Ripping Guide: Ripping MP3s from Music CDs

There are many music lovers for years that have passed over time to the digital format, generally MP3 . Therefore, in the event that you are a music lover and you really like music, chances are you have a good collection of CDs.

One of the big problems with this CD library is that they take up a considerable amount of space. At the same time it means that we need a player to be able to listen to them. Therefore, and since the music on CDs is digital, we can opt for making a backup copy on the computer and keeping the physical disks in a safe place. So if you’re not sure how to rip CD to MP3 with song names and other useful information, it’s easy.

Ripping Guide: Ripping MP3s from Music CDs

For this, in these times we can find a good amount of free software that allows us to rip CDs with the names of the tracks included.

Programs to transfer CDs to MP3

As we mentioned, there are several proposals in the form of programs that are useful to us for these tasks that we discuss. Thus, one of the best known in this regard is CDex, which also has support to extract information from the album itself.

CDex to rip CDs

Specifically, we are referring to a free application that has a good number of functions related to this same topic. This is a program that we can download from this link and that has an installable version, as well as a portable one.

CDex interfaz

Once we have installed it in the system, we have to insert the CD in the corresponding drive of the PC and in seconds the music files will appear. Of course, in most cases these will not have song titles or other metadata. For this we can use other programs or Freedb, which is compatible with CDex . The conversion process is carried out in a simple as well as intuitive way from the Convert menu of the program as such.

It is also interesting to know that in order to carry out the CD to MP3 conversion process, we will not need to have previous knowledge. The reason for all this is that the program is very intuitive and easy to use from its menus.

Extract Audio Copy

On the other hand, when ripping CDs, we also find Extract Audio Copy, a free program that you can download from this link . It is worth mentioning that this is a somewhat more complete application than the one previously mentioned. This is a program that is also known as EAC and that focuses on ripping CDs. It has a multitude of additional functions that allow us to edit the compression , or correct the imperfections of the audio. This is something that will be very useful for damaged physical media.

Extract audio copy

Furthermore, Exact Audio Copy uses various technologies to ensure that CDs are copied accurately and thus maintain optimum sound quality. It is also important to say that the application is compatible with most types of audio files such as WAV , MP3, OGG , FLAC, APE, etc. Similarly, from here we can easily create our own music collections and automatically add metadata to the extracted files.

How to add metadata to extracted MP3s

Generally, when ripping a CD, the corresponding metadata of each of the extracted songs is not added. For this we can use external applications that will help us in all this.

MusicBrainz Picard

This is the case of MusicBrainz Picard, an application that you download from here that is in charge of exactly what we are talking about. That is why it can be considered as a more than adequate complement to the previously reviewed programs. It is a free and open source application that is responsible for adding all kinds of metadata to the MP3s that we have. This includes the name of the songs, author, type of music, etc.

MusicBrainz Picard

To do this we just have to drag the corresponding music files to the interface to start the search as such. Thus, the MusicBrainz service will begin to identify the songs and the rest of their metadata. With all this what we achieve is to insert much more additional information to the MP3 ripped previously with the other programs.

MP3TAG

Now we will talk about another interesting option that allows us to edit the metadata that we were referring to. MP3TAG is an application that has been with us for a long time and that we can download from this link . To say that its use is extremely simple, even for those who are not great specialists in these matters.

mp3tag interfaz

Thus, we only have to add the songs that we ripped previously and from which we want to edit their metadata. At the same time we will have the opportunity to modify or add everything we want and that will be part of the MP3. In this way, once loaded, we just have to go to each topic to add the corresponding metadata.

Find and add covers to your ripped CDs

And to complete the extraction of your collection of CDs to MP3, we also have the possibility of adding the original covers to the extracted discs.

Coveralia

This is the case, for example, of Coveralia, a platform that we access from this link from our favorite web browser. Here we are going to find a huge amount of music disc covers so that we can add them to our digital library.

Coveralia

Of course, they are not all, but over the years the amount of content of this type that we can find here has not stopped growing.

Covers

And something similar happens with the website called Caratulas which we can access from this link . Here, as with the case previously exposed, we will have to scroll through the many contents it houses. As you can imagine, these refer to the covers of the albums that interest us and that we will have to look for.

Caratulas plataforma

Players to listen to your ripped MP3s

As far as the music reproduction sector is concerned, we have an enormous amount of software in this regard. Some are more general, while others are more focused on playing music as such.

VUPlayer

This is the case, for example, of VUPlayer, a music player that is characterized by being light and that also incorporates some interesting additional functions. Thus, this software that we can download from this link is capable of also converting these music files.

VUPlayer

It also has several shortcuts to the main functions and controls of the program so that we can use it in the best possible way. It has a pleasant user interface and is a more than adequate alternative to other more popular programs .

AIM Player

And continuing with the music playback section, we can also opt for the program called AIM Player . This is software that also focuses on playing all kinds of music files. That is why it has support for practically all the current formats and we can download the program from this link .

AIMP player

At the same time it is worth knowing that it hardly consumes system resources and that it has interesting parameters to improve the audio of the files.