| HOW TO RIP AN AUDIO CD |
In this section I will show you how to Rip an Audio CD using Windows Media Player 12, even though the examples and explanations could apply to other media software. Rip is a variation of the term COPY. It specifically means: Make a copy of an Audio Track, from an Audio CD, and then save that copied audio track as an Audio File (i.e. as an .MP3 or WMA file). The Rip function is commonly used for converting audio tracks (one CD) into MP3 files.
An audio cd has its individual audio tracks stored on the cd as CDA files, in the CDA file format, which can only be played on a hi-fi/stereo system but not on a MP3 Player. Windows Media Player 12 makes a copy of the audio tracks (rips the audio tracks) you want from the cd and then converts those copied/ripped audio tracks into the WMA file format by default before saving them as .wma files. Therefore, Windows Media Player 12 becomes a good tool if you want to convert your favourite/old Audio CDs (Audio Tracks) into MP3 files.
To rip an audio cd (all of its tracks) you need to insert an audio cd and then run (launch/execute) Windows Media Player. This can be done in one of three main ways. You can click on the Windows Media Player icon located on either the Quick Launch area of the Taskbar or on the ALL PROGRAMS menu or you can simply insert an audio cd and wait for the AutoPlay requester to appear. The AutoPlay method is not really ideal though, especially if you want manual control of the Ripping process. AutoPlay, explained in its own section, can be made to rip CDs automatically by ticking the option ALWAYS DO THIS FOR AUDIO CDS. Therefore, I recommend for this example that you click on one of the Windows Media Player icons instead.
When Windows Media Player opens, with an audio cd in the cd drive, the first audio track will begin to play automatically. This is quite normal as Windows
Media Player naturally thinks you want the audio tracks played by default. So before ripping any audio track(s) you should first stop the playing by
clicking on the STOP button.
The audio tracks will either be displayed as Unknown (i.e. Track 1, Track 2, etc) or be displayed as Song Titles. For example. In Fig 1.4 below I have
inserted a non-commercial cd that has no Artist/Tracks information on it that Windows Media Player could use for display purposes, so it displays each
track by number, whereas in Fig 1.5 I have inserted a commercial cd whereby Windows Media Player can extract and therefore display tracks by song title.
As well as artist/track information Windows Media Player also displays track length and gives each track a number so that you can untick the tracks you
do not want to rip for example.
Before you go unticking audio track (track numbers) you should first click on the RIP SETTINGS drop-down menu (above) and then select the MORE OPTIONS menu-item. This only needs to be done once and will allow you to set up the file options, such as saving audio tracks in the MP3 file format at a bit rate of 192bps (bits per second). Clicking on the MORE OPTIONS menu-item brings up the Options window, which has more than just the rip options on it. Hence why it is called the Options window and not the Rip Options window!!
Fig 1.6 The Original Options |
Fig 1.7 Use the FORMAT drop-down menu to change the audio format |
To make the ripping process save your cd audio tracks (cda files) as .mp3 files, in the mp3 file format, you need to click on the FORMAT drop-down menu
and then select the MP3 menu-item (Fig 1.7 above). After doing that you can either select a new Audio Quality (Bit Rate) for the mp3 file format or you
can simply leave the audio quality (bit rate) at its default setting of 128 kbps (kilobytes per second).
Changing the audio quality (bit rate) is simply a case of moving (dragging) the AUDIO QUALITY Slider (Guage button) leftwards or rightwards (Fig 1.8 below)
until you are happy with the audio quality, and perhaps more importantly the amount of disk space the audio tracks (mp3 files) will use. For example.
128kbps means each audio track (mp3 file) will have an audio (sound) quality of 128kbps and the audio tracks (mp3 files) combined will use approximately
57MB of hard drive space, whereas 192kbps means each audio track will have an audio (sound) quality of 192kbps and the audio tracks combined will use
approximately 86MB of hard drive space. So the higher the kbps the more disk space is needed. The length of each audio track also needs to be added to
the equation.
Moving (dragging) the AUDIO QUALITY Slider (Guage button) leftwards or rightwards only adjusts the format settings. It does not adjust the actual audio quality until the ripping process begins though. Therefore you will only get to hear the audio quality when the audio tracks have been ripped. So my advice is to listen to some 128kbps audio tracks and 192kbps audio tracks, from the internet, for example before ripping your audio cd. Saying this, 128kbps audio quality is a bit rubbish to put it politely! 192kbps is good for most hearing and MP3 players - Anything higher than 192kbps and you would need to be a classically trained person for example to notice the audio difference.
Besides setting up the audio format and audio quality you can also use Options to tell Windows Media Player what to do before and after the ripping
process. For example. You can tick the EJECT CD AFTER RIPPING option to tell Windows Media Player to eject the audio cd when the ripping process has
finished. And you can also switch off automatic ripping, and go into manual ripping mode, by unticking the RIP CD AUTOMATICALLY option. One thing to
note with the EJECT CD AFTER RIPPING option is that; If you insert a cd that has already been ripped it will be ejected straight away by Windows Media
Player. Therefore, you will not be able to play that cd while Windows Media Player is open.....because you are expected to play your mp3 files of course.
To change the RIP location (the folder/sub-folder where the ripped music will be stored) simply click on the CHANGE button (Fig 1.9 below) to bring up
the BROWSE FOR FOLDER file requester (Fig 1.10). In this example I have changed the rip location (music folder) from the default rip location of MUSIC
to MUSIC/Easy Listening - a sub-folder, called Easy Listening, that I created inside my MUSIC folder beforehand. I could of also used the MAKE NEW FOLDER
button inside the BROWSE FOR FOLDER file requester if I wanted to.
Fig 1.9 Click on the CHANGE button to..... |
Fig 1.10 .....change the RIP (Music folder) location. |
If you want to change File Name attributes click on the FILE NAME button, underneath the CHANGE button. FILE NAME allows you to include the Artist, Album, Track Number, Song Title, Genre and Bit Rate (kbps) in each file name, in any order by clicking on the MOVE UP and MOVE DOWN buttons (Fig 1.12 below).
You can also select what character (Dash, Dot, Space, Underline or None/Nothing) separates each attribute simply by clicking on the SEPARATOR drop-down menu (Fig 1.11 above). In general though, keep things simple. Have file names with the Song Title and Track Number attributes in them only for example. Including all file attributes in your file names does not really make sense.
Regardless of how you set up, or do not set up, the RIP options the following message requester (Fig 1.14 below) will appear, once only, the first time you click on the RIP CD button (Fig 1.13 below). Read the message requester carefully and when you have decided which option you would prefer simply click on its radio (circle) button to select it. Then put a tick next to I UNDERSTAND..... before clicking on the OK button. Basically, the two options are saying "Do you want to protect the music you rip or not?". If you do, select ADD COPY PROTECTION TO YOUR MUSIC otherwise select DO NOT ADD COPY PROTECTION TO YOUR MUSIC.
After clicking on the RIP CD button, and taking care of the "First Time" RIP CD message requester (if need be), the audio tracks are then ripped. This means a copy of the audio tracks (cda files) on the cd are being copied into the Music Location folder specified in Fig 1.10 above (i.e. into the MUSIC/Easy Listening sub-folder) as mp3 audio files. Their file sizes will be smaller, but their quality will not be cd quality (natural hearing quality only), if you lowered the file format as stated in the above RIP Options examples. And when the ripping process has finished the cd should eject automatically, depending on how those RIP options are set up.
When the ripping process has finished, or been stopped by you for example, there might not be any or enough Media (Album) Information available - Normally due to you not being connected to the internet. If this is the case, as soon as you connect to the internet and play back the ripped audio tracks (mp3 files) Windows Media Player should begin to download, in the background, the media (album) information associated with the media (songs/mp3 files) you are playing. If this is not the case though, someone could of switched off the top two Media Info privacy settings inside the PRIVACY Tab - Simply switch them back on by ticking them. You might then need to delete your ripped audio tracks (mp3 files) and perform another rip of the album they were ripped from.
When the ripping process has completed you can then copy the mp3 files onto a mp3 player, burn them onto a cd/dvd and so on (provided you are not breaking any copyright laws of course). In the above example I showcased the mp3 file format but you could of used the WMA (Windows Media Audio) file format too. WMA files play in most, if not all, mp3 players these days. And the same goes for the ripping process, generally. If Windows Media Player supports the ripping of other file formats in the future the ripping process should more or less be the same as the above ripping process.
If you want to use the Classic Menus (Menu Bar), located above the Taskbar (i.e. above the BACK and FORWARD buttons), first right click on an empty/black area of the taskbar to bring up the Options menu and then select (left click on) the SHOW CLASSIC MENUS menu-item to display the classic menus. You may find the Classic Menus easier/quicker to use, as I do.
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.
