# Ripping a music library from CD - WAV, WMA, MP3? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripping-a-music-library-from-cd-wav-wma-mp3/804149 "2017-12-10T22:17:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fortyfold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7c8e57/32.png) [@Fortyfold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fortyfold)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripping-a-music-library-from-cd-wav-wma-mp3/804149/41 "2018-03-19T17:55:54Z")
Not mentioned yet is _Audiograbber_, getting old now but still a good program for CDs. Uses LAME for mp3s. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripping-a-music-library-from-cd-wav-wma-mp3/804149/42 "2018-03-19T20:00:28Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > The only thing that bothers me is that I didn’t get tagged FLAC files and I don’t think you can tag them manually. But it’s just a minor inconvience at this point, all the info I need is in the name of the file (which can get quite long, however). You have to manually choose to grab the tag info from the internet. Easiest is to hit the little blue circle button with the red mark on it. See image [here](https://postimg.org/image/h9ohuq34l/be1a4458/). You can also use [MP3Tag](https://www.mp3tag.de/en/) to manually tag flac files. (Like, say, you want to replace the embedded low-res cover art with nicer images.) ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripping-a-music-library-from-cd-wav-wma-mp3/804149/43 "2018-03-19T20:35:47Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > For sure. A plurality of my rips take around 15-20 minutes, but a substantial minority take 30-40 minutes. I might add to this that sometimes EAC will get stuck if the CD is sufficiently imperfect. One time I was ripping my original pressing of 10,000 Maniacs’ “Blind Man’s Zoo” (or was it “In My Tribe”… it was one of those two) and on one track it just seemed to get stuck and would never finish, even after giving it an hour or so to work at it. I eventually decided to give it a whirl with iTunes and it completed the whole album in a few seconds, and there was no noticeable problem when playing back the album, at least to my admittedly imperfect ears. So I’d say that EAC is excellent when it comes to making accurate copies of CDs in good condition, but it might be _too_ good for discs that have seen better days. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripping-a-music-library-from-cd-wav-wma-mp3/804149/44 "2018-03-19T22:11:04Z")
I ripped all of my CDs about a year ago, using EAC to rip to FLAC and then later converting those to mp3 files using another program (forget which one, but it took about 2 seconds per song). Maybe used the CD drive for 2 to 3 hours straight, never heard about the drive needing rest and the drive seems none the worse for wear. Anyway, after ripping all my CDs, about 500 of them, I had about a dozen that EAC failed to rip. I never thought about using another program to rip them. As much as I avoid iTunes, I do have it and will try that tonight to see if it can rip those CDs. Thanks for the tip. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripping-a-music-library-from-cd-wav-wma-mp3/804149/45 "2018-03-21T08:20:44Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > You have to manually choose to grab the tag info from the internet. Easiest is to hit the little blue circle button with the red mark on it. See image [here](https://postimg.org/image/h9ohuq34l/be1a4458/)… This worked perfectly, thanks a lot ! I just had to manually add the name of the composer, which didn’t appear for some reason, but it was really easy to do. The rest of the information I needed was already in place and correct. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripping-a-music-library-from-cd-wav-wma-mp3/804149.md?page=2)