The Ripper: An audio conversion tool

by Monica van Boren

NTI has released a new software toy, the Ripper v2.0.1. It comes with two buddies, Digital Jack Audio Player and a Burner.

NTI Ripper is software for converting your CD collection into one or more compressed digital format on your hard drive. Ripper also comes in a U3TM smart drive-compatible version for those who have to have their music on a USB type unit. The product featured in this review is the PC version, which will run on Win98 thru Win/XP; no mention of Vista, but I bet it will work there too.

I installed it to my USB Smart drive to test it, as the user guide suggested. It can be brought up on any computer that it is plugged into as an overlay on the desktop and is fully functional without any installation.

Unlimited audio encoding; save your compressed music in WAV, MP3, WMA or OGG. No backwards conversion is provided, but you can move from WAV into WMA or WMA into MP3. . . Details for your music are provided by association from the FreeDB ( an internet connection is required ). And, you can use from one (1) to four (4) fields for identification; Artist, Song name, Album, and Track number as your tags. You may of course apply your own scheme and enter id data on each song, if you wish.

Ripper is a cake walk. I fumbled with it at first, until I changed the SKIN and colors to make the little buttons easier to read. Age is a great discriminator! Anyway, put in the CD, ID the drive, have HALNet going (gives you the FreeDB identification), select Output type you want and encoding level (quality control), [press] RIP Now! All the rest is automatic! If by chance your CD is not on the FreeDB service, you can id your music.

The other part of this, Digital Jack Audio Player is the play back unit. We all have lots of these bits. Your call on what you use to play your music. And there is another Burner bit to allow you to create your new mixed CD output.

NTI Ripper is simple and effective and available for 30 USD via the internet at www.ntius.com/ripper.asp.

Monica van Boren is a HAL PC member and and admitted audiophile nut.