Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Dedicated Source Components › using the computer while ripping cds..
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

using the computer while ripping cds..

post #1 of 21
3/3/04 at 2:02am
Thread Starter 
will it mess up some songs if Im using the computer while Im ripping a CD?
Reply
post #2 of 21
3/3/04 at 2:59am

Re: using the computer while ripping cds..

Quote:
Originally posted by jeri534
will it mess up some songs if Im using the computer while Im ripping a CD?
No (if you run EAC, for example, and don't shake the CD drive) but you will notice the mp3 (or flac or whatever) encoding will slow down your CPU quite a bit.
Reply
post #3 of 21
3/3/04 at 3:35am
Thread Starter 
I'm using iTunes and encoding in AAC...

so I shouldnt worry about my having errors or anything?
Reply
post #4 of 21
3/3/04 at 3:42am
Quote:
Originally posted by jeri534
I'm using iTunes and encoding in AAC...

so I shouldnt worry about my having errors or anything?
I'm not sufficiently familiar with iTunes to comment, but I would think it should be OK. Are you running on a Windows or Mac platform?
Reply
post #5 of 21
3/3/04 at 6:55am
Ah, I didn't realize myself. I always figured if I wanted perfect recordings when ripping cds, this is good to know--now I can do homework while my CDs rip
Reply
post #6 of 21
3/3/04 at 11:51am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by Music Fanatic
I'm not sufficiently familiar with iTunes to comment, but I would think it should be OK. Are you running on a Windows or Mac platform?
Windows
Reply
post #7 of 21
3/3/04 at 2:43pm
my old computer used to lock up if i did anything else like surf the net. I would just try it out for yourself, wats a cdr cost these days? not much,
Reply
post #8 of 21
3/3/04 at 2:49pm
Quote:
Originally posted by bhd812
my old computer used to lock up if i did anything else like surf the net. I would just try it out for yourself, wats a cdr cost these days? not much,
He's talking about ripping, not burning, so the question (if I understand it right) is whether the quality of the audio file will be affected if you're using your computer while ripping the CD. The answer (as stated) is no as long as you're using a good program (EAC is highly recommended if you're a windows user).
Reply
post #9 of 21
3/3/04 at 3:31pm
whats ripping?



and sorry about the confuseeeeee
Reply
post #10 of 21
3/3/04 at 4:56pm
Quote:
Originally posted by bhd812
whats ripping?



and sorry about the confuseeeeee
It's the act of extracting an audio or data file from a cd.
Reply
post #11 of 21
3/3/04 at 5:49pm
Most ripping programs require some form of real-time response or behavior. In other words, if you want to reduce the likelihood of skips and pops, don't use your computer for anything intensive (ie: playing games) while ripping. I don't know much about Max OS X, but Windows is not the most efficient OS, not to mention IDE is just plain flaky. I think normal internet browsing, word processing, or even encoding music is ok.

If the CD has a lot of scratches or blemishes on it, the computer may need to harness more resources to reread the scratches. If you have an old cd-rom drive, the ripping process might even be made worst or impossible with poor or excess jittering. Jittering on my older computer causes the whole system to pause.

If you really need to reduce the amount of overhead ripping requires or reduce the number of pops and skips, you should try to reduce the rip speed. Nero offers a free tool to control the speed of certain CD-ROM's, however, I know EAC may not work with that tool.
Reply
post #12 of 21
3/3/04 at 5:56pm
You should be fine while ripping in iTunes and doing other tasks. You will notice a performance hit in all applications when you do this, but with a newer P4 w/Hyper-Threading you should not have any slowdown at all (provided you are running only 2 tasks).

iTunes is not as error proof as EAC to begin with, so you should get similar quality extraction under both circumstances.
Reply
post #13 of 21
3/3/04 at 10:09pm

Ripping

EAC automatically reduces the rip speed based on the CD's condition and the drive’s abilities - there is no need for a manual override. I have a dedicated machine for ripping and encoding, and it's based on the SCSI Plextor UltraPlex 40Max. That drive can rip securely up to 32X (the next closest competitor than can securely rip is the IDE Asus 52X CD-ROM, at 25X secure – it’s a great drive, especially for $20). Ripping hardly uses up any CPU in my experience, but the encoding will harness anything you can throw at it.
Reply
post #14 of 21
3/3/04 at 11:49pm
EAC does a pretty good job dynamically adjusting the rip speed. However, I found a few scratched CD's where it couldn't compensate well and gave up. I can rip those scratched CD's with no problems if I install another program where I can manually adjust the speed down to 4x rip (takes like 16 minutes to rip a full audio CD).

I think the most important piece of equipment for ripping now days is the CD-ROM. A good CD-ROM should have a reliable mechanism. It should be able to read sublminal data layers and report C2 errors.
Reply
post #15 of 21
3/4/04 at 1:10am
I rip with EAC and then encode using iTunes with 224 AAC.

As long as you set up EAC properly (lots of good tutorials out there for proper setup) with your brand of cd-rom (so the c2 error correction, correct parameters for gap detection, etc. are set properly) then even a scratched cd rips very well, with little or no errors. It may take forever, but it rips just about anything. I wouldn't use iTunes to rip because it's error handling is poor and quite unsophisticated (i.e you'll get errors in your copy). Using it to encode, however, is great!

I also agree that running other things while EAC does it's thing is ok, but I usually leave iTunes alone when encoding. I also encode the wav files to flac for archival storage, and that encoding process is VERY cpu-intensive.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Dedicated Source Components
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Dedicated Source Components › using the computer while ripping cds..