RIPping an audio CD with multiple tracks to one MP3

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I have several audio CDs, each one having one lecture on it. However, the one lecture is divided up into approximately 70 tracks on each CD. Therefore, when I try to RIP the CD into an MP3 file, I get approximately 70 MP3s for each lecture. 😡

I would like to have just one MP3 for each lecture, rather than 70.

Does anyone know of a good program I can use either to RIP the CD directly to one MP3, or to combine all the MP3s into one MP3 after the CD is RIPped?

I prefer a free program, but I’ll pay for one if necessary.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I found this, but have not used it. http://www.makeitone.net/audio/mp3albummaker.htm

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MakeItOne looks like it would be very useful for what I’m looking for.

Since my original posting, I have found a program called Audio Grabber.

http://www.cnet.com/1990-7899_1-6309584-1.html
http://download.cnet.com/Audiograbber/3000-2140_4-10262582.html

It takes an interesting approach: With all of the CDs tracks listed on the screen, you check the properties of the last track — it tells you the values of the first and last sectors. You note the value of the last sector.

You then edit the properties of the first track, changing the value of the last sector to match the value you noted from the above step. In other words, the sectors for the first track go from the first sector to the last sector of the entire recording.

You then rip only the first track.

This process will produce one track (i.e. one MP3 file) containing the entire recording.

I’m still ironing out a few kinks in the process, such as increasing the volume on the target MP3 recording.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Sounds interesting Jim, hope it works for you. Its not a program type that I have need for at present, but will keep it in mind for the future.
Let me know how it goes.

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I plan on nailing this down this weekend. I’ll post my findings.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I’ve been fiddling around with Audio Grabber, but thus far I haven’t found a way for it to produce an MP3 file. Even though you select MP3, it produces a WAV file. (Perhaps it is writing it in an unknown location.)

Also, I haven’t found a way to increase the volume of the MP3 file that is produced. Unfortunately, the original recording didn’t have enough volume in it, and when you listen to the WAV file, you have to turn the volume up really high.

Now I’m moving on to the program you suggested, Make It One. I’ll post my findings here.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Also, I haven’t found a way to increase the volume of the MP3 file that is produced. Unfortunately, the original recording didn’t have enough volume in it, and when you listen to the WAV file, you have to turn the volume up really high.

Now I’m moving on to the program you suggested, Make It One. I’ll post my findings here.

To set the required gain (volume) for a mp3-track, I use http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/ which equalizes the volume on a given level on one or all of the tracks of an album. In my case, its esential for radio work to have an equal audio level on all of the tracks airing.

Remark to makeitone: as far as I know from the radio community, its used by many with no known complaints.

Greetings from a very wet (up to second floor) southern Germany, where the waters of a century flood just start to lower….

••K®IS••

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When I started with a computer, I first used Windows Media Player but found it very poor in all respects. I then found Winamp which was so good I bought it. It can rip in many formats / quality & burn to a CD. The only snag is, it can’t split or join tracks the way you want it done.

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Although MakeItOne advertises that it can join tracks into one MP3, I haven’t been able to figure it out yet.

It’s looking like my best bet at this time is to use Audio Grabber to join all the tracks into one WAV file, and then use a format converter to convert from WAV to MP3. WinAmp sounds like something that would do that, as well as perhaps increase the volume of the recording. That will be my next test.

Thanks for the info.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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If there is a lot of variability in an MP3 and it’s not a song where that may be intended but a poorly miked conversation for instance, you want a WAV file to process through a program called the Levelator from The Conversations Network. It only accepts wav files to process, then convert to MP3 after it’s done. If it just needs uniform gain or reduction throughout then you can use MP3Gain from sourceforge, which can handle MP3 obviously and produces good results. There is another MP3Gain-like program that claims to act as Levelator does at sourceforge that you may be prompted to download instead of MP3Gain but I had terrible results with that program; or I should say, hilarious as it turned everyone into Alvin-style speaking chipmunks!

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All tracks on the CD have a consistently low volume level. Therefore, MP3Gain would be good for them.

Here’s the situation: I work at a school, and many of the lectures have been recorded to CD. We are trying to extract MP3 files from the CDs, so that we will have an MP3 copy of each lecture.

I have checked two of the classes so far, and both of them are multi-track for each lecture. I will definitely want to combine the tracks into one MP3 file.

I have listened to two of the WAV files that I produced using Audio Grabber, and the volume was consistently low in both of the WAV files. But I don’t know if that is the case for all classes. My guess is that the Levelator might be able to tell me how loud the volume will be, without my having to listen to the WAV file. (It probably has a meter.)

Therefore, if I use Audio Grabber to produce the WAV files, I could probably then use the Levelator to make the volume levels appropriate.

Hopefully the Levelator will save in MP3 format; if so, I’ve got all pieces of the puzzle solved.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Better if I provide my usage scenarios maybe. I edit some old AM radio recordings of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater. There might be static from a passing thunderstorm or other electrical spikes and the bass is real muddy and tends to overmodulate and commercials would sometimes sound twice as loud as the main program (and I kind of like hearing some of the old commercials also) and from segment to segment the recording might get weaker or stronger. So, I choose the midway point at about 90dB for the edited wav output but there may be spikes up to 110 or more and dropoffs to 70 or less. So before I scrunch the file up into MP3 format I run it through Levelator and everything gets closer to 90dB for a better spoken word earbud listening experience.

I use MP3Gain on almost all the podcasts I download because they’re mostly all over the map, usually too quiet for mobile listening (I like 90-93 dB when working) but some are too loud as well. MP3Gain will turn a consistent 85 dB podcast into a consistent 93 dB podcast and that gives me consistency in player volume no matter what I’m listening to when I’m out and about. I won’t really detect any clipping unless the podcast sound was really low and uncompressed, like 81 dB or so, which I’ve run into. Also, my volume button doesn’t really work anymore so I’m stuck in one position anyway! 🙂

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In my situation, all of the lectures for a particular class will likely be at the same volume level, because the same recorder and recording process was used for all lectures for a particular class. And there will be around 20 WAV files for each class, when I have combined the tracks into WAV files.

Therefore, MP3Gain would probably be the best choice for my situation, because I will know right away if the volume will be too low for the entire class — all lectures will likely be consistent with each other.

Much thanks for the useful info. I’ll post my results here.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I like Goldwave (Goldwave.com). It can rip CD’s, record and edit audio tracks, combine tracks, split tracks, convert file types, and much more. Free to download and try.
To make mp3’s, you need an add-in called LAME (lame.sourceforge.net, download free). Copy lame_enc.dll to the Goldwave folder.

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Mrjim-

I’ve used makeitone, and it does the trick. You need to make sure you highlight all the files you want to join, then do the join. If the volume level is too low, you might want to look at mp3gain; It’s a normalizer that adjusts the volume level lossless, so you can always go back without loss of quality.

I also noted that cnet has mp3merge listed which seems to have decent reviews.

-Steve C

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I use mergemp3 from http://www.shchuka.com/software/mergemp3/ It’s free. I discovered it when I needed to copy an audiobook CD to MP3. I use http://www.mediamonkey.com/ to do the ripping and then mergemp3 to do the joining.

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I use Audacity (free). Audacity records anything that goes through your audio system on your computer. I’ve recorded multiple tracks off of CD’s, LP’s (yes, old “vinyl”), and cassette tapes (with the proper line inputs) into respective single mp3 files. Been doing this for a few years… works like a charm. Note for Audacity, you also need a (free) LAME mp3 encoder plug-in… all available on the Audacity website.

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I use Audacity (free). Audacity records anything that goes through your audio system on your computer. I’ve recorded multiple tracks off of CD’s, LP’s (yes, old “vinyl”), and cassette tapes (with the proper line inputs) into respective single mp3 files. Been doing this for a few years… works like a charm. Note for Audacity, you also need a (free) LAME mp3 encoder plug-in… all available on the Audacity website.

I’ve also used Audacity for years to record cassette tapes and 33/45/78 rpm recordings. Even if your record player doesn’t support 45 or 78 rpm recordings there’s a feature in Audacity that will adjust a song recorded from a 45/78 rpm record on a 33 rpm player to its proper pitch.

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Hi, Kris. Sorry to hear about your flooding problem. We get that sometimes where I live. It’s really tough when it happens.

I have found a way to fix the volume problem in Audio Grabber — you have to check the “normalization” box. Once you do that, the volume is not so bad. My guess is that the more I play with this program, the more I’ll figure out about it. I expect to be able to figure out how to output to MP3, and to get the volume up a bit — it’s not yet quite loud enough.

The thing that appeals to me about Audio Grabber is the easy and straightforward way to combine the tracks — you get the “last sector” value from the last track you want to include, and you then use that value for the last sector of the first track. You then select only the first track and “let ‘er rip”. That’s how it combines all of the little tracks into one big one.

Thanks for the suggestions and input.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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CDEx does just what you want and is free. It can rip individual tracks or a range to either WAV or MP3. I have just used it to rip an entire CD to a single file. It is a bit slow, but OK if you let it work away in the background while you do something else and don’t have a stack of CDs to convert against a deadline. For commercial CDs, it grabs the track details from online databases and sets the tags automatically. It is what I use for all my ripping needs. Highly recommended. (No connection to the product; just a happy user.)

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

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Here’s one more for you to consider: The Magnificent Playlist Producer (http://www.playlistproducer.com).

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Folks, sorry I haven’t had time to check all of these programs out, nor get back much on this blog; my job has kept me extremely busy for the past week or so.

I appreciate all of the very helpful info everyone has posted.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Conclusion: I have finally resolved all of the issues with Audio Grabber. I am now able to take a CD which has upwards of 70 tracks (one lecture), and RIP it to one MP3 file with excellent sound quality.

The missing piece was that I needed to download and install the LAME MP3 encoder from the Audio Grabber website. Once I did that, and then configured the program to use it, it was a snap to RIP a single, high-quality MP3 file from the multiple tracks.

The thing that kept me with Audio Grabber, in spite of the difficulties, was the super ease in getting the “offset” or ending sector for the last track, then putting that value into the properties of Track 1 as the “offset” or ending sector. I then selected only track 1, and then let ‘er RIP.

Everything happened automatically; no user intervention was required during the entire process. I knew it was done when the CD automatically ejected at the end of the process.

I then renamed the MP3 file to a name of my choosing, and set the properties of the MP3 file (e.g. Contributing Artist, Album, Year, etc.).

Once again, thanks to everyone for your helpful suggestions.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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34197-XP

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I have used MakeItOne, and I agree it is a little complicated/non-intuitive, but once I figured it out, it worked like a charm. I use Manual rather than Auto for more flexibility in naming and destination. I have found that adding Files rather than Folders is easier. Then, Use Ctrl-A to select all, or Ctrl-click to choose individual. Once selected, Open, check Choose file name manually, click Destination and go to the Destination folder where you want your concatenated files, and Copy the path into the File Name section, and at the end, add a backslash and the name of the concatenated file (like CD1, or chapter1, or whatever. Now copy the whole path except the last number for subsequent Destination folder entry – be sure to increment for each additional concatenation of files. This ensures playback in sequence (very important for book chapters!). Add .mp3 to the file name and Press Go, and a few seconds later the new concatenated file is created. Press Clear to remove the entries, and go on to the next set of files to join.
The important points are to make an album using manual file choices and naming, be sure to put the Destination where you want it, add .mp3 for audio files. I don’t like files longer than 1 hour because if you lose your place it is difficult to find it.
You can import the files into iTunes, but the name will change. Apparently iTunes does not use filename, but the Title or something else. So the sequence may be garbled.

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