First of all, much kudos on a great guide to ripping and encoding cd audio into the best mp3's. I use your guide along with chrismyden, and it has worked out brilliantly for me in the last two years (when I first bought my iPod and suddenly had the need to look online for the best audio guides.)

I just bought a new notebook with Windows Vista (with SP1) and would like to inquire, will all of the software and steps in your guide work for Vista? I am afraid of trying it out for fear of crashing my machine (I know that Vista gets a lot of maybe exaggarated bad press, but one can never be too safe.)

Thanks in advance!

thx for the kind words. i can still remember asking the question: "what's an mp3?"

never used vista. yes, i heard of the problems.

vista has been out long enough that software writers have had a chance to tweak their products to its specs.

so i would expect you're safe.

and i tout mostly open source software, which seems nimble at adjusting to changes.

i need to upgrade the guide to reflect the latest lame encoder version, but its essence (»creating high-quality mp3's) remains clear. (i hope.)

haven't chatted with chris in a long time. we used to chat regularly. he's up in calgary. must be nice there now.

Thanks for the quick reply!

I figured that the latest versions of EAC, lame, etc. would probably work with Vista now, especially with SP1 and the time passed since Vista's release.

However, i'm a bit conservative, and I use only the exact versions of the software written in your guide (and those in chrismyden's site.) These are supposedly the best versions, and i trust you guys much more.

Because of this, i don't download the latest versions (which would probably work for vista.) But especially with chrismyden's guide (which gives settings for winxp,) your guides are tailor-fit for winxp. So i'm in a bit of a rut on what to do.