Want to rip a CD on OS X, and not have to deal with spotty iTunes performance? Do you want to have a secure rip? Are you paranoid about quality? Well…keep reading…

For close to a year, I have been playing with the idea of ripping all of my CDs (many thousands of CDs) to a few hard drives. With 2TB drives now available, I started ripping my entire collection with iTunes (OS X), but the quality was not always the best. On pristine CDs, I would still get occasional glitches in my 44.1k AIFF rips. Since EAC (a Windows ripper) does not exist for Mac, I was stuck…until CDParanoia.

CDParanoia is a binary file for Windows and Linux. It is a GUI-free (read: dos looking terminal command line) program that rips damn flawless copies of your CDs. Until recently, CDParanoia did not exist on a Mac. A few people have ported over the binary file to work in OS X’s Terminal app, but it was still a command line tool…until now.

After weeks of programming in Xcode (along with all the other duties I have every day), I have created the BRAT CDParanoia Ripper. Summary: Rip with CDParanoia, import the tracks to iTunes, and have all the files properly tagged, and in your music library. Simple to run, simple to use, and so so so so so so so much better quality than iTunes ripping. So far, I have ripped over 3,000 CDs while testing my program, and only four (4) discs choked, but these discs have choked in every ripping program (they were pressed poorly), so that is no surprise. What was a surprise was that CDParanoia ripped a perfect rip of a cracked CD-R! I can’t possibly sing high enough praises for CDParanoia.

So - what I made is this. I have made a remote controller. My program does not contain CDParanoia. You install that separately. My program does not contain Terminal or iTunes. Those apps are already on your Mac. My program acts as a bridge, allowing you to rip quality rips with CDParanoia, import the tracks into iTunes, and then you can do whatever you would normally do with songs in iTunes. As the program is 100% my own code, and merely controls other programs, I feel no guilt charging a $10 shareware fee.

Once you try in, you will never go back to the “Import Disc” button in iTunes!

I hope to have a finished version of the BRAT CDParanoia Ripper online in the month of April. If you are an OS X user, you will want to grab this!

Coming soon!!!