How long should it take to extract a CD to MP3?

caff · 22 Sep 2009 at 21:07

It takes me about 30 mins to extract a full 70 min CD to mp3 using CDEX. I'm wondering if this is far too long, and if so, what the problem could be?

The drive is an external USB Samsung SE-S184M 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer External Lightscribe ReWriter, purchased in June 2007.

Could it be a driver issue?

Greenlizard0 · 22 Sep 2009 at 21:15

It could more likely be due to the fact that it's a USB drive.

Simian · 22 Sep 2009 at 21:30

Could be CDex. I had S-L-O-W ripping speeds using this!.. Give EAC and Lame a go1.. click 'Only Speed is essential' rather than 'Exact Rip' and it should do a 70min CD in 10 minutes or so!...

but as Greenlizard0 said it might be USB... but 30 minutes for a 70minute CD is long even for that!..

Broken Hope · 22 Sep 2009 at 21:35

Eac set to burst ripping with accurate rip takes less than 5 mins to rip/encode most CD's on my system.

caff · 22 Sep 2009 at 23:07

Broken Hope said:
Eac set to burst ripping with accurate rip takes less than 5 mins to rip/encode most CD's on my system.

Cheers for recommending EAC. I've tried on the fast rip setting to WAV and now I can rip and encode at the same time - it's taking about 5 mins as you say

AbsenceJam · 22 Sep 2009 at 23:14

caff said:
Cheers for recommending EAC. I've tried on the fast rip setting to WAV and now I can rip and encode at the same time - it's taking about 5 mins as you say

The quality of your rips is going to be poor.

Set it up properly in Secure mode or Burst with Accurate Rip - http://blowfish.be/eac/ (guide is unnecessarily long winded so skim a lot).

Broken Hope · 22 Sep 2009 at 23:21

Go for Burst with Accurate Rip, as long as you get 3+ matches the rip will be fine. If your CD isn't in the database only then use secure mode since it's a lot slower.

whitecrook · 22 Sep 2009 at 23:28

It's certainly worth taking a bit extra time to Do It Right, as you'll Rip once, listen many..

caff · 22 Sep 2009 at 23:34

Fair points all - I should be ripping to lossless but my player doesn't support it.

At some point I'm bound to go back through my CDs and do them all properly but for now I'll go quick and easy.

AbsenceJam · 22 Sep 2009 at 23:45

You don't need to rip losslessly, it's the quality of the extraction from CD that's really important. You probably won't notice MP3 compression (but do make it good with V0 or V2 - easier than not) but you will notice ripping errors loud and clear.

caff · 22 Sep 2009 at 23:52

Ah ok - I wasn't sure how accurate it would be.

I might stick to CDEX - it is slow but it's never failed to produce a decent rip.

5abr3 · 22 Sep 2009 at 23:53

If its any help in speed comaprisons, my AMD Athlon 3000+ could rip a full disc in about 8 minutes using WMP. No idea if the PhenomII is faster as I haven't ripped any using it.

Mattus · 23 Sep 2009 at 01:01

What you need is dBpoweramp. It rips securely like EAC does, but it's better because it can rip one track whilst encoding the previous. It can even encode multiple files simultaneously on more than one core if your CD drive can keep up, so you can use the slowest encoding settings without slowing things down at all.

You should always use secure mode - if you have a decent drive it's no slower than any other mode.

Just tested by ripping OK Computer by Radiohead. 2 minutes 10 seconds to rip and convert to MP3 -v2. (Q6600 and Sony Optiarc drive.)