I perform most of my computing tasks with the command line, and that includes converting my CDs to ogg files (an ogg file is like an mp3 file, only better). I hadn’t ripped anything for some time, so I decided to compare a few command-line rippers. I had a quick look through my Debian package list and selected abcde and crip as they seemed to match my requirements. Both programs have simple interfaces: simple type abcde or crip on the command line and they do everything for you. At first there didn’t seem to be much difference. crip claimed to have some advantages over abcde, and one of the trivial ones I discovered was that it normalised the ogg audio automatically; in abcde I had to use the -a replaygain option for that feature. So crip crept into the lead.
But the lead didn’t last long. crip stumbled seriously on the third CD. I live in Japan now, where I buy CDs by Japanese artists who write songs in Japanese. crip couldn’t cope with that, and I couldn’t cope with playlists where all the songs were called "??????". So abcde won. For me its acronym is true: a better CD encoder.
Anything interesting discovered music-wise? For christmas I got a CD from a group called Rin’ (whom I discovered in one of many itunes link following adventures). They play traditional Japanese instruments (mainly koto and shakuhachi) in a Jpop/jazzish style… worth a listen by my reckoning, for what that’s worth :-)