The program's interface is attractive and intuitive, with graphical buttons representing its major features. We inserted a CD and the program immediately connected to the MusicBrainz database and grabbed the track names and other album information. Ripping the CD was as easy and choosing a destination folder and choosing from among 21 output formats. The program quickly ripped the tracks and saved them appropriately. To be honest, Express Rip doesn't have a ton in the way of features; users can adjust the encoder settings if they want, and the program gives users a choice between MusicBrainz and FreeDB for album information. There are a few other basic items that can be customized, and that's about it. But we don't love Express Rip for its multitude of features; we love it because it's easy to use and does what it's supposed to do, which is a lot more than we can say for many similar programs. It also has an online Help file that is well-written and thorough, another rarity. We think this program is a great choice for users who need a basic but well-designed CD ripper.
Express Rip is free. The program installs a desktop icon without asking and leaves a folder behind upon removal. We highly recommend this program to all users.
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What do you need to know about free software?
You've probably discovered that most software media players are limited as to what they can do. Using a dedicated burning program gives you the flexibility to burn audio, data, and video files to CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs.
Burning media in this way opens up a lot of possibilities for using and storing your digital media. Whether you are looking for a simple program just to burn CDs or something with a little more oomph to it, you may find it in the software programs listed here. They were selected specifically for their ease of use and variety of features when dealing with digital media.
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CDBurnerXP
What We Like
Focuses on the basics.
Verifies data after burning disc.
Can create a bootable disc.
User-friendly interface
What We Don't Like
Not many extra features.
Requires Microsoft .NET Framework.
Not useful for media editing.
CDBurnerXP supports burning to several types of optical media discs, including DVD, CD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray. You can burn audio CDs or data CDs in MP3, AAC, OGG, WAV, FLAC, ALAC, and other formats. CDBurnerXP can be installed on most versions of Windows and offers a user-friendly multilanguage interface.
A neat feature of CDBurnerXP is its ability to directly add tracks to your compilation from audio CDs without having to rip the tracks first. This free burning software program also comes with a convenient integrated audio player to play your music.
The software includes a feature to burn and create ISO files to CD. An ISO file is a single file that is a perfect replica of a CD or DVD.
CDBurnerXP is compatible with Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2003, XP, and 2000.
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BurnAware Free
What We Like
Offers a wide range of optical disc utility tools.
Attractive and easy-to-use interface.
Many features included in the free version.
What We Don't Like
Limited Blu-ray options.
Does not integrate with context menu.
No disc-to-disc copying option in the free version.
Available for Windows operating systems, hassle-free BurnAware Free is an optical disc authoring program that supports CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. It handles a wide array of audio formats as well. This lightweight but functional program supports MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC, WAV, OGG, and M4A.
The clean interface is easy to use. The software supports high DPI monitors and low CPU usage.
If you have files in the ISO format, this program supports disk-image burning to DVDs and CDs. The program is also capable of creating video DVDs, which can then be played on a standard DVD player or games console such as Xbox One or PS4.
BurnAware is available in a free version and paid Premium and Pro editions.
All versions of BurnAware software are compatible with Windows 10 (32- and 64-bit), 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.
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Free Audio CD Burner
What We Like
Decodes and writes compressed audio formats on the fly.
Handles most audio formats including MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG, and FLAC.
What We Don't Like
Attempts to install a spammy toolbar during the installation.
Limited to one purpose: burning audio CDs.
If you only want a simple program to create audio CDs, you won’t go wrong with Free Audio CD Burner. Even though it only supports the writing of CDs, it can decode MP3 and WMA files in real time, thus saving time and hard drive space. Free Audio CD Burner supports an enormous variety of audio formats.
It burns CD-R and CD-RW discs and erases information from rewriteable discs. You can set it to write one track at a time and leave the disc unfinalized or use it to burn an entire disc at once and finalize it.
Free Audio CD Burner is compatible with Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP SP3.
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DeepBurner Free
What We Like
Easy-to-use interface.
Prints DVD labels and booklets.
Can make discs from ISO images.
What We Don't Like
No support for Blu-ray.
No backup utility in free version.
Few extra options.
DeepBurner Free software is lightweight but powerful software designed for the home user. You can copy any disc, make backups, burn data CDs and DVDs, and burn audio CDs. The software creates and burns ISO images and provides bootable CD/DVD support.
A paid version of the software, DeepBurner Pro, is designed for advanced and business users.
DeepBurner Free works on Windows 8, 7, Vista, and XP and is compatible with all CD/DVD drives.
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K3b
What We Like
Rips audio and video CDs and video DVDs.
Formats rewritable discs.
Supports plug-ons and themes.
What We Don't Like
Overwhelming interface.
Tricky installation unless KDE is installed.
Linux users appreciate K3b (from KDE Burn Baby Burn) software. This open-source software burns data and video CDs and DVDs and audio CDs, Blu-ray discs, and rewriteable CDs. Use it to set up a multisession CD or work with video authoring.
Plug-ins are available for WAV, MP3, FLAC, and Ogg Vorbis formats for audio decoding. Write audio CDs on the fly without decoding them to WAV.
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InfraRecorder
What We Like
Supports recording on most CD and DVD formats including dual-layer discs.
Offers several ways to erase rewritable discs.
Simple interface.
What We Don't Like
Does not support HD-DVD or Blu-ray discs.
Lacks advanced features.
Last updated in 2011.
InfraRecorder supports recording audio and data tracks in WAV, WMA, OGG, MP3 and iOS files to CDs and DVDs. (The MP3 plugin is downloaded separately). This software's last update occurred in 2011, but it is an excellent choice for computers that are running older versions of Windows.
InfraRecorder is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP, and 2000.
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WinX DVD Author
What We Like
Combines video files, camcorder and webcam footage, and YouTube video into one DVD.
Generates DVD menu and subtitles.
Compatible with PAL and NTSC formats.
What We Don't Like
Isn't useful for working with audio CDs.
Doesn't support some MP4 files.
Slow to launch.
WinX DVD Author is specifically for creating video DVDs, but it includes some data disc tools. However, if you are looking for audio CD creation, you need to look elsewhere.
Win DVD Author includes a tool for downloading videos from YouTube and basic video editing tools and options for personalizing the DVD title menu and chapter menus.
This free software is fast, and its output quality is high.
WinX DVD Author is compatible with Windows 10 (32 and 64 bit) and lower.
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DVDStyler
What We Like
Good replacement for Windows DVD Maker.
Supports drag and drop.
Easy to make title screen and chapters.
What We Don't Like
Attempts to install malware toolbar and browser hijacker. Choose program only.
Some customization features are buggy.
DVDStyler specializes in one thing: burning videos to disc. It doesn't provide audio or data disc support. It focuses solely on video DVDs and photo slideshows and the interactive menus that accompany them.
This reliable DVD burner is easier to use than some of the alternatives while offering customizing options for backgrounds, buttons, text, images and other graphics.
DVDStyler is free cross-platform software for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
When you want to archive your CD collection, you can just rip the tracks using Windows Explorer or your regular media player. However, the quality of those files will never be as good as the original discs due to errors when data is read, and compression when it’s encoded. That's why you need a dedicated CD ripper.
Ideally, archived audio files should be as close to the original CD as possible, with complete and accurate metadata, encoded in a lossless format (usually Free Lossless Audio Codec, or FLAC). This requires a lot of space, the cost of which would once have been prohibitive, but the plummeting price of storage makes it feasible to keep those files as a backup, and make copies for everyday use. You can also encode copies using lossy codecs for playback on devices with limited storage.
A 'secure' CD ripper ensures audio files are free from errors by reading each sector of the disc several times, and comparing the results with data collected from other users. There aren’t many of these tools around, and here we’ve picked the CD rippers we’d trust with our own tunes.
Are CD rippers legal?
Although every Windows PC comes with software for backing up CDs, it's not legal everywhere. For example, in 2014, UK copyright law was changed to make legalize personal backups, but that decision was overturned by the High Court in 2015. Make sure you check out intellectual property law in your country before you start ripping.
1. Exact Audio Copy
The best free CD ripper for Windows if you have time to invest in the setup
Usually we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to software, with dozens of programs approaching the same task from different angles. When it comes to CD rippers, however, there are only two programs we recommend – one free, and one premium (but still reasonably priced).
Exact Audio Copy is the free option, and it's so good, many audiophiles prefer it to its paid-for counterpart. It takes a while to set up, so we've put together a full guide to get you started.
EAC employs a technology called AccurateRip, which uses data from users around the world to detect whether your rips are totally free from errors. No CD or DVD drive is perfect, and many will insert periods of silence into audio tracks where errors occur, so this verification is essential for making 1:1 copies of your discs.
EAC can also find metadata for your music from four different sources (complete with album art), rename files automatically, and normalize audio as it's processed. If you have the time to invest, you couldn't wish for more.
2. dbPowerAmp
A premium CD ripper that makes archiving and encoding music a breeze
dBpoweramp is a premium CD ripper (a license for a single PC costs $39/£31/AU$39), but you can try it free for 21 days to make sure it's the tool for you before buying.
dBpoweramp's main advantage over Exact Audio Copy is its clear interface, which helps simplify the process of ripping your discs. Otherwise, it’s very similar; it uses the same AccurateRip technology to ensure your files are as close as possible to the original CD, scanning and re-scanning for errors, and comparing the results with data from other users.
dBpoweramp uses all your CPU cores simultaneously for the fastest possible encoding, and can encode to multiple formats at once, saving you the effort of converting files for playback on other devices.
dBpoweramp also includes an audio converter, with batch support for encoding files en masse – very useful if you need copies in a different format for a new device, or your everyday playback files have become lost or damaged.
(Redirected from Dvd ripper)
Ripping is extracting all or parts of digital contents from a container. Originally it meant to rip music out of Amiga games. Later the term was used to extract WAV or MP3 format files from digital audio CDs, but got applied as well to extract the contents of any media, most notably DVD and Blu-ray discs.
Despite the name, neither the media nor the data is damaged after extraction. Ripping is often used to shift formats, and to edit, duplicate or back up media content. A rip is the extracted content, in its destination format, along with accompanying files, such as a cue sheet or log file from the ripping software.
To rip the contents out of a container is different from simply copying the whole container or a file. When creating a copy, nothing looks into the transferred file, nor checks if there is any encryption or not, and raw copy is also not aware of any file format. One can copy a DVD byte by byte via programs like the Linux dd command onto a hard disk, and play the resulting ISO file just as one would play the original DVD.
To rip contents is also different from grabbing an analog signal and re-encoding it, as it was done with early day CD-ROM drives not capable of digital audio extraction (DAE). Sometimes even encoding, i.e. digitizing audio and video originally stored on analog formats, such as vinyl records is incorrectly referred to as ripping.
2Legality
2.2Europe
2.3North America
2.4Oceania
3Opinions of ripping
Ripping software[edit]
A CD ripper, CD grabber or CD extractor is a piece of software designed to extract or 'rip' raw digital audio (in format commonly called CDDA) from a compact disc to a file or other output. Some all-in-one ripping programs can simplify the entire process by ripping and burning the audio to disc in one step, possibly re-encoding the audio on-the-fly in the process.
For example, audio CDs contain 16-bit, 44.1 kHz LPCM-encoded audio samples interleaved with secondary data streams and synchronization and error correction info. The ripping software tells the CD drive's firmware to read this data and parse out just the LPCM samples. The software then dumps them into a WAV or AIFF file, or feeds them to another codec to produce, for example, a FLAC or MP3 file. Depending on the capabilities of the ripping software, ripping may be done on a track-by-track basis, or all tracks at once, or over a custom range. The ripping software may also have facilities for detecting and correcting errors during or after the rip, as the process is not always reliable, especially when the CD or the drive containing the CD itself is damaged or defective.
There are also DVD rippers which operate in a similar fashion. Unlike CDs, DVDs do contain data formatted in files for use in computers. However, commercial DVDs are often encrypted (for example, using Content Scramble System/ARccOS Protection), preventing access to the files without using the ripping software's decryption ability, which may not be legal to distribute or use. DVD files are often larger than is convenient to distribute or copy to CD-R or ordinary (not dual-layer) DVD-R, so DVD ripping software usually offers the ability to re-encode the content, with some quality loss, so that it fits in smaller files.
Legality[edit]
When the material being ripped is not in the public domain, and the person making the rip does not have the copyright owner's permission, then such ripping may be regarded as copyright infringement. However, some countries either explicitly allow it in certain circumstances, or at least don't forbid it. Some countries also have fair use-type laws which allow unauthorized copies to be made under certain conditions. As mentioned above, circumventing copy protection mechanisms, such as the encryption used on most commercial DVDs, may also be illegal in many countries.
Asia[edit]
Europe[edit]
A directive of the European Union allows its member nations to instate in their legal framework a private copy exception to the authors and editors rights. If a member State chooses to do so, it must also introduce a compensation for the copyright holders. Most European countries, except for Norway, have introduced a private copying levy that compensates the owners directly from the country's budget. In 2009 the sum awarded to them was $55 million. In all but a few of these countries (exceptions include the UK and Malta), the levy is excised on all machines and blank materials capable of copying copyrighted works.
Under the directive, making copies for other people is forbidden, and if done for profit can lead to a jail sentence.
Netherlands[edit]
In the Netherlands, citizens are allowed to make copies of their legally bought audio and video. This contains for example CD, SACD, as well as DVD and Blu-Ray. These copies are called 'home copies' and may only be used by the ripper. Public distribution of ripped files is not allowed.
Spain[edit]
In Spain, anyone is allowed to make a private copy of a copyrighted material for oneself, providing that the copier has accessed the original material legally.
United Kingdom[edit]
Private copying of copyrighted material is illegal in the United Kingdom.[1] According to a 2009 survey, 59% of British consumers believed ripping a CD to be legal, and 55% admitted to doing it.[2][3]
In 2010, the UK government sought input on modernizing copyright exceptions for the digital age, and commissioned the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth. The review asserted that a private copying exception was overdue, citing that users were unaware of what was even legally allowed, and that a copyright law where 'millions of citizens are in daily breach of copyright, simply for shifting a piece of music or video from one device to another' was not 'fit for the digital age'.[4] The review recommended, among other things, that the government consider adopting the EU Copyright Directive's recommendation that member states enact an exception for private, noncommercial copying so long as the rights holders receive 'fair compensation.' Other EU member states chose to implement the exception paired with a tax on music purchases or widely varying levies on copying equipment and blank media.[4][5] However, the Review reasoned that no such collections are necessary when implementing a copyright exception for format-shifting:
The UK has a thriving market for personal media devices which rely on private copying. We see no economic argument for adding an extra charge to these devices in order to authorise reasonable private acts which are part of the normal use of devices. Indeed, without that copying, normal use of those devices would be largely restricted to playing music or films bought online. We are not aware of strong evidence of harm to rights holders done by this kind of private copying in the normal course of using digital equipment to play works. There is considerable evidence of overall public benefits from consumer use. [..] The Review favours a limited private copying exception which corresponds to what consumers are already doing. As rights holders are well aware of consumers’ behaviour in this respect, our view is that the benefit of being able to do this is already factored into the price that rights holders are charging. A limited private copying exception which corresponds to the expectations of buyers and sellers of copyright content, and is therefore already priced into the purchase, will by definition not entail a loss for right holders.[4]
In August 2011, the government broadly accepted the recommendations of the Hargreaves Review.[6] At the end of 2012, the government published 'Modernising Copyright', a document outlining specific changes the government intends to make, including the Hargreaves-recommended exception for private, noncommercial copying.[7]
Following each milestone in the reform process, press reports circulated that ripping non-DRM-protected CDs and DVDs was no longer illegal. However, the actual legislation to implement the changes is not yet in force; the Intellectual Property Office had only begun seeking review of draft legislation in June 2013,[4][8] and the resulting Statutory Instruments (SIs) weren't laid out for Parliamentary approval until March 27, 2014, and weren't actually approved until July 14 (Commons)[9] and July 27 (Lords);[10] with an effective date of October 1, 2014.[11] Anticipating approval, the Intellectual Property Office published a guide for consumers to explain the forthcoming changes and to clarify what would remain illegal.[12] The private copying exception may seem to conflict with the existing Copyright Directive prohibition on overriding or removing any DRM or TPM (technical protection measures) that are sometimes used on optical media to protect the content from ripping.[4] However, the 'Modernising Copyright' report makes clear that any workarounds to allow access will not involve a relaxation of the prohibition.[7]
On 17 July 2015, the private copying exemption was overturned by the High Court of Justice following a complaint by BASCA, Musicians' Union, and UK Music, making private copying once again illegal. The groups objected to the exclusion of a compensation scheme, presenting evidence contradicting an assertion that an exemption would cause 'zero or insignificant harm' to copyright holders and thus did not require compensation.[1][13]
Free Cd Ripping Software For Windows 7
North America[edit]
United States[edit]
U.S. copyright law (Title 17 of the United States Code) generally says that making a copy of an original work, if conducted without the consent of the copyright owner, is infringement. The law makes no explicit grant or denial of a right to make a 'personal use' copy of another's copyrighted content on one's own digital media and devices. For example, space shifting, by making a copy of a personally owned audio CD for transfer to an MP3 player for that person's personal use, is not explicitly allowed or forbidden.
Existing copyright statutes may apply to specific acts of personal copying, as determined in cases in the civil or criminal court systems, building up a body of case law. Consumer copyright infringement cases in this area, to date, have only focused on issues related to consumer rights and the applicability of the law to the sharing of ripped files, not to the act of ripping, per se.
Canada[edit]
The Copyright Act of Canada[14] generally says that it is legal to make a backup copy of any copyrighted work if the user owns or has a licence to use a copy of the work or subject-matter as long as the user does not circumvent a technological protection measure[15] or give any of the reproductions away. This means that in most cases, ripping DVDs in Canada is most likely illegal.[16]
Oceania[edit]
Australia and New Zealand[edit]
In Australia[17] and New Zealand[18] a copy of any legally purchased music may be made by its owner, as long as it is not distributed to others and its use remains personal. In Australia, this was extended in 2006[19] to also include photographs and films.
Opinions of ripping[edit]
Recording industry representatives have made conflicting statements about ripping.
Executives claimed (in the context of Atlantic v. Howell) that ripping may be regarded as copyright infringement.[20] In oral arguments before the Supreme Court in MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.', MGM attorney Don Verrilli (later appointed United States Solicitor General by the Obama administration), stated: 'The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it's been on their Website for some time now, that it's perfectly lawful to take a CD that you've purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod. There is a very, very significant lawful commercial use for that device, going forward.'[21]
Nevertheless, in lawsuits against individuals accused of copyright infringement for making files available via file-sharing networks, RIAA lawyers and PR officials have characterized CD ripping as 'illegal' and 'stealing'.[20][22][23]
Asked directly about the issue, RIAA president Cary Sherman asserted that the lawyers misspoke, and that the RIAA has never said whether it was legal or illegal, and he emphasized that the RIAA had not yet taken anyone to court over that issue alone.[22]
Fair use[edit]
Although certain types of infringement scenarios are allowed as fair use and thus are effectively considered non-infringing, 'personal use' copying is not explicitly mentioned as a type of fair use, and case law has not yet established otherwise.
Personal copying acknowledgments[edit]
According to Congressional reports, part of the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) of 1992 was intended to resolve the debate over home taping. However, 17 USC 1008, the relevant text of the legislation, didn't fully indemnify consumers for noncommercial, private copying. Such copying is broadly permitted using analog devices and media, but digital copying is only permitted with certain technology like DAT, MiniDisc, and 'audio' CD-R—not with computer hard drives, portable media players, and general-purpose CD-Rs.
The AHRA was partially tested in RIAA v. Diamond Multimedia, Inc.,[24] a late-1990s case which broached the subject of a consumer's right to copy and format-shift, but which ultimately only ascertained that one of the first portable MP3 players wasn't even a 'digital recording device' covered by the law, so its maker wasn't required to pay royalties to the recording industry under other terms of the AHRA.
Statements made by the court in that case, and by both the House and Senate in committee reports about the AHRA, do interpret the legislation as being intended to permit private, noncommercial copying with any digital technology. However, these interpretations may not be binding.
In 2007, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a government office which requires business to engage in consumer-friendly trade practices, has acknowledged that consumers normally expect to be able to rip audio CDs. Specifically, in response to the Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal, the FTC declared that the marketing and sale of audio CDs which surreptitiously installed digital rights management (DRM) software constituted deceptive and unfair trade practices, in part because the record company 'represented, expressly or by implication, that consumers will be able to use the CDs as they are commonly used on a computer: to listen to, transfer to playback devices, and copy the audio files contained on the CD for personal use.'[25]
A DVD ripper is a computer program that facilitates copying the content of a DVD to a hard disk drive. They are mainly used to transfer video on DVDs to different formats, to edit or back up DVD content, and to convert DVD video for playback on media players and mobile devices. Some DVD rippers include additional features such as Blu-ray support, DVD and Blu-ray Disc decryption, copy protection removal and the ability to make discs unrestricted and region-free. While most DVD rippers only convert video to highly compressed MP4 video files, there are other rippers that can convert DVDs to higher quality compressed video. These types of DVD rippers are used by the television and film industry to create broadcast quality video from DVD. Video ripped by these professional DVD rippers is an exact duplicate of the original DVD video.
Circumvention of DVD copy protection[edit]
In the case where media contents are protected using some effectivecopy protection scheme, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 makes it illegal to manufacture or distribute circumvention tools and use those tools for infringing purposes. In the 2009 case RealNetworks v. DVD CCA,[26] the final injunction reads, 'while it may well be fair use for an individual consumer to store a backup copy of a personally owned DVD on that individual's computer, a federal law has nonetheless made it illegal to manufacture or traffic in a device or tool that permits a consumer to make such copies.'[27] This case made clear that manufacturing and distribution of circumvention tools was illegal, but use of those tools for non-infringing purposes, including fair use purposes, was not.
The Library of Congress periodically issues rulings to exempt certain classes of works from the DMCA's prohibition on the circumvention of copy protection for non-infringing purposes. One such ruling in 2010 declared, among other things, that the Content Scramble System (CSS) commonly employed on commercial DVDs could be circumvented to enable non-infringing uses of the DVD's content.[28] The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) hailed the ruling as enabling DVD excerpts to be used for the well-established fair-use activities of criticism and commentary, and for the creation of derivative works by video remix artists.[29] However, the text of the ruling says the exemption can only be exercised by professional educators and their students, not the general public.
See also[edit]
Telecine (copying), a copy of a film created with a telecine.
References[edit]
^ ab'Ripping CDs and movies for personal use is once again illegal in UK'. Ars Technica. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
^'UK 'has the worst copyright laws''. BBC News. 2009-04-15. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
^'UK has worst copyright laws – 'by far''. Consumer Focus. 28 July 2009. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
^'House of Commons Votes and Proceedings'. 14 July 2014. (at item 10).
^'Copyright and Rights in Performances (Personal Copies for Private Use)'. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Lords. 29 July 2014. col. 1553–1582.
^The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Personal Copies for Private Use) Regulations 2014, ISBN978-0-11-111603-6
^'Exceptions to copyright: Guidance for consumers'(PDF). March 2014.
^'High court quashes regulations allowing people to copy CDs'. The Guardian. 17 July 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
^Section 29.24 of the Copyright Act of Canada
^Section 41 of the Copyright Act of Canada
^Toronto Star - Ripping your DVDs: It's a tricky issue, legally speaking
^Australian Copyright Act 1968 - Section 109A: Copying sound recordings for private and domestic use
^New Zealand Copyright Act 1994 - Section 81A: Copying sound recording for personal use
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ripping&oldid=898758844'
If you haven’t ripped your music CDs to audio files on your computer yet, it’s not too late. All it takes is a CD drive and a bit of time. When you’re done, your physical music collection will become your digital music collection.
You can then listen to that music on your computer or copy it over to your smartphone. There are even many free services that will let you store that music online and stream it from anywhere.
Get a CD Drive
RELATED:How to Put Your Music Collection Online and Access It From Any Device
Many modern laptops — and even desktop PCs — no longer include CD drives. If your computer of choice includes a CD drive, you’re good to go. (DVD drives double as CD drives, of course.)
If you don’t have a CD drive in your computer, that’s also not a problem. You can buy CD drives that connect to a laptop or any other computer over USB. You can buy external CD and DVD drives for as little as $12 on Amazon. Once you have that drive, you can keep it on hand and use it whenever you need to use a CD or DVD on a computer that doesn’t have a CD drive.
Choose Your Ripping Software
You’ll now need to choose the ripping software you want to use. Many popular programs you already use have CD-ripping capabilities. iTunes on Macs and PCs has this built in — by default, when you insert a CD while iTunes is running, it will ask to “Import” the CD into iTunes, ripping the music on it into digital files. Encoding settings can be controlled by clicking the “Import Settings” button in the iTunes Preferences window.
Windows Media Player also has this built in and is even still included by default on Windows 10. Launch Windows Media Player and you’ll be able to use the “Rip” button to rip the files on it to your computer. Fl studio 12 5 torrent. But you’re probably better off using iTunes or one of the more advanced programs below than Windows Media Player. If you do use Windows Media Player, make sure you don’t rip to WMA files and ensure copy protection is disabled so you don’t create DRM’d files that are limited in how you can use them.
Just using iTunes — or even Windows Media Player — will probably be fine for most people. But, if you want more control and advanced options, more advanced tools are also available.
Many audiophiles swear by Exact Audio Copy on Windows, also known as EAC, which incorporates advanced error correction features for near-perfect rips. You’ll also need to download the LAME MP3 encoder separately and provide it to EAC. CDex may not work quite as well as EAC, but may be simpler to use. Mac users should probably try Max, which also incorporates error-reduction features. LAME is the best-in-class MP3 encoder, and EAC, CDex, and Max can all use it.
Pick a Format and Bitrate
RELATED:What Are the Differences Between MP3, FLAC, and Other Audio Formats?
When ripping discs, you’ll need to choose a format and bitrate. Different formats have different compatibility — MP3 is the most compatible with the widest variety of devices, but AAC is more efficient and produces smaller files at the same quality level.
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You’ll also need to choose a bitrate, or quality level — higher quality levels mean larger files. Some types of audio files are “lossless” and offer the maximum sound quality at the expense of larger file sizes. The open-source FLAC and Apple’s Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) are examples of this.
This part of the decision is up to you. People who don’t care about file sizes and just want to archive their music collection at the highest quality level prefer to rip music into lossless FLAC or ALAC files for archival purposes — after all, you can always use an audio conversion tool to make smaller MP3 or AAC files from those, if necessary. But there’s no going from a lossy MP3 or AAC file to a lossless file — you’d have to re-rip the original discs to get those.
If you just want to rip to a collection that sounds good and will play on almost everything, MP3 is probably the best bet. When ripping to MP3s, you’ll probably want to use the LAME encoder and pick 256 kbps VBR as your quality setting — that’s what most people seem to recommend these days.
Free Cd Ripping Software For Pc
If you primarily use Apple software and devices, AAC or Apple Lossless is certainly a fine option that will work for you. Even Android smartphones play AAC files — but not every device does.
Tag Your Songs Automatically
The ripping program you’re using should be able to detect the discs you’ve inserted, look them up online, and automatically fill in the appropriate tags for each song — artist name, album name, track title, release year, and so on — for you. iTunes has this built in, and it’s named “Automatically retrieve CD track names from the Internet.”
Depending on the program you use, you may need to tweak your metadata provider settings and confirm that program is automatically tagging your music for you. This will save you a lot of time.
You may also want to modify the folder and file naming schemes. iTunes handles this for you by adding the ripped music into your iTunes library folder, but programs like EAC and CDex give you more control.
Be sure to back up your music collection once you’ve ripped it — onto an external hard drive, for example. You won’t want to go through the entire process again if your hard drive ever dies and you lose the files.