Software to rip CD's

[toon10]

I have somehow managed to survive for about 7 years without a PC/laptop other than a work laptop which I don't use for personal stuff. I've inherited my fathers old laptop which, while slow and old, works just fine after about 2 years worth of Windows updates.

I have a Yamaha RN-602 amp/receiver and an old collection of mp3's which have attached via a thumbnail USB. I have quite an extensive CD collection which I would like to rip into lossless as the new amp and speakers I have really show up the poorer quality of the mp3 files. I'm not looking to NAS storage but I do have a large external USB disk drive I can store these CD copied files and use that instead of the thumbnail USB.

Can anyone recommend any decent free CD ripping software I can download which will let me rip to FLAC? Am I better off ripping to WAV? (Sorry, bit of a noob with electronically stored music!)

[IanJ9375]

Just rip them to Google Music, they'll be safely stored in the cloud and accessible to you using the free app

https://support.google.com/googleplaymusic/answer/...

[toon10]

IanJ9375 said:

Just rip them to Google Music, they'll be safely stored in the cloud and accessible to you using the free app

https://support.google.com/googleplaymusic/answer/...

Thanks for the reply. I already pay for Spotify so not looking for another subscription service. I like the idea that I can still listen to the CD's that are not on Spotify or if I decide to cancel the subscription, I still have access to my CD collection without relying on external companies who may change their terms of service or price plans.

[grumbledoak]

Windows Media Player?

[jumare]

iTunes store as apple lossless files

[orhan]

Wasn’t handbrake very popular while back
I have no idea if it’s still going but it was good at ripping

[IanJ9375]

toon10 said:

Thanks for the reply. I already pay for Spotify so not looking for another subscription service. I like the idea that I can still listen to the CD's that are not on Spotify or if I decide to cancel the subscription, I still have access to my CD collection without relying on external companies who may change their terms of service or price plans.

It's free to store all your music in Google Music - doesn't cost a penny (this isn't using the paid for subscription)
50'000 songs was the limit iirc

If you already have a Gmail address such as for Android then you already have an account, pretty much the same as Google Photos where it lets you store them all for free and access them from any device.

Edited by IanJ9375 on Wednesday 13th March 12:31

[Sixtyten]

This is the one you need to rip your CDs to FLAC

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de

The free version is great

Google Music converts the rips from FLAC to mp3, so beware.

[outnumbered]

When I did this a few years ago, I used dbpoweramp. It has a 21 day free trial, but it's only £30 or so, and I was happy to pay that as it worked very well (it checks for accurate rips against a Cloud DB; automatically finds artwork, track listings etc).

[davek_964]

Sixtyten said:

This is the one you need to rip your CDs to FLAC

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de

The free version is great

Google Music converts the rips from FLAC to mp3, so beware.

+1 - been using EAC for years

[Sixtyten]

dbpoweramp is a helluva bit of software. I used to use it a lot before I bought Jriver Media Centre

[mike_knott]

I used eac when i ripped my collection about 10 years ago. No complaints.

DBPoweramp was much talked about at the time as it handles tagging, cover art, conversion, etc. as well so you might want to look into that as well.

Definitely use flac; wav does not support tagging very well. (Other lossless formats are available. Any would do as long as it supports tagging. Once you have done your initial rips, you can easily convert between lossless formats.)

Definitely have several backups in more than one location. You will get an hour into ripping and then realise you really wouldn't want to do it again if you lost it all.

Mike...

[C0ffin D0dger]

Another vote for dBPoweramp. Not free though but it just gets it right and you don't want to be feeding several hundred CDs through your PC more than once so I my mind it justifies the cost.

[toon10]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've had some horrific experiences with iTunes so refuse to use it ever again despite us being an Apple household.

I'm trying dbPoweramp now and it looks to be doing a great job. Need to test the sound quality out when it's finished ripping but liking the ease of use and features.

[outnumbered]

toon10 said:

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've had some horrific experiences with iTunes so refuse to use it ever again despite us being an Apple household.

I'm trying dbPoweramp now and it looks to be doing a great job. Need to test the sound quality out when it's finished ripping but liking the ease of use and features.

Assuming you're ripping to FLAC, then there's going to be no difference in sound quality between different rippers, they're all doing the same thing.

Another thing to consider when you're doing a lot of ripping is what, if any, special processing you want to apply.

For example, I set up dbpoweramp to apply ReplayGain tagging so that I can use volume normalisation during playback if I want to. It is possible to bulk process your files to change this sort of thing later on, but you might as well try to get it right at the beginning.

[peterperkins]

https://www.poikosoft.com/

EZ CD Audio Converter
The most stable, easy-to-use, and comprehensive multi format audio file converter optimized for best sound quality.

Free 21 day trial.

I have the paid version used it for years really excellent and still updated..

[B17NNS]

As above, dbPoweramp is what you want.

When you’ve done that download the trial of Roon. You won’t look back.

[jet_noise]

mike_knott said:

I used eac when i ripped my collection about 10 years ago. No complaints.

DBPoweramp was much talked about at the time as it handles tagging, cover art, conversion, etc. as well so you might want to look into that as well.

Definitely use flac; wav does not support tagging very well. (Other lossless formats are available. Any would do as long as it supports tagging. Once you have done your initial rips, you can easily convert between lossless formats.)

Definitely have several backups in more than one location. You will get an hour into ripping and then realise you really wouldn't want to do it again if you lost it all.

Mike...

EAC also "handles" tagging, cover art & conversion.
I've not used Dbpoweramp so cannot comment on relative user friendliness (or hostiity!).

[DocJock]

peterperkins said:

https://www.poikosoft.com/

EZ CD Audio Converter
The most stable, easy-to-use, and comprehensive multi format audio file converter optimized for best sound quality.

Free 21 day trial.

I have the paid version used it for years really excellent and still updated..

This. I have used the paid for version on a multitude of machines over many years. It really is excellent.

[C&C]

Looks like you're already using DBPoweramp so that will do you fine.

I've used Exact Audio Copy (EAC) in the past to rip around 700 CDs with no problem, then when moved over to a Mac, as EAC isn't available, I've been using DBPoweramp since (for another 500 CDs) and it's also very good with better handling of album art etc, so basically on a Windows platform I'd recommend either but DBPoweramp has the edge.