Being revolted with the (not so) recent "copy protected" audio CDs (CD-A), I decided to write yet another article on audio ripping. Most people read "CD-A ripping" and think MP3. Yes, you can rip to MP3 and most software will do just that, but there are much better choices. Be wise, do NOT rip to MP3.

If you want top quality, ie ripping with ZERO losses relative to the original CD-A, then use a lossless compressor, like Monkeys Audio (http://www.monkeysaudio.com/) or WavPack (http://www.wavpack.com/). This means that every CD-A can be smashed on half of the original size and yet keep *all* its quality. Note that "half the size" is an average - the value will depend on the CD-A. Dynamic music (plenty of ups and downs, but spaced on time, like "classical" themes) will probably get smashed at over 50%, but most rock and pop albums won't probably zip under 40%. In numbers, chances are that your CD-A can be ripped to some 350 MB on the hard disk.

If 350 MB is a bit too heavy, then you'll have to forget some of the original information. This is the land of MP3, RA and WMA, among many others that I won't even scratch.

MP3 is the dominant format, but is far from being the most efficient. It remains the top choice, because there are zillions of easy rippers who do MP3 ripping. MP3 is quite good at bit rates of at least 256 kbps, but at such quality it starts to eat too much hard disk space, for most user's taste. It is fair to expect files weighting 25% of their originals, if ripping at 320 kbps. At 128 kbps - the most typical bandwidth for MPEG1 Layer 3 files - MP3 is (still) quite good, but higher frequencies (such as metallic drums) are poorly reproduced; and it doesn't even take a good audio system to spot such differences to the source. However, if you listen to music with crappy loudspeakers or cheap amps, you won't have the gear to make the distinction, meaning that it would make sense to produce the lower quality files.

The problem with MP3 is the alternatives. Real Networks' Real Audio (RA) and Microsoft's Windows Media Audio (WMA) are better compressors.

If it was months ago, I would recommend the 132 kbps (or higher) RA files as the best choice to archive CD-A on the PC. But Real Networks didn't progress with the latest Real One Player, while Microsoft's WMA reached a very mature and very strong state, in less than one year! Impressive work, from the Seattle giant.

RA files are (or were) produced with the "Real Jukebox" product. You can also produce RA with "Real Producer", but the later is best for digital video. These products once were free until a certain bit rates, and had a commercial "plus" version that would encode at whatever bandwidth you desired, but Real Networks is doing only-they-now-what and their current lineup dropped the beauties, replacing them by an all-in-one monster named "Real One" that *demands* a full time internet connection to operate flawlessly! Windows XP and "Real One" are the kings of spyware...
"Real One" goes to the extreme of NOT running on computers NOT connected to the Internet, unless you hack the registry, by importing the keys that authorize the use.
So, because today is NOT months ago, I am so sorry to say (I really was a great fan of RA files), forget RA.

That brings us to WMA. WMA is free to encode and to decode (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/). Windows Media Player 8 even produces WMA out of the box, and despite Microsoft telling you that WMP8 is only available for Windows XP users (an OS that installs it, by default), dig a little on Microsoft's website and you'll find that you can download version 8 for any Windows... I am not sure if Windows Media Player 7.1 (also free but easily found on Microsoft's website) can directly rip to WMA, since I don't use it for months, but there is quite a strong chance that it does.

About WMA8's quality, I will *just* write this: at 192 kbps (its max quality), you'll need a very serious high fidelity system to spot the differences to the originals. My audio computer system (Creek 4330R amp + Energy eXL:16 loudspeakers + Alpha Mini-Sub subwoofer) can NOT spot the differences. My main hi-fi gear (too much components to list - check the documents / audio docs section, if interested) *does* bring differences to life, but I very much doubt of people using such a system with their computers, at least until much better sound cards get available (this sentence includes the top Audigy card).

Encoding with the it-could-not-be-easier Windows Media Player, only has one problem: while ripping audio, it gets the tracks names and all the other relevant album data, from AMG (All Music Guide) and not from CDDB (CD Database), which delivers more entries and more accurate content. For example, it won't be easy to find a portuguese album entry on AMG, but it will be hard NOT to, on CDDB...

The (one million dollars) question that emerges is: can I have WMA8 with CDDB?

Yes. You can - just find a ripper than can encode to selectable codecs. My suggestion is the dBpowerAmp Converter (http://admin.dbpoweramp.com/) that is FREE, plus it supports the FREE WMA8 codec, plus it can be set to fetch CD data, from wherever you dig a server, including the FREE CDDB server (set by default).

As I write, I am deleting all my MP3 and RA encodings. WMA is a whole new game. The quality is just superb, and together with dBpowerAmp, you get a ripping devil.

Make sure you read my opinion on the "copy protection" subject.