What are good CD Ripping Programs?

Question

What are some good CD ripping programs for Ubuntu? Pros? Cons?

I currently use RhythmBox as my player and often will load these files into my Android phone.

Answer 1

Ubuntu Default CD Ripping Software :

To rip a CD, you will require a suitable CD-ripping application. One is installed by default on Ubuntu, and there are others available through Ubuntu's software channels.

Sound Juicer

Sound Juicer is Ubuntu's default CD-ripping application, and also has the ability to play your CDs and download track data from the Internet.

To rip a CD using Sound Juicer, simply insert an audio CD; Sound Juicer should start automatically. Alternatively, you can select Sound Juicer from Applications -> Sound & Video -> Audio CD Extractor. By default, the CD will be encoded into the OggVorbis format, a Free Format. If you wish to rip a CD to a non-free format such as MP3 or AAC, you will need to install some additional software.

Kubuntu Default CD Ripping Software :

There are two methods of ripping an Audio CD in a default installation of Kubuntu. One is using Konqueror's audiocd:/ KIO-slave and the other is KaudioCreator (KMenu->Multimedia->KaudioCreator). On inserting the Audio CD, you should be presented with the KDE Audio CD Daemon asking you what you wish to do. To use the KIO-slave method (which is relatively easier), select the 'Open in a new Window' option. Or, if you prefer using KAudioCreator, select the Extract and Encode Audio tracks option.

Using audiocd:/ to rip a CD

In Konqueror's location bar, type audiocd:/ and press enter. You should now see the tracks in the CD along with folders named Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MP3 etc. Click on the folder which corresponds to the format in which you wish to encode, eg. Ogg Vorbis.

Now, copy the tracks that you need from that folder and paste it in the desired location (/home/kubuntu in the example). The tracks are automagically ripped, encoded and copied to the location you specified!

Note: Copying speeds might not be as fast as those achieved when copying a file directly from the CD as the files are also being ripped and encoded. If you wish to modify some of the settings (like editing the tagging sytax or modifying the encoding settings), you can access it either through System Settings (KMenu->System Settings->Sound and Multimedia->Audio CD) or through KDE Control Center (kcontrol).

Using KAudioCreator

Launch KaudioCreator (Kmenu->Multimedia->KaudioCreator). It should automatically display the tracks in the disc. You can modify the settings to suit your needs (Settings->Configure KaudioCreator), and also choose an encoder. Click on the Rip Selection icon to start the Ripping and encoding process.

Other CD Ripping Software : In alphabetical order.

ABCDE

Those who want a no-nosense, fast, customizable ripping solution should try ABCDE.

And example conversion from CD to AAC/MP4:

abcde -a cddb,read,encode,tag,move,playlist,clean -d /dev/cdrom -o m4a -V -x

Asunder

Asunder is an easy-to-use, plain CD ripper that converts into MP3, OGG, FLAC, WAV, and the new open codec WavPack. Asunder is in the Ubuntu repository and can be installed with Synaptic or Software Center.

Grip

I have been using Grip until Edgy. It's very easy to use but still very configurable.

Note: Grip is no longer supported by its developers, or by Debian or Ubuntu. It has been removed from the repositories in Ubuntu 9.10.

Ripper X

To install:

sudo apt-get install ripperx

RubyRipper

RubyRipper has been recommended in many forum threads and seems to be one of Linux's best ripping solutions. Also, many feel the closest to EAC in quality of rips.

RubyRipper is not included in the default Ubuntu install and is not included in any of the repositories. Fortunately there is a DEB package available.

To install:

1.Install dependencies by typing in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install cd-discid cdparanoia flac lame mp3gain normalize-audio ruby-gnome2 ruby vorbisgain

2.Download the DEB package from here and follow the instructions.

Alternate install:

Open a terminal window and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:aheck/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rubyripper
sudo apt-get install rubyripper-gtk

Answer 2

Well, rhythmbox itself is able to rip CDs and get album data from the MusicBrainz database.

If you insert a CD, a CD icon appears in the Rhythmbox's side bar at the left. Right click it and choose "Extract to library". Make sure to have the format set to the one you want (probably MP3): Edit -> Preferences -> Music -> Preferred Format.

Answer 3

I use ABCDE that is a very good ripper :

abcde -a cddb,read,encode,tag,move,playlist,clean -d /dev/cdrom -o m4a -V -x

Answer 4

Sound Juicer works well for me. Take a look at the community docs, or project website for more info.

Answer 5

If you want quality rips, then I recommend EAC running inside of Wine.

Answer 6

I use Banshee as my audio player and it does ripping pretty damned well too. Insert the CD, it'll pull down the album contents, click copy and it rips it to the library, tags set and everything.

The format settings are a little less configurable than a dedicated ripper but I just default to FLAC and that's fine for me.

Answer 7

I love Rubyripper but this issue has me using the CLI version on 10.04. I can't post more than one link here, but there is a good overview of Rubyripper's features at the hydrogenaudio.org Knowledgebase

Answer 8

I know I'm rather late to the party, but I love using ripit on the command-line. This perl script is available in the repositories and relies on several programs such as cdparanoia, but you need to have the encoders such as flac or vorbis installed if you want to encode in those formats.

The great thing about it is that it gets all the audio CD information from CDDB or Musicbrainz so the tracks are labeled correctly. The tracks can be tagged with ID3 tags and a playlist can be created. After the rip, a properly labeled folder containing correctly labeled tracks will be found in the location specified.

There is a choice of encoders; choose -coder 1 for oggenc, -coder 2 for flac and so on; and choose the quality with -q and specify a value between 1 and 10; -q 8 will encode in 256 KBit/s. For more information see man ripit or see the Ubuntu manpage online.

A sample burn command that I use regularly is:

ripit -eject -d /dev/sr1 -coder 1 -q 8 -o ~/Music

Explanation: -d /dev/sr1 specifies the optical drive with your cd in (you can find out what it yours is with sudo lshw -c disk and install lshw if necessary); -coder 1 -q 8 is the ogg encoder with quality level 8; -o ~/Music means save the output to /home/mike/Music.

Note: if there is any hidden data on the cd inserted, you will need to note the response from ripit and then simply add 1-10 (if there are ten tracks) after /dev/sr1.