Make Quality MP3 Rips in (K)Ubuntu

Alright, I will teach you how to make high-quality MP3 from Audio CD’s in this tutorial.

First we need to grab some software, so type this in a console:

sudo apt-get install lame grip cdparanoia

Type your password if you are asked for it. Now we need to start ‘grip’ which is the frontend we will use to rip. Either type ‘grip’ in the console or start it from the menus. In Kubuntu at least it is located in the Multimedia menu.

When you have started grip go to the Config tab and another line of tabs opens, select Rip and Ripper subtabs. Now enter this information:

Ripper: cdparanoia
Ripping executable: /usr/bin/cdparanoia
Rip command-line: -d %c %t[.%b]-%t[.%e] %w
Rip file format: ~/mp3/%A-%d/%t_%n.wav

Now click the Encode tab and Encoder subtab. Make these choices, better cut-and-paste from this page:

Encoder: lame
Encoder command-line: -V 2 –vbr-new –add-id3v2 –pad-id3v2 –ta “%a” –tt “%n” –tl “%d” –ty “%y” –tn “%t” %w %m
Encode file extension: mp3
Encode file format: ~/mp3/%A-%d/%t_%n.%x

Done? Ok, now we’re finished! You can try some of the other options, but just remember not to touch those options I outlined because they are important to get good-quality rips.

All you have to do now is flick a disc in your CDRom drive, and select Rip+Encode from the Rip tab, all your nice mp3′s will be saved in the mp3 subfolder of your home folder.

To end this article I have to thank the people at the Hydrogenaudio Forums for their recommendations. I used their recommended settings in this article.