Quickly rip your CDs

If you’re looking for a way to quickly rip CDs to your PC from the command line, then try Abcde ( sudo apt install abcde ). It’s basically a script that links other tools – CD-ripping software, encoders, CD identification and tagging tools, and so on – to provide an all-in-one solution to rip your CDs with the minimum of effort.

After installation (choose No configuration if prompted during setup) you’re ready to go, with the following basic command:

$ abcde -o mp3

Other output options include vorbis (for ogg), FLAC, m4a and the default WAV. You may be prompted to install additional software ( Abcde requires eyeD3 to tag MP3 files, for example).

After launching, the CD will be matched to the cddb database. You’ll be asked if you want to manually edit this information using a text editor (the nano option is the simplest), then you’ll be asked a question about whether or not it’s a multi-artist CD before the ripping process starts. If you want to configure specific defaults, enabling you to rip CDs simply by popping the disc in the drive and then typing abcde , then you’ll need to create a configuration file: $ sudo nano ~/.abcde.conf This will create an empty text file. Now visit www.andrews-corner.org/linux/abcde where you’ll find scripts you can copy and paste into this file depending on the format you want to rip to.