[leo5111]

free if possible but paid is ok too

 

[dbobb]

I assume you plan to use a computer... right? What OS are you using? Windows, MacOS, Linux, ChromeOS?

 

[leo5111]

Windows 10-64

 

[Roseval]

Free: EAC
Any media player supporting AccurateRip like Foobar of Musicbee

Paid: dBpoweramp (my personal favourite)
Excellent meta data as is pulls it from 4 different sources
Fast
Easy to configure (just accept the defaults)

PS: I recommend to rip to FLAC as it is lossless and has excellent tagging support.

 

[leo5111]

i have poweramp but do not see pcm as available format to encode to?

 

[dbobb]

i have poweramp but do not see pcm as available format to encode to?

There are several PCM formats. WAV and AIFF are common uncompressed formats, while FLAC and ALAC are losslessly compressed.

 

[Roseval]

There are several PCM formats.

Spot on.
Pulse Code Modulation is the principle.
Almost all digital audio is PCM (samples at a certain sample rate) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-code_modulation
My advice is to rip to a format that is lossless and has excellent tagging support so FLAC unless you are on a MAC than it will be ALAC.

 

[bigshot]

Don't just about all apps rip to WAV or AIFF? I know Apple Music (aka iTunes) does.

 

[Roseval]

No.
You simply select a output format and this could be FLAC but it can also be MP3.
Some rippers even allow you to export to multiple formats.

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

EZ CD Audio Converter - using it for more than 15 years. Very easy, fast and powerful. Wonderful meta editor.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Doesn't Windows media player have this built in, and maybe even the file explorer in Windows?

What happens if you open File Explorer and click on the CD drive and drag the files to a directory?

 

[Tex Irie]

Doesn't Windows media player have this built in, and maybe even the file explorer in Windows?

What happens if you open File Explorer and click on the CD drive and drag the files to a directory?

Windows Media Player has the functionality but the tagging can be incorrect sometimes. JRiver Media Center is pretty decent as well, Pretty easy to use, and does a lot of things playback wise that Windows Media Player doesn't do.

 

[JazzVinyl]

https://cdex.mu/

Is another free one, that it good/reliable...

 

[Steve999]

Back in the day I went through all of the above, I found the different programs fascinating and was like a kid in a candy store. Did anyone mention Foobar yet? One person at least I see. You can use an ABX plug-in with foobar too, it can be an eye opener about the tiny differences between highish-quality rips, and about how small the differences between stuff can be in general, how far removed from “night and day” or “transformational“ the differences can be.

Eventually I encoded all of my CDs, and all of my LPs that were not on CD.

In the end ITunes was my go-to.

If I had it to do over again with 20/20 hindsight I would not have done many rips at all, except for a very few out of print issues, since all I could have hoped for and much much more was in the not too distant future to be offered up by the streaming services!

 

[bigshot]

Windows Media Player has the functionality but the tagging can be incorrect sometimes.

WAV and AIFF don't really support tags I believe. You might be able to tag it in a specific app, but I don't know if it would carry over to a different one.