Ripping music

Dragoon

I haven't ripped a CD in years. However, I have found myself supporting a number of local bands as of late and now have several cds that I want digital. What do people even use for that anymore?

edit: Suppose I should note that this would be under windows.

dcon

@Dragoon I typically just use Windows Media Player... It's there, it works, I get mp3's out of it.

I did recently install Audacity to rip some old cassettes. I needed something that would allow me to edit the raw sound and create the individual files from it. (that said, the age of the cassettes made the audio quality beyond bad)

JBert

It's been a while since I last ripped a few CDs, but last time I used this one:

Exact Audio Copy

Applied Mediocrity

Everybody will have opinions on their favorite or only software they've used for the task. My opinion, of course, is the only correct one.

CUETools (or rather, CUERipper).

izzion

@Applied-Mediocrity said in Ripping music:

My opinion, of course, is the only correct one.

We have a strict no Jeff policy in General Help

Also, to be more on topic, +1 for bog standard WMP.

Unperverted Vixen

I use iTunes.

da Doctah

@Dragoon I switched over to something called Fairstars CD Ripper after I discovered that WMP can no longer link to online libraries to identify ID3 tag info.

Parody

EAC to rip the CD to FLAC files, then metaflac (one of the command line tools that come with the FLAC package) to add Replay Gain tags per-album as well as per-track. I use a script to help with that part. You'll need to fix the path to metaflac.

Add Replay Gain To All.vbs

Option Explicit

Const scriptName = "Add Replay Gain To All"
Const scriptVer = "1.1.0"

Const errNeedPath = "To use this script, drop a folder onto the script icon."

Const kPathToMetaflac = "C:\Utils\flac\win32\metaflac"

Dim gShellObj
Set gShellObj = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Dim gFolderCount
gFolderCount = 0

Main


' Customize this to do whatever you need it to do.
Function DoTheWork(ByRef folderObj)
  Dim returnMe
  returnMe = True
  
  Dim filePaths
  filePaths = ""

  Dim fileObj, fileCollection
  Set fileCollection = folderObj.Files
  For Each fileObj in fileCollection
    If (StrComp(Right(fileObj.Name, 5), ".flac", 1) = 0) Then
      ' Do the thing (in this case, collect the paths for later)
      filePaths = filePaths & " " & fileObj.ShortPath
    End If
  Next

  If (Len(filePaths) > 0) Then
    'WScript.Echo("metaflac --add-replay-gain " & filePaths)
    Call gShellObj.Run(kPathToMetaflac & " --add-replay-gain " & filePaths, 1, True)
    gFolderCount = gFolderCount + 1
  End If
  
  DoTheWork = returnMe
End Function


' Customize this to report something to the user.
' The default result is the top-level boolean from LoopWithin.
Sub ReportResults(ByVal result)
  If (result) Then
    Call MsgBox("Updated " & CStr(gFolderCount) & " album" & Pluralize(gFolderCount) & ".", 0, scriptName)
  Else
    Call MsgBox("An error occurred while doing the work.", 0, scriptName)
  End If
End Sub



Function LoopWithin(ByRef folderObj, ByVal lookInSubdirs)
  Dim returnMe
  returnMe = True
   
  If returnMe And lookInSubdirs Then
    Dim subObj, subCollection
    Set subCollection = folderObj.SubFolders
    For Each subObj in subCollection
      returnMe = LoopWithin(subObj, lookInSubdirs)
    Next
  End If

  If returnMe then
    returnMe = DoTheWork(folderObj)
  End If
  
  LoopWithin = returnMe
End Function


Function Pluralize(ByVal count)
  If (count <> 1) Then
    Pluralize = "s"
  Else
    Pluralize = ""
  End If
End Function


Sub Main
  Dim i, args, continueOn
  continueOn = True
  
  Set args = WScript.Arguments
  If (args.Count <> 1) Then
    WScript.Echo(errNeedPath)
    continueOn = False
  End If

  If continueOn Then
    Dim fso, folderObj
    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Set folderObj = fso.GetFolder(args(0))
	ReportResults(LoopWithin(folderObj, True))
  End If
End Sub

Unperverted Vixen

@Parody VBScript? Eww.

(Although it looks like you can't do drag-and-drop to a PowerShell script, only to a batch file or shortcut that invokes PowerShell. Still, not worth the dirty feeling. )

Parody

@Unperverted-Vixen said in Ripping music:

@Parody VBScript? Eww.

(Although it looks like you can't do drag-and-drop to a PowerShell script, only to a batch file or shortcut that invokes PowerShell. Still, not worth the dirty feeling. )

I think that script predates PowerShell. I know I've been using the shell ("loop through all of the folders in the dropped folder doing [something]") part of that script since the early 2000s. :)

Luhmann

CDeX

aitap

@Dragoon said in Ripping music:

Suppose I should note that this would be under windows.

Exact Audio Copy has been recommended as the only reliable Windows CD ripper by what.cd, before they suddenly keeled over. With error correction being much weaker in CD-DA than in CD-ROM, the quality of the CD itself, the drive and the ripper software is equally important.

Edit:

pie_flavor

Winamp is my go-to.

Luhmann

@pie_flavor

Dragoon

Well, thank you all for the suggestions. Will work on it this weekend.