There are many ways to convert your music and audio files into MP3's. We recommend CDex, an excellent example of open source programming which is free to download and use.

You can download CDex from http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdexos/. For information on how to use CDex, see instructions below. There are other MP3 encoders that you can use, such as Musicmatch and Audiograbber, but this tutorial will explain how to use CDex, which works only on Windows machines. Mac users will likely wish to use iTunes to rip music files to MP3.

You will be asked to choose the nearest site (a "mirror") from which to download. Click the "Download" icon of the location nearest you. When the download begins, you will be asked whether you want to open or save the file. Choose "Open" and the installation program will start after it has completely downloaded. Follow the installation instructions to complete.

If you do not have a CD burner installed on your system, you may be required to install Adaptec's ASPI drivers so you can extract music track data from your CD's. Go here and follow the installation instructions on that page.

Before you start encoding (converting) your music and audio files into MP3's, you should create an MP3 folder to store them in. Creating a new folder on your C drive is the easiest way to access your MP3's when broadcasting.

To make a new folder for your MP3's:

• Open My Computer.
• Double click on your C drive.
• Right click on an open area in the window and choose New->Folder. Name the New Folder to "Live365 Tracks".

Start CDex by clicking on the icon on your Desktop or in Start Menu->Programs-> CDex-> CDex.

Windows 2000/XP users only: the first time you run CDex you may see the following message:

Click "Yes".

The following window will appear:

If this is your first time to run CDex, you'll need to set some default options.

Click options->Settings.

Click the "Encoder" tab. Set the options to look like the illustration below.

The one important decision to make here is the bitrate to use when creating your MP3's for permanent storage. The higher the bitrate, the better the quality of the resulting MP3. This also translates into larger file sizes and increased disk space usage. The following chart illustrates the approximate amount of space used at each bitrate for each minute of music converted:

Bitrate (kbs)	Megabytes (per Minute)
320	2.50
256	2.00
224	1.75
192	1.50
160	1.25
128	1.00

To achieve the best results when using Live365's broadcasting tools (Live365 Loader, Studio365 and Studio Live), we recommend that use the highest bitrate available (320kbs). Do NOT encode your MP3's at LESS than 128kbs. For more information about MP3 encoding, go here.

(Please note that although you'll rip files at 128 kbps or higher for storage on your hard drive, you will be asked to choose a lower bitrate for your broadcast when you choose your broadcast format. Our broadcasting tools will automatically transform your 128 kbps files to your chosen broadcasting bitrate.)

Next, click the "Remote CDDB" tab. "CDDB" means "Compact Disc Database". This is an online lookup tool for retrieving album, artist, and track information -- especially helpful for completing MP3 ID3 tags (more about ID3 tags here).

Set the options to look like the illustration below (use your own email address).

Now click the "Filenames" tab. Again, set the options as seen below.

Put an audio CD into your CD-ROM drive. If your computer is connected to the Internet, it will download artist, title and track information for the CD from FreeDB (an online CD information database) and enter the information for you. (This helps you avoid typing in the names for each track.)

By default, all tracks on the window will be automatically selected. De-select any tracks you don't want to encode.

Start encoding by clicking the button.

After the encoding is completed, you will find your MP3's ready to upload with Studio365 or Studio365-Loader in the folder C:\Live365 Tracks.