Is there a way to batch rip an entire CD, not just track by track?

[philipr]

This seems like such an obvious question, but multiple Google and forum searches have not come up with anything.

1. If I want to rip (Convert/Save) an entire CD, not just one track, is there a way to do that in batch? From looking at old help pages/tutorials/walkthroughs, I get the sense that leaving the starting position at 0 does that on some system or in certain situations, but that never works for me. I have to do each track separately.

2. If there isn't such a VLC feature, is there a way to script this batch process?

3. Can I then somehow get the track list and get it to name the files accordingly?

[mederi]

Search the forum for the batch script or try VLC Extension Lua script: https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=130354

[Ostalstew]

With VideoLAN, you can do the followings to rip CD with entire tracks.
Step 1. Insert the CD disc you want to rip to your computer's disk drive and open VLC media player. Click "Media" on the toolbar and choose "Convert/Save" from the drop-down menu.
Step 2. After that, you will be presented with an "Open Media" window. Now select "Disc" and click "Audio CD" under "Disc Selection". For "Disc device", click "Browse" to choose the source CD disc. And for "Starting Position", just hit the "up" arrow button to choose the track where you'd like to start. Eg. When you finished the settings, click "Convert/Save" button to continue.
Step 3. What goes next is the "Convert" window. Choose "Profile" and click the tool icon to open the form window, where you can set the output audio codec, bitrate, channels and sample rate. Click "Save" to apply the settings.
Step 4. Then you will go back to the "Convert" window. Just hit the "Start" button to converting CD to digital audio format. MP3, FLAC, WMA, WAV, etc.

[kodela]

@philipr: Here is the batch file for ripping an audio CD. I've simplified it a bit:

Code: Select all

@ECHO OFF REM This batch file allows you to rip all tracks from an audio CD to MP3 or WAV. REM However, it must be adapted to the individual circumstances. REM ***** enter after "CD " the installation directory of vlc.exe ***** CD C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\ REM ***** enter after "SET s=" the source directory for the optical drive ***** SET s=O:\ REM ***** enter after "SET p=" the destination directory for ribbed tracks ***** SET p=D:\Musik\ REM ***** enter after "SET m=" for conversion to MP3 > "MP3", to WAV > "WAV" ***** SET m=MP3 SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION SET /a n=0 SET f="" FOR /R %s% %%L IN (*.cda) DO (CALL :sub_transcode "%%L") GOTO :eof :sub_transcode Call SET /a n=n+1 ECHO Transcoding %1 IF !n! LEQ 9 (GOTO :with_zero) ELSE (GOTO :without_zero) :with_zero CALL SET f=%p%Track_0!n!.mp3 GOTO :transcode :without_zero CALL SET f=%p%Track_!n!.mp3 :transcode if /i %m%==MP3 ( CALL vlc -I http cdda:///%s% --cdda-track=!n! :sout=#transcode{vcodec=none,acodec=mp3,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=44100}:std{access="file",mux=raw,dst=!f!} vlc://quit ) ELSE ( CALL vlc -I http cdda:///%s% --cdda-track=!n! :sout=#transcode{vcodec=none,acodec=s16l,ab=224,channels=2,samplerate=48000}:std{access="file",mux=wav,dst=!f!.wav} vlc://quit ) :eof

@Ostalstew: How do you set the destination directory?

[Jayser1]

Thanks Kodela. This batch file worked like a champ! The CD I was ripping had 20 tracks and I didn't want to repeat the steps for each.

[Ocker3]

I have come here from the Future(!!!) to say, thank you Kodela for this script, as per the commented code I set my optical drive, my output folder (I had to run the .bat file as Admin on my Win10 machine, but hey, it's a work one), and it worked a treat.

[arun02139]

Yes, thank you so much @Kodela worked like a charm (I had to change the path to VLC from Program Files x86 to just Program Files as I have the 64-bit version installed).

Many thanks & much props!

[NOYB]

@philipr: Here is the batch file for ripping an audio CD. I've simplified it a bit:

Thanks kodela. I've complicated it for convenience of multiple CD ripping. Also some re-factoring and fixes.
Now if vlc could insert the metadata, either from online DB or local data, it could be a pretty nice one stop full CD ripper.

Here's my version of the VLC entire CD ripper.

It starts with a CD info batch containing artist, album, track titles and basic metadata. The basic metadata is currently just placeholder and CD documentation.

That batch file calls the main transcoding batch which has been somewhat generic-ified.

The two batch files together are to large for a single post. So I'll post the second one following separately.

Example CD info batch file: ("Love Song_Welcome Back - VLC_CD_RIP.bat")

Code: Select all

@ECHO OFF REM Ampersand (&) in variables must be escaped (^&). REM ***** enter metadata ***** SET Artist=Love Song SET Album=Welcome Back SET Year=1995 SET Publisher=Word Maranatha SET Genre=Rock; Pop; Folk; World; Country REM ***** enter after "SET Track_nn=" the track title. Where nn is within the range of 01 to 99 ***** SET Track_01=A Love Song SET Track_02=Little Country Church SET Track_03=Let Us Be One SET Track_04=Little Pilgrim SET Track_05=Two Hands SET Track_06=Freedom SET Track_07=Take No Chances SET Track_08=Feel the Love SET Track_09=Changes SET Track_10=Front Seat, Back Seat SET Track_11=The Cossack Song SET Track_12=And the Wind Was Low SET Track_13=Welcome Back SET Track_14=Jesus Puts the Song in Our Hearts REM ***** enter after "SET d=" the file name elements delimiter character(s) ***** SET d=_ CALL VLC_CD_RIP.bat

[NOYB]

The two batch files together are to large for a single post. So I'll post the other one following separately.

Here's the second of the two batch files.

Example transcoding batch file: ("VLC_CD_RIP.bat")

Code: Select all

@ECHO OFF REM This batch file allows you to rip all tracks from an audio CD to MP3 or WAV. REM However, it must be adapted to the individual circumstances. REM Typically this batch file is called from a batch file that sets the artist, album, and track song titles. REM Acquired from Dec 2016 post by kodela at: REM https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=136816#p451471 REM Changes made Jun 2019 by NOYB: REM Added vlc --noloop command line option to keep from ending up with zero length files. REM Parameterized most of the vlc command line options to increase flexibility. REM Added quotes around the dst value on vlc command line to support folder and file names containing spaces. REM Added renaming the generic Track_nn file to Artist, Album, Track #, Track Title. REM Re-factored to eliminate the with_zero and without_zero sub routines. REM Ampersand (&) in variables must be escaped (^&). REM Dynamic variables and those that may contain escaped ampersand (^&) need delayed expansion (!var!). SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION REM ***** REM *** Begin user defined parameters REM ***** REM ***** enter after "SET p=" the destination directory for ribbed tracks ***** SET p=C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Desktop\VLC CD RIP\!Artist!\!Album!\ REM ***** enter after "SET m=" for conversion to MP3 > "MP3", to WAV > "WAV" ***** SET m=wav REM ***** enter after "SET s=" the source directory for the optical drive ***** SET s=D:\ SET samplerate=44100 SET channels=2 REM ***** enter after "CD " the installation directory of vlc.exe ***** SET vlc_cmd=C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc REM ***** enter after "SET dry_run=" anything other than "false" (case insensitive) to make a test run without transcoding. ***** SET dry_run=false REM ***** REM *** End user defined parameters REM ***** REM ***** REM *** Everything below here is expected to be directed by the above parameters. REM ***** IF NOT EXIST "!s!" ( ECHO The source location does not exist. ECHO !s! ECHO Press any key to abort. PAUSE >nul EXIT ) IF NOT EXIST "!p!" ( MKDIR "!p!" ) ELSE ( ECHO The destination folder already exists. ECHO Continuing may delete existing content from this folder: ECHO !p! CHOICE /C "YN" /M "Do you want to continue anyway?" IF ERRORLEVEL 2 EXIT ) CD "!p!" ECHO Target folder: ECHO !p! REM Initialize the track number counter. SET /a n=0 REM Set the transcoder parameters. if /i %m%==MP3 ( SET acodec=mp3 SET ab=128 SET mux=raw ) ELSE if /i %m%==WAV ( SET acodec=s16l SET ab=224 SET mux=wav ) ELSE ( ECHO The specified output type %m% is not valid. ECHO The output type must be either "MP3" or "WAV". EXIT ) REM Loop through the source tracks to transcode them. FOR /R "%s%" %%L IN (*.cda) DO (CALL :transcode "%%L") ECHO Finished - Press any key to close. PAUSE >nul GOTO :eof :transcode Call SET /a n=n+1 IF !n! LEQ 9 (CALL SET nn=0!n!) ELSE (CALL SET nn=!n!) ECHO Transcoding %1 - !Track_%nn%! IF /i %dry_run%==false ( CALL "!vlc_cmd!" -I http cdda:///%s% --cdda-track=!n! :sout=#transcode{vcodec=none,acodec=%acodec%,ab=%ab%,channels=%channels%,samplerate=%samplerate%}:std{access="file",mux=%mux%,dst="!p!Track_!nn!.%m%"} --noloop vlc://quit REN "!p!Track_!nn!.%m%" "!Artist!%d%!Album!%d%!nn!%d%!Track_%nn%!.%m%" ) :eof

[Flabitron]

Can someone please post directions for these? I don't know what to do with a batch file or how to run it. I am struggling super hard here.

[NOYB]

I notice that the vlc command batch file line does not get the entire audio track from the cd. It fails to get the last few sectors of audio. In one case I know it is about 10 sectors short. About 0.13 seconds. For tracks ending in silence this is probably no big deal. But for consecutive gap-less tracks it can be enough to notice a music rhythm hiccup.
Is there a way vlc can be made to get the entire track?

Code: Select all

"!vlc_cmd!" -I http cdda:///%s% --cdda-track=!n! :sout=#transcode{vcodec=none,acodec=%acodec%,ab=%ab%,channels=%channels%,samplerate=%samplerate%}:std{access="file",mux=%mux%,dst="!p!Track_!nn!.%m%"} --noloop vlc://quit

[yiftach]

The two batch files together are to large for a single post. So I'll post the other one following separately.

Cannot thank you enough for the transcoding batch file on its own. I just ripped a 40-track CD in seconds thanks to you, leaving me plenty of time to give the tracks their proper file names. As an end-user-focused IT person (i.e., not a code guy), I am so indebted to folks like you who are willing to share their talents with the world. Thanks a ton, and stay well!

[yiftach]

Can someone please post directions for these? I don't know what to do with a batch file or how to run it. I am struggling super hard here.

I know this is ages old, but in case you or someone else still needs this information, here's how to save and run a batch file:
1. Select and Copy the text provided by the developer.
2. In a directory of your choice (I use the Desktop for ease of access) right click on an empty area of the screen or in a folder window and choose New-->Text Document
3. Give this new document a descriptive name, AND change the file extension - the part after the dot - from 'txt' to 'bat'. In my case, for instance, I named the file 'VLC_RipCD.bat').
[*]3a. If you can't see the file extension, you'll need to modify the view settings for the containing folder so file extensions are visible.
4. Open this newly created text document, and Paste the copied code from step 1.
[*]4a. In this case, and in many cases of code provided on forums like this, don't forget to change the user-specific details like the directories, transcoding choices, etc.
5. Save and close the batch file (this text document you just created and customized).
6. When you're ready to run the file, right click on it and choose Run as administrator. It's usually fine to just double click the file as if you're opening it, but I prefer to run batch files as admin to bypass potential errors related to user permissions.

Hope this helps.

[BobR2]

Here's yet another version of the VLC entire CD ripper script (that rips an entire CD into multiple individual tracks).

It's a modification (improvement?) upon the version provided previously by NOYB on 20 Jun 2019. His version depended upon the audio CD, as represented in Windows File Explorer, containing files named "*.cda", but not all audio CDs do. So I worked around that dependence in this revised version.

As done for NOYB's version, there are actually a pair of batch script files. The first is a CD info batch containing artist, album, track titles and other basic metadata. (Note: The contents of this first script is just example/placeholder information, which needs to be repeatedly edited to reflect each particular you want to rip.) The second is the main transcoding batch which is called by the first batch script. (Note: The second script should be customized once for your specific PC environment and personal preferences, but can then be used without further modification for multiple different CDs.)

The two batch files together are too large for a single post. So I'll post the second one following separately.

Example metadata batch file: ("VLC_CD_RIP_v2_metadata.bat")

Code: Select all

@ECHO OFF REM Ampersand (&) in variables must be escaped (^&). REM Changes made May 2020 by BobR2 REM Introduced a Num_of_Tracks variable and re-factored to manage track titles as an array. REM ***** enter metadata ***** SET Artist=Love Song SET Album=Welcome Back SET Year=1995 SET Publisher=Word Maranatha SET Genre=Rock; Pop; Folk; World; Country REM ***** enter after "Num_of_Tracks=" the total number of tracks (Note: must be less than 100) ***** SET Num_of_Tracks=14 REM ***** enter after "SET Track_Title[i]=" the track title. ***** SET Track_Title[1]=A Love Song SET Track_Title[2]=Little Country Church SET Track_Title[3]=Let Us Be One SET Track_Title[4]=Little Pilgrim SET Track_Title[5]=Two Hands SET Track_Title[6]=Freedom SET Track_Title[7]=Take No Chances SET Track_Title[8]=Feel the Love SET Track_Title[9]=Changes SET Track_Title[10]=Front Seat, Back Seat SET Track_Title[11]=The Cossack Song SET Track_Title[12]=And the Wind Was Low SET Track_Title[13]=Welcome Back SET Track_Title[14]=Jesus Puts the Song in Our Hearts REM ***** enter after "SET d=" the file name elements delimiter character(s) ***** SET d=_ CALL VLC_CD_RIP_v2_transcoding.bat

[BobR2]

Here's the second of the two batch script files.

Example transcoding batch file: ("VLC_CD_RIP_v2_transcoding.bat")

Code: Select all

@ECHO OFF REM This batch file allows you to rip all tracks from an audio CD to MP3 or WAV. REM However, it must be adapted to the individual circumstances. REM Typically this batch file is called from a batch file that sets the artist, album, number of tracks, and track song titles. REM Acquired from Dec 2016 post by kodela at: REM https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=136816#p451471 REM Changes made Jun 2019 by NOYB: REM Added vlc --noloop command line option to keep from ending up with zero length files. REM Parameterized most of the vlc command line options to increase flexibility. REM Added quotes around the dst value on vlc command line to support folder and file names containing spaces. REM Added renaming the generic Track_nn file to Artist, Album, Track #, Track Title. REM Re-factored to eliminate the with_zero and without_zero sub routines. REM Changes made May 2020 by BobR2 REM Introduced a Num_of_Tracks variable and re-factored to manage track titles as an array. REM Modified the FOR loop so as to not depend on having the CD be represented as containing a set of "*.cda" files (not all Compact Disk Digital Audio (CD-DA) CDs do) REM Ampersand (&) in variables must be escaped (^&). REM Dynamic variables and those that may contain escaped ampersand (^&) need delayed expansion (!var!). SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION REM ***** REM *** Begin user defined parameters REM ***** REM ***** enter after "SET p=" the destination directory for ribbed tracks ***** SET p=C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Desktop\VLC CD RIP\!Artist!\!Album!\ REM ***** enter after "SET m=" for conversion to MP3 > "MP3", to WAV > "WAV" ***** SET m=wav REM ***** enter after "SET s=" the source directory for the optical drive ***** SET s=D:\ SET samplerate=44100 SET channels=2 REM ***** enter after "CD " the installation directory of vlc.exe ***** SET vlc_cmd=C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc REM ***** enter after "SET dry_run=" anything other than "false" (case insensitive) to make a test run without transcoding. ***** SET dry_run=false REM ***** REM *** End user defined parameters REM ***** REM ***** REM *** Everything below here is expected to be directed by the above parameters. REM ***** REM Set the transcoder parameters. if /i %m%==MP3 ( SET acodec=mp3 SET ab=128 SET mux=raw ) ELSE if /i %m%==WAV ( SET acodec=s16l SET ab=224 SET mux=wav ) ELSE ( ECHO The specified output type %m% is not valid. ECHO The output type must be either "MP3" or "WAV". EXIT ) IF NOT EXIST "!s!" ( ECHO The source location does not exist. ECHO !s! ECHO Press any key to abort. PAUSE >nul EXIT ) IF NOT EXIST "!p!" ( MKDIR "!p!" ) ELSE ( ECHO The destination folder already exists. ECHO Continuing may delete existing content from this folder: ECHO !p! CHOICE /C "YN" /M "Do you want to continue anyway?" IF ERRORLEVEL 2 EXIT ) CD "!p!" ECHO Target folder: ECHO !p! REM Loop through the source tracks to transcode them. FOR /L %%I In (1,1,%Num_of_Tracks%) DO (CALL :transcode %%I) ECHO Finished - Press any key to close. PAUSE >nul GOTO :eof :transcode REM Set the two-digit track number with leading zero as needed IF %1 LEQ 9 (CALL SET ii=0%1) ELSE (CALL SET ii=%1) ECHO Transcoding Track %1 (!ii!) - !Track_Title[%1]! IF /i %dry_run%==false ( CALL "!vlc_cmd!" -I http cdda:///%s% --cdda-track=%1 :sout=#transcode{vcodec=none,acodec=%acodec%,ab=%ab%,channels=%channels%,samplerate=%samplerate%}:std{access="file",mux=%mux%,dst="!p!Track_!ii!.%m%"} --noloop vlc://quit REN "!p!Track_!ii!.%m%" "!Artist!%d%!Album!%d%!ii!%d%!Track_Title[%1]!.%m%" ) :eof

[Help6690]

Can someone please post directions for these? I don't know what to do with a batch file or how to run it. I am struggling super hard here.

I know this is ages old, but in case you or someone else still needs this information, here's how to save and run a batch file:
1. Select and Copy the text provided by the developer.
2. In a directory of your choice (I use the Desktop for ease of access) right click on an empty area of the screen or in a folder window and choose New-->Text Document
3. Give this new document a descriptive name, AND change the file extension - the part after the dot - from 'txt' to 'bat'. In my case, for instance, I named the file 'VLC_RipCD.bat').
[*]3a. If you can't see the file extension, you'll need to modify the view settings for the containing folder so file extensions are visible.
4. Open this newly created text document, and Paste the copied code from step 1.
[*]4a. In this case, and in many cases of code provided on forums like this, don't forget to change the user-specific details like the directories, transcoding choices, etc.
5. Save and close the batch file (this text document you just created and customized).
6. When you're ready to run the file, right click on it and choose Run as administrator. It's usually fine to just double click the file as if you're opening it, but I prefer to run batch files as admin to bypass potential errors related to user permissions.

Hope this helps.

Could you please post a YouTube video instead? I tried this, and my Windows 10 says it will not open a BAT file.
Why isnt' batch ripping a default option in VLC without a person having to be a computer programmer?
I don't know what a "directory" or "transcoding choice" is, and really I don't much want to. I just wnat to rip some CDs painlessly.

[Hitchhiker]

Could you please post a YouTube video instead? I tried this, and my Windows 10 says it will not open a BAT file.
Why isnt' batch ripping a default option in VLC without a person having to be a computer programmer?
I don't know what a "directory" or "transcoding choice" is, and really I don't much want to. I just wnat to rip some CDs painlessly.

Plenty of youtube videos already available on the subject such as this one for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by_dswxsBac Just don't expect CD quality.

The thing you need to understand is that Audio CDs were designed to be played on dedicated CD players. In that respect the audio format on these type of discs isn't visible to a computer operating system.

More on the subject at: https://fileinfo.com/help/cd_audio

[samuel.t2]

Great script, thank you very much for your work. Though 2 questions:
1. Variables Year, Publisher and Genre are not used in the latest script from BobR2 - is that intended?
2. Num_of_Tracks could probably be omitted by checking the length of the Track_Title array. Removed the "SET Num_of_Tracks=14" and added this piece of code to VLC_CD_RIP_v2_transcoding.bat:

Code: Select all

REM Get the length of the Track_Title array set Num_of_Tracks=1 :SymLoop if defined Track_Title[%Num_of_Tracks%] ( set /a Num_of_Tracks+=1 GOTO :SymLoop ) set /a Num_of_Tracks=%Num_of_Tracks%-1

[TexJohn]

Updated for Win 11, VLC 3.0.14 (or because I am an idiot) edit to the original

This stops the pop-up VLC remote control/command line window which hangs up the script until the extra window is closed or you press Enter:

1. change "-I http" to "-I rc"
2. add "--rc-quiet" after the CDDA: subcommand

CALL vlc -I rc cdda:///%s% --rc-quiet --cdda-track=!n! :sout=#transcode{vcodec=none,acodec=mp3,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=44100}:std{access="file",mux=raw,dst=!f!} vlc://quit

Thank y'all VERY much for posting the scripts...only took me 2 hours to make it work for me lol man I'm getting old and out of practice at scripting.