Decent CD Ripper Program

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 30 Mar 2001 10:52 am

Any suggestions for a decent ripper program, and one that's faster than a speeding snail. I've tried (and have) several but I'm not impressed with any of them.

I have Windows Media Player 7, Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4, Music Match Jukebox (latest free version) which is worst of the bunch, and Creative Play Center 2 (SoundBlaster) which is the easiest to rip.

I've got several CD's that I'd like to take one or two songs from and combine them on one CD but I'll be on Social Security before I'm done, as slow as the programs are.

David Pennybaker · Post by **David Pennybaker** » 30 Mar 2001 11:26 am

Are you sure it's the ripping program, or is it possibly the CD-player from which you're ripping the songs? Some don't support DAE at very fast speeds.

I use AudioGrabber.
http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/

I do believe that a demo version is available still. The one I tried would only let you rip a few songs from the CD (randomly selected). Enough to judge the speed before buying it.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 30 Mar 2001 11:53 am

David, all of them basically "play" the song to rip it to a file (and then to CD).

There has to be something that will rip them faster than a 1:1.

Music Match Juke Box, registered version, claims to rip faster. But, I had a lot of problems getting the "free" version to run correctly - had to exchange several e-mails with their tech support because MMJB wouldn't detect a blank CD-R in my burner.

David Pennybaker · Post by **David Pennybaker** » 30 Mar 2001 12:14 pm

There has to be something that will rip them faster than a 1:1.

AudioGrabber can definitely "rip" faster than 1:1, IF your CD-player supports it.

I used to have a link that gave some of the DAE-speeds of common CD-players, but I don't have it handy anymore.

My Plextor 'rips' at about 12x - 16x, as I recall.

If AudioGrabber won't rip faster than 1x, it's due to your CD-player.

Note: AudioGrabber only rips the songs (and can convert to MP3). It doesn't burn them to CD.

I use Plextor's own program to rip directly from my Plextor CD-R to Plextor CD-RW.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

[This message was edited by David Pennybaker on 30 March 2001 at 12:16 PM.]

Gary Pederson · Post by **Gary Pederson** » 30 Mar 2001 10:19 pm

For what little ripping I've done, I used White Tiger, standard version. Its freeware & can be downloaded. Seems to me like it rips much faster then 1:1.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 31 Mar 2001 3:50 am

David, the audiograbber shows a lot of statistics that the others don't. I tried it and found that it is ripping at .83, which means the hardware must not be able to go any faster. I have the latest version of wnaspi32.dll, (adaptec version 6.xx) that they refer to in the help section. I tried setting the ripping speed to more than 1X and it didn't make any difference.

I'm not sure what I need to do with the hardware to make it faster?? I'll have to do some research. If anyone has any suggestions let me know.

My PC is a Compaq Presario 5170 with a 350 Mhz PII and 256Mb of ram. My Operating system is Windows ME. DMA is checked in system properties for the CD reader.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 31 Mar 2001 4:36 am

I think I've answered my own question, after doing some research. Adaptec Spin Doctor has a program to check the digital audio extraction speed of a drive. My Compaq supplied CD reader can only extract at .83! My HP CD Burner can extract at 8X.

I'll have to look at a new CD reader that will support higher speeds. CD readers are relatively cheap.

BTW, those of you that have Adaptec S/W, the site has moved. It's now at http://www.roxio.com

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 31 Mar 2001 10:19 am

Aren't you ripping to disk first? If so, do your ripping from your CD writer. My writer is much faster than my reader so I do that when I'm in a hurry. I can't burn directly from my reader to the writer anyway because the reader is too slow, so I'm forced to write to disk first. My writer does that much faster.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 31 Mar 2001 12:55 pm

Jim, after I discovered the speed difference I'm going to rip from the burner.

The Compaq PC is only two years old, and the burner 1 1/2 years old, but the crappy CD reader that Compaq supplied must be the bottom of the barrel model.

Bill Crook · Post by **Bill Crook** » 31 Mar 2001 7:55 pm

Jack...

I use a program called "Goldwave".
at about $39.00 or $49.00 bucks, it caint be beat for conversions. There isn't too many audio files I haven't been able to get to a CD.

David Pennybaker · Post by **David Pennybaker** » 31 Mar 2001 10:27 pm

0.83 x ????

Wow.

I knew that Compaq puts out some crap (I can say that, since I have owned, and still do own, Compaqs -- mainly their laptops).

But that's just ridiculous.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 1 Apr 2001 2:29 am

David, with Audiograbber that shows what the actual ripping speed is the Compaq reader actually runs closer to .4X on DAE.

The .83 is the Adaptec DAE test number.

The Compaq reader, as it turns out, does not support all the various "standard" formats. I have a "styles disk" CD that I bought from PG Music (Band in a Box) and the reader wouldn't read it and I finally wound up downloading it from their site. Since I found out about the crappy reader (and I didn't have the burner at the time) I've tried the PG Music CD in the HP burner and it reads fine in there. I've also had some intermittent problems reading data CD's with the reader that were made on my burner.

I'm going to get a newer CD reader that will handle all the formats and has a higher DAE speed. The Compaq reader will be history.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 3 Apr 2001 4:08 pm

Problem fixed. The Compq CD reader is gone. I replaced it with an ASUS CD500, 50X reader. It has a test DAE speed of 16X using the Adaptec test routine. I did one rip using AudioGrabber and did it at 17.2X.

FIONA TOMANY · Post by **FIONA TOMANY** » 5 Apr 2001 10:54 am

May I suggest Nero 5 CD Burning Rom.this is a great package. I use this of straight copying of Audio and for copying files and use Spin Doctor for vynl to cd etc. I don't seem to have any problems with it. On the subject of writing speeds I read in www.srlt.com or www.srtl.co.uk. that writng speeds above 4 do the job quickly but seriouly damage the quality of the finished product.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 7 Apr 2001 5:20 pm

Jack...now you know! The "Compaq" is to computers as "Muntz" was to TV.

(Guys who remember "Carl and Jerry" will understand.)

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 7 Apr 2001 6:31 pm

Yeah, Donny, I remember. I have a Hewlitt Packard and had it for 2 years now and not a bit of trouble, YET! I like it real well. I am going to get a external HP CD writer. I am not too up on computer stuff, so can use all the advice I can get from some of you experts.......al

Don Sulesky · Post by **Don Sulesky** » 8 Apr 2001 5:14 am

Donny,
Muntz Tv.
I thought we were the only one who owned one of those.
Now your giving your age away.
Don