Surely been discussed, but the search is kinda screwy right now, so...

I've got a couple of mp3s I need to cut/edit/join. Was just wondering what the general consensus is on the best progam to use for this. Another thing, does this actually work effectively?

Try mp3DirectCut.

This now supports VBR files absolutely properly, and allows fades, cutting, L-R balance adjustment, supports EAC cuesheets etc. without transcoding (decoding to WAV then re-encoding, with further quality loss).

There are some things you just can't do without decoding to WAV first, but this will do practically all you can do direct to the MP3 (except it won't (yet) do ReplayGain analysis like mp3gain)

If you don't like it, look for musiCutter, mp3FrameEditor or a number of others.

Edit: typo

There's also mp3trim.

you can also try mann's mp3 edit, a nice mp3 sound editor that you can use without decoding to wav first, and thus no further quality loss

http://mannsmp3edit.tsx.org