Can CDex be made to rip to one large MP3?

F

fitwell

I have a new audio book that I'm converting to MP3 so I can listen on
my MP3 player on the road. What I've been doing up till now with
other audio books I have is to rip with CDex (which rips to individual
tracks) and then merging with MP3 Merger so that each CD is just one
track in MP3. This has worked very well and hasn't been too much of a
problem.

However, the first CD in this new audio book has 96 tracks!! I'd
rather just rip to one MP3 for this one, esp. as there are 7 CDs. Can
CDex be made to do this? I looked in the settings and couldn't figure
out how to, if this is indeed possible.

If not, can anyone recommend a freeware CD ripper that does this?

[I rip to 32 kbps mono so the files are on the small size while still
being good enough quality for listening.]

Thanks. :blush:D
 
D

Duddits

I have a new audio book that I'm converting to MP3 so I can listen on
my MP3 player on the road. What I've been doing up till now with
other audio books I have is to rip with CDex (which rips to individual
tracks) and then merging with MP3 Merger so that each CD is just one
track in MP3. This has worked very well and hasn't been too much of a
problem.

However, the first CD in this new audio book has 96 tracks!! I'd
rather just rip to one MP3 for this one, esp. as there are 7 CDs. Can
CDex be made to do this? I looked in the settings and couldn't figure
out how to, if this is indeed possible.

If not, can anyone recommend a freeware CD ripper that does this?

[I rip to 32 kbps mono so the files are on the small size while still
being good enough quality for listening.]

Thanks. :blush:D
I don't know about CDex but Foobar2000 will do this.
http://www.foobar2000.org/
Foobar2000 is the Swiss Army Knife of audio. There is little it can't do
and a large portion of power users agree.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php

regards

Dud
 
T

Terry Russell

fitwell said:
I have a new audio book that I'm converting to MP3 so I can listen on
my MP3 player on the road. What I've been doing up till now with
other audio books I have is to rip with CDex (which rips to individual
tracks) and then merging with MP3 Merger so that each CD is just one
track in MP3. This has worked very well and hasn't been too much of a
problem.

However, the first CD in this new audio book has 96 tracks!! I'd
rather just rip to one MP3 for this one, esp. as there are 7 CDs. Can
CDex be made to do this? I looked in the settings and couldn't figure
out how to, if this is indeed possible.

If not, can anyone recommend a freeware CD ripper that does this?

[I rip to 32 kbps mono so the files are on the small size while still
being good enough quality for listening.]
should work, maybe, don't know for sure
it seemed to be okay with 2 second or so gaps over 3 tracks I just tried.
but tis a multisession game cd and vistors are sleeping the loungeroom where
the cds are.

set mp3
convert/extract a section of cd
[X] compressed audio files
start: track 1 (offset should set to 0)
end: track 96 ( offset should be end of track 96)

( assuming it works for 96, 99 is the maximum an audio cd can have )
start with a few..see if the start , end and gaps seem about right
according to the cd
 
T

Thorsten Duhn

Hello,
If not, can anyone recommend a freeware CD ripper that does this?

a bit more difficult to configure, but with a major advantage:

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

With this you can rip to an combination of one mp3 (as you want
to) along with one .cue file, in which the track marks are saved.
This can be used to burn a CD again or to skip within this one
file - when using a desktop mp3 player. For Winamp for example
you need the plugin mp3cue:
http://www.guerillasoft.co.uk/mp3cue/

If you like to use this solution I may help you with further
questions ;-)

Regards,
Thorsten
 
B

Bill Turner

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
I have a new audio book that I'm converting to MP3 so I can listen on
my MP3 player on the road. What I've been doing up till now with
other audio books I have is to rip with CDex (which rips to individual
tracks) and then merging with MP3 Merger so that each CD is just one
track in MP3. This has worked very well and hasn't been too much of a
problem.

However, the first CD in this new audio book has 96 tracks!! I'd
rather just rip to one MP3 for this one, esp. as there are 7 CDs. Can
CDex be made to do this? I looked in the settings and couldn't figure
out how to, if this is indeed possible.

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

I use CDex the same way you do, but I don't understand why you want
just one large .mp3 file. Could you please explain?

One disadvantage to the one large file is when you need to locate a
certain part of the recording. With lots of tracks it's easy to step
through them one by one but with one large file you have to scan
through the entire file. It seems slower and harder to do that way.

Am I missing something?

Bill T.
 
B

Bill Turner

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

Ivan said:

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

Ok, I read the above, but I still don't get it. If you're going to
create a cue file, why not just keep the original individual tracks? In
other words, what harm is done by having individual tracks? It seems to
work fine for me.

Bill T.
 
T

Thorsten Duhn

Hello,
Ok, I read the above, but I still don't get it. If you're going
to create a cue file, why not just keep the original individual
tracks? In other words, what harm is done by having individual
tracks? It seems to work fine for me.

I agree with you, that in most cases multiple MP3s are the
best solution, but not always. I don't know, what's best for
original poster, why he actually decided to search for such
single mp3 solution. But there are reasons to do so. MP3 is
not gapless, so on audio CDs where between tracks no silence
is available, you'll get a noticeable gap between your ripped
multiple MP3s. This is the case for example in mixed CDs, on
live recordings, even on many regular artists recordings and
maybe also on audio books. And here CUE/MP3 combination
comes in. Or use a gapless format, I know of Ogg or Atrac,
but that is even more away from what original poster asked for.

Regards,
Thorsten
 
G

Guest

Thorsten Duhn said:
Hello,


I agree with you, that in most cases multiple MP3s are the
best solution, but not always. I don't know, what's best for
original poster, why he actually decided to search for such
single mp3 solution. But there are reasons to do so. MP3 is
not gapless, so on audio CDs where between tracks no silence
is available, you'll get a noticeable gap between your ripped
multiple MP3s. This is the case for example in mixed CDs, on
live recordings, even on many regular artists recordings and
maybe also on audio books. And here CUE/MP3 combination
comes in. Or use a gapless format, I know of Ogg or Atrac,
but that is even more away from what original poster asked for.

Richard Strauss wrote several pieces where the music continues from
beginning to end; there is no silence. In practice, it's desirable to be
able to find a particular spot when playing the recording. So you'll find
tracks in the CD, although there is no break in the sound. This is where
gapless playback comes in handy.

Norm Strong
 
F

fitwell

Convert - Extract a section of a Cd (F10)

Excellent! This does the trick. No more doing things twice - i.e.,
ripping the tracks and then merging together. This automatically rips
to 1 track.

There do not seem to be any pauses, too. That's thanks to the fact
that these are audio books, I expect. It's probably only music CDs
that have any discernible gaps and that's to be expected. There are
fades often in music tracks, too. But none of that this with MP3 rip.
It's all smooth. Over 1 hour of voice at 32kbps mono for 16 megs for
this first CD. Kewl.

Thanks!
 
F

fitwell

Hello,


I agree with you, that in most cases multiple MP3s are the
best solution, but not always. I don't know, what's best for
original poster, why he actually decided to search for such
single mp3 solution. But there are reasons to do so. MP3 is


With an MP3 player, with a 1 gig capacity to boot, the less files
there are to shuffle through, manage and maintain, the easier. I have
rarely needed to cycle through any individual MP3 to begin with, while
it's also easier to have, say, 7 CDs for each CD in audio book than to
have over a hundred if I ripped to all tracks instead of ripping each
CD to just one.

Like a DVD player, the MP3 player remembers your last position even
after shutting off - so no worries that end either.

Tried the trick this morning of ripping to 1 track and it works just
great (with the F10 command)! I now have my first of 7 files for this
audio book very easily thanks to CDex. The 2nd CD I see has 99
tracks, so if I didn't rip to 1 track, for 2 CDs I'd already have 196
 
F

fitwell

fitwell said:
I have a new audio book that I'm converting to MP3 so I can listen on
my MP3 player on the road. What I've been doing up till now with
other audio books I have is to rip with CDex (which rips to individual
tracks) and then merging with MP3 Merger so that each CD is just one
track in MP3. This has worked very well and hasn't been too much of a
problem.

However, the first CD in this new audio book has 96 tracks!! I'd
rather just rip to one MP3 for this one, esp. as there are 7 CDs. Can
CDex be made to do this? I looked in the settings and couldn't figure
out how to, if this is indeed possible.

If not, can anyone recommend a freeware CD ripper that does this?

[I rip to 32 kbps mono so the files are on the small size while still
being good enough quality for listening.]
should work, maybe, don't know for sure
it seemed to be okay with 2 second or so gaps over 3 tracks I just tried.
but tis a multisession game cd and vistors are sleeping the loungeroom where
the cds are.

set mp3
convert/extract a section of cd
[X] compressed audio files
start: track 1 (offset should set to 0)
end: track 96 ( offset should be end of track 96)

Yes, I got to this screen via the F10 command and it automatically
seems to have set the start and end to the start of first track and
end of last. I'll rip all 7 CDs and then play on my MP3 player this
week and that will tell me for sure if this works or not. Should do
as I've listened to part of first CD and all well.
( assuming it works for 96, 99 is the maximum an audio cd can have )
start with a few..see if the start , end and gaps seem about right
according to the cd

Well, they liked to go to the max on this one, for sure. There are 99
tracks on the second CD! <g>


Thanks.
 
D

dadiOH

fitwell said:
Tried the trick this morning of ripping to 1 track and it works just
great (with the F10 command)!

In case you forget the "trick", it is explained in the manual and you
can also get at it from CDex "Convert" button.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
 
B

Bill Turner

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
Like a DVD player, the MP3 player remembers your last position even
after shutting off - so no worries that end either.

Tried the trick this morning of ripping to 1 track and it works just
great (with the F10 command)! I now have my first of 7 files for this
audio book very easily thanks to CDex. The 2nd CD I see has 99
tracks, so if I didn't rip to 1 track, for 2 CDs I'd already have 196
files with 5 more CDs to go! <yikes>

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

The mp3 player remembers, but only if you don't remove the CD. With my
two players, removing the CD makes the player forget where it was. In
that case, it's easier to find, for example, track 12 than to scroll
through a single large file looking for the same place. A minor point,
but possibly important.

Regarding your second paragraph: There could be an issue with too many
tracks for a given player. My Sony DVD player, which also plays mp3s,
has a track limit of ~200 tracks on a single CD, so the single large
file could be useful in that instance. My car player has a much larger
limit, something like ~350 tracks as I recall so is less likely to hit
the wall.

Bill T.
 
F

fitwell

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

The mp3 player remembers, but only if you don't remove the CD. With my
two players, removing the CD makes the player forget where it was. In

that case, it's easier to find, for example, track 12 than to scroll

Alright, that's fine for you, but in my case, it works to have all
tracks in one hence the post. You rip to your individual tracks and
I'll rip to my one track. If I had to maintain 90-odd tracks for each
audio book I had, it would be a nioghtmare.
through a single large file looking for the same place. A minor point,
but possibly important.

Yes, but not in this case.
Regarding your second paragraph: There could be an issue with too many
tracks for a given player. My Sony DVD player, which also plays mp3s,
has a track limit of ~200 tracks on a single CD, so the single large
file could be useful in that instance. My car player has a much larger
limit, something like ~350 tracks as I recall so is less likely to hit
the wall.

Fine, but again, depends on what a person needs.

Now people now that CDex can either rip to individual tracks or to one
large one, as the case may be.
 
B

Bill Turner

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

If I had to maintain 90-odd tracks for each
audio book I had, it would be a nioghtmare.

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

You must be doing something I'm not aware of. What do you mean by
"maintaining" tracks? I just record 'em and play 'em. No maintenance
at all.

Bill Turner
 

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