CD Ripping Speed question

[Sanderville]

I'm a big fan of Musicbee and I rip loads of CDs to FLAC with it.  I get wildly different ripping speeds though and I wondered if anyone knows what causes it.

I understand the difference between quick ripping, ripping with verification, etc., but I'm talking about variations in ripping speed when using the same settings.  I use the middle option, secure rip with error correction, and usually it rips at about 3X or 4X normal speed.  Sometimes it rips a lot faster for no apparent reason.

For example yesterday I was ripping a bunch of CDs and they were flying along at anything up to 53X normal speed with no change in the settings.  I stopped halfway through a collection of Rachmaninov's complete piano works and started agin today with the same box set and it's only ripping at 3X again with the exact same disks, which all look pristine.

What can I do to make Musicbee rip at full speed every time?

[phred]

I think a lot of it has to do with the condition of the source CD.  I've found that brand-new CDs rip at 20-30X or faster while old, scratched, poor-condition CDs rip very slowly.  At least that's what I've been blaming it on.

[Sanderville]

I thought that too but I find that when the drive wants to rip at full speed it just does it with anything.  even including 20+ year-old CDs.  As a test I just tried re-ripping a disk that ripped yesterday at over 50X normal speed, and today it's only ripping at 4X normal speed.  So there must be some other combination of circumstances that triggers the drive to rip at full speed.

[Steven]

secure rip with error correction is by far the slowest method and if the CD drive returns any C2 errors or MB detects any inconsistencies in data then the track is re-read multiple times. My suggestion is just to use the accuraterip option only as that will give you some assurance the rip was ok, and perhaps if you know the CD is old/scratched then only in that case use secure rip

[Sanderville]

Thanks for the reply, Steven.  I just tried your suggestion of quick rip with accuraterip and I'm still just getting 4X ripping with the same disk. plus each track comes up as "ripped inaccurately."  To recap, this specific disk ripped at 53X yesterday with secure rip.  Today the same disk rips at 4X whether I use plain quick rip, secure rip, or accuraterip.  This pattern has been going on with each version of MusicBee that I've used (I'm on the latest now).

The ripping speed is clearly independent of MusicBee's settings.  I can't see anything in the DVD-ROM's own settings to force it to rip at maximum, I just hoped someone might know what the trick is.  I can't find any rhyme or reason to it.

I will continue using secure rip.  It really doesn't affect the ripping speed other than the extra verification step.  I know that on some days I'll get full-speed rips and on other days I won't so the fast days are just a bonus.

[Steven]

well in my own case i occassionally get slow rip speeds and just ejecting and placing the cd back in again can address the issue. It doesnt happen often though and i figured its just bad alignment in the drive but thats just a guess