Edward Piercy

SmartSoft MP3 CD Ripper

Friday, 4. January 2008, 22:09:19

Tech geeks and IT people love complexity. They want software with all
the bells and whistles -- "robust" kind of stuff that they can play with
endlessly and which gives them a variety of options. Unfortunately, this
also tends to make the software somewhat complicated.

But most of us "regular type" people aren't like that. Or at least I'm
not like that. I did go through a tech geek phase a few years back, but
now that I'm just an ordinary anthropologist slash writer slash blogger
I want something with a low learning curve, preferably software where I
don't have to spend hours of my time R'ing the F'ing manual.

A few months back I was looking for a CD ripper that would allow me to
take tracks off of my music CDs and convert them to MP3 files for use on
the blog. I happened across SmartSoft's CD Ripper. At that time I
downloaded the demo and tried it out. And though the demo was really
limited, it was enough to make me realize that this was the type of
software that I was looking for -- definitely a "piece of cake" type of
software. Best of all, the software only cost $19.95 US for the regular
version that I got. A helluv deal.

Ordering the SmartSoft ripper was easy, too. In fact the only problem I
encountered was it took about half an hour for the e-mail with my
download info to get to my box. That was after I had already mailed them
asking what was up with that -- oh, well, I'm sure they won't mind, at
least they got a sale.

All you do is drop your music CD into the drawer and open the ripper.
You will then get a list of tracks from the album. I noticed that on CDs
such as my Tori Amos CDs, which are from a major label, I get the
artist/track info. But on my Shannon Curtis CD, which is an independent
label, all I get is the track number. Which is pretty much to be
expected.

By default, all the tracks will be selected to rip and they will be
selected to rip to MP3 format. If you don't want to rip all the tracks
you simply uncheck the ones that you don't want to rip.

The Smartsoft ripper also has the option of ripping to WAV files. Which
is great, of course -- forget about buying those WAV rippers that cost
two or three times as much. You also can rip to OGG format, whatever
the hell that is.

This isn't a professional blog and I don't do advertising. But I can
certainly recommend this product. "Keep it Simple, Stupid" seems to be
SmartSoft's philosophy. Which puts us exactly on the same page.

On Archaic PostsThis Old Stage is Damn Well Broken

Comments

Allan # 5. January 2008, 10:50

Cool device, it seems. Thanks for the recommendation. And a bargain, too.

I am just like you. I am into no-bullshit it-stuff. My opinion is, that technology should adapt to me, not the other way around.

When it comes to photography I need the bells and whistles, though. I guess that labels me as a photo-nerd, but full control over my photos is vital.

Edward Piercy # 5. January 2008, 17:28

Admittedly, Nikon rules! (Or maybe Leica)

Allan # 5. January 2008, 18:51

Nikon is good, as is Pentax, Canon, Olympus and a number of other brands. Leica is good - and rather overprized, I think. That´s OK. Price is not a secret - people pay what they want.

I may be a photo-nerd, but not a brand-nerd.

Edward Piercy # 5. January 2008, 20:02

Hewlett-Packard rules!

Okay, maybe not.