CD Ripping Software Roundup Comments

Wow, the software in this roundup seems too confusing for me! I just use FreeRIP and that works just fine for me. A good article to read alongside this one by you guys http://tinyurl.com/9lkc46.

That one in particular was really helpful.

The glaring omission from this "roundup" (which hardly deserves that appelation), is Easy CD-DA Extractor, which is by far the most full-featured and mature of the suites available. It also rates extremely highly amongst users at Download.com. And whilst Mr Andrews seems to be rather smitten with dBpoweramp, those of us who have longer memories will not forget the chequered history of that particular product.

Why no mention of Winamp? It can encode to AAC/MP3/FLAC/WMA/WAV, hooks into the Gracenote database, and its flipping good Media Player as well

Winamp is mentioned, but this is just dedicated rippers.

What great timing! I am just embarking on this kind of rip-a-thon, I tried the E.A.C. + MAREO combination but couldn't get it too work reliably. WACK looks like it could do the trick!

@Flash - Just taken a quick look at Easy CD-DA Extractor and it looks pretty good to me, but care to explain what's the matter with dBpoweramp (for those of us with no memories of its history)?

Well, dBpoweramp was originally developed as a free software project. The developers promised that it would ALWAYS be free. But the project was mismanaged, the software was half-baked, and the community abandoned it and development stalled. (Take a look at the 36 pages of overwhelmingly negative user feedback at Download.com for dBpowerAmp Audio Player 2.0.)

After several years where nothing much seemed to happen, dBpoweramp remerged as a commercial application. Whilst popular, and certainly more mature than the previous incarnation, user feedback at Download.com indicates ongoing issues with stability and performance, which belie the claims made by Illustrate on their website. Indeed, their own forums are replete with threads regarding stability issues and poor ripping performance.

I don't take kindly to projects masquerading as free software - not that I have a problem with commercial software. It's the principle of the matter.

EAC, on the other hand, is a true free software project that has stood the test of time.

My vote goes to BonkEnc. Used dBpoweramp for a while, but love BonkEnc for it's simplicity. CDs go in, MP3s go out. Job done.
I'm just stumped as to why they use a play button to start the encoding. I hover my pointer over it each time, just to check it's function!

foobar 2000 ftw !: http://www.foobar2000.org/
Lightweight,and rips and playbacks everything inlcuding flac (with separate download)

I've tried EAC and CDparanoia found them to work fine. However, I have not been able to detect any differences between the resulting FLAC files ripped with them and with humble Soundjuicer, which is the default on my main box at home. This may be down to a combination of a) being lucky with my CDs and/or keeping them in good nick and b) my hearing deteriorating with age!
I have not had any error problems ripping with either (circa 300 CDs) and my ears can't hear any sound difference playing the FLACs through my Squeezebox + Rotel amp.

CDs is fine, but what about tracks from dvd-audio, how to rip them and again burn selected ones onto dvd discs? I am really thrilled with 5.1 format of dvd-audio discs.

A couple of corrections to your review of EAC.
EAC can automatically get the CD information from Freedb, Go to the "EAC options" menu, and the "General" tab. Check "On unknown CDs" and "automatically access online freedb database"
Eac can sort ripped files into folders using a naming scheme. Go to "EAC Options" and the "Filename" tab. And enter your naming string into the input field, there are examples to show you how the naming works. The naming scheme is very flexible, you can sort the ripped files into folders for Artist, Album and name the files using track number, artist name, year etc. I have my files files ripped into a folder for Artist, then by Album name and the tracks numbered and named. Once you learn how to set the options EAC is very flexible.

Hope this helps.

badmem,

Thanks for the tips. I've been using EAC for a couple of years and been manually getting CD info and naming folders all that time.