copying audio cd

want2bmortgage3

i've only got Windows media player and want to copy a music cd. Do I have to rip via WAV (lossless) then burn to a blank cd?

rev_henry

No you don't. You can rip to whatever you want, but the quality will be ever so slightly better if you rip to WAV instead of mp3 or wma, with it being lossless. Is there not a special mode in WMP for copying a CD, which does all this automatically?

want2bmortgage3

i dont think there is a copy cd option, i want an identical copy of the disc without loss in quality which is why i asked about WAV. anyone know for sure?

Reluctant_spender

Windows media player - Rip - Format - Wav

That will copy in the best quality and then you can burn to a CD.

I do it this way and never had a problem.

fwor

None of the versions of WMP that I've used had a CD copy function that I can recall.

Yes, if you want no loss in quality and compatibility with all CD players then you need to use WAV (uncompressed PCM) format.

Have you tried this:

http://www.burn4free.com/

I don't use Windows so haven't tried it, but I've seen recommendations for it elsewhere.

Marty_J

If you want the best quality rips you can get, you should probably check out Exact Audio Copy:

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

weegie.geek

imgburn will do the trick if you're just copying disc to disc. I think you'll have to rip an image of the cd to your hard drive first, then write that image back to another cd.

I wouldn't use a cd ripper if you just want to make a copy of the CD. Much less hassle to just image the CD and burn the image. If you rip the tracks separately you'll run into complications when burning it if, for example, it's a mix CD where the tracks run into each other.

EAC is the best cd ripper though, right enough. If you're wanting to rip cds to wav/mp3/flac/ogg/etc then EAC's the way to go.
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randomtask_2

I will also champion EAC, though it's not the most intuitive of interfaces but it is an excellent piece of software and free as well. Its the one program I miss most when I switched to Mac...

But for simplicity, the method you mention will do the trick...

Marty_J

xAct is a nice alternative if you're using a Mac. I just use iTunes myself, but some people are picky about these things..lol

randomtask_2

I don't really burn CDs that much anymore but EAC was great for copying scratched up library CDs, even if it took a few hours with really badly scratched discs.

Will look into that alternative though...