Linux Notes: CD Ripping, Recording, and Mastering

Contents

Audio CDs

Ripping
Warning!
General Hints
Media Write Speeds
Burning a Data CD

Burning a Data DVD

Reading non-iso9660 CDs
Downloading and Burning ISO images from RedHat
Burning an Audio CD

On-The-Fly Copying

Burning a Mixed-mode CD
Burning an Enhanced CD (A.K.A CD-Plus, or CD-ROM XA mode 2)
Recording Live Audio
Converting to MP3
Troubleshooting

cdrecord: (CHECK CONDITION)
Drive light on, but nobody's home

Audio CDs

Ripping

"Ripping" means transfering an audio track from an audio CD to the hard drive. This is challenging because the OS cannot receive the audio data in real time, and repositioning the laser accurately is difficult. The CD format was designed for real time streaming access, not random access.

To rip audio tracks, use cdparanoia

• To query the table of contents: cdparanoia -Q
• To copy a track to hard drive: cdparanoia n [filename.wav]
  where "n" is the track number, and output is to a .wav file.
• Copy tracks n through m: cdparanoia --batch n-m [filename.wav]
• Use -d [device] to specify something other than /dev/cdrom. My Plextor drive is /dev/cdrom.
  

Reading the cdparanoia animated output: spaces and happy faces are good, a dash is acceptable.

To rip an entire ISO filesystem from a CD-ROM:

dd if=/dev/cdrom of=my_cdrom.iso

Warning!

When burning a multi-session audio or data CD, disable auto-mounting. If enabled, the OS will try to both read and write to the CD at the same time, and will cause either a miswrite or will deadlock the kernel. See: Nautilus > Peripherals > CD Properties > (Audio CD > Auto-play) and (Data CD > Auto-mount).

General Hints

• Enable "BURN-Proof".
• Run cdrecord in "dummy" mode first.
• For repeatability, put the recording commands into a shell script.
• Practice writing to a CD-RW before committing to CD-R.

Media Write Speeds

Media speeds for my CD writer, Plextor 16/10/40A:

Imation CD-R 24x	speed=16
Memorex CD-RW 4x	speed=4

Burning a Data CD

1. Assemble data into a single directory tree.
2. Create an ISO image with:
      mkisofs -o cd.iso -R -J -r dir
   Other options:
      -f   Follow symbolic links
3. Verify/browse ISO image with:
      isoinfo -i cd.iso -f -R -J  | less
   Or mount as a read-only file system with:
      mount cd.iso /mnt/dir -t iso9660 -o ro,loop
   (if you get a complaint about "loop unknown" or "mount: could not find any device /dev/loop#", try running modprobe loop; see Gentoo Kernel, Block Devices).
4. Write CD with:
      /dev/hdc:  cdrecord -v speed=16 dev=ATAPI:0,0,0 -data cd.iso
      /dev/hdd:  cdrecord -v speed=16 dev=ATAPI:0,1,0 -data cd.iso

Use:

• Run cdrecord -scanbus to determine the CD drive device parameters.
• Use the -dummy option to test the settings.

if [ ! -e mixed_mode.iso -o -n "`find cd -newer mixed_mode.iso`" ]; then
    echo "Cleaning..."
    find cd \( -name '*~' -o -name '*.bak' -o -type d -name '.*' -prune \) \
         -print -exec rm -rf '{}' \;
    echo
    echo "Link check..."
    html_link_check -start cd/READ-ME.html
    echo
    echo "Building ISO image..."
    mkisofs -o mixed_mode.iso -R -J -r cd
    echo
    echo "Contents:"
    isoinfo -i mixed_mode.iso -f -R -J
    echo
fi

Burning a Data DVD

Similar procedure as for data CD:

1. Assemble data into a single directory tree.
2. Create an ISO image and write to DVD media with:
       growisofs -Z /dev/hdc [-speed=8] -R -J dir
   where -Z specifies your DVD burner.

For DVD video, see Video, DVD Production Flow.

Reading non-iso9660 CDs

1. Copy the raw CD contents to the hard disk:
       dd if=/dev/cdrom of=cd.iso
   
2. Mount as a loopback  device:
       mount cd.iso /mnt/dir -t hfs -o ro,loop

Downloading and Burning ISO images from RedHat

RedHat distributes OS as ISO images that can be directly written to CD-R.

1. Download the ISO images. These are available from one of the RedHat mirror sites. Use NcFTP for best results.
2. Verify the integrity of each image with md5sum iso-image and compare with the MD5 sum posted on the FTP site.
3. Write each CD with:
       cdrecord -v speed=16 dev=ATAPI:0,0,0 -data iso-image

Burning an Audio CD

• Tracks may be .wav or .au files.
• .wav files must be 2 channel (not mono). Convert from mono to stereo with:
      sox mono.wav -c 2 stereo.wav
• Burn the CD with:
      cdrecord -v speed=12 dev=ATAPI:0,0,0 driveropts=burnproof \
               -audio -pad -eject \
               [files...]

Additional cdrecord options:

• Use -shorttrack before tracks shorter than 4 seconds.
• Use the -dao option to eliminate the 2 second gap between tracks. DAO = Disk-At-Once. The default is TAO = Track-At-Once. TAO necessitates a 2 second gap between tracks. DAO is not supported on all CD writers, but it is on mine, and probably most modern ones.

On-The-Fly Copying

On-the-fly copying means that the two CD drives are operating at the same time: the first one reads the source, and the second one writes onto the blank.

• X-CD-Roast will do on-the-fly copying for data CDs, but not for audio CDs.
• cdrdao will do on-the-fly copying for audio CDs.
• If both CD drives are on the same ATAPI (IDE) interface, forget about on-the-fly copying. It causes too much traffic on one ATAPI interface. My Plextor with BurnProof was able to handle it, but the transfer buffer was approximately 3% full most of the time -- not where you want to be.

Copy an audio CD with this command. It operates in two phases: first copying the audio to a disk file, and then writing to the CD blank.

cdrdao copy --device 0,0,0 --source-device 0,1,0 \
            --source-driver generic-mmc \
            --eject --reload -v 1 -n \
            --datafile /media/tmp/cdrdao.bin

Burning a Mixed-mode CD

A mixed-mode CD has both data and audio. It is a single session CD. The data is visible as a file system to a computer, and the audio is visible to CD players. The drawback to mixed mode is that the data track is visible to CD players, and some will even try to play it, and of course it does not sound good.

To create a mixed-mode CD, create an ISO image as for Burning a Data CD, and collect the audio tracks. Run cdrecord with the like this:

cdrecord "$@" speed=$SPEED dev=ATAPI:0,0,0 driveropts=burnproof -eject \
  -data             \
    mixed_mode.iso  \
  -pad  -audio      \
    song1.wav       \
    song2.wav       \
    (etc.)

Burning an Enhanced CD (A.K.A CD-Plus, or CD-ROM XA mode 2)

Similar to a mixed-mode CD, an enhanced CD also has both data and audio, and is a multi-session CD. The audio is written in the first session, and the data is written in the second session. Most CD players can only see tracks in the first session, effectively hiding the data track. The drawback to enhanced format is that some CD players cannot read multi-session CDs at all. See this entry in the CD-Writing HOW-TO on creating multi-session CDs.

To create an enhanced CD, arrange the data for an ISO image as for Burning a Data CD, and collect the audio tracks.

1. Write the audio tracks. Be sure to specify the -multi flag:

cdrecord "$@" speed=$SPEED dev=ATAPI:0,0,0 driveropts=burnproof \
  -multi -audio -pad \
    song1.wav        \
    song2.wav

2. Determine where the free space on the CD begins with:

NEXT_TRACK=`cdrecord -msinfo`

3. Create an ISO image using the two numbers returned in step 2:

mkisofs -o cd_plus.iso -R -J -C $NEXT_TRACK -r cd

4. Verify the ISO image with:

isoinfo -i cd_plus.iso -f -R -J -N ${NEXT_TRACK/*,}

5. Write the data track:

cdrecord "$@" speed=$SPEED dev=ATAPI:0,0,0 driveropts=burnproof -eject \
  -data -pad \
    cd_plus.iso

Here is a script to help manage ISO contents (where "cd" is the directory with the contents):

# Default speed
SPEED=10

# Process arguments. Identify speed and "blank" directives.
SESSION_1_ARGS=
SESSION_2_ARGS=
for A in "$@"; do
    if [ "blank=" = "${A:0:6}" ]; then
        # Erase only before first session.
	SESSION_1_ARGS="$SESSION_1_ARGS $A"
    elif [ "speed=" = "${A:0:6}" ]; then
        SPEED=${A#speed=}
    else
        SESSION_1_ARGS="$SESSION_1_ARGS $A"
	SESSION_2_ARGS="$SESSION_2_ARGS $A"
    fi
done

# Audio session.
cdrecord $SESSION_1_ARGS speed=$SPEED dev=ATAPI:0,0,0 driveropts=burnproof \
  -multi -audio -pad \
    cd/song1.wav     \
    cd/song2.wav


# Figure out if the ISO image should be remade.
# Note that audio files are stored inside the 'cd' directory.
if [ ! -e cd_plus.iso -o -n "`find cd -newer cd_plus.iso`" ]; then
    echo "Cleaning..."
    find cd \( -name '*~' -o -name '*.bak' -o -type d -name '.*' -prune \) \
         -print -exec rm -rf '{}' \;
    echo
    echo "Link check..."
    html_link_check -start cd/READ-ME.html
    echo
    echo "Building ISO image..."
    NEXT_TRACK=`cdrecord -msinfo`
    echo $NEXT_TRACK > cd_plus_msinfo
    mkisofs -o cd_plus.iso -R -J -C $NEXT_TRACK -r cd
    echo
    echo "Contents:"
    isoinfo -i cd_plus.iso -f -R -J -N ${NEXT_TRACK/*,}
    echo
fi


# Data session.
cdrecord $SESSION_2_ARGS speed=$SPEED dev=ATAPI:0,0,0 driveropts=burnproof -eject   \
  -data -pad    \
    cd_plus.iso

Recording Live Audio

• Use arecord, Gnome Sound Recorder (Programs > Multimedia > Sound Recorder) or Audacity to record.
• arecord: To avoid buffer overruns (failure to read from the sound card fast enough), record at 48 KHz (Sound Blaster Live! native sample rate), use a 48000 frame buffer, memory mapped I/O, and nice -20. Disable ntpd for a stable time source. And disable the screen saver. And don't do other things, either. Resample after noise removal.
• With Sound Recorder, record in stereo, not mono (it messes up mono recording). Use 16-bit PCM, 44.1 KHz, stereo mode.
• Convert to mono with sox:
      for F in `*.st.wav`; do
        G=${F%.st.wav};
        echo $G;
        sox $F -c 1 $G.wav;
      done
• Edit waveform using Audacity waveform editor. Export to .wav format.

Converting to MP3

Use lame to convert to mp3 format with:

lame -h --vbr-new -p --strictly-enforce-ISO  \
  --tt 'track title' --tn <track-number>      \
  --ta 'author'                                     \
  --tl 'album title'                                \
  --ty <year-of-issue> --tc <comment>   \
  file.wav  file.mp3

Where:

• <year-of-issue> is 1 to 9999.
• I have been using the comment field for the date on which I converted the file.

Troubleshooting

cdrecord: (CHECK CONDITION)

A complete failure of cdrecord of the form:

cdrecord: Input/output error. read track info: scsi sendcmd: no error
CDB:  52 01 00 00 00 FF 00 00 1C 00
status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION)
Sense Bytes: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00
Sense Key: 0x5 Illegal Request, Segment 0
Sense Code: 0x24 Qual 0x00 (invalid field in cdb) Fru 0x0
Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid)
cmd finished after 0.000s timeout 240s
Writing  time:    0.009s

may indicate damaged media. Try a new CD blank. I had a repeated failure which was caused by attempting to record with GnomeToaster which for some reason had bad settings (really bad, apparently). The trouble maker was the "tsize" option was not compatible with cdrecord 2.0: remove it! Further bugs prevented the operation from completing. (Dummy recording mode is a great way to start.)

Drive light on, but nobody's home

	Copyright © 2004-2007 Craig Lawson
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