php-deluxe.net - description CD ripper

CD ripper

A CD ripper, CD grabber or CD extractor is a piece of Software designed to extract raw digital audio (in format commonly called CDDA) from a compact disc to a Computer file or stdout.

=Introduction=

As an intermediate step, some ripping programs save the extracted audio in a lossless (but possibly multimedia compression format) such as WAV, FLAC, or even raw Pulse-code modulation audio.

The extracted audio can then encoded with a lossy Codec like MP3, Vorbis, or Advanced Audio Coding. The encoded files are more compact and are suitable for playback on digital audio players. They may also be played back in a media player program on a computer.

Most ripping programs will assist in tagging the encoded files with Metadata. The MP3 file format, for example, allows ID3 tags with title, artist, album and track number information. Some will try to identify the disc being ripped by looking up network services like All Media Guide AMG LASSO, FreeDB, Gracenote s CDDB or MusicBrainz.

Some all-in-one ripping programs can simplify the entire process by ripping and CD recorder the audio to disc in one step, possibly re-encoding the audio on-the-fly in the process.

The first CD ripper for Unix systems was cdda2wav, now considered superseded by cdparanoia.

The Jargon File entry for rip notes that the term originated in Amiga slang, where it referred to the extraction of multimedia content from program data.