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CD Ripper Help -------------- The CD Ripper utility included with CD-Runner has been designed to make digital copies of audio CD tracks and store them onto your hard drive in WAV format. These WAV files may also be converted to MP3 (MPEG Layer-3) format using an MP3 Encoder. Index ----- A) OVERVIEW B) SETTINGS C) RECORDING TRACK(S) D) FREEWARE MP3 ENCODERS AND RIPPERS E) ASPI MANAGERS F) TROUBLESHOOTING ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A) OVERVIEW The CD Ripper will not work in all systems. The following minimum requirements must be met: 1. Your CD-ROM, DVD or CD-R drive must be able to read data from an audio CD. To view an online listing of drives that are compatible, go to: http://www.mp3.com/cdrom.html 2. Your system must be able to read audio CD data from the audio CD using an ASPI manager; see the ASPI section below for further details 3. You may have to try different copy or "rip" methods - this unfortunate "trial-and-error" approach is due to the fact that hardware and ASPI calls can vary depending on your system and OS; see the settings section below for further details Even if all of the above requirements appear to be met, you may still have problems recording audio CD data into WAV files. Most newer DVD and CD-ROM drives seem to work fine (as long as you have a compatible ASPI manager loaded). Note that methods to rip vary; listed below are freeware rippers which *may* work better on your system. If you are successful saving WAV files you may use the CD-Runner Recorder as a "front-end" MP3 encoder to convert the WAV files into MP3. The Media Runner component of CD-Runner should play WAV or MP3 files fine regardless of where they were created. Also note that the CD Ripper only saves files in WAV format; to convert to MP3 format you will need an MP3 encoder. See below for further details. Once you have obtained a freeware or shareware MP3 encoder, CD-Runner will work seamlessly to record files into WAV and then convert to MP3 if desired. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B) SETTINGS DRIVE SELECTION: As a minimum, you must select your CD-ROM/DVD drive in the settings section. If you have more than one drive, select the drive which contains the audio CD to be recorded. LOCATION OF RECORDED FILES: Select the location where you wish to store the recorded WAV files to. If using an MP3 encoder, the converted MP3 files will also be stored in the same location. CREATE MEDIA RUNNER PROGRAM: Check this box to automatically create a CD-Runner Media Runner program from the selected (recorded) files. The program will be saved in the file format "Artist - Album.PG1" into your CDRunner\Datacd directory, so that using the Media Runner PGM / "Rcl" option the tracks will be automatically setup. Note that you may also create a program file later by selecting the desired tracks and using the "create program" pulldown menu (while in the Record screen). CREATE FILENAMES FROM: You may save the WAV filenames in many different formats: 1. Track Name (e.g. "The Long and Winding Road.WAV") 2. Track Number (e.g. "Track10.WAV") 3. Artist Name (e.g. "The Beatles 10.WAV") 4. Album Name (e.g. "Let It Be 10.WAV") 5. Artist-Album (e.g. "The Beatles - Let It Be 10.WAV") 6. Artist-Track (e.g. "The Beatles - The Long and Winding Road.WAV") Note that you may also check the option to create subdirectories using the Artist's name. CREATE DIRECTORY USING ARTIST NAME Check this box to automatically create a directory using the artist name; the recorded WAV and/or MP3 files will be saved to this directory. CREATE DIRECTORY USING ARTIST + ALBUM NAME As above, check this box to automatically create a directory using both the artist and album names. MP3 ENCODER LOCATION AND OPTIONS: Location: Enter the location of the MP3 encoder application (e.g. C:\Program Files\CDRunner\BladeEnc.exe); note that you may use the browse button [...] to search for the encoder location. Convert: check the Automatically convert WAV to MP3 box to launch the selected MP3 encoder after recording the WAV file(s). This is designed to run in the background. If using BladeEnc, you can easily select all tracks, press the record button and do something else while the recording and conversion is going on in the background. Delete WAV: after converting the WAV file to MP3, check this box to allow the encoder to delete the WAV file (note: not all encoders support this feature) Enable CRC check: check this box to add checksum data to each frame in the MP3 file created. This is needed for error correction when streaming the MP3 file in real time over the Internet (e.g. done by Internet radio stations). This may lower the quality of the sound slightly since the checksum data also has to fit in the selected bitrate. This is not needed for normal use. Enable high priority encoding: check this box to give highest priority to the encoding program; this slows all other Windows programs, so use with caution. MP3 encoding mode: select Stereo (default) or Mono modes as desired. Encoding Bitrate: select the desired encoding bitrate, 128000 bps is the default and seems to work well with the Media Runner. The higher the bitrate the better the quality but bigger the file size. AUTOMATICALLY CONVERT WAV FILE TO MP3 Check this box to use the MP3 encoder specified to convert WAV files into MP3 format. Typically, MP3 files are much smaller than the original WAV from which it was created (approx. 12:1 compression). DELETE WAV FILE AFTER MP3 CREATED Check this box to delete the WAV files after the MP3 encoded equivalent has been created. This is usually a good idea, since the WAV files can be huge and even with a very big hard drive can use a LOT of space. ENABLE CRC CHECK Check this box to enable the CRC check option; this will add checksum data to each frame in the MP3 file created (normally this is only required when streaming over the Internet). Note that not all MP3 encoders support this option. ENABLE HIGH PRIORITY ENCODING Check this box to enable high priority MP3 encoding; this allows for somewhat faster encode times, but may slow down other Windows applications considerably. MP3 ENCODING MODE: Select either stereo or mono encoding modes as desired. ADVANCED SETTINGS: ENCODER COMMAND LINE: You may enter a command line string for an encoder here; this will override any MP3 encoder settings entered. Note: if using Fraunhofer's MP3ENC31, use " -if " at the END of the command line string. FILE EXTENSION: If you wish to change the default file extension (e.g. from MP3 to TIFF), enter the extesion here. RIP MODE: Select a different copy or "rip" mode: Normal, Synchronous or Burst mode. If you are having trouble recording audio CD tracks into WAV files, try all different modes here. RIP / ENCODE AS BATCH: Select this option to rip (record) all of the selected tracks first, then encode all of the tracks ripped; if the delete WAV option is enabled, all of the original WAV files will then be deleted. This option is marginally faster than the "one track at a time" alternative below, but it requires much more free hard drive space to temporarily store all of the WAV files. RIP / ENCODE ONE TRACK AT A TIME: Select this option to rip, encode and delete the WAV file for one track at a time. This is marginally slower than the option above, but it requires a lot less free space on your hard drive. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C) RECORDING TRACK(S) As long as the minimum required settings have been entered, you will be able to access the record screen. If Artist, Album and track title data has been entered into the Audio CD Runner, then it will automatically displayed here. Click the checkbox to select the tracks which you wish to record; press F3 to select all tracks, or F4 to clear the track selections. After you have checked the desired tracks, press the record button below to begin recording. Track and total progress indicators will show recording progress. If at any time you wish to abort the recording, simply press the stop button. To preview a track, highlight it (left click) then click the "Preview Track" link (upper right). To stop preview, click the "Stop Preview" link. To edit a track description, highlight it, then right click it (or use the Edit / Change track description menu). To view and/or edit the MP3 ID3 data, click the ID3 Tags icon on the toolbar or click the ID3 data (text) displayed in the lower window directly. Note that during recording you cannot access the settings section. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D) FREEWARE MP3 ENCODERS AND RIPPERS Many freeware and shareware MP3 encoders are available. These are programs which are designed to convert WAV files into MP3 files. It is highly recommended that you use an MP3 encoder, since a WAV file can be up to 12 times larger than its MP3 equivalent. If a sufficent bitrate is used during encoding, the MP3 file sounds almost identical to the WAV file. [Note: the following reflects the opinions of the CD-Runner developer and should be taken as such - your results may vary from mine; also, Beyond Software is not affiliated with any of the following applications in any way.] In my opinion, the best freeware encoder is BLADEENC. This is a true 32-bit Windows application and creates superb MP3 files from WAV; it also includes many command line options not found in other encoders. The CD-Runner Audio CD Recorder has been designed to work seamlessly with BladeEnc; download at: http://home8.swipnet.se/~w-82625/ http://www.bladeenc.cjb.net Another freeware encoder which works with CD-Runner is PLUGGER+. As of this writing it does not have as many command line options as BladeEnc and does not work in a batch ("*.WAV") mode, but it will nonetheless convert files and is freeware; download at: http://members.tripod.com/~mp3nkoder/ A shareware MP3 encoder named MP3ENC from Fraunhofer is also available, download at: http://www.iis.fhg.de/audio/ Freeware rippers are also available for download. One that I've heard good things about is named Apollo; download at: http://apollo.grooveclub.com/ Also check out the MP3 web sites on the Internet for other Rippers or MP3 encoders; a good one can be found at: http://www.mp3.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E) ASPI MANAGERS Your system must be able to read audio CD data from the audio CD using an ASPI manager (usually the wnaspi32.dll file found in your Windows\System directory). Some versions of ASPI do not seem to detect IDE CD-ROMs though, so try to get the latest version if you see an message indicating that there was an ASPI error. Windows 95/98 normally comes with a version of ASPI that works with both SCSI and IDE; for Windows NT, you must obtain and install your own. A decent freeware ASPI manager that works with Windows 95/98 and NT4 may be downloaded from: http://www.grc.com/freesetuff.htm or direct ftp download: ftp://grc.com/aspi_me.exe Another ASPI manager which works for NT4 may be downloaded at: ftp://ftp.irnet.ru/pub/Windows/NT/ASPI/aspi_update.zip You can also try to get an ASPI manager directly from Adaptec at http://www.adaptec.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- F) TROUBLESHOOTING Many things may prevent you from properly recording Audio CD tracks; if you are experiencing problems, try the following: * Check the online listing of compatible CD-ROM, DVD and/or CD-R drives to ensure that your drive is capable of recording Audio CD tracks at: http://www.mp3.com/cdrom.html * Try different copy modes in the advanced settings section (see above). * Try using an updated ASPI manager (see above). * If you have more than one CD-ROM drive (including DVD or CD-R drives), then select a different drive in the settings section if you are having trouble recording with the currently selected drive. * Check our web sites support pages for the latest troubleshooting info at: http://www.cdrunner.com/support.htm http://www.cdrunner.net/support.htm * If all else fails and you are unable to record tracks using the CD-Runner CD Ripper with your system, freeware rippers are also available for download (see above); CD-Runner can still be used as an MP3 encoder "front-end" to convert the WAV files into MP3 format. In any case, the Media Runner should be able to play WAV or MP3 files fine regardless of where they were created. You can also set a 3rd-party ripper to be the default ripper used by CD-Runner in the setup section.