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I have reviewed other answers such as What are good CD Ripping Programs?. I didn't find my solution yet.

The solution I seek: I want to enter or edit track titles and album info manually in the GUI before I start ripping.

I'm using RubyRipper and it has this feature, but RubyRipper is way too slow my current situation. I'm ripping some new audio books I just purchased. They are typically not found the the CDDB and some discs don't show any track titles in the ripping software. So I want to enter this info manually.

An alternative solution might be some way to organize the file names after ripping. I'm open to suggestions on that. So far, my attempts to do that have indicated it will be too time consuming and error-prone. So my question is really focused on using the GUI of the ripping software.

I'm also open to using scripts and command line tools -- but only if it is faster and more efficient. Speed and efficiency count in this task. For example, I'd want to be able to just paste all track titles into a config file, not have to do painstaking editing of a complex command for each CD.

The reason why RubyRipper is not appropriate is because the original recording quality is not that great. It sounds like the speaker's microphone is rubbing on paper or maybe his clothing at times. I think this causes RubyRipper problems. Some tracks cannot be "corrected" after the maximum trials.

But with this poor original quality, I don't care about RubyRipper's efforts at achieving perfection. And I can't seem to set the preferences to completely turn off this matching. (The lowest value is 2 and that's what I've been using.) If I'm ripping classical music, I absolutely want to use RubyRipper (or maybe ABCDE). But for my current 32 CD audio book (and similar situations) neither of those options are appropriate. It took all day to rip just 5 of the 32 CDs from the first of many audio books. At that rate, this project will take months. It should take a day, max.

EDIT/UPDATE: I'm still looking for the ideal solution. I haven't found it. In the mean time, here's what I'm doing. I'm using Asunder for quick and simple ripping. I'm not editing track names at the ripping stage. Next I'm using Easy Tag to edit the tags as well as track names (and even file names). Easy Tag basically solved my problem, but in a way I hadn't anticipated. Finally, if I need more precise changes to the file names, I'm using "rename" on the command line. This is the most efficient approach I have found so far. I'll probably finish this project using this approach.

MountainX
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4 Answers4

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You should definitely check out K3b it's the ultimate disc burning program on Linux. You will have to install some KDE dependencies on Ubuntu though.

In the Audio CD ripping you can import CD Text use CDDB or edit tags manually. K3b allows for editing single tracks and whole albums.

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I found this page on Tom's Hardware that might provide the solution you are looking for.

Some of the suggested applications on that page are:

  • RipperX software_center_icon

    RipperX can rip audio CD tracks into WAV, MP3, OGG, or FLAC files. It uses LAME to encode to MP3, so be sure to also install LAME from your package manager in order to create MP3 files with RipperX. Since ripping and encoding are displayed as two separate processes in this app, you can actually keep the WAV files in the process of creating MP3s. RipperX also allows you to convert directly from a source WAV file to MP3, without a CD at all. Options include bit rate, variable bit rate quality, and encoder priority. ID3 tags, M3U playlists, and album sub-directories can also be created when ripping a CD. File and sub-directory names can be customized to any combination of artist, album, track number, song title, and year.

  • xcfa (X Convert File Audio) software_center_icon

    .. Compression, quality, and bit rate for each format are independently customizable. File name format is also customizable, and there is an option to create single CUE files instead of individual tracks. Album covers and tags may also be added and edited. XCFA doubles as a file splitter, allowing for the cropping or removal of track sections. Even tag editing can be done within this application. XCFA is certainly a robust piece of audio file manipulation software, handling pretty much everything there is.

  • Sound Juicer software_center_icon (called Audio CD extractor)

    Extraction outputs include M4A, FLAC, OGG, MP2, MP3, WAV, and SPX. SoundJuicer not only names ripped tracks to a customizable variation of track number, title, and artist, but also creates appropriate folders in your music directory. This feature is really great for those of us who still prefer old school file/folder organization to the newer tag-based method.

  • Asunder software_center_icon

    Asunder provides a simple interface for ripping tracks from audio CDs and converting them into digital audio files. Supported outputs include WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, WavPack, Musepack, Monkey's Audio, and ACC. Each output has a slider for quality, bit rate, and/or compression level. Naming formats of the album directory, playlist file, and file name are each customizable with options for artist, album, track number, year, and song title.

  • I've already installed 3 applications that don't meet my needs. I was hoping not to have to install every possible application -- that's why I asked my question here. I have a large list of possible solutions, but I would like to know which will let me edit track titles in the GUI before ripping. The info above doesn't address that, unfortunately. – MountainX Mar 04 '12 at 20:58
  • I decided I'll probably have to just keep installing and trying each different program. It looks like RipperX would do the trick. It does allow manually editing or specifying track titles in the GUI before ripping. However, I'm getting an error when using it about a missing plugin. The error is "error code 25 plugin not present". But it doesn't say which plugin it needs. I installed it via the repo, so I would expect all dependencies to be satisfied. Next up, I'm going to try the command line ABCDE... – MountainX Mar 05 '12 at 00:23
  • Please open a different question regarding the error and I am sorry I couldn't be of more specific help, just gave it my best shot :) – Nitin Venkatesh Mar 05 '12 at 12:30
  • thanks. I appreciate your effort. I updated my question with some additional info about what I'm doing now. – MountainX Mar 08 '12 at 19:36
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The sound-juicer package lets you edit track titles before ripping, and tends not to get in my way. Its only drawback might be that it limits your control over the output format parameters.

detly
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  • sound-juicer won't even let me extract the CD. The track/title section is empty and clicking "Extract" does nothing. I have RubyRipper and Asunder installed. Neither meets my needs, but they both extract the CDs. – MountainX Mar 04 '12 at 20:56
  • it appears I'm bitten by this sound-juicer bug in Ubuntu 11.10/Mint 12: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/sound-juicer/+bug/627008 – MountainX Mar 04 '12 at 21:08
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The easy way would be to use the "Banshee media player", which also let's you rip CD's and edit all track information as title, album, genre, etc. before ripping. It' rips in the .ogg format using Vorbis at 44100Hz, 160Kbps. Just insert the CD, change the track titles to your liking and click "Import CD". The default location of the imported (ripped)media will be located in your Music folder. Fast and easy, all through GUI. PS: The speed of the ripping process is greatly affected by the speed/performance of yours PC CD-ROM device. Also, just for the record, Banshee is the default (music) media player in Ubuntu 11.10.

Jan D.
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  • Thanks. It is easy, but it is not fast or efficient. The GUI is a bit clunky for editing track titles when you have a lot of them to edit. I'm still looking for something else. – MountainX Mar 08 '12 at 19:26