Best CD Ripping Software

the_Grinch

A guy I work with has a large number of cds that he would like to rip to mp3. I use Pandora and Google Music so have been out of the loop with cd ripping for sometime now. Ultimately he'll need something that is simple to use, but pulls off any metadata on the CD along with possibly getting the album art as well. What would everyone suggest he use? He's willing to pay for software as well so doesn't need to be something free. Thanks in advance!

stryder144

I might be a bit lazy but I use iTunes. Just set the output to mp3 (I use 320kbps encoding). Occasional issues with the metadata, so I use mp3tag to clean that up.

yoba222

What's a CD?

Seriously though, I think all the major music apps on Linux do this, like Clementine or Amarok, for example. I think VLC does too. I'm so out of the MP3 loop nowadays and I think there may be a better file format than mp3 too.

DZA_

I've haven't used to use a CD ripper in a long time but back when I was using it I was using EAC (Exact Audio Copy). It's used among the audiophile community along with the average individual. It's relatively easy to setup, there are simple guides as well as tweaks that you can configure to have a better rip. Depends on how many CDs your coworker has, you can even it configured as to perform a CRC check + error handling against the media.

If it's too much of a trouble, I can recommend either DBPowerAmp or Foobar2000 to rip then use MusicBrainz software to add the metadata afterwards. Adding the metadata through MusicBrainz is quick and their database is incredibly large that you can add metadata based on type of music release it was.

Ref: https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Comparison_of_CD_rippers

jcundiff

I would vote for EAC as well, all the tape trading (CDs as well) communities use it as the defacto standard tool to copy .shn .flac and other lossless formats as well as ripping CDs. And it is free

Exact Audio Copy