Ripping MP3's and WAV's off of a CD --> incredibly slow with my TDK VelocCD :-(

[CanadianBacon]

I'm confused . . . perhaps its the program or some other fact thats limiting me, but this shouldn't be happening IMO.

I'm quite happy with ripping full CD's to copy them to another CD at a max of 32x with my new TDK, and its great, but I'm having trouble ripping a CD to MP3 format for storage on my hard drive. Since I got my new TDK VeloCD (12x10x32x) I've been dieing to do it. So I fire up the multimedia suite and check what does what. I found that only RealJukebox would rip to MP3 directly, and heck, it was the only one that would rip to WAV directly. Strange . . . perhaps I'm missing a menu?

Well, this didn't bother me because its such a hassle-free interface. Set the place you want them ripping, quality, and whatnot, and all you have to do it pop a CD into the drive, hit record without even going into a menu, and letting it go. I went through my supertramp collection quite speedily this way. But only at an average of 7x. WHAT!? I figured it was a software issue so I updated the software . . . it gave me a bit more but it was still not what I was hoping. I thought I would get somewhere near the speed of ripping straight to an ISO image. (Just to let everyone know, I'm ripping to 160kbps MP3's). I double checked my ISO ripping speed, and it was indeed 32x at the end.

Is the ripping speed slow because it has to encode them to MP3's or what? Would someone clue me into better software to be ripping with?

D'OH! Just forgot I didn't bother checking NERO . . . dunno why. Someone clue me in if this'll rip faster than 7x or not. Jeeze, don't know why I forgot to try it.

One more question . . . if I'm ripping a CD to MP3 format, I shouldn't have to leave the comp stand unused, right? Its safe to assume that I can carry on web browsing and whatnot on a machine with 128 megs of RAM without having to worry about having gaps and spaces in my audio? I did check and didn't notice any audible differences, but you never know.

And finally, as a build-upon question from those before this . . . what is the best program to do these tasks (preferably from the TDK software suite or freeware or un-crippled shareware)

Burn MP3's to a CD (I found the included mixmaster burns at 12x very very nicely)
Burn WAV's to CD (same as above)
Rip CD to WAV
Rip CD to MP3
Rip CD to ISO
Burn ISO to CD
Burn Data to CD



I know this will require a very comprehensive answer and I thank you all beforehand for any knowlege you may bestow upon me. I am merely one of the unenlightened, and when I do things, I want to know how to do them the best I can possibly do them (did that make sense?)

Thanks again!

 

[fitzhue]

What speed are you ripping to .wav at? If your encoding directly from cd-mp3 on the fly, that process is heavily cpu dependent. What are your system specs?

 

[Dulanic]

Well it depends on CPU speed and CD-Rom speed.... My T-bird 1Ghz and Kenwood 72X rip at usually 15X

 

[Mule]

I love my cheapo 50x CD-ROM that rips CD's at ~44x

 

[Bling Bling]

rip it to .wav, and then encode.

It won't rip at 32x, which is the data read speed. It'll rip at like ~20x, which is the claimed DAE of TDK VeloCD drives.

I use RazorLame to rip, and then the LAME encoder to encode. Works well, althogh encoding takes time since i want good quality.

Hope that helps.

 

[CanadianBacon]

P3 550E@850, PC133 RAM on 150mhz bus, 128 megs of RAM.

Mule: a drive that can rip or is that just READ? 44x is astounding.

BlingBling: With the new firmware upgrade, it will rip an audio track at the end of the CD at ~32x. I tested it myself . . . just going from CD directly to MP3 seems to be slow as heck.

 

[CanadianBacon]

^^BumP^^

 

[GT1999]

It's slow because it has to compress the .wav to .mp3 format after rip, which will take more time.

 

[divinemartyr]

CanadianBacon:

Best bet for doing ISO's is either CDR-WIN or Nero does a decent job as well.

When you encode your mp3's rip to wav then encode while you aren't ripping, for faster speed. Doing it on the fly will slow things down. you might try comparing to see if encoding on the fly vs. ripping then encoding actually saves you time. I don't know I've never tried both, just always encoded on the fly. The TDK and my system seem to do it rather quickly.

Xing encoder is one of the quickest encoders I have used, MusicMatch jukebox is great for ripping and encoding. It's a $29 program (at least it used to be) and you get lifetime upgrades. Worth the $29 if you don't want to use a patch.

divinemartyr

 

[SlimHarpo]

<< it will rip an audio track at the end of the CD at ~32x. I tested it myself . . . just going from CD directly to MP3 seems to be slow as heck. >>



Mp3 encoders vary wildly in speed (as well as quality). Probably the best all-around encoder out there is LAME It may well be that the encoder you are using is simply dog slow, especially since you say that the actual ripping to .wav goes quickly. LAME is very fast, and definitely one of the top encoders as far as quality goes.

LAME on its own only turns .wavs into .mp3s, so you'll want a front end to handle the CD->.wav part; you can get some here CDex and Zlurp are decent freeware Windows front ends (CDDex is pretty buggy, though). Both come with a LAME .dll; download them and give them a try.

Btw, nice one with the &quot;ripping my entire Supertramp collection&quot;. That cracked me up good.

 

[CanadianBacon]

Not a big fan of supertramp, I see?

~~EDIT~~

Also, thanks for the information, I'll look into it

 

[Namuna]

I just got the VeloCD myself (12/10/32), upgraded it to 1.07Firmware (for the supposed 32x DAE ripping).

So far I've tried MusicMatch Jukebox 6 and the results have been less than exiciting.

I started off just like you, with ~7x ripping (CD-Audio to MP3)! I was able to get the speed up to ~13.5x after yutzing with the configs in Device Manager (I'm using Win2000).

I think a part of the issue might be a little system tweaking for the CD-RW drive as well. What a PITA (Pain In The ASSSS!)

 

[ucdnam]

As some have stated, it depends on the speed of your encoding. Some encoders take more cpu power, thus may take more time on your machine. Now, if you used a cheapie encoder, say Xing or AudioCatalyst, then it would rip quickly.

Have you encoded cd audio ripped to wav into mp3? See how long that takes. On the fly can't be any faster because you have to add in the ripping.

 

[generalgman]

Anyone else have any thoughts on this subject? I just ordered a TDK 12x10x32x cdrw from buy.com two days ago. I have yet to recieve it and hoping that I don't have trouble like this!!

 

[nortexoid]

i think it's real jukebox that's the problem...

try different software...

mule, u're full of cur-ap...

44x DAE....on a &quot;cheapo&quot; cd-rom...laughable.

 

[randomlinh]

well, at burst mode and prolly w/ errors, it's possible to get 44x

but yeah, like these guys said, ripping to mp3 takes quite a bit out of your cpu, so 7x isn't really all that bad.

 

[Namuna]

After staying up till 4am and swearing uncontrollably, I was able to squeeze out ~15x On-The-Fly ripping.

Also, after running around all over the net, it seems a REAL WORLD expectation from the advertised DAE ratio for On-The-Fly ripping is 1/2 (if a unit says it has 32x DAE, then you can expect roughly that it'll do ~16x, higher if you tweak THE HELL out of you system)

On-The-Fly means you've got an Audio-CD in your burner and you're encoding directly into MP3 format right off the CD. The faster DAE rating you see advertised is based on ripping the CD to a .wav file, no encoding.

Read all about it here...
CDRom Guide

 

[SUOrangeman]

Anyone use Exact Audio Copy? Only reason I ask is because I see its numbers posted in a few reviews. Anything better? Anything faster? Anything faster and better?

-SUO