Help on Obtaining Best CD Sound Ripping from Sound Card

[jcikal]

I want to preserve a lot of my CD collection since there are some CDs that are long out of print and I want to make sure I still have them to enjoy 20 years from now. My question is does the sound card that I have on my computer matter when converting from CDA to WAV as far as the audio quality is concerned? For example if I have a 16 bit sound card and the CD was recorded using 24 bit audio and I use a program like Sound Forge which is capable of extracting 24 bit audio, will the sound be converted to 16 bit since that's what my card can handle? Thanks for any information.

[smearbrick1]

The sound card has nothing to do with CD ripping. Ripping is a process by which the digital audio (stored as data on your CD) is extracted from the CD. No analog sounds are transferred. Think of it as copying files off a floppy disc.

[jcikal]

So whenever a program like Music Match or the aforementioned Sound Forge converts a file from CDA from the CD and converts the signal into a WAV file, it really has nothing to do with the sound card or even the CD writer being used to copy that file? So even if I have a 5 year old cd writer (2x speed) and an 8 bit sound card I would get the same sound quality results than if I had a brand new CD writer (16x speed) and a 24 bit sound card? Thanks for any info.

[smearbrick1]

If you are creating WAV files (ripping) from a source CD and, in turn, burning said files onto another CD using a 2x speed CD Writer... there should be no difference between the copy and the source CD (providing that the media is sufficient and the CD writer is in proper working order). By ripping to WAV you are not compressing or changing the source audio in any way. You are simply making a perfect digital copy. Sound cards do one thing: create sound. (or record sound) The card itself uses the digital information passed from the PC and turns it into audible sounds. Sound cards have nothing to do with CD ripping.

[dphirschler]

The soundcard will have no bearing on how well you can rip a CD. What will have an impact is the software you rip with and your CD drive. Look into EAC Exact Audio Copy for ripping accurately.


Darryl

[SLK001]

The audio on a CD is in PCM format. A .WAV file is PCM with a header. To copy a CD, just save the file as a .WAV file. NERO has a SAVE FILE option that will do this.

You're making a simple task very difficult.

[jcikal]

So if I understand this correctly, if I use Sound Forge to copy (or extract) the CD audio into a WAV file, regardless of the sound card or CD drive (mine's actually 16x speed), I should be able to get an exact duplicate in sound quality as the CD I'm extracting from. Correct? Thanks for any info.

[ofbarea]

From DAE Speed web page:

Digital audio extraction speed and quality is very important if you're using your CD-ROM drive in combination with a recorder.
To make direct CD to CD copies the reading speed should always be higher than the writing speed.

Just pick up a drive with a DAE quality of 10 from this web page: DAE Speed

If some of your CD's have some damage, use one of the drives listed in here: Advanced DAE Error Test

[jcikal]

Thanks for the additional info ofbarea, The DAE information is important whenever you're making CD to CD copies or does it also bear importance when you're extracting the audio into your HD as a WAV file to burn into a CD later?

[smearbrick1]

DAE is really only important if you are copying on the fly. You seem to want to just copy from your CDs to hard disk. DAE is just the rate at which audio is extracted from the CD itself. A higher DAE will allow for faster CD to hard disk copying, but doesn't really do much else. If you have damage to the surface of your CDs that results in poor playback, you may want to try repairing the scratches before you rip them. Otherwise, if the scratch is read, you will hear it in the WAV file.

[jcikal]

Thanks for the info smearbrick1, I figured that the DAE was just for direct CD to CD copying. I'm really interested in getting a perfect audio quality copy of the CD into my HD so then I can burn it later. That's the reason why I'm asking if I use the Sound Forge program to copy from CD to HD even though I may have an 8bit sound card and a lousy 2x or 4x CD writer, if the audio would be an exact duplicate of the CD or if I need to upgrade to a 24bit sound card and an 16x speed CD writer.

From what I've been able to gather so far, it seems that the sound card doesn't matter as far as the audio quality is concerned. So I can use an 8bit card to extract the audio, then burn it onto a CD, place the copied CD into a super duper 48bit CD player in my audio system and the CD copy will sound exactly the same as the original CD. If that assessment is correct, please let me know. Thanks for any info.

[smearbrick1]

Yep

[ofbarea]

Digital audio extraction quality depends on the disk drive and software used. I had an experience with a drive installed in a Dell Optiplex GX1 (PIII 600Mhz, 512MB RAM, 120 GB disk) that was not able to produce quality rips because of a crappy cd drive. All problems were fixed after we replaced this CD drive with a Plextor CD burner. Since that day all pops and clicks disappeared. The ripping software was Musicmatch.

With newer CD’s, CD burners or DVD burners, this should not be a big problem anymore, but since jcikal stated that he needs the best transfers, I really recommend you to use a drive with excelled score for DAE quality. Please check the Digital Audio Extraction FAQ for more details: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aa571/daefaq.htm

[jcikal]

I heard a Yep, so I do not have to wait to upgrade to a more souped up system. I can do it even on my kids computer and get the same results as a professional system? The simplicity of it all boggles the mind

[jcikal]

Thanks for the reply ofbarea, I'm looking at the website you posted right now. I just want to make sure that the CDs I copy today are the best quality even tomorrow. I don't want to know 5 years or so from now that after I went through the trouble of extracting the CD music, I have to repeat the process because something newer/better came out that can give me better quality. If I can get the same exact duplicate audio quality-wise as the original CD I'm copying, there's no reason to worry about having to repeat the process all over again. To me, the audio quality is the most important aspect of CD ripping/copying, otherwise, I might as well just convert the music to mp3 and forget about it.

[SLK001]

If your worried about the accuracy of your CD extractions, go here: http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link=cddae.html
and get the program "CD DAE". It allows you to verify the file once it is extracted.

Then, all the CDs you burn will be digital "clones" of the original. They are most likely to outlast you.

[jcikal]

Then, all the CDs you burn will be digital "clones" of the original. They are most likely to outlast you.