RipperX

Install this software via the Software Manager or download it.

Launch it. Observe the buttons across the top.

 

General Configuration

The first thing to do is configuration, click the button at the top.

1. Establish, for both Wav file and MP3 file the target directory (into which the software will dump the intermediate and/or finished products). I chose home/russ/Downloads/RipperX because I am trying this software out and don't want to corrupt /home/russ/Music until I'm sure of it.
2. Click Make Mp3 from existing Wav file because we're not interested in WAV files, only MP3.
3. Click Ask user when specified file exists—presumably as to whether you wish to replace it with a new one or not.

 

MP3 Configuration

I left this as-is, but I note that

1. Encoder plugin is set to Lame MP3 Encoder. (^* see below.)
2. BitRate, Default 128kbits—left it at default.
3. High quality mode.
4. Etc. I took all the defaults.

 

CDDB Configuration

The Compact Disc database configuration is how you configure to get your CD identified and its song list created as titles (instead of "track 1," "track 2," etc.). I kept getting errors from RipperX until I got this right:

1. URL: gnudb.gnudb.org/~cddb/cddb.cgi
2. Port: 80
3. Use HTTP checked.
4. Proxy Server: proxy.gnudb.org
5. Proxy Port: 3128
6. CDDB Cache path: ./.cddbslave
7. Automatic lookup on startup checked.

 

Rip away!

Once configuration is done, transcoding may begin:

1. Place a CD in your optical-spindle drive.
2. Click the Scan button to scan the CD.
3. Because you have configured CDDB, you should soon see what's at the right here in the list of the main window.
4. Click Select All Tracks.
5. Click the Go!!! button. You will see status until the software has finished transcoding.
6. In the output directory you specified earlier, you should see your MP3 titles:

   .
   └── Various - Flight of the Green Linnet
       ├── playlist.m3u
       ├── Various - An Seanduine Doite.mp3
       ├── Various - Breton Gavottes.mp3
       ├── Various - Citi No gCumann.mp3
       ├── Various - Colonel Fraser.mp3
       ├── Various - Fair Warning.mp3
       ├── Various - Helen Of Kirkconnel.mp3
       ├── Various - Inisheer.mp3
       ├── Various - Jack Haggerty.mp3
       ├── Various - Kitty In The Lane & Captain Kelly & The Green Mountain.mp3
       ├── Various - Lucy Cassidy & The Bletherskate & TheSmith Of Chilliechassie.mp3
       ├── Various - My Maryann & The Corner House.mp3
       ├── Various - Planxty Loftus Jones.mp3
       ├── Various - Puirt A Beul.mp3
       ├── Various - The Holy Ground.mp3
       ├── Various - The Parish Of Dunkeld & The Curlew.mp3
       ├── Various - The Secret Portrait & Whall Be King But Cherlie.mp3
       └── Various - Three Polkas.mp3
   

7. You can erase playlist.m3u which is of little use.
8. You may wish to rename the titles: English-speaking people are notoriously illiterate when it comes to the casing of titles. (They capitalize prepositions, articles, etc.—very bad mechanics.)

^* How you get WAV files transcoded into MP3. Ensure this encoder, which is proprietary and cannot be shipped in any Linux distribution by default, is loaded. If need be, perform the following, then bounce RipperX to ensure it's loaded (I didn't have to, but it's good to do it anyway and you're not losing anything).

russ@tirion ~ $ sudo apt-get install lame libmp3lame0
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
libmp3lame0 is already the newest version (3.100-3).
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libllvm11 linux-headers-5.4.0-74 linux-headers-5.4.0-74-generic linux-headers-5.4.0-77
  linux-headers-5.4.0-77-generic linux-image-5.4.0-74-generic linux-image-5.4.0-77-generic
  linux-modules-5.4.0-74-generic linux-modules-5.4.0-77-generic linux-modules-extra-5.4.0-74-generic
  linux-modules-extra-5.4.0-77-generic
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
Suggested packages:
  lame-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  lame
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 48.4 kB of archives.
After this operation, 133 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 lame amd64 3.100-3 [48.4 kB]
Fetched 48.4 kB in 1s (80.8 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package lame.
(Reading database ... 475219 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../lame_3.100-3_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking lame (3.100-3) ...
Setting up lame (3.100-3) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ...