OT : good cd import software on linux

users
#1

Hi all,

This is waaaaay of topic, but as there are many linux adepts over
here, I wonder what software you use to rip cd's to mp3. (or ogg
vorbis, but I prefer mp3 as that's supported on more hardware than
ogg)

On windows, I used to use iTunes, which recognised (through cddb, or
whatever sony made it now) nearly all cd's, also the less common like
folk music (Bal O'Gadjo, Embrun,...) On ubuntu, those cd's are rarely
recognised.

The final goal is to rate the songs with stars (or another symbol)
like in Itunes, and then be able to export a best-of to my collection
to my cell phone, tablet and/or usb-stick.

Are there some packages I should install to have those cd's
recognised, or what should I do?

TIA,

Dries

#2

Hi :slight_smile:
Rhythmbox is supposed to be quite good.  I like Brasero too but i think that is slightly different.  Brasero might let you make an iso file on your hard-drive so that you have a back-up copy of the Cd/Dvd and can play it as though it really is a Cd/Dvd.  The ultra latest stuff tends to have some security to try to prevent it but their security usually fails even without actually 'hacking' it (they mean cracking).

Continuing to assume these are Cd/Dvds that you own, have you tried just playing them?  If you put the Cd/Dvd in and just double-slick on it it should start just playing.  That pulls it into Rhythmbox (or whatever) and that will probably let you copy or move the track to another place, like your music folder.

All this ripping and stuff sounds quite tiring and complicated.  Drag&drop or copy&paste might be easier.  I haven't read these links but they look like reputable sources.  My fav is the 2nd link (i actually did manage to read 'all the way through' that one)
http://askubuntu.com/questions/6392/how-rhythmbox-music-management-works
https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/musicvideophotos/C/music-extract.html
https://answers.launchpad.net/rb-fileorganizer/+question/182527
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1526841

Notice that Ubuntu has a lot of the same "support forums" that LibreOffice has.  We have an AskLO and the proper forums are about to go live any month now.

We don't generally have much documentation on the official TDF or LibreOffice websites (like this at the Rhythmbox site
https://live.gnome.org/RhythmboxPlugins/ThirdParty
although there is an Faq on 'ours'.  We tend to use a Wiki instead because it's easier to update and more people updating it or rewording it helps capture inspiration even from non-English speakers and then "smooth things out" into better English later.

There is another general Gnu&Linux forum at
http://www.linuxquestions.org

It is off-topic for this emailing list but heck, why not just ask!  No harm done :)  We could probably help with soem Windows or Mac or Android issues too tbh because when you start using Gnu&Linux you learn a lot about other systems quite fast even if it's just from other people showing off and trying to tell you why their system is better (even tho it isn't, they all have pros and cons)
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#3

You Could try "grip" a gnome program but i use it with the latest KDE
4 allows you to choose the riped file format i use flac normally ..

Pete .

#4

Dries Feys wrote:

This is waaaaay of topic, but as there are many linux adepts over
here, I wonder what software you use to rip cd's to mp3. (or ogg
vorbis, but I prefer mp3 as that's supported on more hardware than
ogg)

I use K3b, which comes with the KDE desktop. I can write both mp3 and ogg, though you have to add a codec for mp3, IIRC.

#5

Thanks all for your responses.

Yes, I have the original cd's, but my question is not which
application I can use for playback. I have very good results with
exaile, but tend to fallback to my nexus7 which is easier to use when
friends are with me.

My main question is rather to know why the id tags are recognised in
iTunes, while they are not on any of the linux rippers, causing a lot
of administration to type the tracknames & group names manually,
instead of the plug & rip which is offered by iTunes.

Dries

#6

Yes it is way off topic.

You want to take all your Audio CDs and make them into MP3 files, yes?

I have Ubuntu 12.04. I have installed Ripper X, Asunder CD Ripper, and a few others.

I would see what rippers are available with your Linux distro and try a few. I have not used a Linux one in a few years, since I ripped all my CDs years ago and keep the MP3 file on my massive audio folders.

To be honest, I do not know which one does the "stars" option you wish.

As for CD's being "recognized", that is a different issue. Are you saying that your Linux system is not able to play audio CDs? That sounds like a hardware problem, since every distro of Linux I have used include the needed drivers and packages for reading audio CDs.

Are you saying that you place your CD in the drive and open the audio package and the CD and song information are not found and displayed? That is a problem with the database being used to look up the CD info online. For playing your CDs on Linux and Windows, try VLC. They have a really good system and they have access to a service that will look your CDinfo up online. To be honest, if you run Windows Vista, VLC is the preferred package since it included all of the codexoption you would need that Vista does not provide. But, if you have a CD that is not part of a large publishing house, it may not get included in the online database. That is just life of a small run CD by obscure artists.

So try Asunder CD Ripper and VLC player.

I use VLC media player on all my systems as a default install. Linux and Windows [XP through Win7]

#7

Hi :slight_smile:
Good point about the codecs!  I usually ruin through "Medibuntu" to get all the extra codecs and things from them
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
and then install mplayer and vlc player to get the last remaining ones.

Also i generally try to run through these now.  I know it's command-line rather than point&click but i find it oddly easier for these.  I'm sure there is some fancy linuxy way of adding all the commands together (especially those last 3!) but i keep each on a separate line in case i want to ignore 1 or 2.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonoomph/openshot-edge
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak
sudo apt-get install xbmc
sudo apt-get install openshot openshot-doc

but never really get the chance to do much movie editing with OpenShot.  Xmbc is an excellent movie player so i get it to use.  I still do get Mplayer and Vlc though because they are good for odd things, like playing stuff from phones if Xbmc refuses or makes it confusing.  Mainly i get Vlc and MPlayer because it forces a lot of codecs to be pulled in as dependencies.  There is a "Restricted Extras" page you can run through if you dont want so many players but it just makes things more complicated than just doing

sudo apt-get install vlc mplayer
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#8

Hi :slight_smile:
Nice! :)  I had not thought of using Vlc as a media player, ie music too.

Tbh though i think you are describing the old "way of things" from a couple of years ago.  There is a lot more out there now.  Rhythmbox is built in and probably even has an add-on for starring or rating music.  It's a dedicated music player and even gives easy access to a Music Store (confusingly also called Ubuntu One), various Radio (such as LibreFm, LastFm and others that can be user-defined), Podcasts and stuff.

It's right there when you click on the speaker icon in Unity.  Simples
Regards from

Tom :slight_smile:

#9

Hi :slight_smile:
Typing manually!!!

Is that something to do with old tags being id3 and new ones being id6?  Something like that?  iTunes probably uses id6 and leaves the id3 empty and linux ones that you have been using probably use the id3 and ignore the id6s.  Hmmm

Have you searched through your package manager yet?  It's good to get "Synaptic Package Manager" to handle fine-grained stuff like this.  The 1st couple of searches i tried gave me nothing useful but then i searched using "music tags" and got tons of things that looked worth trying;

* Guayadeque is a player that handles both/all types of tags and might be able to copy&paste them fairly quickly so that each track has both types properly filled in.

* Clementine again a fast and light-weight one.  This says it's speciality is fast searching.

* Cowbell is a tag editor so hopefully you might be able to use it "headlessly" to copy your v6 tags into v4 format keeping both.  test on a small batch before committing yourself tho!

There are 3 command-line that might be powerful but i tend to avoid command-line if possible
1.  id3
2.  id3tool
3.  id4v2

Musiclibrarian is more about organising, i'm not sure if it plays at all.

Sorune similarly

These 3 might be useful, hopefully the 1st one might do the job or make it very easy

1.  puddletag

2.  pyrenamer  (i use this for renaming srt subtitles for tele series when i want to watch the whole series at lowish volume to avoid disturbing the neighbours tooo much).  I didn't realise it can edit music tags too

3.  python-tagpy

Regards from

Tom :slight_smile:

#10

With Grip (and others) the tags are added by looking the track up in a database. You insert the CD and Grip shows all the songs and info (artist, album, genre.) Some obscure CDs are not recognised, but you can add to the database to help others in future. You can edit tags if needed. I rip to PC at the best possible level, large files. I then run a script that creates a copy of my music at a lower level and much smaller size for inserting as sound tracks or use on portable devices that won't take 30GB of high quality music or in the car with lower quality output chips. I use mp3info to copy the tags to the resized files.
Steve

#11

One little remark: if your ears are critical and you have mainly classical and jazz CD's MP3 is not to be used. The effect of compression and reduction can clearly been heard (on a good sound system). It's OK for car-radio's (or music systems as they are called now) but not for good audio systems. Even CD-quality is not optimal. As a jazz-pianist I record everything in 24-bit and store it as .wav files and copy it to DVD's as they can handle 24-bit (of course for demo's I sample it down to 16-bit as CD'a are OK for demo's).
For pop-music MP3 compression is OK of course.
I know I'm maybe too critical but I like (certain kind of) music.
Joep

#12

Joep L. Blom wrote:

One little remark: if your ears are critical and you have mainly classical and jazz CD's MP3 is not to be used.

The problem with that is many devices only play mp3. I often play ogg on my phone and tablet, but my Blu-ray player and A/V receiver only play mp3. It's a shame because there's an Android app for my A/V receiver that lets me play music from my tablet through it via WiFi.

#13

Hi :slight_smile:
How about flac or ogg?  Have you tried those for Jazz?  They should be lossless compression so in theory they should be fine.  My hearing isn't good enough tbh but if i play mp3s i don't bother to turn the volume up!
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#14

ogg is not lossless, but flac is. Anyway, if your starting quality is a CD,
no matter what you use if you go over 320kbps you'll get "almost lossless"
with any codec.

#15

If only we could all get music at 24 bit. How fidelity has given way to convenience. Good pressing -> itunes. SLR camera -> phone camera.
Steve

#16

Hi :slight_smile:
Thanks for being nice about it but i was just plain wrong.  I hadn't checked my facts and had just made an assumption which is usually a fairly dumb thing to do but can be fun
Thanks and regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#17

Having been lost for an hour on research on how I am encoding, it seem there may be more problems with the decoding of an mp3 where you could have less control unless it is your own pc.
When encoding you also need to research your encoder, not just the bit rates. Because mp3 throws something away to reduce size, it is what each encoder throws away that distinguishes it from the next. Then it becomes opinion and preference.
Steve

#18

Hi :) 
Ahah, so it's time for someone to write an Android app or can they be just Plug-ins/Add-ons.Extensions?  Java not Python tho right? :(  (not that i know either!!)
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#19

FLAC does not work on half of my audio playing devices, computer packages, blu-ray audio players, etc..

There can be a limitless debate over which is the best codex for the audio recording, but if you want the most, you use MP3. Of course you set the MP3 encoder/ripper to the highest quality audio your package can handle. I have many recordings that are listed at 320kbps.

So the best answer, for the most players would be MP3 at the highest quality. For the best solution for a narrower device usage, it is a vary debatable topic that does not belong here.

The off topic question is getting much too off topic and not anything near LO. So maybe if there is a need for more info, we could do some off list emailing.

#20

<snipped>

If only we could all get music at 24 bit. How fidelity has given way to
convenience. Good pressing -> itunes. SLR camera -> phone camera.
Steve

I agree wholeheartedly with Steve! The fact that CD's had to fit into the 700 MB Philips (the "inventor") decided that digitalisation to 16 bit was sufficient as it was then a necessity to record the same volume as a long-play record (analogue) on a standard size disk. Even at that time the analogue reproduction techniques were more that sufficient to reproduce 24-bit but a good D/A converter for 24-bit in real-time was not feasible then. Therefore the marketing advertised most with the fact that you didn't hear the noise of a record that was old but were very silent about the quality loss. And as we all know marketing is much more important than technique!
But I'm sorry for this way OT ranting.
Joep