Audio CD ripping - my initial experience

[ssfc72]

So I got an audio book, 8 disk set, that I want to rip, so that I can make mp3 files to upload to my small mp3 player.

I am running Mint 19.1 on my notebook computer and I have the k3b  cd creator (I can't recall if I downloaded k3b or if it was already included with Mint 19.1).  Apparently k3b can rip and audio cd.
So I started  k3b and it immediately complained that an mp3 audio decoder plugin was not found.
The complaint text is as follows -  "MP3 Audio Decoder plugin not found.
K3b could not load or find the MP3 decoder plugin. This means that you will not be able to create Audio CDs from MP3 files. Many Linux distributions do not include MP3 support for legal reasons.
Solution: To enable MP3 support, please install the MAD MP3 decoding library as well as the K3b MAD MP3 decoder plugin (the latter may already be installed but not functional due to the missing libmad). Some distributions allow"

I went into Synaptic and did a search for the decoders and I did not find anything.
So much for k3b.   I am surprised that Mint 19.1 did not have the necessary decoders, already installed.

I then installed Ripper X from Synaptic.
Ripper X started with no problem and I went into the settings and it appeared that mp3 support was available.
I proceeded to rip the first audio disc, which had 80 tracks.  When done I went looking for the 80 ripped tracks and found that they where saved as .wav files. :-( 

That is as far as I got, at this time.  I will have to go back into the settings and see how to set the output files as .mp3 files.

[Jason]

When you installed Linux Mint, did you put a checkmark beside the option to "install third-party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware Flash, MP3 and other media"? Or is it too long ago to remember? It looks like this:

[buster]

I write this hoping to be at least a little annoying. But the first decision that has to be made is deciding if this is a learning experience mostly, or a desire to get the job done. If the latter, here are my two suggestions.

Boot into Win 10. Read a few simple instructions on the internet just to be sure, but it is a dead simple process and supported by Microsoft. You can even get the info about the book and its chapters so it will probably show up in your mp3 player.

Or put on a dark hat and mask and go to tpb and look for it.

Move the audio book to your player and enjoy.

[ssfc72]

No problem there. I for sure, selected third party software.

When you installed Linux Mint, did you put a checkmark beside the option to "install third-party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware Flash, MP3 and other media"? Or is it too long ago to remember? It looks like this:

[ssfc72]

Thanks Buster.  Your suggestion of using that other OS, was my backup plan. :-)
I think it will be a simple thing to setup Linux Ripper X so that it saves the files as .mp3

I will then have to use my Linux mp3 combiner program  (MP3Wrap -  https://beta.plugintolinux.ca/forum/index.php?topic=428.msg2466#msg2466  )   to take the very small size mp3 files and combine them into one larger mp3 file, that is about 15 minutes in duration.  A 15 minute audio book mp3 file is short enough for me to fast forward or back, to find the place in the audio book, where I fell asleep. :-)

My tiny mp3 player has a very small, one line  and a few characters display.  It basically just identifies the title of the track it is playing, ie   song 1
I use this nice little mp3 player for listening to my audio e-books, only.

[buster]

You have I believe a Samsung tablet don't you? They are very easy to work with when listening - bigger screen, more info.

By the way you join Jason and myself who always seem to fall asleep when listening in bed. Marilyn often spends time when she comes to bed untangling me.

And I forget to ask, is this audio book in colour or black and white?

[ssfc72]

So, I didn't have any success with Ripper X.  It went through the ripping just fine, but the mp3 files were apparently not created. I did not find anything in the working directory that is setup in the Ripper X setup. I did a search for the files from the root directory and no files were found.
I suspect it may have to something to do with the internet look up of files for music CD's.  Since this is an audio book, then that function would not find anything. So I think Ripper X did not know what to title the tracks, so it never generated any mp3 file?

I went back to k3b and from searching on the internet for the error message about no MAD MP3, I found a suggestion to go back into Synaptic for the k3b program and select additional files that Synaptic recommends.  I did this and then logged out as a user and logged back in. I fired up k3b and this time there was no error or complaint about mp3 decoders or plugin.
K3B then proceeded to rip the 93 tracks of the first cd audio book. :-)

https://www.linux.com/news/ripping-audio-cds-linux/

[Jason]

Boot into Win 10. Read a few simple instructions on the internet just to be sure, but it is a dead simple process and supported by Microsoft. You can even get the info about the book and its chapters so it will probably show up in your mp3 player.

First warning. I'm not serious. Or am I?