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CD Ripper

The CD Ripper is used to copy (or rip) the contents of and Audio CD onto your computer. The destination files can be MP3, OGG Vorbis, FLAC or WAVE.

Using the CD Ripper

Start the CD Ripper by any of the methods below:

Click on File > Add Music > Rip Audio CD... from the main menu.
Insert an Audio CD into your CD-ROM/DVD drive and wait for Windows Auto Play to show. Select Rip Audio CD in Helium Music Manager and click OK.
On the Add Music Wizard dialog (shown at startup if not disabled), click the Rip an Audio CD button.

This is what happens when the CD Ripper dialog shows and an Audio CD is inserted:

The contents of the Audio CD in your first or only CD-ROM/DVD device are read.
The tracks will be added to the track list of the CD Ripper dialog. If the track list shows a No Audio CD inserted label you either need to insert an Audio CD into your device or you need to change the device under the CD-Rom drive list.
Artist, album and track information is automatically downloaded (when available) using the selected plug-in for downloading Track Information (Audio CD). Freedb is the default plug-in for this purpose. You can select which download plug-ins to use by clicking the Options button.
If Auto-download cover is selected, Helium Music Manager will try to download a cover automatically for the found CD using the available plug-ins. This cover will be automatically stored in the ripped CD's destination folder and applied as a album cover if the ripped CD is added to your Database after ripping. The plug-ins used to download covers can be selected from Options.

Note: Track information must have been successfully downloaded before an album cover can be downloaded.

Now you are ready to make modifications to the tag contents if necessary. Modifications in the CD Ripper track list are done using the embedded Tag Editor to allow easy editing.

When you are ready to rip the selected tracks, click the Rip button and the ripping process will begin.

Note:

The CD Ripper can rip to MP3, WAV, OGG and FLAC. Ripping to MP3 requires the LAME MP3 Encoder executable on your computer.
Change the format and quality of the riping by clicking Options.

Options

Open the CD Ripper Options dialog by clicking on the Options button at the bottom of the CD Ripper dialog.

The dialog is divided into three tabs: Output Filenames & Folders, Encoder Settings & Library and Information Download Options. The contents of the tabs are described below:

Output Filenames & Folders

This tab enables you to control how the ripped filenames are named as well as (if any) their resulting folder structure.

This tab allows you to build folder structures, very similar to the File Rename Wizard.

Follow the steps below add new folders

Click on the Add Folder button to add a new folder to the folder structure.
Click the Add Field button to add a new field.
Select a field from the Field drop down list
Optionally specify a prefix in the Prefix box. A prefix will be added before the field in your filename (see examples below).
Optionally specify a suffix in the Suffix box. A Suffix will be added after the field in your filename (see examples below).
Choose to Exclude field if empty or specify a default text in the Default Text box. The text specified in the Default Text box will replace the field if it's empty (see examples below).
Optionally limit the length of the field from the Limit Length spin edit. Default value is 0 (no limit).
Optionally set a padding length for numeric values using the Pad numbers with spin edit.

By setting a padding you can make numbers (such as Current Track) padded by one or more preceding zeros. A padding of 1 will give:

01
05
09
10
21
31
150
9170

and so on...

A padding of 2 will give:

001
005
009
010
021
031
150
9170

Default value is 0 (no limit).
Click OK to add the field to the list.
Repeat steps 1 to 8 for each field that you want to add.
Click OK to apply the changes.

You can create multiple folders to create folder structures that will give you results like:

Artist 1
Album 1
Album 2
Artist 2
Album 1
...

Encoder Options & Library

Below follows explanations of all settings available:

Convert to Format

This list contains the following presets:

WAVE

This option has no settings. Files will be ripped in 44KHz Stereo.

MP3 (using lame.exe) - this is default if you have downloaded and installed the encoder pack

Location of lame.exe specifies the location of the Lame encoder executable. This file is installed with the encoder pack. Click the Browse button to browse for this file if this box is empty.
Use Preset contains a list of different quality presets. We recommend using the default Constant Bitrate (CBR) Higher Quality (192 kbit/s) option.
Use custom settings is intended for experienced user of lame presets. Only use this if you are familiar with the options for the lame encoder.
Normalize volume (specify the path to MP3Gain below) gives the opportunity to apply gain values to your MP3 files once they are ripped. Gain values help make sure that tracks are played using the same volume. You can choose between Track Analysis and Album Analysis and whether to Show normalization window or not. This file is installed with the encoder pack. Click the Browse button to browse for this file if this box is empty.

FLAC (using flac.exe)

Location of Flac.exe specifies the location of the Flac en coder executable. This file is installed with the encoder pack. Click the Browse button to browse for this file if this box is empty.
Compression specifies the desired compression value. We recommend using the default 4 (Medium) option.
Normalize volume (specify the path to MetaFlac below) gives the opportunity to apply gain values to your FLAC files once they are ripped. Gain values help make sure that tracks are played using the same volume. You can choose whether to Show normalization window or not. This file is installed with the encoder pack. Click the Browse button to browse for this file if this box is empty.

Ogg Vorbis (using OggEnc.exe or OggEnc2.exe)

Location of OggEnc.exe specifies the location of the Ogg encoder executable. This file is installed with the encoder pack. Click the Browse button to browse for this file if this box is empty.
Quality specifies the desired quality value. We recommend using the default 5 (~160 kBps (160-192 kBps)) option.
Normalize volume (specify the path to VorbisGain below) gives the opportunity to apply gain values to your Ogg Vorbis files once they are ripped. Gain values help make sure that tracks are played using the same volume. You can choose between Track Analysis and Album Analysis and whether to Show normalization window or not. This file is installed with the encoder pack. Click the Browse button to browse for this file if this box is empty.

Automatically add the ripped files to your Library

This option is default - and recommended - and will add the ripped files to your library upon completion of the ripping process.

Information Download Options

Click the Select Plug-ins button to configure the plug-in that will be used when downloading Track Information for an Audio-CD.