Rip
CDs to MP3s with Ubuntu
These steps will allow you to rip your CDs to mp3s.
As it stands now Ubuntu will rip CDs to either .ogg, .flac, or .wav for
your music. The .wav is a lossless codec with no compression.
WAV gives the best possible sound but creates the largest
file sizes. The .flac codec is a losless codec with compression.
FLAC will give you sound quality that rivals .wav files with
smaller file sizes. The .ogg is an open source compression
algorothm and is considered by many to be the best sound/compression
trade off.
Remember
the fact that iPods, and other
equipment will not use either .ogg or .flac formats.
MP3 is the standard you need. Problem is that this is a
restricted format and Ubuntu cannot bundle these with the install.
They are licensed and would require Ubuntu to pay for them.
Refer to my Proprietary CODECs page to install the proper CODECs here.
Once
the proper packages are installed the MP3 128 Kbit is added to your
Juicer profile. I prefer the VBR(Variable Bit Rate) MP3 over 128Kbit. To add
VBR MP3 creation capability proceed.
To
enable Juicer to rip to MP3 format we need to do the following:
- Open Juicer
- Edit ---> Preferences
- Edit Profiles
- New (give the new profile a name, e.g. MP3) ---> Create
- Highlight the new profile and click Edit
- Close the Edit GNOME Audio Profiles window by right mouse clicking and selecting Close (Juicer bug in Feisty).
- Enter a profile name, and description
- Enter the following below for Gstreamer pipeline (this will do
variable bitrate mp3)
audio/x-raw-int,rate=44100,channels=2
! lame name=enc preset=1001 ! xingmux ! id3v2mux
Some
MP3 players will not play a variable bitrate (VBR) mp3 so you can use
this Gstreamer pipeline for constant bitrate (CBR) MP3
audio/x-raw-int,rate=44100,channels=2
! lame name=enc vbr=0 bitrate=192 ! id3v2mux
Adjust the bitrate=192 parameter
to different value if desired.
-
Enter mp3 as File Extension
- Check Active box
- Click OK
Close all
boxes and go
back to Edit ---> Preferences in Juicer
and select your new MP3 format as Output Format.
This will allow Juicer to rip your CDs to VBR MP3s!!!!!!
Note the MP3s created will be variable bitrate (VBR) MP3s.
VBR is considered to be the best method. VBR gives
you best trade off between sound quality and file size.
Windows XP cannot play VBR MP3 file without a plugin, refer
to Windows XP documentation to do this. Ubuntu can play VBR MP3s with the
installation of the proper codecs.
Here is a good wiki on CD
ripping to mp3.
Once
this is done
you may want
to burn your MP3s to a CD in audio fashion. I personally
recommend using K3b for all your CD/DVD burning tasks. You
will
notice that if you try to burn MP3s as an audio CD using K3b you will get an
error saying that K3b does not
support burning MP3s to CDs to make an audio CD. No fear,
there
is help. K3b has a plugin to do just this. Since
MP3 is a
proprietary codec you will have to install it yourself. To
install this plugin and K3b type the following in a terminal:
Ubuntu Gutsy or earlier
sudo
apt-get install k3b libk3b2-mp3
Ubuntu Hardy
sudo
apt-get install k3b libk3b2-extracodecs
Once you are done you will have K3b and the MP3 plugin installed.
If you have K3b installed already then just install the plugin if not installed.
I hope this helps.