Using Linux to Easily Rip CDs to MP3s

Update: 2024-05. Changed text to reflect my current methods for Debian-based Linux distributions like Ubuntu.

Since storage has become so cheap, I suggest you rip CDs in Linux into loss-less FLAC format and use the program SoundConverter to easily batch-convert the files to the mp3 quality you are looking for in order to port the files around. There is a native Gnome CD ripper called Sound Juicer that is extremely simple to use and will support the loss-less FLAC format. You can install Sound Juicer using the graphical software “store” or on the command line.

me@myhost:~$ sudo apt-get install sound-juicer soundconverter

Ripping a CD with Sound Juicer

If you put a CD in your computer and then start the Sound Juicer app, you may see nothing at first. You would go to the menu in the upper-right and choose the option “re-read disc”. Then, you need to wait until the online look-up is finished and select the appropriate version of your disc.

After selecting the proper version of your CD, you can edit information in the boxes by clicking inside the box to select it and make it editable. In my example, I changed the Year to the original release Year, added the Genre, and edited the title of track 6 to remove the parentheses.

You also need to set the output preferences. You can do this before or after editing the info in the above image. I strongly suggest you keep an archive of your music collection in the loss-less FLAC format. This will be a CD-quality copy that you can convert to mp3 or other formats as you wish.

The default Track Names are not useful to me. I do not use any “library” software to keep track of my music. Using the choices I made, you have a folder for each album that will sort alphabetically by artist in a file browser. I also don’t want to see track numbers in the track title. I select songs from various albums to combine on a device and I don’t want all the “01” songs listed first, so I chose “Track Artist – Track Title” for the File name (song).

When you are done with all of your choices, you can close the preferences window and click “Extract” to start to rip all the checked tracks. I usually also check “Eject after extracting tracks” so I know when it’s done.

Converting FLAC to mp3 with Sound Converter

NOTE: This step assumes you have installed “extra media codecs” in a Ubuntu Linux installation or have added the non-free repositories in Debian. If not, you may not see a choice for “mp3”.

After you have successfully archived your FLAC files to a storage device with backup, you can now create lower-quality mp3 files for porting around on your phone, car usb-stick, etc. At this point, you can create a dedicated folder for similar bit-rates and then put a COPY of the FLAC files in it to work on, or select the FLAC files where they are and send the output to a different folder. It’s probably simpler to work on copies and choose the option “replace original files”, but my example actually puts the output in a new folder. You will find out what works best for you.

There are only two steps to using SoundConverter: (1) Set the desired output preferences in the Preferences window, which has a dedicated gear/ tools icon depending on the version. Fortunately, your choices seem to be “sticky” within a session. (2) Use the Add Files or Add Folder icons to get the items you want to convert in the window and press “Convert”.

I believe the recommendation for best quality was “Variable bit rate”. I don’t know about that, but I do know if I use 256 kbps it will sound sweet. The files take up a bit of space (I have weeks worth of music on my phone), but you can batch-convert files using this method to a lower bitrate if you need to save space. After you press “Convert”, you can see the progress bars until it finishes.

Add album art with Easytag and Musicbrainz

At this point you could easily be done, but you can make the modern digital music player experience better if you add the album art to the FLAC or MP3 files. This is easily done with the Easytag program in Linux. You can get almost any album art by doing an image search on any search engine, but my most reliable source has been MusicBrainz for the best quality album art. Just look up the album artist and find the “album” you want (it doesn’t have to be, and probably shouldn’t be, the CD version). Then click the image provided to get a higher definition image.

I usually resize the image to 600 or 800 pixels square before I add it to the MP3 file. Below is most of the Easytag interface (file browser is cut off). You can further tweak titles or individual genres for each track here. Click on the “Images” tab on the right hand side to add the album art.

There is a subtle trick to applying the image to all of the files. First, add the album art to the first file using the “plus” sign at the bottom of the Images tab. Then, click on the UNEDITED track the farthest away from the track with album art, use Shift+Click to highlight ALL the track so that you end up on the file with the album art. Then you can use the button at the bottom to “Tag selected files with these images”. Save your changes and your music will be more beautiful.

More articles on Linux and free software are in the Computer Category.