Rip CD into one file? [#21942]

[Potoroo]

Is there a reason why MM5 cannot rip a CD into a single file? It's super useful. iTunes had it over a decade ago (it was called "joining"). I'm trying to update my library from old .mp3 files to .flac but MM5 can't rip CDs like Pink Floyd's The Wall into a single file. It's incredibly annoying not to have this functionality and I can see from the forums I'm not the only person who has asked for this.

PS: please don't try to offer playback options like cue sheets. Being able to rip into a single file is the only method guaranteed to work with all players on all platforms.

[Peke]

Hi,
This is the first time I see such request in 15+ years of using MM (unless I missed something). I see your point, but Ripping Multi track CD as single track without way to skip thru tracks is kind of pointless of having multimedia APP cataloging CD tracks if it was single track.

If you want exact perfect copy of a CD My best guess is that you RIP an ISO file, but even then you cant be sure if it is ripped correctly.

How you RIP CD will not ensure compatibility as compatibility is determined by format you RIP CD in and format support of device you want to play. There is no 100% guaranties it will work.

Example are SACDs, CD-G, VCDs, Enhanced CDs, MODE-2 CDs, 5.1 CDs ... Which all have Audio CD tracks, but different format like Pink Floyd you refer to https://www.ebay.com/itm/133869797298

It is not planned ATM and priority would be determined on demand and inability of MM to play gaplessly whole CD.

I do not mean to sound harsh, but as I RIPPED more than 30k CDs with MM over 20 years I really do not see point in your demand, but would be glad if you can prove me wrong.

[Rob_S]

In a pinch you could use Audacity (free) to assemble ripped tracks into one file.

Pretty easy once you figure it out.

[Peke]

In a pinch you could use Audacity (free) to assemble ripped tracks into one file.

Pretty easy once you figure it out.

THX for tip, totally forgot about that. Only issue is if user RIP in lossy formats, but then again it woudl make bit perfect cd RIP pointless anyway.

[kncuk1969]

As you want your cd rips to be one long file I will suggest CueTools as the cdripper offers track or image with cuesheet.

kncuk1969

[Potoroo]

Hi,
This is the first time I see such request in 15+ years of using MM (unless I missed something).

Google "rip a CD without gaps" and you'll see people requesting this in all sorts of forums. Here's an early one (2006) from MM's own forum: viewtopic.php?t=12885 . People have been asking for this for many years and they're still asking.

I see your point, but Ripping Multi track CD as single track without way to skip thru tracks is kind of pointless of having multimedia APP cataloging CD tracks if it was single track.

It's exactly the right way to do it. I repeat, iTunes had this over a decade ago (it was called "joining") and it was really useful. I'm trying to rerip my CD library to replace my old mp3s with FLAC but every time I come to a CD which is intended to be played back seamlessly I'm forced to rip each track individually and that's bad. They're not meant to be played individually, they're meant to be played as one *without any gaps*. iTunes got this right but unfortunately it's a dead product these days.

If you want exact perfect copy of a CD My best guess is that you RIP an ISO file, but even then you cant be sure if it is ripped correctly.

How you RIP CD will not ensure compatibility as compatibility is determined by format you RIP CD in and format support of device you want to play. There is no 100% guaranties it will work.

Example are SACDs, CD-G, VCDs, Enhanced CDs, MODE-2 CDs, 5.1 CDs ... Which all have Audio CD tracks, but different format like Pink Floyd you refer to https://www.ebay.com/itm/133869797298

None of that is relevant. What matters is that after ripping you have a single file in your audio format of choice (I already mentioned FLAC) which contains the tracks you chose without any gaps. For example, many years ago I ripped The Wall using iTunes. I ended up with two mp3 files, which I called "The Wall [1] joined.mp3" and "The Wall [2] joined.mp3". I still have them, but they're 128kbps and I want to replace them. But MM will only let me rip each CD into 13 discrete files, which I don't want because of the gaps. If I could do it as a single FLAC file I have exactly what I want, a file I can play back on any platform or player. The problem with cue sheets and the like is that that ties you into particular platforms or players and I want to avoid that.

This is a simple, easy way to solve a problem that to this day bugs a lot of people. The ripping functionality is already in MM. You just need to let the user select "join mode" or "gapless mode" or whatever you want to call it, choose the tracks they want and they get ripped into a single file instead of several files. A Simple Matter Of Programming.

[Peke]

Hi,
I am not sure what gaps you are talking about.

MM is capable for gapless playback especially when you use latest 5.0.4 which gives user full control of playback. I am using it for 15+ years. It is just user settings preference. Rip to single file is very low priority.

[Blorkersson]

I would not refer to this as "gapless" because it gives a false idea of the transition from one song to another.

The issue that some of us are trying to resolve is when using the player in Shuffle mode: concept albums, with several separately identifiable songs, but intended by the artist to be heard as one continuous track, get split up. Our solution is to create the album with joined tracks, so that (as I prefer for example), side one of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon can be played as one long track and side two as another long track, each track playing the five songs per side of the original vinyl album, even in Shuffle mode.

Traditionally, songs on an album would have a two or three second gap between each song. But as time moved on, some artists dropped that gap in order to give the impression of continuity between one song and the next. In some cases, the second song would begin as the first one was fading out (that is, the tracks were segued - a popular device used by artists such as Pink Floyd between the songs Money and Us And Them on their Dark Side Of The Moon album).

The artist Faithless did the same on their album Reverence, with church bells at the beginning of Insomnia heard as the track Angeline fades out. What these artists intended is that we listen to their album as one complete work, but with modern music players able to shuffle, that's easily lost (something artists don't always like).

As a consequence, I have ripped some albums from CD as joined tracks. Dark Side of The Moon for example; I have the original side one of the vinyl album as one track (five songs) and side two as another one track of the remaining side two songs. Other artists I treat the same way include Mike Oldfield and Andreas Vollenweider.

In iTunes, there is a feature named Join CD Tracks, which can used when ripping a CD into iTunes. It cannot be done after ripping, nor can it be used on digital files such as mp3. There does not appear to be an equivalent feature in Media Monkey, but it's what many of us would like, especially once iTunes is fully killed off, which we all know is coming.

On more modern albums, such as Chilllout or dance music, each song appears on the album as a separate track, while the lats track is a continuous mix of the complete album. It's this effect that we wish to create on these older albums. Call us old fashioned, but...

[Erwin Hanzl]

AUDACITY can create ONE continuous song from several individual songs that have already been ripped.

[Potoroo]

Hi,
I am not sure what gaps you are talking about.

MM is capable for gapless playback especially when you use latest 5.0.4 which gives user full control of playback. I am using it for 15+ years. It is just user settings preference. Rip to single file is very low priority.

MM isn't available on every platform. I just want one file I can play back on any platform. You already have the engine to do it, you just need to add this simple extension to the UI.

[Potoroo]

I would not refer to this as "gapless" because it gives a false idea of the transition from one song to another.

The issue that some of us are trying to resolve is when using the player in Shuffle mode: concept albums, with several separately identifiable songs, but intended by the artist to be heard as one continuous track, get split up. Our solution is to create the album with joined tracks, so that (as I prefer for example), side one of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon can be played as one long track and side two as another long track, each track playing the five songs per side of the original vinyl album, even in Shuffle mode.

Traditionally, songs on an album would have a two or three second gap between each song. But as time moved on, some artists dropped that gap in order to give the impression of continuity between one song and the next. In some cases, the second song would begin as the first one was fading out (that is, the tracks were segued - a popular device used by artists such as Pink Floyd between the songs Money and Us And Them on their Dark Side Of The Moon album).

The artist Faithless did the same on their album Reverence, with church bells at the beginning of Insomnia heard as the track Angeline fades out. What these artists intended is that we listen to their album as one complete work, but with modern music players able to shuffle, that's easily lost (something artists don't always like).

As a consequence, I have ripped some albums from CD as joined tracks. Dark Side of The Moon for example; I have the original side one of the vinyl album as one track (five songs) and side two as another one track of the remaining side two songs. Other artists I treat the same way include Mike Oldfield and Andreas Vollenweider.

In iTunes, there is a feature named Join CD Tracks, which can used when ripping a CD into iTunes. It cannot be done after ripping, nor can it be used on digital files such as mp3. There does not appear to be an equivalent feature in Media Monkey, but it's what many of us would like, especially once iTunes is fully killed off, which we all know is coming.

On more modern albums, such as Chilllout or dance music, each song appears on the album as a separate track, while the lats track is a continuous mix of the complete album. It's this effect that we wish to create on these older albums. Call us old fashioned, but...

Thank you! Someone else who gets this really simple but oh so important concept:

What these artists intended is that we listen to their album as one complete work... it's what many of us would like... [one] track is a continuous mix of the complete album. It's this effect that we wish to create on these older albums.

So much this!

[quixoticpilot]

I rip audiobooks from CDs I own to play on a waterproof MP3 player in the pool as I swim. I would like a 17 CD novel to be simple 17 tracks that play in order as I swim rather than 255 tracks.

[Peke]

Hi,
MM is not capable to do that, it rips tracks based on CD TOC (Table Of Content) then after you rip them you can Join them in single file using AudaCity or similar.

[emw107]

This thread is almost 2 years old, but I was looking to rip several tracks from a CD into 1 audio file as well. What I ended up doing was ripping the CD tracks to .wav format. I then used FFmpeg to concatenate (combine) the files into 1 .wav file. Afterwards, I preferred to convert to an .mp3. FFmpeg is free (https://www.ffmpeg.org/download.html), and the concatenation instructions can be found at: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Concatenate.

Good luck!

[Morogth]

I can think of a few instances where ripping an entire CD as one track would be useful.
The title tack of Dream Theater's 2002 album 'Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence' is over 42 minutes long, and comprises the whole of disc 2; on the CD, it was split into 8 tracks to correspond to the 8 parts of the song. However, the song is listed on the back cover as "track 6" with its constituent parts each given a roman numeral along with a title.
This idea of breaking one long track into shorter tracks on a CD also applies to the title track of Porcupine Tree's 2009 album 'The Incident', which is 55 minutes long, comprises the whole of disc 1, and is split into 14 tracks on the disc.
These are very far from the only albums that do this, and being able to rip a disc like these as one track, without having to get another program for the purpose, would be very useful.