Program to "grab" MP3s from Online Radio stations?

http://www.ratajik.com/stationripper/

 

Man, I wouldn't want songs from the radio. The way stations process and overly compress music makes it sound like complete and total garbage. It's worse than a regular MP3 and MP3's aren't great.

 

Yeah, but streaming MP3's are lower quality than the files themselves. That's a big part of the problem. In order to make them stream, you have to compress the data stream which chops off portions of the audio.

 

Actually, the shoutcast songs don't go through any extra compression when they are streamed. If you connect to a shoutcast channel that's delivering audio that was recorded at 128k, you'll receive a 128k audio file. It's just like a download.

Now, two words of caution: not all shoutcast streams are 128k - many are 56 or less and have lesser quality. Also, if you try to record a 128k stream using a slow connection, the song will pause and buffer, messing up your recording.

-- droxford

 

I have had problems with Stationripper in that it starts recording too late. Sometimes it will finish a song too soon. The best Internet radio ripper I’ve seen (or heard) is Jetaudio. You can find it at http://www.jetaudio.com . They also have a link at Zdnet.com. The only problem is that jet audio is $29.00.