News :: 15MR: AVS Audio CD Grabber

Welcome again to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is AVS Audio CD Grabber by Online Media Technologies—An audio CD-ripper in a wizard-style format

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“AVS Audio CD Grabber is a CD ripper utility program that allows you to rip audio tracks from CDs, to download disc info from FreeDB (an Internet compact disc database) and to copy them to the local disk. This audio CD ripper tool offers rich options for your special requirements. Make direct digital copies of your audio-CDs at a hard drive in the most popular compressed audio formats!”

Quick Pros

• Wizard-style interface refreshing over some freeware alternatives
• Formats supported covers most of the common
• Options for various rip qualities
• Audio quality as to be expected

Quick Cons

• Hung twice on CDDB reading, maxing out at full processor
• Doesn’t explain the different VBR styles
• Secure ripping seems a little on the slow side compared to others’ secure ripping

Expansion

I came into this wondering how an application like this would stack up against the freeware alternatives; Since the Napster craze over 10 years ago, there has been a lot of time for various freeware to build a decent reputation and a smooth application. I was, however, shocked at the simplicity placed in my hands with the wizard-style format. When I got around the CDDB issues which appeared to be caused from pulling the information from the general freedb and changed to another country’s freedb, it all went very smooth. From choosing the tracks you want, pulling CDDB information and any corrections; to setting up the format, bitrate, rip quality; to file naming; to finally the rip. It was all very straight forward.

A few parts stood out while going through this application; The various formatted supported by this program out of the box as well as the options laid out in a non-cluttering means, especailly talking about the often-overwhelming encoding options. The audio quality does end up where you expect it, though granted my ears aren’t as sensitive to imperfections as others may be, and many are like me as well who really can’t tell the difference between a 192kbps and a 256kbps file or one encoder to another.

My biggest quirk is there is no VBR descriptions included, which for many may make VBR a step which may be hard to hurdle but should be taken for an increase in quality in areas of recorded materials that need more bandwidth, while maintaining an acceptable file size. No description of the formats means people have to go online, see if the help file (Downloaded separately of the application) to see if it says anything. If that doesn’t, they have to head onto the internet and start searching, making this ‘Wizard’ less ‘Whizzy’ when dabbling into VBR for the first time.

My only other issue is that I did try secure ripping as well as no correction; My drive is stable enough to do no correction, however a lot of people may not want to run that risk and will run on the Secure setting. As I have done this before in other programs, it does seem a little more sluggish than other applications. I know it is dependent on the drive more so than the application. I do not have a comparison benchmark, but it does seem slower. It may be me however.

Final Verdict

This is actually a very nice CD ripper. Its easy interface mixed with expected audio quality does make this an application to try out instead of your usual freeware alternatives, concidering the supported formats as well. If you back up your Cds for that unthinkable day when your friends crack a CD or your 2-year old uses it as a chew-toy, then this might be great for you to try, especially since it is free today. While $29.00 may be a little too high for this application, the factor here is all the other applications that could be had in that same $29.00 or $59.00 for lifetime.

Posted by BladedThoth on Wednesday, February 28, 2007