MP3 Ripping Software

Message

Panzer · #1 Post by **Panzer** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 4:46 pm

Hey All,
I'm currently relocating my Jazz collection to a new case. Since this process envolves physically moving them, I thought that this would be a good time to make a digital copy. Now I do DJ (at Fizz and Java Jive Chicago stuff) now and again but I don't intend to spin from mp3. I just want a copy for the, "just in case," scenario. What software will yield the best result?
Thanks
Stay Hep
Tom

CafeSavoy · #2 Post by **CafeSavoy** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 7:33 pm

A current favorite is Exact Audio Copy which provides excellent error checking and is free. You might also want to consider one of the lossless compression formats such as flac or apple lossless if you are converting files as a backup.

Swifty · #3 Post by **Swifty** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 8:21 am

I also use EAC, it's great.

CafeSavoy · #4 Post by **CafeSavoy** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 8:16 pm

Here's a Flac add-in for EAC http://mareo.monkeydev.org/

Travis · #5 Post by **Travis** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 4:05 pm

For those using EAC, did you download the version with or without CDRDAO? If you use CDRDAO, what exactly does it do? I've read a lot about it but I'm still unsure whether I would have any use for it.

I plan on installing EAC over the weekend - I've read most tutorials on it but if anyone has any tips or advice on installing/running the application please let me know.

Thanks!

djstarr · #6 Post by **djstarr** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 12:57 pm

I used EAC to create the mp3 files for my Yehoodi show. I guess I downloaded CDRDAO since it's on my computer but I'm not real sure whether I used it or not! I did also download the LAME encoder.

I used the default options and found it very easy to use, it was pretty straight forward.

Someone showed me how Windows Media Player can rip to mp3 - anyone ever tried that? How does it compare to EAC?

Toon Town Dave · #7 Post by **Toon Town Dave** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 2:17 pm

I think the big claim to fame of EAC is the error detection/correction while ripping. It has a lot of configuration options but can auto-detect most of the important ones. At least it can with my Plextor drive.

CDRDAO I think has to do with recording (DAO=Disc At Once), not ripping. If you want to burn an audio CD without gaps between tracks you need DAO. I think you also need it if you want CD-TEXT written to disc. I don't use EAC for burning so I don't have any exerience with that part.

EAC can use LAME for MP3 encoding, but doesn't have a native codec. Lame is generally accepted as one of the best encoders. I don't know what MS uses. Media player also doesn't have the same error detection/correction so you might not want to use it with less than perfect CDs.

jmatthew · #8 Post by **jmatthew** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 4:00 pm

Unless they've changed something MS media player only rips at like 64k. It's horrible.

Lawrence · #9 Post by **Lawrence** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 5:51 pm

jmatthew wrote:Unless they've changed something MS media player only rips at like 64k. It's horrible.

Not so anymore. The new version of Media Player has four bitrate settings: a MINIMUM of 128, then 192, 256, and 320.

I had to buy a plug-in to rip MP3s in a previous version of Media Player. Now it comes with the standard free download/upgrade.

julius · #10 Post by **julius** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 3:33 pm

I used windows media player (version 9, I think) to rip half my jazz library and almost all of my rock. As far as I can tell it didn't have a problem and was easy to use: stick the CD in, close the tray, wait a bit, remove CD, stick next CD in, etc.

I ripped at 128kbps in the interests of conserving space.

CafeSavoy · #11 Post by **CafeSavoy** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 7:05 pm

Grasshopper. Someday.

Lawrence · #12 Post by **Lawrence** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 6:11 pm

It has been almost a year; time for a technology update. Three questions:

Does anyone have some new ripping software for MP3s, or are you still using Exact Audio Copy or Windows Media Player?

Is there a difference between MP3 compression programs, or do they all use the exact same digital algorhythm for MP3s? I suspect that some MP3 ripping programs would at least do some sort of error correction to make them better than other programs, but I really do not know.

Also, Windows Media Player doesn't rip at Variable bitrate. Does EAC do variable bitrate compression? Are there any others with VBR you would recommend?

tornredcarpet · #13 Post by **tornredcarpet** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:54 am

Lawrence wrote:It has been almost a year; time for a technology update. Three questions:

Does anyone have some new ripping software for MP3s, or are you still using Exact Audio Copy or Windows Media Player?

Is there a difference between MP3 compression programs, or do they all use the exact same digital algorhythm for MP3s? I suspect that some MP3 ripping programs would at least do some sort of error correction to make them better than other programs, but I really do not know.

Also, Windows Media Player doesn't rip at Variable bitrate. Does EAC do variable bitrate compression? Are there any others with VBR you would recommend?

I hope this explains things a bit.
That compression algorithm you mention is called the codec, and the difference depends on that. LAME is pretty much the only one to use. Some other ones worth mentioning are MP3Pro and MP3+, but the benefits they have are insignificant compared to their compression efficiency and encoding time.

Ripping and encoding are two separate processes which occur sequentially to give you your mp3. Ripping extracts the audio format into a raw format such as WAV and encoding compresses it to the desired format, be it MP3 or FLAC or whatever.

The error correcting is due to the ripper, not the encoder. It doesn't really matter which ripper you use (assuming a base standard of quality and accuracy), but if you're unsatisfied with your current one, just pick another one. Good ones should offer varying levels of error correction and normalization.

Personally, I rip with JR Media Center and convert it into APE format. Deliciously transparent.

Toon Town Dave · #14 Post by **Toon Town Dave** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:23 pm

I'm still using EAC for ripping. I haven't found anything else that works as good at error detection/correction. I use settings to get the best quality so it takes a while but doesn't have any skips or defects.

I'm using the lame codec for mp3 encoding via a small python script I wrote to decode the meta-information encoded in the filename to use for ID3 tags. I think there are a bunch of GUI programs.

I rip everything to .wav files and store them on an external hard drive. I can then grab the raw stuff to burn to CD or transcode to MP3, OGG or whatever format I need afterward.

david · #15 Post by **david** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:26 pm

Toon Town Dave wrote:I rip everything to .wav files and store them on an external hard drive. I can then grab the raw stuff to burn to CD or transcode to MP3, OGG or whatever format I need afterward.

That's a bit wasteful. I encode my CDs as FLAC, which is a lossless compression (and then reencode the individual tracks as mp3 or Ogg Vorbis). The data in the FLAC files are identical to the wav files (after decompression) but take approx 50% the space.