What is ripping. Ripping what is it Recording archiving data creating a disk image
Hi all! Today we will try to figure out what ripping is and what Rip formats exist. For those whose activities are related to the processing of video materials, this information has long been known, but for beginners and amateurs in this business, the information below, I hope, will be interesting and useful. Understanding...
Everyone, I hope, already remembers the historical recordings on VHS tapes. This video format is used (more correctly, "used") on video cassettes. It should be noted that he honorably passed into the past. There are only good memories of the first expensive video recorders and exciting viewings by the whole company of some action movie with Chuck Norris or Van Damme in the title role. But times and technology are changing. And, consequently, new concepts and definitions appear. Let's find out..
What is ripping
Often, when reading the description of a video, the quality of the video is indicated in the form of an abbreviation. For example, DVD-Rip, PDTV-Rip or Cam-Rip. Knowing the designations of these letters, you can get an idea about the quality of the recording.
First, let's define what "Rip" means. No need to draw an analogy with the inscription on the tombstone "rest in peace", which means "rest in peace." Rip in translation means "to tear" or "torn from something."
Ripping (English ripping) - extracting information from the original media (video or audio) into a new file. As a rule, data is converted (compressed) for more convenient playback. Rip video is a copy from the original, usually pirated copy. Often, ripping can be attributed to video piracy.
Types of Rip Format
Cam Rip. In another way they call "screen", "CAM" or "rag". This copy is filmed on camera from the cinema screen. The screen has a disgusting picture and sound quality. Often you can hear the conversations of the audience, their coughing, sneezing, laughter. Sometimes there is a silhouette of a person passing along the cinema screen. The image may be shot at an angle and shake.
DVD rip. The most common post format. A copy of the recording from the original DVD. Often the disk size is up to 1.5 GB. Video encoding - mpeg4. The recording quality is very good. Is that inferior to the quality of rips from Blu-ray discs (BD). May be labeled Super DVD or HQ DVD (High quility).
DVD Scr. Incomplete version. This video is made for film critics. May have watermarks, links, inscriptions. Same quality as DVD-Rip.
TV Rip. This video copy is recorded with television signal, cable or antenna. Recording is done using flash cards or DVD players. The quality of video recording depends on the recording equipment. As a rule, copies are of decent quality.
Sat rip. A copy of the video is recorded from satellite television. Its quality depends on the video signal and provider. With a good signal, you can get a high-quality recording.
PDTV Rip. In English "Pure Digital Television", which means "pure digital TV". The quality of the recorded material is good. Due to the fact that the signal was not converted from analog to digital. You can add SatRip and IPTV recording to this Rip. The recording quality is good.
telecine. A copy is taken by the cinema staff from the projector. Quality may vary.
WEBDL Rip. The recording is made from the Internet broadcast. The quality is excellent. Can compete with BD-Rip.
HDTV Rip. The recording is made from the HDTV channel (High Definition Television). Therefore, there is a channel logo. The quality depends on the broadcast. Resolution 1920x1080 or 1280x720.
BD Rip. This is a copy of the files from the Blu-ray disc. To date, the highest quality films recorded on BD. They can be recorded in several layers. Up to 25 GB of materials can be placed on one layer. A movie is often over 9 GB in size. The quality is better than DVD-Rip.
BDRemux. A copy of files from a Blu-Ray disc, but already cleaned of unnecessary materials (dubbing, subtitles, translation, etc.). BDRemux is created to reduce the file size of the original disc.
Have you ever thought about the fact that we are surrounded by so many copies of pirated production? What media do you have at home?
The appearance of the first laser audio discs was greeted by music lovers ambiguously - some were delighted with the durability of the recording and admired the purity of the sound, while others, on the contrary, expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that, in their opinion, the recording on CD did not sound as “natural” as on vinyl records. Time judged this dispute and put all points over i. The invention of the compact disc turned out to be such a successful discovery that music lovers from different countries have been faithful to this sound carrier for thirty years now. Despite the huge changes that have taken place during this time in science and technology, audio discs have not given way to other music storage formats. Compact discs still make up the bulk of the music collections of music lovers from different countries.
With the development of the Internet, users global network found the opportunity to share their music library with other music lovers. At the beginning of the development of the World Wide Web, the data transfer rate was low, which contributed to the spread of music in MP3, OGG and other audio compression standards. However, as the bandwidth of the Internet connection increased, many began to prefer to exchange music in uncompressed form. And then a new problem arose before music lovers - how to create exact copy source audio disc without using lossy audio compression algorithms (MP3, etc.). At first glance, it may seem that there is nothing complicated in creating an image with digital data - if the sound is recorded in the form of a "digit", it is enough to read the information from the audio carrier and write the resulting data to a CD-R, after which an exact copy of the original disc should be obtained. . In fact, everything is somewhat more complicated. At the time when the standard for storing audio data on a laser carrier was created, there were no computers with built-in reading laser drives, so the standard for storing data on a disk did not imply a correction code and did not contain a mechanism for the most accurate positioning of the laser. The data was recorded on a disc in the form of a spiral track, following the example of vinyl records, and the playing time of the first CDs was exactly 74 minutes. When playing such a disc on the player, the laser beam is set approximately at the beginning of the first track and then the data is read. In addition, unlike the CD-R standard, an audio CD stores data in the CDDA format and does not contain a correction code to correct disc reading errors. If the data is read incorrectly during disc playback, the error may not be noticed by the user himself, due to the tiny error in the original sound. Lost or corrupted data on an audio CD can also be compensated for by the player, and an erroneous section can be replaced with information from neighboring areas on the disk. There are many utilities designed to rip data from an audio CD as one or more WAV files. By the way, if you copy an audio CD recorded "to the eyeballs", you can notice that the size of the copied data significantly exceeds the volume standard disc CD-R. This is due to the fact that the part of the disk working area, which contains service information for error correction, in the CDDA format is used for audio data. Most utilities that copy data from an audio CD do not take into account the correct positioning of the laser at the time of reading. In this case, the read drive laser discs makes an error by reading the data either not from the beginning, or not completely. If an audio rip is made in order to listen to music on a computer, there is no big trouble in an “incorrectly” read disc. The length of the lost audio data is tens of milliseconds. Even if a normal program was used that did not take into account the hardware features of the reader drive, it is unlikely that in this case a difference in sound could be heard. However, if we burn a disc based on such an erroneous copy, then rip the recording again with the wrong offset, and repeat this cycle many more times, in the end, we will come to the conclusion that reading errors on the disc tracks will be obvious. Therefore, if you want to make the most accurate copy of the disk, the data reading operation should be performed properly. First, to create audio CD images, it is best to use a program that takes into account the offset factor of the read drive laser. One such utility is Exact Audio Copy. The program is distributed free of charge, it can be downloaded. During the installation process, this program will configure the drives used.
You must select from the list of connected devices those that will be used by the reader, and then wait a few minutes without performing any actions on the computer. If your system has more than one installed drive, at the end of the setup wizard, a rating of those drives will be shown showing which drive performs best in reading discs.
One of important functions Exact Audio Copy programs - support for the Accuraterip service. This service was created specifically to ensure that the user is sure that the data that was copied from the audio disc is absolutely reliable. For this purpose, the user is prompted to read the disc, taking into account the offset, and compare his result with the results that other users have received. The more users get the same results, the higher the probability that the audio rip made is accurate. After the program is installed, it is necessary to set the correct offset for the device with which the audio data will be read. There are several ways to find out the offset parameter. The first thing to do is to look at tabular data. The same models of actuators from the same manufacturer have the same bias factor, which can be found from open sources on the Internet, for example, on the same Accuraterip website. After that, in the Exact Audio Copy program, execute the command "EAC\u003e Drive Options", go to the "Offset and Speed" tab and set the found value. If your drive is not found in the online database, you can determine the laser offset yourself. The Accuraterip database has a large number of so-called "reference" disks, using which you can test the drive and recognize it correct settings. It is enough to insert a branded disk from this database into the drive, and the program itself will offer to determine the offset of the drive used.
An incomplete list of branded discs that can be used as reference can be found in one of the sections of the Accuraterip website. In the same way that offset correction must be taken into account when reading audio data, when writing a disc, it is also important not to forget about the accuracy of the laser positioning. It is not difficult to determine the amount of offset for writing a disk. It is calculated as the difference between the combined read/write offset correction and the read offset correction. To determine the first parameter, it is enough to create a test CD using Exact Audio Copy (go to the drive settings and click the "Create Test CD" button on the "Record" tab) and use the "Define read offset correction" option on the "Offset and speed" tab to determine the combined read/write offset.
After that, the value of the read offset should be subtracted from the data provided by the program, and the result will be the write offset. We have to disappoint the biggest maximalists - in many cases, even when using the correct offset, it is impossible to get an absolutely exact bitwise copy of the disk. The fact is that not every drive allows you to record in the Lead-In or Lead-Out area. In the first case, this is necessary with a positive write offset, in the second - with a negative offset. After extracting the audio data using the correct offset value (if the disc is in the Accuraterip database), Exact Audio Copy provides a report on each track, accompanied by information about the checksums, as well as the degree of confidence in the data read. The "trust" parameter determines the number of users in the database who were able to receive a result with the same checksum that the user received.
Recently, the definition of the "authenticity" of audio material has become very relevant. It is no secret that the main source of acquaintance of amateurs with audio recordings is the Internet. It is on specialized forums and bittorrent trackers that music albums are exchanged between users. Some releases downloaded from the Web sound rather strange - even with a high bitrate, MP3 compositions do not please the ear with a clear sound. The same goes for albums presented in lossless compression formats. Flac or Ape files may also not be of adequate sound quality. The problem lies in the fact that individual users, in an effort to gain more authority and earn a higher status on a particular resource, deliberately create fakes, for example, by converting MP3s to a lossless compression format. Such deception leads to the fact that the listener has a wrong idea about the sound quality of the audio material. If you have doubts about the source material, you can try to distinguish a fake from the original. There are several ways to determine the "wrong" audio rip. The most basic way to determine the sound of an MP3 converted to WAV is a frequency spectrogram. In order to understand how to determine a “musical fake” by it, let's say a few words about the MP3 compression process itself. The essence of encoding to a lossy MP3 format is as follows. The audio signal undergoes cross-sampling - in amplitude and in time, after which these data are described by discrete Fourier transforms. Such a method of digitizing an analog signal was described (it's scary to think!) Almost eighty years ago in 1933 in the Kotelnikov theorem. This theorem says that any analog signal limited spectrum can be described with a discrete sequence of its instantaneous values following at a frequency twice the frequency of the highest harmonic of the given process. Everyone is well aware of the fact that the audio sampling rate (in our case, the sampling rate of instantaneous sound amplitude values) on an audio disc is 44.1 kHz. This figure is explained simply - due to the physiological characteristics of the human ear, audible frequency range the average person usually barely reaches 20 kHz. Doubling this frequency according to Kotelnikov's theorem, we get 40 kHz, which is the value practically used on audio CDs. The oversampling of 44.1 kHz is taken to leave a margin with respect to the theoretical limit. Half of this value (Nyquist frequency) - 22050 hertz - limits the upper frequency band up to which sound can be reproduced without distortion. When encoding to the MP3 format, losses inevitably occur, which, as mentioned above, is well observed in the frequency spectrum of the audio recording. In most cases, you have to sacrifice the range of reproducible frequencies, the limit of which depends on the original bitrate and the type of codec. Most often, you can observe a sharp cutoff of frequencies from 16 kHz. You can view the spectrogram of an audio recording in one of the audio editors, for example, in Adobe Audition. The figure below clearly shows the frequency cut around 16 kHz, which is typical for MP3 files with a low bitrate.
The same picture is observed when viewing frequency response track - a sharp blockage in frequencies is visible, which indicates a fake.
The ideal curve should extend into the high frequency region, as shown in the figure below.
Another way to identify a fake is with the free Tau Analyzer program. This utility tests the disc and determines the authenticity of the audio material from which it was recorded. The principle of determining lossy digital compression in this program is also based on the definition of blockages in frequencies. The program has eight modes of accuracy (from one - the maximum accuracy of verification, up to eight - superficial verification of authenticity). In the selected accuracy mode, it analyzes each track of the audio CD and then generates a report, determining the authenticity of the audio data in percent. If the percentage is low, the program issues a verdict to such a track - MPEG, if it is high - CDDA. After analyzing the disk, which can take up to half an hour, depending on the drive used and the accuracy mode, you can also view the spectrograms created by Tau Analyzer. They are not as detailed as Adobe Audition, however, give some idea of the reliability of the data.
Let's get back to lossless compression formats. There are many skeptics who question the need for lossless formats to store audio recordings of their favorite bands. In their opinion, most music lovers will not hear the difference between the sound of an original CD and an mp3 file that is compressed with a good codec and at a high bitrate. This statement is too categorical, but it is also impossible to say that it is wrong. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Indeed, many will not hear the difference between the original recording and the digitized mp3 track. The percentage of those who are able to instantly determine the difference in sound is very small. And yet the topic of "lossless music" remains one of the most discussed on the Internet. What's the matter? Why, if the difference in sound is so negligible, are users stubbornly trying to abandon MP3s in favor of Flac and Ape? Firstly, they are driven by simple human maximalism, the desire, even in theory, to take the sound to the maximum. And secondly, the difference in sound sometimes cuts the ear of a music lover, especially if, after repeated listening to his favorite group, he does not hear a characteristic pluck of a string, or a familiar chord does not sound expressive enough. And, of course, it is of great importance on what equipment and acoustics the recordings are listened to - it will simply be impossible to catch the difference on poor acoustics and an amplifier. If listening to a new album presented in Flac, Ape or any other lossless compression format, you are not satisfied with the sound, or you just have doubts about the authenticity of the source, you can check these files by decompressing them to WAV and viewing their spectrogram. In addition, you can use a simple utility to test files that have been losslessly compressed (it would be more correct to say - archiving). For example, you can perform a checksum check. For this purpose, it is convenient to use a small utility arcue.exe , which works from command line. To check you need to have original file WAV and an auxiliary cue markup file. The program compares the checksums of the tracks in the database and draws a conclusion from them whether the disc has been copied for sure or not. To run the check, you need to place the utility in the same directory as the pair of WAV and cue files to be checked, and then type "arcue.bat your_file.cue" in the command line. After that, a log file with approximately the following contents will appear in the directory.
In addition, there are many other applications that allow you to check audio data. For example, the Audiochecker program also tests both the discs themselves and audio rips. Moreover, this program works not only with WAV files, but also with FLAC, APE, SHN, PAC and other lossless compression standards. Audiochecker saves the user's time as it eliminates the need to decompress the compressed music each time for authentication. In addition, the program can work in batch mode, which makes it possible to check the entire audio collection at once. Despite the fact that there are quite a few methods for verifying the authenticity of an audio recording, none of them allows us to assert with absolute certainty that the conclusions drawn are correct. The fact is that there are many ways to cheat these tests. So, for example, high-frequency noise can be superimposed on a bad recording, which will mask the defects. Bad quality. Fakes made on the basis of some codecs are also poorly detected, in addition, sometimes it is difficult to detect a fake made from files with a high bitrate. It should also be noted that old recordings are often erroneously identified by programs as a converted MP3 composition. This is due to poor-quality recording of music or the absence of high frequencies on the source material, due to the specificity of the audio material. Tracks can also be identified as MP3 if it is electronic music, which was arranged using samples recorded in a compressed format.
Conclusion
The very concept of "music lover" is now distorted beyond recognition. Now everyone, using file-sharing networks, can quickly fill in their hard drives terabytes of digitized music. This is exactly what many users do when they download digitized discographies of musical artists. The number of recordings is so great that satiety sets in with music - many works will never be listened to by those who downloaded them, which, however, does not prevent the latter from classifying themselves as music lovers. A real music lover will never stoop to listening to digital music on a computer, even if it is lossless compression. The audio library of a real music lover consists mainly of original audio CDs and, possibly, vinyl records. If in the collection of such a person there is a place for unlicensed discs, then these will be exclusively rare bootlegs with unique recordings. And, of course, the most important feature of a true music lover is the love of music. He listens to it, and does not keep it in order to boast in front of friends.What is ripping? and got the best answer
Answer from Yata K[guru]
Most often, when ripping, data from the original format is converted to another one that provides a higher compression ratio (for example, audio CDs and other audio media (vinyl, radio broadcasts) are often converted to MP3, Vorbis, FLAC, WMA; video (DVD, TV shows , VHS) compress Xvid, DivX, H.264, WMV). The result is saved as one or more container files (MPEG, RIFF, Ogg, Ogg Media, MKV). Or VHS, TV shows are converted to DVD (for example, DVD5 (4.7Gb disc) or DVD9 (8.5Gb disc) for classic DVD players).
Answer from Black Cat[guru]
Ripping (from the English ripping, tear off) - the transfer of information from the carrier of audio-video information to a file.
Sometimes the term is also used for the reverse action, more commonly called "mastering" (for example, DVD mastering) or "remastering".
Usually, CDs, DVDs, video cassettes, streaming audio-video broadcasts (both in digital and analog format) serve as a source of data for rip. The main feature of a rip is the transformation of a format that is inconvenient in storage and transfer into a file that is less dependent on playback and decoding devices.
Most often, when ripping, data from the original format is converted to another one that provides a higher compression ratio (for example, audio CDs and other audio media (vinyl, radio broadcasts) are often converted to MP3, Vorbis, FLAC, WMA; video (DVD, TV shows , VHS) compress Xvid, DivX, H.264, WMV). The result is saved as one or more container files (MPEG, RIFF, Ogg, Ogg Media, MKV). Or VHS, TV shows are converted to DVD (for example, DVD5 (4.7Gb disc) or DVD9 (8.5Gb disc) for classic DVD players).
Answer from Loriket[active]
Ripping is jerky reeling, the essence of which is rhythmic jerks (waving) with the rod up and down, forcing the bait to change the horizon (depth) of the reeling, respectively, higher or lower. It is mainly used when fishing with minnow-type wobblers and loaded vibrotails, carried out in the water column.
and in your case, this is repping
All sections of the site site
Record data archiving
creating a disk image
how to burn folder files to disk
Free multifunctional program for
burning and ripping discs on your computer!
Price: Free
Rus. Language: Yes (supported)
OS: All Windows - XP/Vista/7
Burns all discs, including multilayer discs, copies and creates an image of discs. Moreover, it does not clog the registry like Nero, which is then very difficult to clean up. What else is needed? especially since many developers of such programs require a lot of money for similar work :-)
Download Ashampoo Burning software
You can download the program from the developers' website from the downloads section.
True, everything is in English there, and among a dozen languages that you can choose to display the page, there is no Russian, although there is even Polish and Magyar. This is what discrimination looks like:
Installing a disc burning software
So, to install the Ashampoo Burning Studio Free program, we need to download an archive with a small installation distribution (links above on the page) a little over eight megabytes in size and run it.
Following these simple instructions of the wizard program installation, perform all the installation steps. Do not forget to select Russian at the very beginning:
Otherwise, you may have a non-Russian version of Ashampoo Burning Studio installed.
To refuse, clear all the checkboxes in the dialog box and click "Next":
The further installation procedure is standard, so we will not focus on it too much.
On first launch, a dialog box will appear that will offer us to receive news from Ashampoo and program updates.
Since the news is not very interesting :), and updates, you know, will be paid, we refuse all this “happiness” by unchecking the corresponding boxes:
And finally, the main window of the program is shown in front of us:
The program interface is very simple. All management can be done using the side menu (which actually duplicates the "File" menu), without particularly going into the intricacies of the program settings.
Here, all the features of Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE are clearly depicted. If there is an arrow to the right of the function name, this means that this menu item has several sub-items.
Let's take a look at the first (and main) point - " Burn files and folders»
Here, as you can see, there are two subparagraphs, the first of which suggests writing new disk, and the second is to update the existing one (by the way, it works even faster than in Nero).
Let's try to record right away
You can add files for recording, either using the "Add" button (the "Explorer" is launched), or by simple drag and drop. At the bottom there is a disk fullness scale, and to the right of it is an indicator of the type of disk, on which you can burn the current project.
After adding all the necessary files and folders, click "Next" and go to the project recording settings:
At this stage, we will need to insert a blank disc into the drive, which will be checked for suitability for recording (you will learn about this by the inscription and the disc icon on the left).
You can also change some recording options here. To do this, click the "Change options" button:
Here you can set the desired recording speed, set up a disc check after burning, its finalization, as well as the recording method itself. If you want to create multiple copies of the disc, this can also be specified here.
After the settings, you can finally proceed directly to disc recording. To do this, click the "Burn CD" button. A rather nicely animated disc burning window will start, in which you can watch the burning progress:
At the end of the burning process, the following window will appear, which allows you to proceed to the next disc operation procedure or return to the main menu:
We have dealt with the main function of Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE, and now let's move on to additional ones. So, next is the opportunity data archiving
After activating this menu item, a window will appear resembling Explorer, in which you can mark all necessary files and folders to be backup:
You can set exceptions, for example, by extension mask, and then files with the extension you specify will not be included in the archive. This can be implemented by clicking the "Exception Rules" button.
After the end of the archive formation, click the "Next" button and proceed to the stage of saving it.
You can save the archive (with the .ashba extension) either on removable media(CD/DVD/Blue-Ray), or on HDD or flash drive. Additional features worth noting protection of the created archive with a password and the ability to compress data.
Saving the archive is initiated after pressing the "Archive" button. With Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE and the backup archive created with it, you can easily restore the data in it to your PC by selecting the Restore Existing Backup option.
Creating and ripping Audio CDs
And to complete the picture, I would like to recall a couple more features of Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE. it creation and ripping Audio CDs.
Create music discs Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE is very easy - just activate the appropriate option and add the desired music tracks to the window that appears.
If when recording ordinary audio files we are limited by their size, then in this case the limit is imposed on the duration.
All music tracks (all popular formats are supported - mp3, wma, wav, ogg) will be recorded as a continuous stream with a total duration of 80 minutes on one CD.
The scale at the bottom helps keep track of the remaining space. As soon as the project is ready, you can safely proceed to recording it by clicking the "Next" button.
And now the opposite function - Audio CD ripping. With Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE you can easily convert any audio track to a separate audio file
To do this, insert a music disc into the drive and activate the "Convert Audio CD" option. You will see a list of tracks:
If they (tracks) do not have a name, then it is possible to rename them before saving. Having marked all the necessary tracks, click the "Next" button and you will be taken to the settings window:
Here we can set the destination folder, the format (mp3, wma and wav are available) and the bitrate of the outgoing files. After everything is set up, all that remains is to click the "Convert" button and wait until all the tracks are converted into separate files.
In addition, Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE allows you to burn Video CDs in the same way (as Audio CDs) (although only mpeg and vob formats are supported). It is also possible to burn DVDs from pre-prepared vob, sub and ifo files.
In addition, there are several options disk imaging, and even generating images from files right on your computer!
In general, if you need a powerful program for burning discs with flexible settings, and even without "extra" functions - Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE is just what you need!
Moreover, this program DVD recording, CD and Blu-ray discs is easy to use and does not require serialization and activation.
By the way, the latest versions of Ashampoo have added the option to specify the number of copies, the ability to save projects and created images for their further use, as in solid paid counterparts.
The program is flexible in the recording settings (options for the recording speed, the name of the recording, etc.).
Based on materials from the site BestFree.ru
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Description useful programs on the site
Software for copying discs (CD-Rippers)
Most people who have become happy owners of an mp3 player are faced with the question of how to record music from their favorite audio CDs on it. Even being the owner of a CD-player, the user will certainly want to make collections from his collection of songs. Standard programs, bundled with the players, are almost never able to fully satisfy the needs of most users (although there are pleasant exceptions to the rule). In this case, third-party programs will come in handy.
If 2-3 years ago, the vast majority of such programs performed only one, maximum two functions, now they are real media combines. As a rule, they have the functions of copying audio CDs (ripping / grabbing), transcoding from one audio format to another, editing tags, burning audio CDs. Some provide even more extensive opportunities, but such “monsters” are far from always performed at the proper level. The list of all these programs is huge and even a simple listing of them by name would take up a lot of space, so I will try to describe the most interesting, functional and easy-to-use software products.
Easy CD-DA Extractor (8.0.1 build 2)
A fairly well-known program with the functions of ripping audio CDs, transcoding to various formats and burning music CDs. Automatically, at the request of the user, it can fill in metadata fields (for example, ID3TAG), using free base data - freedb.org or CD-Text if present. Supports quite a lot of audio formats, including those with lossless compression (APE and FLAC). Compression in mp3 is implemented using the lame codec (version 3.96.1 is used in this version), many presets are already present in advance, but you can also create your own. Unfortunately, you cannot use the command line switches for the codec - use what is allowed, no more. Adjusting the audio disc reading options will help you copy old and scratched discs with better quality. It is possible to record all tracks in one file, apply normalization to them, attenuate the signal at the beginning and end, use information from only one of the channels, cut off or set silence in the tracks. The ripping process looks visual and informative. Two progress bars are displayed - for the current track and the general one. Under each we find the speed in "x", the percentage of completion, the elapsed and remaining time of the operation.
Transcoding is carried out easily and naturally - "drag'n'drop" (drag'n'drop) files into the program window, select the format, and click on the convert button. Metadata from the tracks is copied to a new file, but if they were not there, then you can enter this information manually. Renaming output files by mask will not be a problem. There are no other special functions for the converter part.
Burning discs is the easiest way to implement. It seems that it was made exclusively as a makeweight. Although in most cases the provided opportunities will be enough. You won't be able to use any preprocessing here. Of all the functions, there is only setting the duration of the pause between tracks, turning on CD-Text, recording speed and simulation mode (without the recording operation itself). In general, in the role of "makeweight", the function is implemented quite adequately.
In general, the program is very convenient and easy to use (it will not be difficult to find a localization file), and if it were not for its paid status, we could recommend this software to all users who are not too demanding on functional richness and wide settings. The program will work for free only 30 days from the moment of the first launch, and at each launch you have to wait 5 seconds before being able to click on the continue button. And if so, then we can advise you to simply pay your attention when choosing such a utility for use.
CDex (1.50)
The project stopped its development in 2003, but to this day a lot of people use this program. The presence of localization was another reason for CDex to become one of the most popular rippers of the end of 2003. The program itself can work with the freecddb.org server, getting information about audio CDs from it, for use as ID3TAG mp3 files. Support for all audio formats is implemented by external codecs, which are mainly configured through the command line. The dialog box for copying tracks is rich in elements: track name, its number and total number of tracks, elapsed, remaining and total time, peak volume in dB and % of maximum, as well as percentage of task completion and read error rate. If only we could add an indication of the reading speed, and then there would be a “full bouquet”!
If everything is almost great with ripping, then you can’t say the same about converting. For example, transcoding Ogg Vorbis to mp3 is possible only via WAV (PCM), which is quite inconvenient. You can only convert entire folders and you won't be able to select multiple songs from different locations. The format and settings of the output file (when encoding from WAV) must be set in advance, through the main settings menu.
As a result, we can say that CDex is still more of a ripper with some additional features and large quantity audio CD ripping settings than an all-in-one class program. The product is free and undemanding to disk and other PC resources, and therefore will not become a burden, if we assume that it can occasionally come in handy.
Ahead Nero Burning Rom (6.6.0.8)
I didn't confuse anything. This is one of the most famous disc burning programs not only in Russia, but also in the world. But most users did not even think that it still has a lot of useful (in relation to the topic of audio) features. By pressing “F9“ or through the menu “Extras” - “Save Tracks”, the disc ripper window opens. Moreover, it is not at all necessary that audio - Nero will easily create an image and a data disk for subsequent work with it. Choosing a codec for compressing songs here is not an easy task - your eyes just run wide (for such a variety, you will need to download additional plugins from http://neroplugins.cd-rw.org/). The eye immediately stumbles upon very interesting formats like mp3PRO or the proprietary version of mp4 AAC from the developers of the program. There are settings for each codec, in some cases, with the ability to set command line options. But there are practically no settings for copying itself. Normalization, reading speed, error correction, and removal of silence in tracks - that's the whole set. Using the ripping function, as well as converting (called by “F8”), is quite convenient. The choice and settings of the codec are made without diving into the depths of the menu, track data can be immediately loaded from the freedb.org database, and the file name template can be set by mask. But for some reason, you can’t set the path yourself in the output directory line - everything is done only through the browse button (“Browse”).
About the possibility of recording audio CDs (and not only), it is somehow inconvenient to even mention it. Still, it is not for nothing that Nero Burning Rom is considered one of the most functional and high-quality programs for burning discs. If the native OS has already got acquainted with this package (which, by the way, also contains utilities for simple sound processing and creating disc covers), then it is quite possible that you will no longer need to install other alternative programs.
Musicmatch Media Jukebox (10.0 build 2053c)
A classic example of a modern "multimedia monster" - it can do almost everything (well, except for cooking and tying shoelaces). But a little bit of everything, everything at a minimum, very simple. Such a program will easily suit those users who do not want to deal with several programs. The product is more focused on the Western consumer - maximum binding to online music stores, Internet radio stations, "content on demand", availability paid version programs (the free one is very curtailed, however, far from the most important functions). But this "combine" can still do a lot: playing audio and video files, converting music to various formats (the choice, unfortunately, is limited only to WAV, WMA, mp3 and mp3PRO), ripping audio CDs, working with the freedb.org Internet database of disks , editing metadata, compiling and maintaining a music library with various sorting and searching options, it can also record audio CDs. The ripper and converter have few settings, the recording part also does not shock with the choice. Although, we must pay tribute, everything is done conveniently and simply, and it will not take much effort to understand the program.
In addition to the ripping, converting and burning of audio CDs that we need, MMJ is primarily a player, and only after everything else. Basically, all work is built on the media library, which is proposed to be created at the first start of the program, by scanning all logical drives in the system to search for audio files. Further, with the received list, it is proposed to make friends. Immediately there is an opportunity to find information about the artist or group, order their album in the online store, or just the right tracks "on demand". There is support for effect modules (DSP-plugins), but at the time of writing the review, they did not indulge in their diversity. The last thing that is clearly not enough for a little more demanding people is too few understandable formats, there is neither AAC, nor Ogg Vorbis, nor rarer ones.
OrlSoft MPeg eXtension (3.11 beta build 1333)
This thing is just made for owners of Flash mp3 players! Such a huge number of various functions that are useful precisely in the process of working with audio files have not yet been encountered. Impressive. In addition, the program is completely in Russian (of course, because the developer is our compatriot). The menu is not overloaded with unnecessary elements, almost everything that you might need is always at hand. Converting records between different formats, ripping audio CDs, the widest possibilities for working with file names and metadata, working directly with mp3 players and many more little things - that's what OSMPX is. Audio discs can be ripped either via CDDAE (by default) - for most cases, or via the notorious EAC (Exact Audio Copy) - for particularly problematic discs. To get data about disks, you can use not only freedb.org, but also the equally popular cddb.com. The program allows you to emulate discs in case the album has been copied a long time ago, but the names and tags of the files do not contain any information other than the track number. And if the album is completely assembled, then you can most likely get all the information about the disk and rename the files as it should. The disadvantage is the impossibility of copying audio CDs on the fly, first you have to find a place to save WAV files, and then convert them to what you need. The same operation occurs when transcoding from one format to another, which reduces the speed of obtaining results. The modular principle of constructing the program in this case is very successful (this is exactly what it was sharpened for), which greatly facilitates the emergence of support for new formats and additions in the future. With such an abundance of features, the ability to work with loseless formats (with lossless compression), which are gaining more and more popularity, is somewhat lacking. But since the project is developing to this day, we can hope for a speedy correction of the situation for the better.
The choice, as always, remains with the user, because "the taste and color ...". Briefly list the features of the above programs:
Easy CD-DA Extractor- good as a compromise option - there are few disadvantages, but there are not too many advantages either. He copes with the tasks set quite successfully.
