CD Ripping - Which Program?

CD ripping at home? OK, maybe you’ve go time or just dipping your toe in the water. Do a Google search for CD ripping or CD ripping software and you’ll get a bewildering array of options. Which software should you go for?

First, forget about the more lavish claims made for MP3 CD ripping software. Speed - you’re unlikely to notice any significant difference between any of the options on offer. Hardware features such CPU, CD unit, RAM etc make a bigger contribution to ripping speed. Second, quality - the biggest impact on quality is compression rate. Quite simply the less you compress your digital music files the better the sound.

Our recommendation would be to go with the offerings of the mainstream players, Apple and Microsoft. So if I were ripping music on a Mac I’d opt for iTunes. On a Windows PC you can go for iTunes or Windows Media Player.

CD Ripping - Which Program?

CD ripping at home? OK, maybe you’ve go time or just dipping your toe in the water. Do a Google search for CD ripping or CD ripping software and you’ll get a bewildering array of options. Which software should you go for?

First, forget about the more lavish claims made for MP3 CD ripping software. Speed - you’re unlikely to notice any significant difference between any of the options on offer. Hardware features such CPU, CD unit, RAM etc make a bigger contribution to ripping speed. Second, quality - the biggest impact on quality is compression rate. Quite simply the less you compress your digital music files the better the sound.

Our recommendation would be to go with the offerings of the mainstream players, Apple and Microsoft. So if I were ripping music on a Mac I’d opt for iTunes. On a Windows PC you can go for iTunes or Windows Media Player.

CD Ripping - Future Proof

Heated discussion yesterday. OK, the world of CD ripping doesn’t get very animated so this was unusual.

I was called by an installer who advocated ripping to AAC format for his client. I had previously spoken to his client and said in his circumstances I’d go with MP3. The client is an international person - born in Lebanon, educated in London and Boston, worked in every major financial city, now living in Dubai. He wanted a music format that would travel the world and play now and in the future. For me, that says MP3.

Technically, the installer is right. AAC does carry more data at a given compression rate. In terms of pure sound quality 128 kbps AAC is superior to 128 kbps MP3. Yes, it is possible to convert from AAC to MP3 should the need ever arise. My argument was that this client could put even his 600 CD music collection onto a portable drive so space isn’t the issue. We are talking 320 kbps so sound quality differences are theoretical rather than real, and converting around 10,000 tracks from AAC to MP3 is not a trivial task.

Anyway the client is always right (even when he’s wrong) - MP3 it is.

CD Ripping - Future Proof

Heated discussion yesterday. OK, the world of CD ripping doesn’t get very animated so this was unusual.

I was called by an installer who advocated ripping to AAC format for his client. I had previously spoken to his client and said in his circumstances I’d go with MP3. The client is an international person - born in Lebanon, educated in London and Boston, worked in every major financial city, now living in Dubai. He wanted a music format that would travel the world and play now and in the future. For me, that says MP3.

Technically, the installer is right. AAC does carry more data at a given compression rate. In terms of pure sound quality 128 kbps AAC is superior to 128 kbps MP3. Yes, it is possible to convert from AAC to MP3 should the need ever arise. My argument was that this client could put even his 600 CD music collection onto a portable drive so space isn’t the issue. We are talking 320 kbps so sound quality differences are theoretical rather than real, and converting around 10,000 tracks from AAC to MP3 is not a trivial task.

Anyway the client is always right (even when he’s wrong) - MP3 it is.

MP3, websites and copyright

Running a CD ripping service we get a lot of calls, yesterdays was on the face of it quite reasonable, but it opened a can of worms.

"What's the lowest bit rate suitable for playing music on an internet site?"

So I made a suggestion, based on 64kbps being the puny rate pumped out by digital DAB radios. But what music are you going to play, I asked. The answer was a track by Elton John, thought to be a suitable background track for a wedding photography website. Wow, said I, how had he got Elton to agree this?

Silence.

My caller didn't think he needed to get the artist's approval, he did own the track on several CDs he had paid for. A lengthy conversation ensued.

We are a CD ripping service and the digital music we produce, or that which you rip for yourself, cannot be broadcast - and a web site falls into this category. If you get caught, and of course a wedding photography business wants to be highly visible, you'll be in deep trouble. What you need to find is music produced for the purpose of website use, royalty free is the term to search for. You'll need to buy the music but at least you'll get a digital file you can play on your site. Yes, it will be more lift music than Top 10 material, but you won't spend every waking day wondering if the copyright police decide to track down a wedding snapper in Solihull.

My caller pointed me in the direction of another photographer who was using mainstream music on his site, and from which he'd got the idea. I'm left with a dilemma, to blow the whistle or not?