How to rip and listen simultaneously?

May 10, 2005 6:01 AM

Once in a while a friend comes along with a really cool new CD. What I want to do is: Instantly Rip it to my hard disk, listen to it at the same time, and talk to my friend. What I do now instead is: Start ripping, wait until the first track is finished, then listen to the first track while ripping the others. Talking gets difficult because every now and then I have to enqueue the next track to the player.
posted by mitocan to computers & internet (13 comments total)

Um... iTunes? "Listen to track as you rip" is the default option, dude. Give it a shot. I'm happy with it, and I've been a hardcore Winamp user since version 1.

(Still use Winamp to play back music. Less of a resource hog.)
posted by caution live frogs at 6:04 AM on May 10, 2005

iTunes will do this.

Open up its Importing preferences (iTunes -> Preferences in OS X, or Edit -> Preferences in Windows) and select "Play songs while importing"; I don't think this is enabled by default.
posted by AlexReynolds at 6:15 AM on May 10, 2005

On the contrary, this is iTunes's default behavior.
posted by jjg at 7:13 AM on May 10, 2005

I've noticed that iTunes rips considerably slower if that option is enabled, by the way.
posted by odinsdream at 7:21 AM on May 10, 2005

iTunes rips slower because processor use is a finite; decoding uses up some of the processor that could have been used for encoding. Since you're sitting there listening to the MP3s anyway, as long as its ripping at more than 1X it shouldn't really matter what the speed is. It'll finish ripping before you're finished listening.
posted by revgeorge at 7:37 AM on May 10, 2005

Realplayer does this by default (put CD in, start ripping, start playing, bingo).
posted by altolinguistic at 7:54 AM on May 10, 2005

A RAID array of HD's, a fast processor, and a rip-rock-and-roaring CDR with sick digital audio extraction abilities will help.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:28 AM on May 10, 2005

If you don't want to play from the disc while ripping, you can start the mp3 version of the first song in iTunes once it has finished ripping. iTunes will play the next mp3s in order as they come in. Even on an ancient machine it rips faster than 1x, so there shouldn't ever be a break.
posted by bcwinters at 8:50 AM on May 10, 2005

I do what bcwinters does.
posted by josh at 10:12 AM on May 10, 2005

I don't have a link to the source but IIRC do not use iTunes to encode your MP3's as in listening tests it prouced the worst quality output. If you like a good conspiracy it could be because Apple would like you to use AAC however i just think that MP3 encoding is just low on their priority list.
posted by ralawrence at 10:14 AM on May 10, 2005

Ummmm.... BUY the disc for yourself, perhaps?
posted by Doohickie at 11:17 AM on May 10, 2005

Boooo.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 12:14 PM on May 10, 2005

Just sayin'... it is a valid option, ya know...
posted by Doohickie at 12:17 PM on May 10, 2005