Rip It Good

Previous Image « » Next Image

When a good song comes along, you must rip it... A guide to extracting tracks from your audio CDs (of material that you're entitled to use) for your video projects.

It's so easy to forget the past. In roughly ten years, the revolution that is desktop video has all but eliminated tape-based editing and its many quirks. For instance, back in olden times, if you wanted to add music to the soundtrack of your edited video, there were only a couple of options. First, you could record the voice on one channel and dub the music on another. This limited you to mono sound and caused playback problems. Alternatively, if you had a VCR that allowed audio dubbing, you could record on the linear tape track, but it sounded like AM radio. Today, those problems are gone, replaced by a new set of challenges. What if all you have is an audio CD of your musical elements? How do you get it into a digital form for your video editor? Rip it. Rip it good!

It's Legal
CD ripping has taken quite a beating in the media over the past few years. Most of the controversy comes from file-sharing services and those who would prefer to get their music for free. While I won't pretend to know everything about copyright law, it's fair to remind you that you can't just drop any song you want into your video projects. Copyrights exist for a reason, and that is to ensure the content creator has some level of control over their work. Regardless of how nice they seem on TV, I think it's safe to say your favorite major-label artist doesn't want their chart-topping hit featured on your client's carbonated cheese dispenser video. That said, there are plenty of legitimate and legal reasons to rip audio CD's for your proje…