I have been doing several searches and reading all up on how to copy my cd's and convert them from 2 channel to 6 channel recordings and have even begun using DVD Audio solo. Here is my question. I have been ripping for years with a freeware program called FreeRip. I suppose it is okay, but I saw someone mention what they perceived as the "cleanest ripper out there" and for whatever reason I can't find where I saw it.

Thank you in advance for your expressed opinions and experiences.

Eddie

 

A majority of the (free) CD rippers out there I know about use the LAME MP3 encoder to rip CDs to MP3s. I cannot differentiate between the quality of MP3 encoders.

IMO, "cleanest" = easiest to use. There are simple programs out there that will take tracks of a CD and convert them into MP3 files. Then there are feature rich programs that can download the artist and song information from an online database, add this info into ID3 tags, and name the MP3 files according to artist/track number/track title. All these done simply with a few clicks of your mouse.

I rarely rip CDs, but when I do, I use Xing AudioCatalyst. Winamp, Windows Media Player, and iTunes also have the ability to rip CDs to MP3s.

Maybe you'll have better luck posting this in the main Audio & Video forum.

 

FWIW, I am trying to convert to CD's to WAV files and not compress to MP3...since I am attempting to build DVD-A.s

 

Still the same. CD audio tracks (CDA) are very similar to WAV's and a majority (if not all) of players I've mentioned above can convert CDA to WAV.

 

I like CDEx and Audiograbber. I tend to use CDEx when I use wavs for input to DVDA scripts and AudioGrabber when I want to make mp3s via LAME.

 

Thanks...I'll give them a try.

 

You might also want to give EAC (Exact Audio Copy) a try. I have never had any issues with it, and has been rated very highly in the past by maximum pc.

http://www.nolody.com/mp3/

 

Audiograbber is easy and quick, but EAC gives the most accurate results (especially with the AccurateRip plugin). Either will allow you to rip to WAV or MP3 (or several other codecs as well). I tend to rip to MP3 with Audiograbber and to WAV files (for DVD-A creation) with EAC.

For best MP3 results, I would recommend using the version of LAME recommended by the Hydrogen Audio Wiki (currently 3.97). You can also find recommendations on LAME settings there.

 

EAC and Lame ftw. Works fairly well for me, especially when editing wav files and such.