audio ripping

FishBoy

Feeeesh
Joined
1 Aug 2004
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1,685
what's a good program to rip audio CDs, good and high quality that is
 
I use iTunes.

Many people around here will encourage a lossless compression, so it depends on what filesize you're looking at. Do you want high quality in a small size?

You might take a look at Exact Audio Copy. It's highly recommended around here. :)
 
no just high quality, which implements also bigger size but it's ok
 
Ripping is the process of getting the audio data off the cd and onto your computer. The recommended tools for this are EAC (Exact Audio Copy) or Plextools if you own a Plextor drive. The reason these two programs are recommend is because they both offer "secure" ripping (similar to crc checks to confirm data is not corrupt or contains errors).

Encoding is a seperate process. Lossless compresses the audio data at approximately 50%, but allows decompression back to the original .wav (much the same way winzip or winrar work). Hence the term lossless. However, you will use alot of space. FLAC, WavPack, and Monkey's Audio are the most common lossless compressors. Shorten is used mostly in the bootlegging scene but is losing popularity to FLAC. WavPack also offers a hybrid mode with a high quality lossy file and a correction file that allows restoration back to the original wav. I recommend staying away from Apple's lossless.

Lossy is just that. It uses quantization and psychoacoustic modelling to make file sizes even smaller and can usually acheive transparency (meaning you cannot discern a difference from the source .wav) at ~200kbps. MP3, AAC, OGG, and Musepack (.mpc) are the dominate lossy codecs. Each has advantages and disadvantages.
 
muzikool said:
OK, then I'd encourage a lossless compression. Check out Monkey's Audio or Shorten.
do they rip audio CDs? coz i opened them and they dont make any sense to me
i would use wmp but i think mafia once said that it's not the best
 
Use EAC or another ripping program (iTunes, WMP 10) to rip to WAV files, and then something like Monkey's Audio to compress the WAV files.

Basically it's two steps:
1) Rip the CD to WAV with EAC.
2) Open Monkey's Audio, select the WAV files, and then compress.
 
oh well that was a nice explanation dreamliner thx, so i dont think i was clear enough, so yea i wanna get the audio out of an audio cd and convert them to high quality mp3s
 
You can go the MP3 route, but you're not going to get as high of quality since it's not lossless compression. If you simply want MP3's though, just use EAC, iTunes or WMP 10 to rip to MP3 at a 256kbps bit rate.
 
I use EAC and ripp mp3's at --preset insane, or 320 cbr. It sounds really good. The only thing with mp3's is that if you get a cd that continues through tracks, like a live cd, you will always have gapps between tracks. the only way around that is to use something like ogg.

The thing you have to also remember if you are looking at using other types of compression, is that not all portable mp3 players will support anything but mp3, wav, or wma's. I think an IPod is the only one that will play all mentioned plus a few others.

Also - If you are looking at lossless, MP3Pro is good to look at, as well as FLAC ..
 
Johnny said:
not all portable mp3 players will support anything but mp3, wav, or wma's. I think an IPod is the only one that will play all mentioned plus a few others.
iPods don't support WMA's, bud. ;)
If you're going for portable media device compatibility, MP3 is probably the best way to go. Works on anything.
 
NetRyder said:
iPods don't support WMA's, bud..
O.k I wasn't sure if it did or not. I know it supports a few others ..
 
When it comes to questions about encoding music, it helps most to know exactly what the purpose is that the user has in mind. For example...

1) CD backups, space not an issue - lossless compression
2) CD backups, space is an issue - high bitrate MP3, AAC or WMA
3) For digital music devices, space not an issue - high bitrate MP3 or AAC
4) For digital music devices, space is an issue - lower bitrate MP3 or AAC
 
Johnny said:
O.k I wasn't sure if it did or not. I know it supports a few others ..
AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, WAV and AIFF (which nobody really uses =P)
 
NetRyder said:
iPods don't support WMA's, bud. ;)
If you're going for portable media device compatibility, MP3 is probably the best way to go. Works on anything.
I thought non-protected WMA was added recently?

*edit* - ok it seems iTunes converts them so you can use them on your iPod ;)
iTunes can import music from Windows Media Player, MusicMatch and any other app that uses MP3, AAC or WMA (unprotected). iTunes 4.5 will now convert files digitized by Windows Media Player in unprotected format to AAC, so you can use them in iTunes or on iPod.
 
Johnny said:
The only thing with mp3's is that if you get a cd that continues through tracks, like a live cd, you will always have gapps between tracks. the only way around that is to use something like ogg.
Nope, when u burn them to cd u just remove the gaps, and burn using the disc@ once method and it will have no gaps, also in winamp get the mp3splice plug in, but thats just anything that plays in winamp has a gap not just mp3's
 
themafia_69 said:
Nope, when u burn them to cd u just remove the gaps, and burn using the disc@ once method and it will have no gaps, also in winamp get the mp3splice plug in, but thats just anything that plays in winamp has a gap not just mp3's

Nope. MP3 is not a natively gapless format. Frames are a predetermined size. If the data doesn't completely fill it, it will leave a gap. LAME + foobar2000 can playback gaplessly using a special tag.

I use EAC and ripp mp3's at --preset insane, or 320 cbr. It sounds really good. The only thing with mp3's is that if you get a cd that continues through tracks, like a live cd, you will always have gapps between tracks. the only way around that is to use something like ogg.

--insane is overkill. Try --aps , I bet you can't ABX.

Also - If you are looking at lossless, MP3Pro is good to look at, as well as FLAC ..

MP3Pro is not lossless. Far from it. MP3Pro is meant for extreme low bitrates. Don't use it, it's almost completely not supported now.

To ALL:

Rippers and encoders are two different things. Often rippers will have encoders encluded, but you can always rip to wav and use your codec of choice.
 
Xie said:
*edit* - ok it seems iTunes converts them so you can use them on your iPod ;)
Pfft...lossy -> lossy = very lossy. Bad idea. :)
With that logic, you should be able to play any music on any device. Just transcode to a format that the device supports.
 
iPods can play any format ;)
provided iTunes converts it to AAC before hand :p

similar to the AudioMorph technology in redchairsoftwares explorers which enables you to store your music in one format and when you transfer it to your device it automagically transcodes the file into a format the player can use. Probably a loss of quality involved though.
 
I believe WMP10 also transcodes songs to WMA when you sync them with supported media devices (of course, there's an option to turn it off as well)
The reason is a little different though. Rather than format compatibility, it's done so that you can fit more songs on the device. It works nicely for audiophiles who rip all their music at insanely high bitrates (or even lossless formats). Great quality sound when you hook it up to that wonderful sound system, but not really necessary when you're going to use a pair of headphones.

I just realized - we went completely off-topic. :D
 

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