How to Rip Songs from a CD to PC
Songs on audio CDs are usually stored in the format that one cannot copy to the computer easily. Window Media Player 11 makes this easy for you. You can easily use the program to rip (or copy) songs from your audio CDs and save them on your PC as files. After you have ripped the songs, you can sync them with your portable audio device such as a Pocket PC or Windows Mobile Smartphone, burn customized CDs, and play songs on the PC without having to inserting the original CD every time.
Steps to rip or copy songs from an audio CD to your PC
- Ensure that your system is connected to the Internet and then start Media Player 11.
It is recommended that you perform ripping while being connected to the Internet because during the ripping your Media Player 11 tries to retrieve information related to the media you are trying to rip. For instance, the Media Player 11 will try to retrieve information such as name of the album and artist from the Windows Media database that has been created and maintained by Microsoft. This information is then added to your files when they are ripped. Media Player 11 also enables you to add or edit data, if it is incorrect after ripping.
- If you want to, you may select another format or bit rate for the files you are ripping. For this, open Rip tab, click on its down-arrow and then specify your Format and Bit Rate by selecting the options available in the Format and Bit Rate commands.
By defaolt, your Media Player rips and saves files on your system in the Windows Media Audio format. This format optimizes your files by maintaining a balance between their file size and sound quality. However, if you want to choose another format or bit rate, you can choose from one of the following options.
- Windows Media Audio Pro :This format helps you save ripped files as high-quality audio files and lower bit rates. You may choose this format if you want to store your song on portable devices that have low storage space on them.
- Windows Media Audio (Variable Bit Rate): This format helps in reducing the size of the files that are being ripped. One of the main drawbacks of ripping in this format is that the time taken to rip files is quite high.
- Windows Media Audio Lossless: This format ensures best quality audio files. However, the files created in this format have quite large sizes.
- MP3 and WAV (Lossless): These formats enable you to add flexibility to your ripped audio files.
You can adjust the bit rate that is used during ripping. To create files with small sizes, you must choose lower bit rates. However, lower bit rates also deteriorate the sound quality of your files. This is the reason why, it is recommended that you choose bit rate settings in such a way that a balance is maintained between the size of your files and their quality. People usually go in for lower bit rates, if they want to create files to be used on portable device.
Here, if you want to change the defaolt rip settings, select the More Options command from the Rip tab down-arrow menu, open the Rip Music tab and then specify your settings.
- After specifying file format and bit rate, insert the audio CD you want to rip in your CD drive and then open the Rip tab.
When you do this, by defaolt, your Media Player 11 automatically starts ripping files from the CD. You can change this defaolt action by changing the settings in the Options dialog box that opens when you select More Options command from Rip down-arrow menu.
- If you do not want to rip all the songs, then when your player starts ripping the songs, you may clear the check boxes of the songs you don’t want to rip. You may also click on the Stop Rip button to temporarily stop ripping and specify your selections. After you have made your selections, you may click the Start Rip button to start the ripping process.
- If the information about your song is not available in your Windows Media library, or if you are not connected to the Internet, or due to some other problem, you may be asked to manually input the missing media information in your files after the ripping process is complete.
Once the ripping is complete, you can start playing the ripped songs on your system or sync them with your portable audio device.
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