FreeRIP 4.1

FreeRIP Editor's Review

FreeRIP is an extremely easy to use software. As shown in the title, the program allows you to rip your favorite audio CDs to other popular audio formats: WAV, MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC.

The program has a well designed and intuitive interface. It allows you to quickly re-encode your favorite tracks into the desired target format. Before ripping, you can choose to query the 'Freerip' database or freedb.org album information and read the track ISRC (International Standard Recording Code). You can also submit info to the 'FreeRip' database.

The program will auto-detect the tracks once the disk inserted into the drive and it will display the track, start frame, length and type. By default, ripped tracks will be saved in a new folder on your desktop. If you want to, you can choose to rip all the tracks to a directory of your choice or you can select only a few tracks to be ripped.

Depending on the target file format, you can set your favorite ripping options: for example, in case you rip to MP3, you can choose the sample rate, channels, bitrate quality (up to 320 kbit), filtering, VBR (variable bitrate) etc. Encoding options are also available for WMA, OGG, WAV and FLAC files.

Pluses: The ripping process is fast and it consumes few system resources. You can use the program to search for info, images, other audio files, video clips or lyrics of a certain artist.

Drawbacks / flaws: You can't rip tracks to AAC (MP4) format.

In conclusion: A very good free CD ripping program.

version reviewed: 3.0