What's the latest and greatest CD ripper software

[Richard L]

I plan on getting my wife an MP3 player for Christmas. I have some old Ripper software (CD-Dex) that I used to copy CD's to MP3's and make my own CD's with 15 or so compressed MP3 albums on one CD. It worked OK, but a lot of songs had skips and other problems which I think were related to the old cheapo CD-ROM burner I had.



What do you feel is the best Free, downloadable MP3 or WMA ripper software?



...Rich

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I just use Windows Media Player.

 

[Frank Marano]

I use "Free CD Ripper" that is the name of the program. I think I got it at download.com



It works great and it is free. I read about it in pc mag a few yrs ago.

 

[LaRue Medlin]

I'm playing with ITunes since we are getting Rue and IPod. So far I like it. It's a massive program but pretty cool so far...

 

[Casey B]

Nero uses the Fraunhofer standard which is the "reference" for mp3 compression. I've always used Nero.



Bad thing is you have to buy serial # to unlock the encoder, I think it's $14.99.

 

[peter barone03]

I've been using REAL player to burn my CD's.

Seems to do the job, and is pretty quick to transfer.





Pete

 

[Tommy Wright]

I use MusicMatch and it works great. Since buying the lifetime of upgrades package, the ripping is a lot faster and more stable. They also have a store where you can buy music.

 

[Mark S 3]

There's a lot of choice out there. What is best for you is going to depend on the age & speed of your computer.



One thing to look for is to make sure that whatever you choose it will find the CD / Track name for you automatically. If it can also find you the artwork and song lyrics to tag your mp3 files with then so much the better. I use iTunes to do all the above. Also, try to avoid ripping to AAC or WMA format as they are both proprietary and can't be played on as many devices as MP3.

 

[Tom Schindler]

I use Windows Media Player with an MP3 plug-in. Best of all, it is free.





Tom

 

[TomT]

Here's a freebie:

 

[Jeff C]

I like iTunes, keeps track of my 42,000+ songs.

 

[Richard L]

Jeff C,

Will the iTunes software work if I don't have an iPod?? I am actually leaning more towards a SanDisk Sensa unit.



...Rich

 

[Jeff C]

Yes. It just won't interface. You'll have to do the standard drag-drop to load files to the mp3 player.

 

[Andy G]

OK, lots of software available, but not all of it is "good".



MP3 Compression -



Many MP3 Compression techniques available, but only one stands out as giving you copies that are completely indistinguishable from the CD itself. And that is the LAME MP3 codec. Do a google search for LAME MP3 and you will find a free download for the codec, as well as a plethora of info as to why it works so well. No one who has used LAME bothers with anything else.

If you compress with lame, you will not be able to tell the master from the copy, no matter how much of an audio nut you are. No other MP3 codec can claim this.



CD Ripping -



Any ripper should be OK, just make sure you are porting the compression out to the latest LAME release.



I personally use EAC (Exact Audio Copy). It is the only program I am aware of that rips a true copy of a CD, giving many retries for missing data, instead of just copying skips and pops into the MP3 file. If your CD ROM drive supports C2 level error correction, EAC does to. This can actually fix some o the data coming off of the disc if it is damaged. If your drive does not support C2 Error correction, EAC will just do the best it can.



I had several CDs that were rather old, and hammered. Some looked like they had been treated with sand paper. I ripped them with EAC, and they are perfect. One of them took almost 4 hours to rip, but I did get a perfect copy. My drive does support C2 error correction.



EAC is slow, the average disc take a few minutes, but it does a great job.



Both EAC and the LAME mp3 codec are free downloads. EAC can be tricky to setup and isn't the easiest thing to run, but to me the results are worth it. It does, like many other rippers out there, connect to freeDb and download track info so you don't have to type it all in.



Cheers,

 

[Bob]

I like the Nero ripper. It's fast, intuitive and the results seem satisfactory to me. I generally rip WAV files to an external hardrive.



I also like the EAC system. It is the ripper of choice among PC audiophiles.



The best way to copy CDs, IMHO, is a stand-alone device. I have both a HHB unit and an Allesis 40G Masterlink. The Alessis makes excellent redbook CD copies and is a great unit for copying vinyl to CD. The hard drive also makes mixing a snap.

 

[Todd Cloutier]

I'll second AndyG - EAC and Lame are the way to go. I personally use VBR encoding for my MP3 files.