[Geise]

Hi all

I was wondering if it is possible to rip Cd tracks to a hard drive without resampling or losing any of the original sound? If such a thing is possible, then I am thinking about joining the dark side of computer audio

My CD Player is great, but it lacks convenience and versatility (and I can use a virtual equalizer on a pc if needed). The only thing stopping me from fully converting is that my cdp is quite good at resolving what is on a CD (relatively speaking), and as far as I know, CD music must be resampled in order to be ripped. If I can avoid this, then I don't have much reason not to go head on into upgrading my pc's audio

Any info would be appreciated

 

[IstariAsuka]

No resampling is necessary to rip CD audio to computer. The pits and valleys of CDs are equivalent to the bits of computers, both are digital, so there is no loss whatsoever.

Also, lossless audio codecs exist, allowing you to reduce the size of the files without loosing any audio information.

 

[Geise]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IstariAsuka No resampling is necessary to rip CD audio to computer. The pits and valleys of CDs are equivalent to the bits of computers, both are digital, so there is no loss whatsoever. Also, lossless audio codecs exist, allowing you to reduce the size of the files without loosing any audio information.

Ok, so what formats/methods/programs would you recommend I use to rip all my CDs to my hdd? I am a sucker for freeware apps, so If there is any way I can do this without spending money, I'm all for it

 

[Mr.Radar]

I use CDex as my ripper (in Paranoia, Full mode) with FLAC for compression. Most people use EAC as their ripper and some use Monkey's Audio as their lossless compresser. IMHO, FLAC is better than MAC in a number of ways: FLAC has better support (MAC only has Windows support while FLAC supports Windows, Linux, MacOS, and several hardware players like the Rio Karma), it's also completely open source while MAC is only partially open source, FLAC decodes faster, and FLAC is streamable. MAC's main advantage is that it's the best compressing lossless CODEC, but it's only about 5% better on average (which is maybe only one or two more CDs on the average 250 gig hard drive compared to FLAC).

Note: All the software I've mentioned is completely free and spyware free.

 

[Geise]

Thank you! I'm listening to a CDex ripped WAV as I type this. I like the fact that I can rip everything and store the CD away so I don't ruin it from daily use

Now I have to decide on what to do further with my hardware...

 

[Geise]

One more thing; I can rip Cds with Cdex, but I can't seem to burn them. If there isn't a way to burn Cds in Cdex, can you recommend a program that can? (something better than what is available in windows media player would be nice)

 

[Mr.Radar]

My reccomendation is Nero Burning ROM. It isn't free though (costs about $70)

 

[Geise]

hmm, nothankyou on that...:/ (I'd like something free if you know of any)

 

[wistily]

You can give burnatonce a try, it's free (as in beer).

 

[AdamWill]

http://www.cdburnerxp.se/ is the best free burning software I've found on Windows. Suffers from the hideous interface that seems to be the standard when making a CD burning app (*all* decent CD burning apps have horrible interfaces...this one, Nero, k3b, all ugly and impossible to use unless you already know what you're doing), but it does the job properly.

 

[Geise]

Any particular settings you recommend for highest possible burn quality?

*btw, I like its interface; nice and plain signifies a very utilitarian "jet the job done" type of feel

 

[Geise]

Damn, I can't get this thing to burn. It just sits there elapsing time saying "preparing disk" and even causes occasional lockups. Any attempt to cancel the burn causes it to not respond and cause further lockups...

 

[madman2003]

I've been using burrrn (http://www.burrrn.net/) for quite some time. Simple, supports a lot of codecs. I suggest you try it.

Madman2003.

 

[gordolindsay]

I'll second the suggestion for burrrn. It's small, easy, and quick. That's just for burning audio cd's though I think. If you need to burn any data discs or video or something like that I would really suggest Nero. It has ALOT of stuff in that you can mess around with. Granted you might not ever use half of it but it's there.

 

[AdamWill]

geise: you might try messing around with when you put the CD in the drive (either before or after you start the program). Otherwise, try any of the other suggestions; burning CDs isn't a complicated task to get right for the *software*, so any software you can find that actually works is fine.