Miscellaneous: Ripping audio
(last edit: 2002-01-13)
                   
Introduction

NOTE if you use a SCSI cdrom read this howto
If you want to rip an audio cd to wav and/or mp3 files then this can be a usefull
document for you to read. Ripping audio can be done via various programs under FreeBSD
but I'll discuss the following:



Dagrab

You c an use dagrab to read audio tracks from a cdrom drive and record them to WAVE files.

Here are some usefull options:

man dagrab

       -i
          -i  prints out the track list from the current cd. This
          includes track number, lba start and  length,  type  of
          track,  its time duration and needed length when dumped
          to disk.

       -d device
          -d device  sets  the  cdrom  device  name.  Default  is
          /dev/cdrom  (if you haven't done already: symlinking of
          your cdrom device to /dev/cdrom is ``standard'')

       -a
          -a dumps all tracks  and  ignores  the  optional  track
          list.

       -v
          -v  enables  the  verbose mode of dagrab. It will print
          warning messages to stderr while delivering some useful
          information  to  stdout.  E.g.  the rest time and speed
          factor will be displayed while dumping a track.

       -C
          -C enables the use of cddbp protocol to  retrieve  disk
          info.

       -S
          -S  causes  the program to look for cddb data in remote
          server and to save it in the local database,  wich  for
          default   is   located   in  the  xmcd  library  direc-
          tory.Implies -C

       -N
          -N gives to each track the name reported by cddb; over-
          rides -f.  It does not enable cddbp.

       -H host
          -H   host  is  the  remote  cddb  server,  defaults  to
          cddb.like.it.

       -D dir
          -D  dir  sets  the  base  directory  of  the local cddb
          database;   it   defaults   to   $XMCD_LIBDIR/cddb   or
          /usr/lib/X11/xmcd/cddb if not defined.

Dagrap tries to connect to '/dev/cdrom' if you don't specify a device. So make
sure '/dev/cdrom' is linked to you cdrom device or use the '-d' option. 

To test if it works, try this:


user@host:/home/user#dagrab -d /dev/acd0c -i -C

DISK: Cypress Hill / Skull & Bones [Skull Disc

track    start   length  type  duration   MB Title
    1      150     8462 audio  00:01:52   18 Intro
    2     8612    14350 audio  00:03:11   32 Another Victory
    3    22962    22030 audio  00:04:53   49 (Rap) Superstar
    4    44992    19013 audio  00:04:13   42 Cuban Necktie
    5    64005    17302 audio  00:03:50   38 What U Want From Me
    6    81307    23248 audio  00:05:09   52 Stank Ass Hoe
    7   104555    17525 audio  00:03:53   39 Highlife
    8   122080    18225 audio  00:04:03   40 Certified Bomb
    9   140305    12577 audio  00:02:47   28 Can I Get A Hit
   10   152882    19538 audio  00:04:20   43 We Live This Shit
   11   172420    12412 audio  00:02:45   27 Worldwide
  170   184832        - leadout

CDDB DISCID: 98099e0b


So now you know it works and you would like to start ripping:


user@host:/home/user#dagrab -d /dev/acd0c -a -N -C
Dumping all tracks
Dumping track 1: lba      0 to lba   8461 (needs 18 MB)
Output file is: 01-Intro.wav
....


You can test the WAV files with programs like 'xmms' and 'wavplay'.


Bladeenc

So now you have WAV files but how do you convert them to MP3 files? There are allot of 
programs out there who can do this for you and 'bladeenc' is one of them. Here are the 
important options of bladeenc:


Usage: bladeenc [global switches] input1 [output1 [switches]] input2 ...

General switches:
  -[kbit], -br [kbit]  Set MP3 bitrate. Default is 128 (64 for mono output).
  -delete, -del        Delete sample after successful encoding.

Global only switches:
  -quit, -q            Quit without waiting for keypress when finished.
  -outdir=[dir]        Save MP3 files in specified directory.
  -quiet               Disable screen output.
  -nocfg               Don't take settings from the config-file.
  -prio=[prio]         Sets the task priority for BladeEnc. Valid settings are
                       HIGHEST, HIGHER, NORMAL, LOWER, LOWEST(default) and IDLE


So the useage should be something like this: 'bladeenc -br 192 -q -nocfg *.wav'. 
You will see a status output with a percentage done, which file is beeing processed etc.
Bladeenc will create MP3 files with the same name as the input files.


Grip

"Grip is a gtk-based cd-player and cd-ripper.  It has the ripping capabilities 
of cdparanoia builtin, but can also use external rippers." "It also provides an
automated frontend for MP3 encoders, letting you take a disc and transform it 
easily straight into MP3s."  

So if you're into the graphical stuff you might want to look into this program 
because it will link all the above actions together

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