[TriLUG] Audio (CD Ripping) docs?

[Tom Bryan]

I've looked around a bit, and I'm not sure where to start looking 
for audio info under Linux.  I only recently got a sound card that 
works under Linux.  I have played CDs with KDE's CD player, but I 
have never done anything with mpeg/mp3/wav/etc.  So, I'm at the 
point of "Hey, I heard that I can play music from my hard drive."  
A lot of the documentation I'm finding is for someone who already 
knows what he needs to do and now just wants Linux tools.  I know 
my goal (files on my hard drive that I can listed to while I work), 
but I don't even know the steps.  I've heard of MP3, but I'm not 
sure why I'd want MP3 instead of (for example) the .wav file that 
cdparanoia outputs.  Any suggestions on where to start?

My motivation is that the new machine that IT put on my desk at work 
has a builtin soundcard and a huge hard drive.  I'd like to take in 
a bunch of music files so that I can have some good background noise 
while I work.  (Cube farms are terrible for maintaining hack mode.)  

Thanks,
---Tom