Rip it up: Create the ultimate jukebox
Ripping is a hot topic in the computer and music industries. We explain it all and show you how to turn your PC into a jukebox.
If you're a music fan, you should be aware of MPEG audio layer 3, or 'MP3', as it's more commonly known. Apart from causing quite a stir in the parsimonious music industry, MP3 is the most popular way of storing music on your PC.
Put simply, MP3 allows you to transfer the contents of an audio CD to your computer and compress it so that it takes up much less space.
An audio CD contains up to 700MB of data; when stored in MP3 format, this data takes up around 60MB. Better still, converting an audio CD into MP3 doesn't audibly affect the sound quality.
Converting an audio CD into MP3 files is a relatively straightforward task, providing you use the right software and have a basic understanding of the process, and guess what?
That's just what this feature is all about. By the end of it, you'll know everything you need to about creating MP3s and your own PC jukebox.
Let rip
Converting an audio CD into MP3 files is a process known as 'ripping', and it goes something like this.
First, put an audio CD into your computer's CD-ROM drive and if your MP3 ripping software is up to scratch, it will immediately connect to the internet to look up artist, album title and track listing for the disc.
Next, it 'extracts' the audio data from the disc and compresses it to around a tenth of the size. Finally, the compressed files are saved with a suitable filename and an.mp3 extension.
So why use MP3s at all? If you listen to a lot of music on your computer, you can store your entire music collection on its hard disk, rather than on shelves in another room.
Better still, you can play any track at will just by knowing its name, not who it's by, and even compile your own playlists of tracks that can last for hours.
MP3s are also a great way of rediscovering old music that you'd forgotten you had but couldn't be bothered to find - it's all there, at your fingertips.
Portable MP3 players are another great reason to rip. The Apple iPod has a hard disk which is enough for around 6,000 songs that you can take almost anywhere, in your pocket.
Your PC is also a jukebox in disguise and, with software such as MusicMatch or Windows Media Player, MP3s can be arranged into all sorts of categories and genres allowing playlists reflecting your mood to be quickly formed and deployed.
What you'll need
Even an elderly PC is capable of ripping CDs - all you need is a CD-ROM drive and some ripping software. You'll need some free hard disk space too but how much depends on how many MP3s you want to save.
Windows doesn't come with any MP3 ripping software as standard (Media Player rips WMA files) but applications are available both for free and for a charge.
Ahead Nero and Roxio Easy CD Creator have ripping built in. Otherwise, try searching the internet for 'MP3 ripping' to see the wealth of resources available.
The most important thing
MP3 ripping is rife with jargon but thankfully, there's only one term you really need to know about - bit rate.
Simply put, bit rate governs how much a file is compressed. A low bit rate means high compression, therefore smaller files but lower quality audio.
High bit rates mean less compression, larger files and higher quality audio. The goal is usually to strike a balance between file size and audio quality.
If you fancy a bit of experimentation, you can vary the bit rate that an MP3 ripping application uses but as a rule of thumb, a bit rate of 192Kbps gives a good balance between quality and space requirements.
MP3 RIPPING SOFTWARE TESTED
Magix MP3 Maker Platinum
Developed by Magix, MP3 Maker Platinum is a comprehensive audio package that offers much more than just MP3 ripping. At £40 though, we'd expect this.
The installation takes a while but once everything is complete, a colourful and intricate navigation screen welcomes you to the program.
Although it looks confusing, after familiarising yourself with the plethora of buttons and lights, you'll find it easy to play audio from CDs or hard disk, listen to internet radio stations, edit MP3 and WAV audio tracks, change ID3 tags and, of course, encode MP3 files.
The software can read six audio formats including MP3, WMA, OGG Vorbis, WAV and mp3PRO. It can also convert between any of these formats, apart from OGG Vorbis.
Ripping is a simple case of selecting the desired tracks from the browser window and clicking on 'convert'.
Here you can select which format you prefer encode in. You can rip MP3 files at bit-rates between 32Kbps and 320Kbps in stereo and mono.
We ripped our five-minute sample track in 13 seconds, which is very impressive and means that a full 80-minute CD could be ripped in less than four minutes.
A number of advanced options can also be applied when ripping tracks, such as using the spectacularly named 'psycho-acoustic model' that boosts frequency levels to improve the clarity of poor-sounding tracks.
It also comes with the Freedb music catalogue and access to the CDDB look-up facility.
Verdict:
For £40, you're getting an extensive piece of music software that offers much more than just ripping. The manual inside the box also includes an excellent overview of MP3 technology.
Price: £40
eJay MP3 Station 2
While its music-creation software aims to help bedroom producers knock up their first number ones, eJay's economical MP3 STATION 2 will transfer CD collections to hard disks.
The main screen looks very tidy and the simple navigation buttons situated at the top of the screen provide links to each section of the software.
Here you can explore your hard disk and disc drives for audio, rip tracks, burn audio or data onto CDs, print CD covers, adjust encoding settings, change the equaliser and listen to eJay radio.
Ripping (or 'grabbing' as eJay likes to call it) is a simple chore. Just choose your CD audio tracks, open the grabber menu and select how many songs you'd like to encode. It took 20 seconds to rip our sample track.
Unlike the Magix software, MP3 and WAV are the only two audio formats supported. Also, all encoding settings have to be made in the options screen before you choose which tracks to rip.
Although the software provides the choice to convert your CD tracks at normal or high speed, we found that eJay's FastMP3 Encoder took around the same time to rip our five-minute track as it did when using the normal setting.
Advanced settings are quite limited but we saw this as a good point, as it won't confuse inexperienced users.
Both Freedb and CDDB databases are available and you can choose how you want each track to be named.
For example, this could be by artist name and CD title or track name and track number. Once converted, all your files are recorded on the eJay player and can be categorised into various genres.
Verdict:
A simple and quick way to rip CD audio. Shame it only supports MP3 and WAV formats.
Price: £10
Steinberg myMP3 4
Steinberg is a name synonymous with high-quality music production software, which suggests it should know a thing or two about MP3 ripping.
Although having a hefty hard disk requirement (735MB), myMP3 4 comes with both the Freedb catalogue and a CD label editor.
Once installed, you are taken through various options, such as where to save files once they've been ripped. This is good for beginners, as other applications don't always make it that obvious.
The main interface looks like an enlarged version of Winamp, encompassing a player, an equaliser, a playlist box and a navigation window. The ripping interface is plain but simple to understand. From here you can encode in MP3, WAV and OGG.
There's also a choice of MP3 encoders to use - normal or the Fraunhofer encoder. Although our ripping test found that both encoders took exactly the same length of time (1 minute) and created exactly the same file size, the Fraunhofer encoder produces slightly better quality MP3s.
Steinberg offers 20 free Fraunhofer encodings; for unlimited rips you have to upgrade to Steinberg's MP3-Update.
When a track is encoded, the software also creates a playlist file. This helps to categorise each track, which can then be accessed by artist, genre or album in the main window.
A nifty extra is the ability to record music from internet radio directly into MP3 or any other file format.
You can even set a time to start recording your favourite radio show or encode to MP3 straight from an analogue source, such as a turntable.
Verdict:
Excellent options and nice internet-ripping features. Encoding takes a while but that's the compromise you make for such a well-equipped piece of software.
Price: £20
CDex
CDex is a small (3MB), free MP3 ripping utility that's simple to use and very effective. Just pop in your audio CD and CDex will access CDDB and load the necessary track details in the main window.
However, you will have to submit an email address for this feature.
As well as MP3, it can encode in an impressive array of digital audio, including WAV, WMA, AAC and the more exotic formats. There's also the option to install any other plug-in, such as mp3PRO.
It may be free but it took two minutes to encode our model five-minute track. Various speed settings can be changed but we found that varying this had absolutely no effect on encoding time whatsoever.
What's important is the bit rate and CDex offers settings between 32 and 320Kbps. All encoding options have to be configured in the settings screen before each track or CD is ripped.
The interface is well designed, with shortcut buttons situated down the right-hand side of the screen for quick tasks. Here you can record from an analogue source to any encoding format that CDex supports.
You can also convert WAV files to a compressed audio format. An ID3-tag editor is also included, which is essential for keeping your MP3 collection organised.
Verdict:
It's difficult to fault anything that's free. However, a laborious encoding speed will put off hardcore MP3 users.
Price: Free
dBpowerAmp Music Convertor
Once installed, dBpowerAmp Music Convertor greets you with an very useful help file that contains screenshots and a simple program guide. Links to downloadable plug-ins can also be found.
These include a 30-day trial of Power Pack, which offers ID3-tag editing, a free 'auxiliary input' to record from analogue sources, a file selector that simplifies MP3 conversion of whole audio folders and Sveta portable audio to encode to your portable MP3 player.
Here, you can also turn on the 'professional frequency conversion', which makes your ripped tracks sound better, at the expense of a slower encoding speed.
Although can you only rip CD audio in MP3 and WAV, CDDB look-up is included and there are lots of pre-set and manual options to tinker with. You can also install additional codecs for reading and writing audio files.
To rip, just select the track(s) and the desired bit rate. There are a load of pre-set options for encoding in CD, internet and 'studio' quality, among others. You can also change channel type, such as mono, stereo or joint stereo.
DBpowerAmp Music Convertor encoded our five-minute CD audio track in 1 min 21, which isn't bad, but it doesn't come close to the paid-for software.
Verdict:
Once all the additional features are installed, this is a nice ripping package. However, new users won't want to spend time downloading all the extra components.
Price: Free
CD-DA X-Tractor v0.24
CD-DA X-Tractor may be free, but it's basic. There's only four buttons to choose from: CD-track identification, ripping tracks, an options menu and ID3-tag info.
The options screen allows you to choose between MP3, WAV, OGG and raw-data encoders, the latter being similar to WAV. MP3 encoder settings include a choice of bit rates, a VBR option and the ability to enable ID3 tags.
Ripping speeds are excellent for a free player: 27 seconds for our test CD-track in MP3, 19 seconds in WAV and 46 seconds in MP3 VBR. There's also the option to enable joint-stereo but most people are unlikely to use it.
A playlist file is automatically created for each ripped track and it can be used in conjunction with other audio players. You can rip a full CD or individual tracks and edit basic ID3-tag information (artist, album, year and genre).
Verdict:
Looks basic but does the job well. Don't expect anything more than simple ripping and tagging options.
www.mp3-converter.com/cdda_xtractor.htm
Price: Free
Musicmatch Jukebox 8
Now in its eighth version, Musicmatch Jukebox continues to attract thousands of users who want a free Desktop audio player that does everything except make the tea, and that option is something they might be working on as we write.
This new incarnation of the software can be downloaded as a standalone application or updated from previous versions.
Musicmatch Jukebox 8 can play almost every audio format in existence and will encode in MP3, WAV, MP3PRO and WMA formats.
When ripping tracks from CD, you'll notice that the Musicmatch software declares that 128Kbps is comparable to CD quality. If you're ripping tracks to substitute your CD collection though, we would recommend nothing less than a 192Kbps bit rate.
On the first instance of ripping, Musicmatch tests your CD/DVD drive to determine how quickly it can convert audio tracks. Once this test is complete, it starts work.
Our track was extracted in a mere 21 seconds, which is pretty impressive and a very useful factor for music aficionados.
After CDs have been ripped, they are tagged, added and categorised within your Musicmatch playlist.
Here you can behold how good the tagging facility is, as album artwork pertaining to each CD you rip is automatically downloaded.
You can edit any of the tagged information and even add the lyrics of your favourite MP3 files.
Advanced encoding features include fading in and out of each track, stereo or mono encoding and an error correction mode for CDs that have jumps and skips.
Enabling this takes longer to encode but the process will filter out any random noise and reconstruct parts of the track that may be lost due to a scratched music CD.
Musicmatch uses the Fraunhofer encoder and can auto-detect songs when encoding from an analogue source, such as vinyl.
Verdict:
Considering it's free, Musicmatch 8 is outstanding: it does everything you want and more. An essential download.
Price: Free
MP3, THE LAW AND YOU
Contrary to all the fuss you read about illegal file-sharing, MP3 is completely above-board. You are entitled to make digital copies of your commercial CDs for personal use, just as we used to do with cassette tapes.
It's only becomes a no-no when copyrighted files are shared or downloaded by users who haven't paid for the original.
Organisations such as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and some major record labels are, and have, cracked down on users who are breaching copyright laws, attacking them with severe monetary penalties and even threatening prison sentences.
However, while we don't condone such actions, emailing a friend the latest Madonna single is unlikely to land you in the clink.
© Incisive Media Ltd. 2008
Incisive Media Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, is a company registered in the United Kingdom with company registration number 04038503
