best free cd ripping software windows 10

Note that Apple iTunes, which you can install on your Windows 11 PC, can also rip CDs, but that program has gotten bloated over the years, so you may prefer a more lightweight option. One requires no installation, and the other is free and powerful. What to Use If You Don’t Have CD Burning in Windows 11’s Media Player App YetĮven if you don’t yet have ripping capabilities in the new media player yet, you still have plenty of other options for ripping CDs in Windows 11. The purists will want to use the lossless formats, but if your transferring the files to a smartphone, you may want to use a lossy codec like AAC to save on storage space. Which format and bit rate you choose depends on how much disk space you want to dedicate to the music files and how picky your ears are when it comes to audio fidelity. Notably missing is MP3, which is no big loss because it delivers inferior sound quality and larger file sizes than those included.įor AAC (which, like MP3 and WMA, is a lossy codec), you can also choose a bit rate from 96Kbps to 320Kbps, and for WMA you get choices from 96Kbps to 192Kbps.įor the two lossless codecs, FLAC and ALAC, there’s no such choice, since there’s no compression.

AAC: Advanced Audio Coding, an extension to the MPEG-2 standard and used by Apple devices.You have a choice of four formats for the audio files the app can create: The new Rip tool goes beyond simple one-click operation. Windows 11 Format Settings for CD Ripping Note that if you only want to rip selected tracks and not the whole album, you can select individual tracks (whose entries get color highlighted) and use the Rip button that appears to save a copy of the music files on your drive. After it’s finished (the percent ripped displays during the process) your music files appear in the Music folder, in a subfolder created using the performer and album name, as shown below. You can load your CD, tap that button, and you’re good to go.

For now, any Windows 11 user can already play CDs with the Media Player App, which looks like this:Īfter the update, you get the new Rip CD choice: But fret not: The company has committed to releasing new features to the OS when they’re ready, so you probably won’t have to wait for a major release update.

How to Rip CDs With Windows 11’s Updated Media Player Appįor most readers, this section will only be of interest once Microsoft adds CD ripping to the released version of the OS.

Best free cd ripping software windows 10