Questions about CD ripping

WaveLab
1

Since Microsoft ended support for CDDB or whatever service downloads the metadata for CDs, I can’t use the Media Player to rip CDs anymore. Too bad because it was simple and effective.

Rather than look for alternatives, I’m using Wavelab Pro 12, but it is a bit of a pain. For starters, if you don’t manually change the file name to track number and song name, it will create the files with just the song name, so they will be in the wrong order. Is there no way to have it name the file with the track number by default?

Also, it doesn’t create the folder with the artist, then a subfolder with the album name, and puts the files in it, it just puts the files at the folder you specify. So I have to manually create those folders, then move the files, delete the extra file types that Wavelab creates.

And the last problem is that it rips all the files but also opens them in Wavelab, and when it’s done ripping the last track, it starts playing it, which gets really confusing when I’m listening to music on my receiver and the last song in the CD starts playing from the studio monitors.

Is there a way to make it work more like a usual CD ripper? I know Wavelab is not a music player, but with this stupid fad of killing optical formats, the options narrow. Besides, I like the error correction capabilities in Wavelab.

2

Are you PC or OSX?

3

Windows 11 mostly.

4

Exact Audio Copy https://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

3 Likes
5

Thanks, I knew about it and most of the other programs available, but my point was, can Wavelab Pro 12 do the things I mentioned? Specifically:

  1. By default, name the ripped files with the track number as the first two characters, space and song name

  2. Create the folders for artist, a subfolder for album name, and rip the tracks to that subfolder

  3. Not create the other two file types, which are just to work inside Wavelab

  4. Not starting to play the last song as soon as it finishes ripping the full CD

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8

And you can untick the boxes in Import window to not load them into WL and not play anything on completion.

Zrzut ekranu 2026-01-28 115111
Zrzut ekranu 2026-01-28 115111554×353 13.2 KB

1 Like
9

I mean to have that behavior by default, not having to remember to pull down that list every time.

10

I guess I totally missed that. Thanks!

11

I wanted to come back and thank you for the tip, because even though EAC has a rather unattractive GUI that evokes Windows 95, it seems to me that it is the best possible option to rip CDs.

The cover search is hilarious, because many times it can yield absurd results, like a picture of a cleaning spray or a toy, but it’s mostly accurate and allows you to sort by image size, so you have a lot of options in seconds, rather than trust that whatever other program will download the correct cover (iTunes is especially terrible at this, but so are the others). I think this is only if you use the Music Brainz metadata plugin, one of the others is useless unless you have a login to it, and the other one is not very accurate.

And most importantly, you have a lot of settings when it comes to the tech that does the ripping, to know that you’re getting an exact copy even if it takes longer.

I just wish it had a dark theme, and that all the GUI text in it complied with the text size I set in Winaero Tweaker. But regardless, it’s still the best choice to rip CDs.

1 Like