Good CD ripping software

JHONO

JHONO

JHONO

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Would like to Rip all of my music CDs, whats a good application to use for this? Wasnt thinking of using media player, as it might not be that good.

Thanks
 
Thanks for that

Was thinking of ripping as a WAV with no compression, for the best quality, would that be right?

Just saves me popping my cds in my drive every time i want to listen to music.
 
Although that guide talks about selecting WAV keep in mind the file size will be quite large and so they could end up taking a lot of space. Alternatively just rip them to 320kbps MP3 files which is what I did.
 
Hi Thanks

How big could we be talking for a CD with 20 tracks? I do have a lot of storage space though.

Also can 320 Bitrates be ripped with just EAC or in combination with Lame?
 
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Well one minute of music, sampled at CD quality will make a WAV file about 10 MB in size so the average track is going to end up 35 - 50MB in size!! LAME is the encoder that EAC use's just. I've found a better guide for you here. It seems like a pain to get it configured but you only have to do it once and it makes an excellent job of ripping your tracks :)
 
320kb/s or WAV are a waste of space, if you're using MP3 then use the v0 setting, if you want lossless then use FLAC. If you use FLAC or another lossless codec as an archive then it's easy to transcode to MP3 or any other format later on.
 
Yeah just sorting this now with LAME. Ive got options here for more than 320 Bitrate?

Will higher obviously be better or just stick with 320 Bitrate?

Thanks
 
philtorrens said:
I DJ however and can safely say anything less than 320kbps is completely unsuitable for a club sound system. However the op could probably get away with 192kbps im sure :D
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So do I, and that's really not correct. Amongst DJ's everybody goes on about "320's" the whole time but that's generally a lack of knowing about the formats as you lose nothing with v0, it gives all the bitrate required but only where it's required. Some of the first CDJ's to support MP3 would only do CBR but that's ancient history now.
I've gone from 320 to lossless, back to 320 and now v0 for my sets. Club sound system aren't built for precise listening, they're made for loudness. Imperceptible difference between the three, it's only when you properly starve or limit the bitrate that you have problems.
 
AbsenceJam said:
So do I, and that's really not correct. Amongst DJ's everybody goes on about "320's" the whole time but that's generally a lack of knowing about the formats as you lose nothing with v0, it gives all the bitrate required but only where it's required. Some of the first CDJ's to support MP3 would only do CBR but that's ancient history now.
I've gone from 320 to lossless, back to 320 and now v0 for my sets. Club sound system aren't built for precise listening, they're made for loudness. Imperceptible difference between the three, it's only when you properly starve or limit the bitrate that you have problems.
Click to expand...

Interesting reading mate. I know of a club in Belfast (which I won't name) and the resident DJ insists that nothing below 320kbps is played on their sound system. He's a tool right enough so that may explain it :D
 
Just ripped a CD then.

Its not ripped to FLAC just WAV? Each track is seperate in the saved directroy but its not compressed to FLAC even though it was configured in compression options.

What am i doing wrong here?
 
I suspect it may not be configured properly. Have a quick read over this and check your settings. It's been a long time since I used it and I know it's a pig to get working first time but it's worth it :) Failing all else try using AutoFLAC. Let me know how you get on.
 
In the additional command line options field ive put the command as stated in the link and all im getting is Invalid replacement tag found!

This is a pain in the backside.

Ive over 800GB of space on my data drive i could just save myself the hassle and rip using WAV.
 
AbsenceJam said:
you lose nothing with v0, it gives all the bitrate required but only where it's required.
Click to expand...

That's not really true. It's an effective method of compression, but it's still lossy compression and will lose fidelity. Whether you can hear the difference in a particular circumstance is another matter entirely!

For ripping from CDs for computer playback, I would use FLAC or a similar lossless format. Whilst this uses more disk space, large hard drives are now so cheap that I don't see how it really matters. If an average FLAC album uses about 400MB, you could fit 2500 albums on a 1TB hard drive, which you can get for £30. If you choose to make lower-bitrate versions for MP3 players, etc., you'll get better quality converting from a lossless file than from an MP3. And if you ever lose or damage a CD, a FLAC rip will allow you to burn an identical copy.
 
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philtorrens said:
Interesting reading mate. I know of a club in Belfast (which I won't name) and the resident DJ insists that nothing below 320kbps is played on their sound system. He's a tool right enough so that may explain it :D
Click to expand...

He just doesn't know better, and often stuff lower will be CBR or from poorer MP3 codecs than LAME. If you do things right you can save a lot of space, hardly an issue on a hard drive but if you're using the same files for other things like on a portable player it's handy.

Mattus said:
That's not really true. It's an effective method of compression, but it's still lossy compression and will lose fidelity. Whether you can hear the difference in a particular circumstance is another matter entirely!

For ripping from CDs for computer playback, I would use FLAC or a similar lossless format. Whilst this uses more disk space, large hard drives are now so cheap that I don't see how it really matters. If an average FLAC album uses about 400MB, you could fit 2500 albums on a 1TB hard drive, which you can get for £30.
Click to expand...

I was over-simplifying, I mean even with v0 vs. 320 you still lose something but in my experience it's too small to notice in any real situation, less than lossless to 320.

I think ripping to FLAC is best as then you'll never need to rip again and can transcode to whatever. I still keep all my stuff in FLAC, but it's just a backup now and never gets any play time, it's converted to MP3 at the same time as FLAC or transcoded later.
 
I use EAC to rip to Mp3 (lame encoder) for the ipod, and Flac for streaming round the house in one pass. You have to use a little filter called mario that does the actual encoding, and point EAC towards the mario config. EAC will take care of your mp3 tags as well.

Its a pig to set up mario and if you want to go down this route then google is your friend as there are lots of guides, but the config commands have changed as mario evolved so make sure that you are using the right tutorial for the version that you are using.
 
Mm - I agree that v0 is generally good enough unless you have very good playback equipment and/or particularly demanding source material. But as you say, the convenience factor with a FLAC rip is difficult to beat.
 
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