CD Ripping
Note: Don't rip CDs from your friends. That's stealing an artist's work. Rip CDs that you bought.
The CD-ripper I use is XLD, which can be downloaded for free (click the following link).
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23430/x-lossless-decoder/
XLD can rip to various file types (FLAC, WAV, AIFF). It can also interconvert files (e.g. FLAC to AIFF).
Troubleshooting:
If your CD becomes stuck in the drive -- try one of the following:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime, press and hold the left mouse button until the disc ejects.
2. Press the Eject button on your keyboard.
3. Click the Eject button in the menubar.
4. Press COMMAND-E.
5. If none of the above work: Mac users, go to Applications in Finder. Open the Utilities folder. Click on the Terminal application. At the prompt, enter or paste the following exact text:
/usr/bin/drutil eject
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Excerpted from The Absolute Sound.
The Best Audio Comes From the Best
Source Material
Whether you’re ripping your own CD library or
acquiring downloads from on-line music sites
such as HDtracks (hdtracks.com) or iTunes,
choosing the best music file format and import
settings will play important roles in determining
the ultimate quality of the playback. To many,
digital music files have become synonymous
with low bit-rate, inferior-sounding MP3 or AAC
(Advanced Audio Coding) downloads. MP3
and AAC are “lossy”compression file formats
that permanently throw away most of the data
in the original music file—sometimes as much
as 90% of the original data [not true with most MP3s.
The data that's deleted are in the inaudible freq
range >22KHz - CM]. Fortunately not
all digital music files are created equal. It’s
never really just 1’s and 0’s. Apple’s iTunes is
capable of supporting lossless compressed
and uncompressed music files as large as
32-bit/384kHz. While 128kbps AAC files are
popular at Apple’s iTunes store [actually, they are
256kbps - CM], MP3s and
AAC files come in a variety of data rates. Higher
data rates such as 192kbps or even 320kbps
are also offered from a number of sources, and
the result is audibly better sound.
In addition, AAC or MP3 files at higher bit-depths, such
as 24 bits, sound far superior to typical 16-bit
lossy files (examples can be found at KEXP.org
under “podcast”) [not necessarily -CM].
In more and more cases,
high-resolution digital music files with greater
bit-depths and higher sampling rates can be
downloaded as either uncompressed files or
files with lossless compression. Uncompressed
or losslessly-compressed high-resolution
digital music files have the potential to sound
dramatically better than CDs and compressed
MP3 or AAC files. So if you have a choice in
your downloads, opt for the highest data-rate/
bit-depth and the least compression you can
get and your ears will thank you [trust your ears - CM].
When ripping your own CDs to your library,
you’ll have even more control. In iTunes you
can choose higher bit-rate MP3 and AAC
(192kbps or 320kbps) for your music, or you
can choose to rip and store your music using
an uncompressed audio format such as AIFF
or a lossless-compression format such as
Apple Lossless, each of which is the qualitative
equivalent of the Compact Disc. Here’s a list
of the prevalent lossless/uncompressed file
formats and their respective strengths and
weaknesses:
Apple Lossless Compression. This is an
Apple file format option in iTunes that employs
“lossless” compression, which reduces the
stored data to as little as half of the original
music file’s size, but restores them to the
original bit-for-bit-identical music file on
playback. iTunes running on Windows XP/Vista/7 is fully
compatible with Apple Lossless, with full rip
and playback capabilities, and Apple Lossless
offers full metadata support on both platforms.
Since the original music file is restored bit-for-
bit, Apple Lossless files offer much better
sound than lossy MP3s and are compatible
with high-resolution music files.
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec). Like
Apple Lossless Compression, FLAC employs
“lossless” compression, which reduces the
stored music file’s size, but then restores
the data package to the original bit-for-bit identical
music file on playback. It supports
high-resolution audio with greater bit-depths
and sample rates and also supports metadata
tagging, and will retain metadata when the files
are backed up. FLAC is not supported by iTunes.
This means you can’t rip, store, or play back FLAC
music files using iTunes. FLAC files are high-quality
files and converting them to MP3 or AAC
will permanently delete much of the data
from the original music files. To maintain the
integrity of FLAC files it is important that they
are converted to a lossless or uncompressed
file format such as Apple Lossless, AIFF, or
WAV. This is essential!
WAV (Waveform Audio File Format). WAV
is a music file-format capable of storing
Linear PCM audio (the digital encoding
format used on compact discs) in completely
uncompressed form. Ripping a CD and
storing it as an uncompressed WAV results in
“bit-perfect” storage; the ripped music file is
identical to the original CD data package. WAV
files can also store high-resolution music files
at greater bit-depths and sampling rates than
CD’s 16-bit/44.1kHz resolution. Uncompressed
WAV files can be ripped and played back in
iTunes and are very high quality. However, they
do take up more hard-drive storage space than
AAC, MP3, or Apple Lossless. WAV files have
one notable limitation: They do not support
attached metadata tagging. Things like album
art, song titles, and other convenience features
that enhance music-library management and
playback will be lost in subsequent generations
(backups). If you have already ripped your music as WAV
files you can convert them to AIFF using iTunes.
AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format).
AIFF is similar to WAV. This music file format
is capable of storing uncompressed Linear
PCM audio. Ripping a CD and storing it as
uncompressed AIFF results in “bit-perfect”
storage, with the ripped music file identical
to the original data on the CD. AIFF
files can be created and played back in iTunes
on Mac OSX and Windows XP/Vista/7 and are
very high quality. But they, too, require more
hard-drive storage space. AIFF files support
permanent metadata tagging, like album art,
song titles, and other convenience features
that enhance music-library management and
playback. Backups of AIFF music files will
retain all of the metadata.