IMO, and I can fit about 35 hours (or 36 x 55 minute programs) onto each CD-R (I have a portable CD/CD-MP3 player with a cassette adapter and cigarette lighter plug adapter).
 
grrod program is nch.com.au/switch/which is freeware and can be used for conversion
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It seems you need real player to be able to convert these files. Can you get it free off any sites???

also that streambox ripper does not seem to work in any iste I go to? does anyone know an exact link where you can download it to convert these files.
 
I don’t think you need Real player to convert these RA files to MP3.

As for Streambox Ripper, I think you can get it here:
streamboxripper.cjb.net/

Just click on the download on the upper left corner.
 
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