Rip a CD to MP3 with InfraRecorder (With the MP3 Plug-In)

Ripping means saving the tracks from an audio CD as files on your computer. InfraRecorder 0.53 can save audio tracks as .wav, .wma, .ogg, .mp3 and .iso — with one catch that confuses almost everyone the first time: MP3 encoding is not built into the main program. Because of historical MP3 patent licensing, the MP3 encoder ships as a separate plug-in, a small file called lame.irc. Install that plug-in once, and MP3 ripping works like any other format. This guide covers both the plug-in install and the rip itself.

You need InfraRecorder 0.53 from the download page and the separate ir053_mp3_plugin.zip package. Both are free; InfraRecorder is open source under GPL v3, written for Windows 2000 through Windows 7. It is not officially supported on Windows 10 or 11, though many people run it there successfully — see InfraRecorder on Windows 11 for the honest compatibility picture before you troubleshoot problems that are really platform quirks.

Part 1: Install the MP3 Plug-In

  1. Download the plug-in. Get ir053_mp3_plugin.zip using the MP3 plug-in link: download the MP3 plug-in from SourceForge. It is a small file (387,083 bytes). Note the name carefully — some third-party pages wrongly call the codec lame_enc.dll; the real InfraRecorder codec file is lame.irc.
  2. Extract the zip. Open the downloaded zip in Windows Explorer and extract its contents to a temporary folder. Inside you will find the LAME codec file lame.irc (the package includes builds for win32 and x64) plus a readme.
  3. Pick the build that matches your InfraRecorder. If you installed the 64-bit version, use the x64 lame.irc; if you installed the standard 32-bit version or the portable build, use the win32 one. A mismatched codec will not appear in the program.
  4. Copy lame.irc into the codecs folder. Find your InfraRecorder installation folder (typically under Program Files) and open its codecs subfolder — the same folder that already holds files such as vorbis.irc and wma.irc. Copy the matching lame.irc into it. For the portable version, the codecs folder sits next to the portable executable instead.
  5. Restart InfraRecorder. Close the program completely and open it again. Codecs are loaded at startup, so a restart is required before MP3 appears as a saving option.
  6. Confirm the codec loaded. Proceed to the rip below: when you save tracks, MP3 should now be listed among the available output formats. If it is not, see the troubleshooting notes at the end of this guide and the dedicated page on the MP3 plug-in not showing up.

Part 2: Rip the CD

  1. Insert the audio CD in your optical drive and open InfraRecorder. Wait for the drive and disc to be recognised.
  2. Open the track list. InfraRecorder reads the disc and lists its audio tracks with durations. Check that the number of tracks and the total time match the disc — a mismatch usually means the drive read a previous disc’s information or the CD was not yet settled when the program started.
  3. Select the tracks to save. Tick the tracks you want, or select all of them for a full album rip. The track-saving workflow is the same whether you save one track or twenty.
  4. Choose MP3 as the output format. In the save dialog, pick MP3 from the format list — this is the option the plug-in adds. If MP3 is missing, the plug-in is not installed or not loaded; return to Part 1.
  5. Choose the destination folder. Save into a clearly named music folder, organised by artist and album if you are ripping a collection. Ripping many discs into one flat folder becomes unmanageable very quickly.
  6. Start the rip and wait. InfraRecorder reads each track and encodes it to MP3. Damaged or badly scratched discs may retry on difficult sectors; a clean disc rips quickly and without pauses.
  7. Play the results. Open a couple of the finished MP3 files in your media player and listen to the start and end of each. Check for skips, truncated endings or the wrong track — the faults that matter are obvious within a few seconds.

The Other Formats: WAV, WMA, OGG and ISO

MP3 is the most compatible choice, but it is not always the best one. Choose WAV when you want a perfect, uncompressed copy of the track — for archiving, for editing, or as the source for burning a new audio CD later, since WAV involves no quality loss at all. Choose OGG (Vorbis) for good quality at small file sizes in an open format. WMA is Windows Media Audio, mainly useful if your other tools expect it. Saving to ISO treats the disc as an image rather than individual songs — useful for data discs and exact backups, as covered in creating an ISO image from a CD or DVD. Note also the x64 caveat: the 64-bit build ships without the libsndfile codec bundled with the 32-bit build, so a few decoding paths differ between builds; encoding to MP3 with the correct x64 lame.irc is unaffected as long as the codec matches the build.

If MP3 Does Not Appear

Work through the plug-in steps in order: the correct lame.irc for your build, placed in the codecs folder of the installation (or portable folder) you actually run, followed by a full restart. Copying the file while InfraRecorder is open, or into a different installation’s folder, are the two most frequent mistakes. If MP3 still does not appear, reinstall the plug-in files from a fresh download of the zip and check you did not rename the codec — the program looks for lame.irc by name. Our troubleshooting page on the MP3 plug-in not showing collects the remaining causes in one place.

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