Copyright: (C) 2004 MGShareware


FreeRIP V2

FreeRIP  is a free application which let you extract audio tracks from compact discs and export them to Wav, Ogg Vorbis or MP3 audio files.

Moreover FreeRIP can now convert tracks between WAV, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis formats.

FreeRIP can record digital audio tracks directly from compact discs, without going through your sound card (this process is known as "ripping"): you can save tracks as CD-quality WAV files or encode them to Ogg Vorbis or MP3 compressed format.

FreeRIP supports freedb, it means that it can automatically connect to an Internet database to download information about your CDs, such as songs titles, LP title, and so on.

FreeRIP supports ID3 tagging so it can store track info into MP3 or Ogg files so that your player can retrive and display them.

FreeRIP includes an audio file converter that can decode and encode WAV/MP3/Ogg files to a different format.

Finally FreeRIP let you easily search audio and music files over The Internet.


License

                            MGShareware

                   Copyright (c) 1998-2004 MGShareware

                   WWW:    http://www.mgshareware.com

          END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR THIS SOFTWARE

                   Important - read carefully:

This End-User License Agreement ("EULA") is a legal agreement

between you (either an individual or a single entity) and the

mentioned author of this Software for the software product

identified above.

By installing, copying, or otherwise using the SOFTWARE PRODUCT,

you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA. If you do not

agree to the terms of this EULA, do not install or use the

SOFTWARE PRODUCT.

SOFTWARE PRODUCT LICENSE

The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is protected by copyright laws and international

copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and

treaties. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is licensed, not sold.

1. GRANT OF LICENSE. This EULA grants you the following rights:

Installation and Use. You may install and use an unlimited number of

copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT.

Reproduction and Distribution. You may reproduce and distribute an

unlimited number of copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT; provided that

each copy shall be a true and complete copy, including all copyright

and trademark notices, and shall be accompanied by a copy of this

EULA. Copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT may be distributed as a

standalone product or included with your own product.

2. DESCRIPTION OF OTHER RIGHTS AND LIMITATIONS.

Limitations on Reverse Engineering, Decompilation, and Disassembly.

You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the SOFTWARE

PRODUCT, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly

permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation.

Separation of Components.

The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is licensed as a single product. Its component

parts may not be separated for use on more than one computer.

Software Transfer.

You may permanently transfer all of your rights under this EULA,

provided the recipient agrees to the terms of this EULA.

Termination.

Without prejudice to any other rights, the Author of this Software

may terminate this EULA if you fail to comply with the terms and

conditions of this EULA. In such event, you must destroy all copies

of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT and all of its component parts.

Distribution.

The SOFTWARE PRODUCT may not be sold or be included in a product or

package which intends to receive benefits through the inclusion of

the SOFTWARE PRODUCT. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT may be included in any

free or non-profit packages or products.

3. COPYRIGHT.

All title and copyrights in and to the SOFTWARE PRODUCT

(including but not limited to any images, photographs, animations,

video, audio, music, text, and "applets" incorporated into the

SOFTWARE PRODUCT), the accompanying printed materials, and any

copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT are owned by the Author of this

Software. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is protected by copyright laws

and international treaty provisions. Therefore, you must treat

the SOFTWARE PRODUCT like any other copyrighted material except

that you may install the SOFTWARE PRODUCT on a single computer

provided you keep the original solely for backup or archival

purposes.

LIMITED WARRANTY

NO WARRANTIES.

The Author of this Software expressly disclaims any warranty for

the SOFTWARE PRODUCT. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT and any related

documentation is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind,

either express or implied, including, without limitation, the

implied warranties or merchantability, fitness for a particular

purpose, or noninfringement. The entire risk arising out of use

or performance of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT remains with you.

NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES.

In no event shall the author of this Software be liable for any

damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for

loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business

information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use

of or inability to use this product, even if the Author of this

Software has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

###

Please read the Supporting FreeRIP section.


Contact Information

FreeRIP is a MGShareware product.

You can contact MGShareware at the following URL:

http://www.mgshareware.com


Getting Started

Launch FreeRIP.

The first time you use it you need to choose few options: see Configure FreeRIP.

Now you're ready to create MP3, Ogg or Wav files. Insert an audio CD into the CD Player and wait few seconds. The main window will be filled with CD tracks details. If you're connected to the Internet FreeRIP automatically query CDDB.

If you want to change a song title just click with the left mouse button on the right end of the current title. An entry field will appear.

If you want to change CD title, author or  year just click on the entry fields and type what you wish.

You can choose Category and Genre from a Drop-Down list.

Now select all the tracks you want to rip by checking the check-box on the left of each one and finally press the "RIP Tracks to default format" button on the toolbar.

A working log window appears and you just have to wait the end of the job.

During the work you will notice that your system speed will slow down. That's because converting audio files to compressed format  is a CPU bound process.

Related topics: What is Ogg Vorbis, Wav files conversion window, Single Wav file conversion window, Search Music


Configure FreeRIP

To configure FreeRIP select Options from the CD menu.

Options window contains the following configuration options pages:

General

Device

Encoding

Internet

freedb


Converting Wav to MP3

You can convert existing 16 bit, stereo Wav files to MP3 with FreeRIP.

Use the "Convert wav files..." option of the "Tools" menu.

More info at: Wav conversion window


Converting Wav to Ogg Vorbis

You can convert existing 16 bit, stereo Wav files to Ogg Vorbis with FreeRIP.

Use the "Convert wav files..." option of the "Tools" menu.

More info at: Wav conversion window


What is Ogg Vorbis

(excerpt from Vorbis docs)

Vorbis is a general purpose audio and music encoding format contemporary to MPEG-4's AAC and TwinVQ, the next generation beyondMPEG audio layer 3. Unlike the MPEG sponsored formats (and other proprietary formats such as RealAudio G2 and Windows' flavor of the month), the Vorbis CODEC specification belongs to the public domain.

All the technical details are published and documented, and any software entity may make full use of the format without royalty or patent concerns.

This package contains libvorbis, an LGPLed software implementation of the Vorbis specification by the Xiphophorus company (http://www.xiph.org/), vorbisfile, an LGPLed convenience library built on Vorbis designed to simplify common uses and a number of GPL

example programs, utilities and player plugins.

CONTACT:

The OggSquish homepage is located at 'http://www.xiph.org/ogg/'.

Vorbis's homepage is located at 'http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/'.

Up to date technical documents, contact information, source code and pre-built utilities may be found there.

Note:

LGPL = GNU Library General Public License


Supporting FreeRIP

FreeRIP is a FREEWARE software product. This means that you can freely download and use it. Anyway we greatly apreciate that you register it: we will use collected money to finance new development of this and other MGShareware products.

What registering will get you:

- A registration code emailed to you.

- Your code will let FreeRIP display your status of registered user on FreeRIP splash screen and About window

- You will also be enabled to suppress the splash screen at FreeRIP startup

- A warm fuzzy feeling that you did the right thing

Without your support, we can't keep adding new features to FreeRIP, can't have support people to help you if you have problems, etc.

More info at: http://www.mgshareware.com/frmmain.shtml

Thanks for your help.

MGShareware


General

Default encoding

Select a default encoding for output files.

You can choose between Wav, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis encoding.

Ripping Volume

Select a volume level for CD track ripping. You can adjust volume from 1/100 of the original volume (1%) to 2 times it (200%).

Default value is 100% and it means rip track at the original volume.

NOTE: setting volume to a value different from 100% could cause a decrement of ripping speed. This behaviour is expected since volume adjusting requires lot of CPU work.

Use Automatic Gain Control

Automatic Gain Control (AGC) is an adaptive algorithm that tries to adjust track volume on the fly to a constant value. This is very important when you are collecting tracks from multiple CDs recorded with different volume levels.

Selecting this option will disable manual volume control.

Beep on rip end

Checking this checkbutton will enable FreeRIP to emit the default system sound on the end of ripping activity.

Language file

Select a language file which configure FreeRIP interface to your favourite language.

Note: you have to restart FreeRIP after changing the language file in order to let it work.

Show splash screen

Choose here whether FreeRIP will show a copyright window (splash screen) at startup. This option is available to registered users only.

Show 'please register' reminders

Select whether to show windows and text that reminds you to contribute to FreeRIP project, registering your copy of the software.


Device

CD Reader

Select a source CD recorder from a list of devices available on your system.

Read Mode

Select a specific read mode for your CD device. Generally you should keep default value (MMC) but you can try to change it in case of problems.

Retries on error

Select how many times FreeRIP must retries a read of a sector in case of read error (software error correction). You should generally set this value from 3 to 5.

Use safe mode

Safe mode is a special, low speed, reading mode that can help you reading when the standard mode fails. Safe mode sets a slow CD reading speed and this make easier for the CD player doing its job.

Disable NT Mode

On Windows NT/2000/XP, FreeRIP by default uses native NT SCSI API to access CD devices.

Disabling NT Mode forces FreeRIP to access CD devices by WNASPI interface. This can fix some problems on certain systems.


Encoding

MP3:

Mode

Select a bitrate mode. Available modes are:

CBR = Constant Bit Rate: encoder uses a fixed bitrate value equals to the Min Bitrate specified

VBR = Variable Bit rate: encoder uses a variable bitrate from Min Bitrate to Max Bitrate specified

ABR = Average Bit rate: similar to VBR but simplier and less efficient but quicker

Min Bitrate

Set the minimum bitrate to use in encoding process.

Max Bitrate

Set the maximum bitrate to use in encoding process.

Stereo

Set stereo mode. Available modes are:

Mono: this mode mix two audio tracks in a single track as the average of each sample.

Stereo: true stereo mode, both audio tracks are encoded separately.

Joint stereo:resulting is a track encoded and the other one encoded just as difference from the first one. This generally let file size decrease.

Write CRCs

Let encoder write cyclic redundace checks within the encoded file so that decoder can understand whether each frame is good or had been damaged (i.e.file corruption).

OGG VORBIS:

Mode

Select a bitrate mode. Available modes are:

ABR = Average Bit rate: similar to VBR but simplier and less efficient but quicker

VBR = Variable Bit rate: encoder uses a variable bitrate from Min Bitrate to Max Bitrate specified

Bitrate

Set the central bitrate to use in encoding process with both AVR and VBR modes.

Stereo

Set stereo mode. Available modes are:

Mono: this mode mix two audio tracks in a single track as the average of each sample.

Stereo: true stereo mode, both audio tracks are encoded separately.

Playlist:

Make playlist

After ripping a group of tracks from CD, FreeRIP can create a playlist in the following formats: M3U, PLS and B4S (XML).


Internet

On line status detection

Select which strategy FreeRIP must use to guess whether your system is connected to the internet or not. Available strategies are:

Always online: you are permanently connected to the Internet.

Online when an IP address is present: you connect to the Internet with a dial-up connection (i.e. an ISDN modem) and you are not connected to a private LAN.

Online when a public IP address is present: you are connected to a private LAN but eventually use a dial up connection to access the Internet.

Always offline: you are permanently offline (not connected to the Internet).

Automatically check for FreeRIP new versions when online

If you check this checkbutton, FreeRIP will check at startup whether or not a new version of FreeRIP is available. In case your FreeRIP version is not current a popup will inform you that a new version is available.

The version check is performed only when FreeRIP detects that you are connected to the Internet (see above option).

Proxy

If your Internet connection is handled by a proxy specify here your proxy server address.

Port

Proxy server port.

Proxy user

If your proxy needs authentication specify here your proxy server user name.

Proxy password

If your proxy needs authentication specify here your proxy server password.


freedb

Main server

Select here the address of the preferred freedb server.

Backup server

Select here a secondary freedb server. Backup server will be eventually used to query CD info in the case that main server is unavailable.

Timeout

The freedb query timout expressed in seconds.

Update list

Click this button to let FreeRIP download an updated list of freedb servers from freedb main server freedb.freedb.org .

Your email address

Type here your email address. This field is mandatory for freedb submissions.

Automatically search freedb when online

Select this option to let FreeRIP automatically search freedb for CD info when the system is connected to the Internet (see Internet).

Use local CD database

FreeRIP can store CD info, like tracks titles, CD title, Author and so on, in a local file.

By default in case of automatic search, FreeRIP first searches CD info in the local file, then if it cannot find it, it searches freedb database.

To force FreeRIP searching online freedb database just select "freedb->Query freedb" menu option.


What is freedb

From freedb faq page:

freedb is a database to look up CD information using the internet. This is done by a client (a freedb aware application) which calculates a (nearly) unique disc ID for a CD in your CD-Rom and then queries the database. As a result, the client displays the artist, CD-title, tracklist and some additional infos.


Output Path

In this page you can set the destination path of ripped music files and and the file naming rules.

Base path

Select here, pressing the "..." button, a base directory where FreeRIP will store ripped tracks.

Output path extension

With this option you can choose to create under the base directory other folders using artist name, CD title or both.

File name prefix

Select whether to prefix track name with track number, artist name or both while creating the output file.

Use advanced output file name definition

Checking this checkbutton will let you use the following entry field to specify the path extension and file name of the ripped tracks.

In the format string you can use the following keywords that will be substituted with the actual track and CD data (if available):

%#	Track number

%1	Track title

%2	Track extended info

%m	Track time (XXmYYs)

%e	Extension (.wav, .mp3, .ogg)

%t	CD Title

%a	CD Artist

%g	CD Genre

%c	CD Category

%y	CD Year

%o	CD Comment

%i	CD freedb ID

%%	The % symbol

Example: the format string

%a\%t\%#-%1 (%m)%e

will create under the base path a directory named as the CD Author, and within it a subdirectory named as the CD Title. In it it will create the tracks files using as name the track number, a minus sign '-', the song title, the track time within a couple of parentesis and finally the right extension depending on the selected encoding.

The final path name could be similar to the following:

ArtistName\CDTitle\07-Song number seven (4m27s).mp3


freedb search window

This window show Cd info downloaded from Internet freedb service.

Select the album title in the top listbox to see in the bottom one album details.

Once you found the correct album press the Select button.

See also: What is freedb


Operation progress window

This window shows the work in progress status of ripping or conversion operations.


CD reader info window

This window shows information about your CDRom reader devices.

Select the CDRom in drop down control to see the info.


Multi audio files conversion window

This tool let you convert multiple existing .audio audio files to Wav, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis encoded files.

First of all add the files to the list with the Add... button, then add ID3 tagging information and press Convert button to let FreeRIP convert your files. You can use the Properties button to view detailed info about the file, and change track specific ID3 and volume information.

Add

Pressing this button allow you to add audio files to the list of file to convert.

You can also drag the files from the Windows Explorer to the window.

Remove

Select a file in the list and press Remove button to remove selected file from the list.

Properties

Select a file in the list and press Info button to let Audio file info window appear and show you detailed file info and options.

Output format

In this panel you can select output file encoding options.

You can select an output encoding format between Wav, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis.

Please see Encoding help page for more details.

Note that if you select the Use Automatic Gain Control checkbox FreeRIP will ignore per-track volume settings.

ID3 Tagging

Here you can specify general ID3 tags, commons to all selected tracks.

Use Audio file info window for track specific ID3 tags.

Output path

Select here an output path where to place converted tracks.

Output tracks will automatically be named as the input tracks.


Audio file info window

Here you can see information about the selected audio file.

Moreover you can specify specific ID3 Tagging data and adjust track volume.

Title

Specify here the full title of the track to store in the ID3 tags

Extended Info

Here you can add an extended track descrption that will be stored in ID3 tags.

Volume Level

Select a volume level for CD track ripping. You can adjust volume from 1/100 of the original volume (1%) to 2 times it (200%).

Default value is 100% and it means rip track at the original volume.

NOTE: setting volume to a value different from 100% could cause a decrement of ripping speed. This behaviour is expected since volume adjusting requires lot of CPU work.


Single audio file conversion window

This tool let you convert a single audio file to Wav, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis encoded file.

First of all select the file to the convert, then add ID3 tagging information and press Convert button to let FreeRIP convert the file.

File to convert

Select here, by pressing the "..." button, a audio file to convert.

You can also drag the file from the Windows Explorer into the window.

Output format

In this panel you can select output file encoding options.

You can select an output encoding format between Wav, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis.

Please see Encoding help page for more details.

ID3 Tagging

Here you can specify ID3 tags.

Output path

Select here an output path where to place converted track.


Search Music

Searching audio and music files on the Internet with FreeRIP is easy and effective: in the main Window just click on the toolbar edit box (the "Search Music!" text will disappear), type the keywords you want to search for and click on the "Search" button.

The kind of search you can perform, depends from the configuration, please see Extensions .


Extensions

Integrated music searchbar

Here you can choose the behaviour of the integrated search bar.

Enable search bar

Checking this checkbutton let the search bar appear in FreeRIP main window at program startup, otherwise the bar will not be active.

Search where

Specify here what you want to search, available options are:

Search the Internet: FreeRIP will use My Way search site to find audio files

Search Amazon.com CD shop: FreeRIP will search Amazon.com CD catalogue


Multi track rip

Multi track rip let you rip multiple CD audio tracks to a single audio file.

General:

Select tracks to rip specifing the tracks you want to start from and end to (inclusive).

Then select a output path and a output file name.

Output fomat:

In this panel you can select output file encoding options.

You can select an output encoding format between Wav, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis.

Please see Encoding help page for more details.

ID3 Tagging:

Here you can specify ID3 tags, to store in the ripped file.


Raw track rip

Raw track rip let you rip audio from CDs specifing sectors numbers.

One sector contains 1/75 of second of audio.

This means that 75 sectors will contain one second of audio.

General:

Select the ripping starting sector and end sector, the window will display start time, end time and total rip time in hours/minutes/seconds for your convenience.

Then select a output path and a output file name.

Output format:

In this panel you can select output file encoding options.

You can select an output encoding format between Wav, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis.

Please see Encoding help page for more details.

ID3 Tagging:

Here you can specify ID3 tags, to store in the ripped file.