How To Rip A Karaoke Disc

This tutorial will show you how to rip a karaoke disc (CDG).

To begin with, you need to understand the terminology we are using first. Ripping a CDG (or CD) means copying what is on the disc to your PC or computer. Of course, this applies to both music CDs and Karaoke CDGs.

There are many reasons why you might want to do this. For example, you may wish to rip all your karaoke discs to your hard drive. You do that if you switch to a computer-based system, for example. Not that we have ever recommended that for your karaoke gigs. Be that as it may, ripping your discs will allow you to play the contents on a computer or laptop.

Alternatively, you may wish to back up your prized karaoke CDGs. After all, a karaoke disc collection can be worth thousands! Moreover, you may want to burn them back to CD or copy your originals so you never take your valuable discs to your karaoke gigs.

In this tutorial, we will teach you how to rip a karaoke disc so that you can keep your original CDGs and use copies instead of your prized discs.

Compatible CDG Drive

To rip your karaoke discs perfectly every time, we recommend you check out the best compatible CDG Drives. Karaoke CDGs contain additional text files as well as music. In contrast, music CDs only hold audio data. Therefore, look for CDG drives that can handle text and graphics.

The majority of modern drives on a PC or laptop can’t handle the text on a CDG. Ordinary CD drives will rip your discs, but you might find that the on-screen graphics are a mess. So, get it right from the start because you want the best!

Karaoke Ripping Software

Now that you understand how vital it is to acquire the correct CD drive, you will need suitable karaoke-ripping software.

We highly recommend Power Burner 2. With this software, you can burn a karaoke disc, rip a karaoke disc, and even copy a karaoke disc.

While other karaoke ripping software is available, the Power Burner one we choose is less hassle. Indeed, it is dedicated to karaoke discs and will not baffle you with extra features you don’t need.

Karaoke Ripping Equipment

Ripping a karaoke disc is similar to taking the audio tracks from a music disc and placing them on your computer. However, while taking the music from a traditional CD needs nothing more than a PC or a laptop, ripping karaoke needs more attention.

To grab the audio files from a music CD, place the disc into the drive tray on your computer, open the media player, and tell it to rip MP3 files.

But wait, you can’t do that with karaoke discs! In the first place, there are differences between the discs. A karaoke disc has a text file, whereas a music CD does not. So, it’s that text file we have to access, and your usual CD player probably can’t access it.

Once you place your karaoke disc in the computer tray and close it, most CD players will play the music from the disc. But you will not see the on-screen lyrics. So, we need to access the text file on the karaoke disc.

Now that you understand that there are text and audio files on karaoke discs, you will understand the need for a suitable drive to access them both. Karaoke Info has a complete list of compatible karaoke burners/rippers. Most of the burners in our comprehensive list are older models. Therefore, they are cheap on the second-hand market.

How To Rip A Karaoke Disc: Step By Step

If your settings are on auto-play, your usual music player may open. Just close that program.

Secondly, start the Power Burner program. You can also configure Power Burner to check a database. If you do this, the artist and song title will show up. Select the output folder and whether you require zip files, then press the ‘Rip’ button. Expect to wait over 15 minutes to rip an average karaoke disc.

How To Rip A Karaoke Disc With The Best Bitrate Quality

Most of the staff here are old school and prefer using physical karaoke discs. However, we can’t knock those who use computer-based systems. Our colleagues embrace that technology, of course. Some also use it at their karaoke gigs. But even then, they still prefer disc-based setups. It’s just that PC/laptop systems offer greater convenience.

Be that as it may, a correctly produced karaoke disc will always sound better than a computerised system. That is because the dynamic range of a commercially produced karaoke CDG is far better. However, since gigs involve a lot of noise and alcohol, the difference might not be noticeable. To the audiophile, it is, of course!

We mention this because you might not get the best sound when you rip karaoke discs. They will be perfectly acceptable, and some people can’t notice a difference, but there is.

The way to get the best possible sound from your rips is to use the highest bitrate settings. Whatever ripping software you use, always rip your CDGs at 320kbps instead of the standard 128kbps. The named files will be much larger, but you will get a better sound. That will not be as good as a properly produced commercial karaoke disc. However, it’s the better option.

After Ripping The Karaoke Disc

After ripping the karaoke disc, you will have a folder of named zip files. Your zip files will be in MP3+G format. You are familiar with CD+G (Compact Disc + Graphics), but now your files are MP3 + Graphics. You can only play these files with a suitable program on your PC or laptop.

If you are going to rip your karaoke discs to your PC, it might be a good idea to have a way of playing them. Indeed, we recommend a program called “Karma”. However, there are many others, such as Virtual DJ, etc.

Of course, you may also wish to burn your rips back to a CD later. In this case, it makes sense to get the best karaoke burner, as we recommend.

Finally, you have learned how to rip a karaoke disc. If you need to comment on this article, please do so here. However, you may wish to create a post in our Karaoke Forum and start a conversation there.