7.7.4 Creating audio CDs
Audio tracks have to be in files of *.cdr (I guess it is the same as *.cdda.raw), *.wav (wave), or *.au format before you can write them to a CD.
The utility sox converts between the various audio file formats (sox understands quite a few of them). For example, I can convert a .wav file to a .cdr file:
sox my_file.wav my_file.cdr
You don't need to do the conversions manually - cdrecord supports *.wav and *.au directly (it does a conversion from *.wav or *.au to *.cdr "on the fly"). This is very convenient because audio files tend to be large.
Audio CDs don't contain a filesystem, they store "raw data". This means that you cannot mount an audio CD. Also, each track is written separately, i.e., as if it was a different "partition" on the CD.
To read audio tracks from an audio CD and write them to suitable files on your hard drive (typical format is *.raw or *.wav) , you need a "cd ripper". A popular CD ripper is "cdparanoia".
If cdparanoia is not installed, download it. The installation from source goes as follows (I use the autocompletion <Tab> shortcut when typing the long filenames):
cd /usr/local
tar -xvzf /the_path_to_which_you_downloaded/cdparanoia-III-alpha9.6.src.tgz
ls
cd cdparanoia-III-alpha9.6
./configure
make
make install
To rip the first track from an audio CD, I can use:
cdparanoia 1
which will put the first track from the CD into the wave file "cdda.wav" in the current directory.
To rip tracks 1 to 2 from an audio CD to a "raw" file format, I can use:
cdparanoia -B -p "1-2"
The option -B specifies to use a "batch" mode, so that each track is put into a separate file (this is probably what you want, otherwise all tracks would be placed in one output file). The "-p" option specifies output in raw format. The files are named track1.cdda.raw and track2.cdda.raw .
To rip all tracks from an audio CD, each track to a separate *.wav file, while forcing reading speed 4x, I can use:
cdparanoia -S 4 -B "1-"
Make sure you have sufficient free space on your hard drive. You can use use the space on your DOS partition (if you have dual boot).
To write suitable audio files to a CD-R(W), I can use:
cdrecord -v speed=8 dev=0,0,0 -pad -dao -audio track*
Some audio CDs do not have gaps between individual audio tracks. The easiest way to make a copy of such an audio cd, is to use the utility "cdrdao".
To copy a disk to the file "data.bin" (on my harddrive), and the table of contents to the file "toc-file.toc", I can use this command:
cdrdao read-cd --device 0,0,0 --buffers 64 --driver generic-mmc-raw --read-raw toc-file.toc
To burn the CD from the files I just created, I can use:
cdrdao write --device 0,0,0 --buffers 64 --driver generic-mmc --speed 12 toc-file.toc
Note on re-writeable CDs. Some stereos will not play re-writeable CDs because of the size of the pits on the CDs. For example, my home stereo (JVC) cannot read re-writable CDs (CD-RW) at all, although it will read write-once disks (CD-Rs). Therefore, re-writable CDs may be good to store data but not audio (unless I plan to play them exclusively on my computer).
7.7.5 Creating mixed-mode CDs
Mixed-mode CDs (meaning CDs which contain both data and audio, often game CDs) are not a problems, e.g.:
[mount the data part of the mixed-mode CD]
mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
[make an ISO filesystem from the data on the CD]
mkisofs -r -o cd_image /mnt/cdrom
[unmount the CD]
umount /mnt/cdrom
[rip the content of all audio tracks on the CD, except the first track since it is data]
cdparanoia -B "2-"
[write the data and audio files, piece by piece]
cdrecord -v speed=2 dev=0,0,0 -data cd_image -audio track*
7.7.6 Making a copy of the entire CD
Most CDs can be copied by first copying all data (for data CDs) or all tracks (for audio CDs) onto the hard drive as described before, but some CDs cannot.
For example,
