Background Idea:
The process of digitally
transferring audio data from a CD- ROM drive to a computer's hard
disk. Effectively, this creates a near- perfect digital copy (save for clock
jitter, and surface error correction) of the original work onto your disk. See CD Ripper node for more background.
What Can You Do For Me:
Once the audio is ripped, it's now digital data. You can pretty much do
anything you like with it.
"Once it's all data, you can muck around with it" -- Tom Jenkins, aka: Squarepusher.
It can be encoded into various compressed formats (such as MP3 and Ogg Vorbis),
by far the most common appliation of ripping. Other possibilities include:
Hardware Lust:
Now days, pretty much all CD-ROM
hardware supports audio read thru its data bus. Thus, the only crucial choices
are: price, and speed. One generally effects the other, in the form of higher
cost for higher speed. Generally, ATAPI/IDE drives rip at a maximum of 8x.
SCSI drives, however, tend to rip anywhere from 8x-32X, and generally cost twice that
of their ATAPI/IDE counterparts.
Software Solution:
To actually rip audio from the
CDROM drive to the hard disk requires specific software. (unless you're handy
with an assembler and ASPI codes.) Commonly used software varies depending
on platform of choice (mac, *nix, WinTel, etc). What follows
is a short list of the software I use, and then a list of other software.
What I Use on WinTel: WinDAC 1.43
What I Use on mac (OS > 9.1): Sound Jam
What I Use on *nix: CD Paranoia
Other Software for WinTel:
- Audio Catalyst
- Audio Grabber
- Windows Media Player (under WinXP only, as of this writing)
- Cool Edit 2000 and Pro 1.x (not enabled by default though)
Other Software for mac:
- ... ?? /msg me if you use anything good!
Other Software for *nix:
- CDDA2WAV
- CDParanoia
- wav2mp3
Record companies dislike this, and thus
the development of Safe Audio, and other water-marking technologies. See
SDMI for more examples.
Updated: Labor Day, 20001