SOON (please read on and test!)
A new beta version of 3.7.0 has been released on May 8th, to be tested. Some problems with very long filenames and certain settings not being read from the config file were reported and should be fixed now. The problem with very special characters in Lame-tags should be solved too. Note that id3v2.3.0 does either accept ISO-8859-15 or UTF-16, but not UTF-8. I don't know how it will work in the future, when id3v2.4.0 will be better integrated (see e.g. this changelog about id3v2.4.0). RipIT will try to transcode non ISO-8859-15 characters, like e.g. ŵ to w, if one uses option --noutftag. Else, these characters will stay as is, and tags (only) may look corrupted in some other applications when using Lame.

Version 3.7.0. will have no new options, but option --dirtemplate has been enhanced. It now also accepts variables $quality and $sufix to define different output directories for each format, variable $iletter can be used to have the first character of the artist name in the path. Option --coder may accept the same format more than once! See examples in the manpage. And option --ghost will try to trim lead in/out of a track when arguments to options --extend and --prepend are small, e.g. 0.3; to be used with caution.

NEW
Version 3.6.0 released 16th of June 2007, with new options: --merge , --resume , --md5sum , --core , --fpermission , --dpermission , and --ghost (in an experimental stage).

Some bugs have been solved, some fixes were done:

  • playlist file is sorted,
  • lowercase and underscore filnames but not the whole path,
  • the eject command has been enhanced,
  • CDDB submission uses sendmail (not mail or nail)
  • better behaviour if Lame isn't installed,
  • a bug deleted some special characters in tags if the DB entry was manually edited.

Find out more with option --help. Feedback welcome!


FUTURE
What about adding a picture as tag? I tried out one of these wonderful Perl modules, without success... Would need to implement it without external module.
One other point are data tracks. Wouldn't it be nice to automatically save the content (videos and/or pictures) as files in the same directory?
And, last but not least, there is one option on the wishlist of a few people: An option that would allow to execute whatever once the CD is done, e.g. a personal script to clean up, play a tune or the ripped tracks, etc.
That's it, no other features come into mind, but new ideas are always welcome!

Everybody is invited to create a nice webpage and design a new RipIT logo! Thanks for your help!

What Is It?
RipIT is used to create MPEG-1 Layer 3 (mp3) using Lame, or uses Flac (flac), Ogg Vorbis (ogg) or Faac (m4a) to convert audio files (wav) extracted from an audio CD. It is a console based front-end (no fancy GUI here), written in Perl, for these excellent programs (which must be installed -- at least one from each category!):
  • dagrab, cdparanoia or cdda2wav (tosha and cdd are also supported) for ripping the audio CD tracks (I don't know if dagrab is still up to date, but it works!)
  • Lame, OggVorbis, Flac or Faac for encoding the wav files to mp3, ogg, flac or m4a (find some info and links)
  • CDDB_get 2.25 or higher, a Perl module for CDDB retrieval (info and links).
The program will do the following without user intervention:
  • gets the Audio CD Album/Artist/Tracks information from CDDB
  • rips the Audio CD Tracks
  • encodes to flac, mp3 or ogg
  • id3 tags encoded songs
  • Creates an playlist (m3u) file
  • Can generate a toc (cue) sheet for nice DAO burning
  • Can prepare and send a CDDB submission and save it locally
  • Can extract hidden songs and split ghost songs
  • May create md5sum files for all tracks
  • Run several encoder processes at the same time and same run

    • Version 3.5.0 needs the perl module LWP::Simple to check for free categories at freedb in case of submitting a new CDDB entry. Check my short help-page for the CDDB_get module on how to install a perl module: info and links.

    Download?
    Please test the beta version 3.7.0 released 10th of May 2008 and give feedback, even a single line telling me that everything is fine would be appreciated!
  • ripit-3.7.0-beta20080508.tar.bz2 ,
  • ripit-3.7.0-beta20080508.tar.gz
    • The latest version of RipIT is 3.6.0 (released 16th of June 2007):
  • ripit-3.6.0.tar.bz2 ,
  • ripit-3.6.0.tar.gz
    • or RPMs for SuSE 10.x (10.2)
  • ripit-3.6.0-0.noarch.rpm ,
  • ripit-3.6.0-0.src.rpm .
    • Older versions are here. Version 2.0 was the latest from Simon Quinn.
    Version 2.4 was the latest from Mads Martin Jørgensen.
    And now?
    You may use the rpms for SuSE 10.2, after downloading use YaST (by clicking on the rpm) to install RipIT, or
  • type rpm -i ripit-3.6.0-0.noarch.rpm
    • or update your old package
  • type rpm -Uvh ripit-3.6.0-0.noarch.rpm
    • If you want to install the source.rpm, then as an example
  • type rpmbuild --target i686 --rebuild ripit-3.5.0-1.src.rpm
    • and you will get the ripit-3.6.0-0.noarch.rpm file.

    But I suggest to use the good old tarballs. It's the first time you download a tar-ball? You can expand them with the commands

  • tar xvvfj ripit-3.6.0.tar.bz2 or
  • tar xvvfz ripit-3.6.0.tar.gz .

    • There is a Makefile since version 3.6.0, so one may type as root:

    rippstation:/home/ripper/sound/ripit # make install

    And after that? RipIT!
    You should find all information you need with option   -h   or in the README file! Since version 3.5.0 there is a manpage ( man ripit ), which contains all info!

    You may test ripit with no parameters,

  • type ripit
    • and standard settings will be used. This might not work with any installation! You might need some options. I always pass some of them (and save them with option --save in my config file)! Once the config file is created, I do not need to pass any options anymore, so with a config file, I only type ripit!

    Example

  • type ripit --nointeraction
    • But then I can't control the tags, and I want to know if there is a genre or year tag. If not, I can add them! Just prepare a new CDDB submission, it's really easy and done so quick!
    More examples:
  • ripit --outputdir ~/documents/sound/mp3 --playlist 0 --eject --save
    • Even if you can not connect to the cddb at freedb, or if you are offline, you should be able to rip'n'code! The --nosubmission option is only used, if you don't want to submit CDDB entries at freedb.org. Note, that with --nosubmission RipIT still tries to look-up for a CDDB entry. RipIT will even ask you if you want to edit an entry, but finally saves a file cddb.toc instead of sending it, and with option --archive the edited entry will be saved in your ~/.cddb directory where other players may find it! So: what is this option for? With the option --nosubmission you may fine-tune the CDDB data for your tags, but not overwrtite the original CDDB entry:
  • ripit --outputdir ~/documents/sound/mp3 --playlist 0 --nosubmission
    • The features of version 3.3.5 and newer makes it really easy to submit and correct CDDB entries! You can confirm the present settings with Enter and may change only some of them, like adding/changing the year or genre...
    If RipIT sucks?
    Then please let me know why!
    And: I do not have the time to test everything. If suddenly something shouldn't work anymore, then PLEASE mail me! I will fix it as soon as possible!

    Or use one of the myriads of fancy GUIs. For example:
    KaudioCreator, such a nice GUI that I get lost ;-) ! or:
    you might enjoy KDE's Konqueror, where you can enter the address audiocd:/ and if all settings are correct, encoders installed, copy'paste the folders with all mp3 or oggvorbis tracks, WOW!

    Last update:
    12th of May, 2008     		mailto: ripit [_at_] suwald [_dot_] com
    with a concise subject