CD Ripping Guide

Written by Duke, edited by idoru.

The purpose of this guide is to explain the best way to preserve CD's, originally focused on the Amiga CD32 console.

• CDRWin v3.9 from Golden Hawk (http://www.goldenhawk.com)
• FireBurner v1.06 (http://www.igdsoftware.com/)
• FireBurner v2.17 (you may need 2.x for extracting mode2 tracks) (http://www.igdsoftware.com/)
• ExactAudioCopy v0.9 (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de)
• ClrMamePro (to create a .dat file of extracted tracks) (http://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/)
• Toast442.org MD5 GUI (if for some reason you cannot use ClrMamePro) (http://www.toast442.org)
• MD5 Summer (the above MD5 calculation program seems to make problems on some systems, so if you have problems, take this one)

Just rip the complete CD to a bin/cue file with CDRWin in non-raw mode (deselect the checkbox 'raw').

Please note: Bandai Playdia & Philips CD-i CD's need to be ripped in raw mode (setup is the same as below with a change in step 6)

• Start CDRWin
• Select Extract Disc/Track/Sectors (see screenshot)
• Select 'Disc Image/Cuesheet' (should be default)
• Select your drive in the 'CD Reader' box
• Enter a filename for the image
• Deselect 'raw' (note: for Bandai Playdia & Philips CD-i make sure 'raw' is selected)
• Set the other options like on this screenshot (add MCN/ISRC enable)
• Click on 'START' to begin the ripping process

CDRWin will read the complete CD and store it in an image file (2 files will be created, a .bin & a .cue).

We are using FireBurner for this task (version 1.06, but 2.x should work aswell).

• Start FireBurner
• Select 'Visual CUE Burner/BINChunker' (see screenshot)
• Click with the right mouse button anywhere in the window
• Select 'Load Track from CUE'
• Select the image to load it
• Select the data track (this is track 1, see here)
• Right-click on it
• Select 'Save Track as (BINChunker)'
• Set the mode 1 box to 2048 (screenshot)
• Click OK and again OK in the next requester to save it

You can now delete the .bin file CDRWin created.

IMPORTANT: Keep the cuesheet (.cue) CDRWin created during the ripping process - you will need to send this information along with your dump details.

The only program capable of creating 100% correct images of audio tracks is ExactAudioCopy. It's the only one capable of adjusting the offset correction when reading audio data.

• Start EAC (with no disc in drive, otherwise it might crash)
• Cancel the configuration wizard (if there is one)
• Select the drive you want to use for ripping in the combobox
• Open the EAC Options (EAC → EAC Options or press F9)
• Select the 'Tools' tab and deselect beginner mode (see screenshot)
• Open the drive options (EAC → Drive Options or press F10)
• Select the first tab ('Extraction Method') and click on 'Detect Read Features' (see screenshot)
• EAC should now start detecting the features of your drive
• Select 'Secure Mode' (on the same tab)
• Click on the tab 'Gap Detection' and set the detection accuracy to 'Secure'
• Set the Gap/Index retrival method to 'Method A'. If you have problems detecting the gap, try changing to B or C (see 'Ripping the audio tracks')
• Go to http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/eac3.html and scroll down to the list of audio cds. Search some you have and insert one into your drive
• Change to the 'Offset / Speed' tab and enable 'overread into lead-in and lead-out'.
• Click on 'Detect read sample offset correction' (see screenshot)
• EAC tries to recognize the cd now according to its database. If it says 'CD not found in database', try another until EAC finds one. This Step is very important, you cannot create exact audio rips without offset correction!
• If you cannot set your offset correction using the above method, go to http://www.accuraterip.com/driveoffsets.htm and use the offset given there for your drive (if listed). PLEASE only use this list if the above fails for you however.

The above steps have to be done only once.

• Insert the CD you want to rip
• Press F4 (or select Action → Detect Gaps)
• EAC will now detect gaps between the tracks (if there are any)
• Select Action → Append gaps to next track
• Select the tracks you want to rip
• Press F6 (or select Action → Test & Copy selected tracks → uncompressed from the menu)
• Select a directory to rip the files to and press ok
• EAC will now start ripping the selected tracks
• Keep attention on the Read and Write CRC columns, they have to show equal CRC numbers, if something went wrong you have to rip the tracks that show an '#' in the Write CRC column again until the CRC is the same.
• After extracting, create a cuesheet. Do this by selecting Action → Create CUESheet → Current Gap Settings.

Congratulations, you have successfully ripped a cd in the best possible way!

• Start ClrMamePro
• In the main >Profiler< window click on Dir2Dat
• Select the Options: Add MD5, Add SHA1. Leave all other Options unselected
• Point the Input/Output Source-Folder to the location your files are in, and point the Dat-File to the location you wish to output a dat to.
• You do not need to enter anything in the Header Entries boxes but you can do so if you wish
• Click Create to output the dat file.
• You can save your settings by clicking the Save option, which you can then re-load in future by clicking Load.

In addition to the ClrMamePro .dat file, we will also need some information about the CD you have ripped.

Please supply :-

• The title & format of the CD (eg. Amiga CD32 - Death Mask)
• The serial number of the CD (printed into the inner ring of the CD - try to provide the complete info you can read, even if it may be useless)
• Any other information that you may have about the CD (eg. developer/publisher/release date/version numbers/catalog number from CD case/etc.)
• Both the CDRWin & EAC .cue files.
• The ClrMamePro .dat file.
• Front cover, back cover & disc scans are appreciated if it is possible for you to do so, but are not essential. Please make any scans 300dpi JPG.

Please send any information to: idoru (email address can be found at the top of this page).

If you need any help, we can be found on IRC: ForeverChat (hermes.foreverchat.net #tosecd).