Ripping

Ripping is transferring the content of a CD to a hard disk.

In general ripping requires 2 stages:

1. ripping your entire CD collection
2. re-ripping it because now you have found out how to do it rightly

Ripping is a bit different form making a straight copy.
The content is not only read but also transformed at the same time to an audio file format a PC can understand.

Often this is combined with tagging as the ripper looks up the CD in an online database.

Audio Format

When you rip, you have to choose an audio format.

As a hundred buys you a couple of terabytes today, I wouldn't settle for anything less than a lossless format.

I don’t think the specific file format is important as long as it is lossless.
Observe as lossless is lossless; there is plenty of software enabling you to convert from one lossless format to another lossless format without loss.

Choosing a specific lossless format won’t tie your hands.

 

Proprietary formats are often tied to a specific operating system.
As your PC runs Win, your NAS runs Linux and your smartphone Android, a format that runs on all popular OS is an asset.

Media players are using the tags to display information like album title, artist, cover art, etc.
You need a format with excellent tagging support.
This rules out WAV.

 

The format should allow for storing custom tags in the file too.
If not, you run the risk of losing a substantial amount of information the moment you migrate.

 

Media players store the Meta data in a library (a database with Meta info) and write them to the audio file if the format supports this.
If writing tags to the audio file is not supported you won’t notice the difference as what you see on the screen is the content of the library. The moment you move your audio files to another device you will notice that all information is gone.
A typical case of What You See Is Not What You Get.
This often happens with WAV and with custom tags when using proprietary formats.

 

The ideal format:

• Lossless. This allows you to migrate to any other format without generation loss.
• Extended tagging support including cover art. Best is to make an audio file self documenting by including all the information inside the file.
• Allows storing custom tags in the file. The standard tagging schemas are often a bit limited. Custom tags allows you to roll your own. If they are not stored as tags in the audio, you will lose them the moment you migrate.
• Checksum stored in the file. This allows you to verify if the audio is corrupted. Most components of computers and networks guarantee bit perfect delivery. An exception to this rule is the memory of out PC as most of the time it is not EEC memory. A couple of flaky bits might corrupt your data. It won’t happen often but it can happen.
• Wide support on Win, OSX, Linux, Android, iOS.

I’m afraid the ideal format, fulfilling all of these requirements doesn’t exist.
For me, FLAC fulfills all these requirements except “official” support by Microsoft and Apple. As I don’t use their media players (WMP, iTunes), I don’t have this problem. Besides, I don’t play lossless on my Android phone. Its DAC is to lousy and the storage to limited to play lossless on it. I simply transcode to high bitrate MP3.

Tagging

Rippers often combine the ripping with tagging, retrieving Meta data from an internet database.
How this works can be found here.
Popular sources are FreeDB and Amazon.
If you are into classical you might need a more structured database e.g. AMG or GD3.

Unfortunately you cannot choose the internet database. Either your media player support it or it doesn’t.

dBpoweramp extract information from AMG, SonataDB, Music Brains and FreeDB.

You can inspect the results and choose the one you prefer before you start to rip.

Single file or a file per track

The content of an audio CD is one long spiral ‘groove’ with pits and lands. There are no files on a CD but a table of contents telling where each track starts and end.
You can rip the CD to a single file.
You can’t tag the tracks as there are none.

The solution is a CUE sheet. This is like the TOC of a CD. It tells the media player where it can find the next track and supplies information about the name and the artist.
The down side is that you have to keep CUE sheet and audio file in sync.
If you change the name of the audio file, you have to change the name inside the CUE sheet as well.
If you move the audio file to another directory, you have to move the CUE as well.
The tags supported by CUE sheets are very limited.
The big plus is because it is a single file, it will play gapless.

Most media players today support gapless but in case of streaming audio (DLNA) gapless is often not supported.

The alternative is ripping to a file per track.
This has the advantage of full tagging support.
You can delete tracks you don’t like.
This is my personal preference.
The downside is small white spaces in live recordings or classical if the media player doesn’t support gapless.

Rip to a single folder for each CD

One might argue that the file structure is irrelevant.
Media players rely on tags to identify the audio, not on a file structure.
As long as the file is in place, it is ok.

 

Why bother about the file structure?
When things go wrong e.g. a track is missing, you are glad you have the entire CD in one folder.
You also appreciate the file names being pre-fixed with the track number.
This allows you to find out if the track is missing because the file is gone or because it is tagged wrongly.

If you are using dedicated tagging programs like MP3Tag having an entire CD in one folder is an asset. It allows you to select the entire CD from the file structure and perform an internet lookup.

 

Ripping software must store the tracks somewhere.
Most of the time this is done using rules like Root/Artist/Album.
In case of samplers, this might scatter the files as the Artist is different for each track.
Check before you rip.

In case of samplers a rule like Root/Album Artist/Album helps as “Album Artist” is often set to “Various Artists”.

 

For tracks, use a rule like Track # - Title.
If possible, use leading zeros to have them sorted correctly in the file system.
You might put a bit more info in the tile but be aware of the 256 character limit.

AccurateRip

The typical audiophile worry: “Is my rip bit perfect”?

Most of the time your rip will be fine but you don’t know for sure.
Rippers supporting AccurateRip allow you to compare your results with those of others.
This allows you to verify your results

You have to choose your ripping software.

EAC and dBpoweramp are the big names and do support AccurateRip but popular players like WMP or iTunes can do the job too (set them to secure mode).

More details about ripping can be found in the reference section.

Optical drive

Another typical question is “What is the best optical drive to rip my CDs”
The answer is often Plextor.
They do have an excellent reputation but stopped years ago making their own drives.
Today a Plextor is simple a rebadges OEM.

 

Little is known about the accuracy of optical drives from different brands.
However, there is some empirical data.

The AccurateRip database tells you if your rip is accurate or not.
It can be used the other way around too, how many rips are accurate given a certain brand/model.
The list can be found here:dBpoweramp CD Drive Accuracy List

Jitter

Will ripping add jitter to the file?

The answer is no.

Jitter (small variations in the timing) happens at two stages.
At recording time (the jitter of the clock driving the AD converter) and at playback time (the DAC).
Ripping is simply copying the bits from one digital medium (CD) to another (HD).
The timing is not a property of the data but a property of the playback device.
Asking if ripping is adding jitter is like asking if moving an LP from one shelf to another will add wow and flutter.