In a similar way to encoding from audio, encoding from CD is a 2 stage process. Firstly the audio data is extracted from the cd and converted into a wav file. Then the wav file is converted into MP3.
There are basically 2 types of encoders, console based and X based. Both do the same job, but the X based are easier to use (and look nicer).
Again, before you start to encode, check you will have enough drive space on your system.
I've written a very simple Perl script that will rip and encode tracks from a CD.
#!/usr/bin/perl
if ($ARGV[0] ne "") {
$count = 1;
do {
$cdcap = system("cdparanoia", $count, "/mp3/cdda.wav");
$track = "$ARGV[1]/track".$count.".mp3";
$enc = system("bladeenc /mp3/cdda.wav $track -br 256000");
$count++;
}
until $count > $ARGV[0];
exit;
}
else {
print "Usage cdriper [no of tracks] [destination directory]\n\n";
}
The main lines of interest are:
$cdcap = system("cdparanoia", $count, "/mp3/cdda.wav");
This line calls the CD ripper, cdparanoia. Cdparanoia converts raw CD audio data to WAV format.
I'm using Cdparanoia, but if you wish to use CDDA2WAV, the command line would be:
$cdcap = system("cdda2wav", $count, "/mp3/cdda.wav");
The salient options are $count, which is the number of tracks to rip, and then the path for the outputted WAV file. In my example this will go to a tmp directory on my MP3 SCSI drive.
The WAV file is then converted into a MP3 file using Bladeenc.
I've written this Perl script in order to rip a CD without having to rip and encode each track, and without having to use the batch mode of Cdparanoia. This cuts down on free disk space needed as Cdparanoia's batch mode will rip the whole disk, and take up anything upto 600 Meg.
If you wanted to use Lame or Gogo, replace the encoder line with:
$enc = system("lame /mp3/cdda.wav $track -b 256");
$enc = system("gogo /mp3/cdda.wav $track -b 256");
Here is a dump of the available option for each of the encoders.
Bladeenc
BladeEnc 0.91 (c) Tord Jansson Homepage: http://bladeenc.mp3.no
===============================================================================
BladeEnc is free software, distributed under the Lesser General Public License.
See the file COPYING, BladeEnc's homepage or www.fsf.org for more details.
Usage: bladeenc [global switches] input1 [output1 [switches]] input2 ...
General switches:
-[kbit], -br [kbit] Set MP3 bitrate. Default is 128 (64 for mono output).
-crc Include checksum data in MP3 file.
-delete, -del Delete sample after successful encoding.
-private, -p Set the private-flag in the output file.
-copyright, -c Set the copyright-flag in the output file.
-copy Clears the original-flag in the output file.
-mono, -dm Produce mono MP3 files by combining stereo channels.
-leftmono, -lm Produce mono MP3 files from left stereo channel only.
-rightmono, -rm Produce mono MP3 files from right stereo channel only.
-swap Swap left and right stereo channels.
-rawfreq=[freq] Specify frequency for RAW samples. Default is 44100.
-rawbits=[bits] Specify bits per channel for RAW samples. Default is 16.
-rawmono Specifies that RAW samples are in mono, not stereo.
-rawstereo Specifies that RAW samples are in stereo (default).
-rawsigned Specifies that RAW samples are signed (default).
-rawunsigned Specifies that RAW samples are unsigned.
-rawbyteorder=[order]Specifies byteorder for RAW samples, LITTLE or BIG.
-rawchannels=[1/2] Specifies number of channels for RAW samples. Does
the same as -rawmono and -rawstereo respectively.
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
-refresh=[rate] Refresh rate for progress indicator. 1=fastest, 2=def.
-progress=[0-8] Which progress indicator to use. 0=Off, 1=Default.
Input/output files can be replaced with STDIN and STDOUT respectively.
Lame
LAME version 3.50 (www.sulaco.org/mp3)
GPSYCHO: GPL psycho-acoustic model version 0.74.
USAGE : lame [options] <infile> [outfile]
<infile> and/or <outfile> can be "-", which means stdin/stdout.
OPTIONS :
-m mode (s)tereo, (j)oint, (f)orce or (m)ono (default j)
force = force ms_stereo on all frames. Faster and
uses special Mid & Side masking thresholds
-b <bitrate> set the bitrate, default 128kbps
(for VBR, this sets the allowed minimum bitrate)
-s sfreq sampling frequency of input file(kHz) - default 44.1
--resample sfreq sampling frequency of output file(kHz)- default=input sfreq
--mp3input input file is a MP3 file
--voice experimental voice mode
-v use variable bitrate (VBR)
-V n quality setting for VBR. default n=4
0=high quality,bigger files. 9=smaller files
-t disable Xing VBR informational tag
--nohist disable VBR histogram display
-h use (maybe) quality improvements
-f fast mode (low quality)
-k disable sfb=21 cutoff
-d allow channels to have different blocktypes
--athonly only use the ATH for masking
-r input is raw pcm
-x force byte-swapping of input
-a downmix from stereo to mono file for mono encoding
-e emp de-emphasis n/5/c (obsolete)
-p error protection. adds 16bit checksum to every frame
(the checksum is computed correctly)
-c mark as copyright
-o mark as non-original
-S don't print progress report, VBR histograms
Specifying any of the following options will add an ID3 tag
--tt <title> title of song (max 30 chars)
--ta <artist> artist who did the song (max 30 chars)
--tl <album> album where it came from (max 30 chars)
--ty <year> year in which the song/album was made (max 4 chars)
--tc <comment> additional info (max 30 chars)
MPEG1 samplerates(kHz): 32 44.1 48
bitrates(kbs): 32 48 56 64 80 96 112 128 160 192 224 256 320
MPEG2 samplerates(kHz): 16 22.05 24
bitrates(kbs): 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 80 96 112 128 144 160
Gogo
GOGO-no-coda ver. 2.24 (Feb 12 2000)
Copyright (C) 1999 PEN@MarineCat and shigeo
Special thanks to Keiichi SAKAI, URURI, Noisyu and Kei
This is based on LAME3.29beta and distributed under the LGPL
usage
gogo inputPCM [outputPCM] [options]
inputPCM is input wav file
if input.wav is `stdin' then stdin-mode
outputPCM is output mp3 file (omissible)
options
-b kbps bitrate [kpbs]
-br bps bitrate [ bps]
-silent dont' print progress report
-off {3dn,mmx,kni(sse),e3dn}
-v {0,..,9} VBR [0:high quality 9:high compression]
You should combine this with -b option
for only RAW-PCM input
-offset bytes skip header size
-8bit 8bit-PCM [dflt 16bit-PCM]
-mono mono-PCM [dflt stereo-PCM]
-bswap low, high byte swapping for 16bitPCM
-s kHz freq of PCM [dflt 44.1kHz]
-nopsy disable psycho-acoustics
-m {s,m,j} output format s:stereo, m:mono, j:j-stereo
-d kHz change sampling-rate of output MP3
-emh {n,c,5} de-emphasis
-lpf {on,off} 16kHz filter [dflt use if <= 128kbps; not use if >= 160kbps]
-test benchmark mode
-delete delete input file, after encoding
RipEnc performs the same task as the code above, but is written in shell and is easier to use :)
Here's what it looks like.
RipEnc version 0.7, Copyright (C) 1999 Michael J. Parmeley <mjparme@asde.com>, RipEnc comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY There is currently NO encoding process running in the background Your encode.log file is 982607 bytes long. <Enter 'd' for details, 'v' to view the encode log, or 'del' to delete the encode log> 1) Change working directory....................[/megajukebox/tmp] 2) Choose encoder..............................[lame] 3) Choose ripper...............................[cdparanoia] 4) Choose id3 tool.............................[none] 5) Toggle between Manual and CDDB naming.......[manual] 6) Setup XMCD_LIBDIR variable for CDA..........[/var/X11R6/lib/xmcd] 7) Set preferred naming convention.............[artist-name_of_song.mp3] 8) Rip whole CD?...............................[no] 9) Set small hard drive option?................[no] 10) Please select your Cd-Rom device...........[/dev/cdrom] 11) Set the Bitrate for the encoded MP3's......[256] 12) List the files in your working directory 13) Start 14) About 15) Exit ?
GUI based encoders offer all the functionality of console based encoding, but wrap it all up in a nice easy to use interface. Grip and RipperX are similar in operation, both offer you the ability to select one, several or all tracks on a CD and convert them. They also offer CDDB support which allows you to retrieve the album and track information from a server and saves you having to enter the information by hand.
In the encoding sections I've mentioned 3 different encoders, bladeenc, lame and gogo. The main difference is their performance in encoding (although there are differences in the available options which were listed earlier).
A little example. I ripped a track from a CD and then encoded it with the different encoders. All encoders were run with the same system conditions and all produced stereo out mp3's.
[dj@megajukebox]$ ls -l cdda.wav
-rw-rw-r-- 1 dj dj 59823164 Feb 10 00:56 cdda.wav
[dj@megajukebox]$ bladeenc cdda.wav -br 256
BladeEnc 0.91 (c) Tord Jansson Homepage: http://bladeenc.mp3.no
===============================================================================
BladeEnc is free software, distributed under the Lesser General Public License.
See the file COPYING, BladeEnc's homepage or www.fsf.org for more details.
Files to encode: 1
Encoding: ../test.wav
Input: 44.1 kHz, 16 bit, stereo.
Output: 128 kBit, stereo.
Completed. Encoding time: 00:05:58 (0.78X)
All operations completed. Total encoding time: 00:05:58
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[dj@megajukebox]$ lame cdda.wav -b 256
LAME version 3.50 (www.sulaco.org/mp3)
GPSYCHO: GPL psycho-acoustic model version 0.74.
Encoding ../test.wav to ../test.wav.mp3
Encoding as 44.1 kHz 128 kbps j-stereo MPEG1 LayerIII file
Frame | CPU/estimated | time/estimated | play/CPU | ETA
10756/ 10756(100%)| 0:02:28/ 0:02:28| 0:02:29/ 0:02:29| 1.9074| 0:00:00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[dj@megajukebox]$ gogo cdda.wav -m s -b 256
GOGO-no-coda ver. 2.24 (Feb 12 2000)
Copyright (C) 1999 PEN@MarineCat and shigeo
Special thanks to Keiichi SAKAI, URURI, Noisyu and Kei
MPEG 1, layer 3 stereo
inp sampling-freq=44.1kHz out sampling-freq=44.1kHz bitrate=256kbps
inp sampling-freq=44.1kHz out sampling-freq=44.1kHz bitrate=128kbps
input file `../test.wav'
output file `../test.mp3'
{ 10751/ 10755} 100.0% ( 2.94x) re:[00:00:00.03] to:[00:01:35.42]
End of encoding
time= 95.430sec
It would appear that Gogo has a much optimised algorithm for encoding than Bladeenc and Lame.