A Million Little Pieces Of My Mind

Music

Ripping CDs

By: Paul S Cilwa Posted: 2/26/2008 Page Views: 7,370
Hashtags: #WindowsMediaPlayer #MP3s #Ripping #Music #Techniques
A quick tutorial on how to rip tracks from your own CDs.
Estimated reading time: 1 minute(s) (226 words)

So pick one of your CDs. (If it's clean and shiny the rip will take a few minutes; if it's scratched, it will take longer as your computer attempts to use error checking on the disk to recreate the missing data.)

Next, you need a computer program to do the ripping. There are many programs that do this; and most of them are free. We'll look at two; but first, don't neglect the possibility that your computer came bundled with commercial CD-ripping software. Although the screenshots won't match anything I can show you, the concepts and terms will be similar.

First of all, there's Windows Media Player. At the time of this writing (2008), version 11 is current. It comes with Windows. (Update: Window Media Player 11 is the last version that will run on Windows 7; Windows Media Player 12 is designed for Windows 10. Windows Media Player 11 also cannot encode to FLAC; its only uncompressed format is WAV.)

Now, there isn't a thing wrong with Windows Media Player. Well, maybe a couple of minor annoyances. But my point is, some people don't use it, at least for ripping, and prefer not to. That's fine; there are plenty of free and ad-supported rippers available out there. I happen to like one called SpeSoft Free CD Ripper.

Instructions for each are linked below.

Ripping a CD with SpeSoft

By: Paul S Cilwa Posted: 8/27/2017 Page Views: 4,054
Hashtags: #Music #Ripping #SpeSoftFreeCDRipper
Complete instructions on how to use SpeSoft Free CD Ripper to safely and legally back up your CDs.
Estimated reading time: 5 minute(s) (1143 words)

Windows comes with a CD ripping application (Windows Media Player); most computers come with bundled CD and DVD-ripping software. But many people prefer not to use either of these; and some of them ask me to recommend an alternative ripping program. The one I use, personally, is called SpeSoft Free CD Ripper. Unlike the aforementioned apps, SpeSoft doesn't do anything else: It is written to rip audio CDs and that's all it does…but it does it very well.

Ripping a CD with Windows Media Player

By: Paul S Cilwa Posted: 8/27/2017 Page Views: 3,634
Hashtags: #Music #Ripping #WindowsMediaPlayer
Complete instruction on how to use Windows Media Player 11 to safely and legally back up your CDs.
Estimated reading time: 5 minute(s) (1166 words)

Windows Media Player 11 is a beautiful package that handles ripping CDs, editing tags, sorting your music library however fits your fancy (by title, artist, album or even song length are just some of the options), quickly locating any song, creating and playing "play lists" (your own custom list of tracks, similar to mix tapes you might once have made on cassette), and even burning custom CDs and downloading songs into your iPod or other MP3 player. Quite a curriculum vitae, no? Oh, and it also plays CDs you insert into your computer, acts as a mesmerizing display while it plays, and plays MIDI files you may have as well as displaying DVDs if you for some reason must watch Independence Day on your computer (Either full-screen, or in a little window you can cover with a spreadsheet when the boss walks by.)