How to import CDs
From Audacity Wiki
| Audacity does not contain any function for importing (ripping) audio from CDs. This can, however, be achieved by using other programs to extract the data into a file format Audacity does support. |
Contents |
Introduction
Users new to audio editing are often surprised to find that they cannot import the audio from CDs into Audacity with the Project > Import Audio command. In fact, most operating systems don't actually allow the import of data from CD tracks into applications, because audio CDs don't have files or a file system like computer media, but consist essentially of a stream of bits on the disc. That is why when you look at an audio CD in a file manager like Windows Explorer, each CD track will appear only as a small cda "file" 44 bytes in size, which is merely header information for the stream.
So in order to import tracks from an audio CD, you must first usually extract (or "rip") the tracks to a WAV or AIFF audio file using CD extraction software. Then you can import that .WAV or AIFF into Audacity with the usual Project > Import Audio command. You can also extract CDs to the much smaller MP3 format, but this is not recommended if you want to edit the audio in Audacity, because every time you encode to MP3 you lose audio data. On the other hand WAV and AIFF are lossless. You can always export your audio from Audacity to MP3 after you've edited it, but to save un-necessary losses, import the audio in the first place as WAV or AIFF.
Windows
For users on Windows, Audacity recommends CD-EX as a fully featured CD extraction program which can extract to the WAV format you need for editing the audio in Audacity.
In the CD-EX window, simply select the CD tracks you want to extract to WAV and press F8 or Convert > Extract CD track(s) to WAV. Normally, every CD track will be extracted to its own audio file, but CD-EX also has a nice feature that lets you extract any range of audio (including all of it) to a single file. So if you want to extract a sample of two CD tracks that starts in the middle of one track and ends in the middle of another, you can. To do this, right-click on any of the tracks > Extract partial CD Track, or press F10.
Make sure you know where to look for the exported WAV files when you import them into Audacity. By default CD-EX saves the WAV to one of your Documents and Settings folders for whatever account you are logged into at the time. If in CD-EX you click Options > Settings > Filenames tab and look in the second text box from the top (marked "WAV --> MP3"), you will see the location where it saves its output files from CD extraction or file conversion.
You can also extract audio CDs to WAV with Windows Media Player 11 (click Tools > Options > Rip Music and choose "WAV (Lossless)" in the Format dropdown in "Rip Settings"), or to WAV or AIFF with the Windows version of iTunes (see below). Earlier versions of Windows Media Player are not recommended for extracting CD audio for editing in Audacity, because they are unable to extract to WAV.
OS X
iTunes is the built in media player for Mac computers.
To extract CD audio in iTunes, click iTunes > Preferences: General tab. In the "When you insert a CD" section, choose "Import CD" in the dropdown. Then click the "Import Settings" button to right of the dropdown, and in the "Import Using" dropdown, choose "WAV Encoder" or "AIFF encoder". Click "OK" and "OK". Then insert your CD in the computer. iTunes should now begin importing the tracks off the CD into your Library as either WAV or AIFF files, according to the encoder you chose in Preferences.
OS X users do have an additional quick way to import CDs, because when a CD is put in the drive, the .cda tracks are mounted as AIFF files in the Finder. It's thus possible to either drag the AIFF files from the Finder into Audacity, or use the Project > Import Audio command, instead of extracting the audio. Note however that if you import CD tracks into Audacity from Finder and save them as a Project, the CD must be present next time you open the Project, unless you set Audacity to make a copy of the data. To do this, go to the File Formats tab of Preferences and where it says "when importing uncompressed audio....", check the radio button "make a copy of the file before editing".
Another possibility is to use Max, a free software CD-ripping and encoding application. It has full support for encoding into the FLAC loss-less audio format, which is rather tricky to set up in iTunes.
Linux
If you are on Linux or other Unix-like systems you can use K3b or Grip for Gnome desktops.
Rhythmbox Music Player also supports audio extraction. To set preferred extraction format and library structure and location, select Edit > Preferences: Music tab. You can specify other formats than those listed via "Edit". Once these options have been set, you may now begin audio extraction by selecting your audio CD from the side pane and then pressing "Extract" in the toolbar.
