Best Audio CD Ripping and Extraction Software

Rip your CDs with these free programs

By
Mark Harris
Mark Harris
Writer
  • University of Wolverhampton
Mark Harris is a former writer for Lifewire who wrote about the digital music scene and streaming music services in an easy to understand, no-nonsense manner.
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Updated on June 17, 2021
Reviewed by
Michael Barton Heine Jr
Michael Heine headshot
Reviewed by Michael Barton Heine Jr
Michael Heine is a CompTIA-certified writer, editor, and Network Engineer with 25+ years' experience working in the television, defense, ISP, telecommunications, and education industries.
lifewire's editorial guidelines

Stand-alone CD rippers are useful when you have a large collection of CDs that you want to rip. They're also helpful when the media player you use doesn’t come with a built-in CD ripper.

These dedicated audio CD extraction programs typically have more features than the options built into popular media players such as ​Windows Media Player. ​

01
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Extreme Accuracy and Stability: Exact Audio Copy

Exact Audio Copy CD ripping software for Windows
What We Like

  • Tests CD drive for accuracy and reliability.

  • Adds song lyrics.

  • Feature-rich in CD ripping options.

What We Don't Like

  • Website to download program is cluttered and confusing.

  • Enter email address to get song and album information.

EAC—Exact Audio Copy—is valued for its accuracy. The free Windows program reads every CD sector at least two times to verify correct data copying. Then it compares the copy to the original CD until at least eight of 16 tries produce identical results. After that, it reads troublesome sections of the CD, such as scratched areas, repeatedly up to 80 times.

EAC's accuracy comes at the cost of speed, but if accuracy is important to you, a minute or more extra time isn't a problem. On the other hand, EAC isn't the most user-friendly CD ripping software program, and it doesn't apply its own codec. It also doesn't pull the album metadata from the database until you tell it to do so.

Despite these shortcomings, free EAC is probably the best and most powerful ripping tool available.

02
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Quick and Easy Ripping: FreeRIP Basic Edition

FreeRIP Basic Edition software interface
What We Like

  • Automatically fills out track and album information.

  • Rips music to five audio formats.

  • Rips CDs quickly.

What We Don't Like

  • Search feature doesn't work.

  • Interface looks a bit dated.

FreeRIP has a well-designed (though slightly outdated) interface that's intuitive to use. This free CD ripper can extract the audio from your music CDs to several lossless audio formats such as MP3, WMA, WAV, Vorbis, and FLAC formats. The program also supports CDDB query, which automatically fills in the information for your digital audio files.

You can use FreeRIP as an audio format converter and a tagger. When you're converting from one audio format to another, you can either add files manually or drag and drop them using your mouse. If you're looking for a free CD ripper, converter, and tagger, FreeRIP is a solid choice for Windows users.

03
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A Powerful Audio Player With Ripping Capabilities: foobar2000

foobar2000 audio player and CD ripping software
What We Like

  • Available for Windows, macOS, and mobile devices.

  • Interface is customizable.

  • Looks up album information from two databases.

What We Don't Like

  • Default layout is too simplistic.

  • Lacks tutorials to show advanced features.

Foobar2000 is a free advanced audio player for Windows. Although primarily a player, its audio component provides secure ripping of audio CDs. The software supports a range of audio formats, including MP3, MP4, CD Audio, WMA, Vorbis, FLAC, and WAV.

This software is also widely available on different devices, including Windows and macOS computers and Android and iOS smartphones.

04
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Rip and Apply Album Info at the Same Time: FairStars CD Ripper

FairStars CD Ripper software for Windows
What We Like

  • Query music databases for album information.

  • Help files have great explanations of the interface.

  • Adjust sound sampling rates.

What We Don't Like

  • Interface lacks some features.

  • Software looks a bit dated.

FairStars CD Ripper is a donationware Windows program that is a powerful software for ripping audio CD tracks to WMA, MP3, OGG, VQF, FLAC, APE, and WAV formats.

The interface is user-friendly and includes ID3 tagging, handles multiple CD/DVD drivers, and comes with audio playback controls. FairStars CD Ripper also supports normalization when ripping.

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