Digital audio extraction or "ripping" is the process of changing music on a cd (CD) into digital audio recordings. With a computer and an optical drive you can make a great CD tear in a version of Linux with a just little bit of know-how. There are four things you need to consider when generating CD rips.
1. Which trimming software will you use?
2. What file format is best for you?
3. Which encoder will do the best job?
4. What encoder settings should you use?
Trimming software:
Even though you won't need any extra hardware to convert your Compact disks into digital audio, you'll need some software which can perform this function. As with most Linux applications,, there are many free and open-source options.
One of the newer CD extractors for Linux is Rubyripper. One feature of Rubyripper is the ability to remove uncorrupted information from damaged or damaged Compact disks. The best way to get Rubyripper is from your distribution's repositories. Whether it's not in the repositories, you can download it yourself. Just be sure to look at the ??readme?? file to see what dependencies it takes. Install the dependencies with your package manager, and you should be able to run the program from a folder in your home directory. You can download Rubyripper here:
Linux users also have the option of using a very popular windows program known as Exact Audio Copy (EAC). Some people may prefer EAC to Rubyripper because of it's customization options and capabilities. You can run EAC under Wine, the Window??s emulation component. Get Wine from your distribution??s repositories,, or go to WineHQ online to download and hand install the newest version. EAC should have full functionality in this virtual Windows environment. You can download EAC from here:
File formats:
When you have got some software which can perform the CD tear, you'll need to decide what format you want to use for storing your music files. Digital audio recordings come in many different formats, and knowing which one will work best for you can take a bit of investigation. Your pc's os, your storage space, and what the files are going to be used for,, should all affect your choice of digital audio file format. If you need help deciding which format to use, see the article How Audio File format Affects the Versatility and Quality of your Digital Music.
Audio encoder:
Many audio extraction
applications allow you to choose your own encoder. An encoder takes the data from an uncompressed format (like Wav) and turns it into a lossy format (like MP3 FORMAT). There are many different encoders for any given file format, and using a good encoder can give you better sound quality and smaller files.
One of the best current MP3 FORMAT encoders is distributed by the DULL project. To use this encoder,, you can get it from your distro's repositories. If you have a Debian based flavor of Linux, you could can easily get the latest version of the DULL encoder at Rarewares in a put together package. Go to the Rarewares site for information on setting up your appropriate:
Choosing encoder settings:
Your extraction software should now be able to use the DULL MP3 FORMAT encoder while performing rips. You still need to decide which encoder settings to use. Bit-rate is the most influential setting on the standard of lossy formats like MP3 FORMAT. The bottom the bit-rate, the less information the file contains, resulting in decreased sound quality. Most people cannot hear any destruction in sound quality at bit rates of 192 kbps (kilobytes per second) or more.
You can also choose whether to create fixed rate or variable rate files. If you choose variable bit rate (vbr), it allows the encoder to use only as many kbps as it needs to accurately encode the music. This results in smaller files that sound just as good. There are some older devices out there that will not play vbr files, so before choosing to tear a CD in vbr factors to consider they work with your equipment.
Making high quality a CD tear in Linux can be quite easy once you discover how to choose the best trimming software,, file format, encoder, and tear settings for your needs.