CD Ripping Calculator

November 13, 2004: I have a huge CD collection, and wanted to make it easy to calculate how much disk space I would need to rip down my entire CD and LP collection to MP3 format. So I built this handy-dandy CD Ripping calculator.Enjoy!

Instructions: Just fill in the form. Answers are calculated automatically in the summary below.

Enter the number of CD's you have:

Enter the number of LP's you have
( LP's are estimated at 36 minutes long (18 min * 2 @ 33.3 RPM))
Enter the average length of a CD (in minutes); 80 is max.

Choose the MP3 compression*:

* I have not listed anything below 128kbps because it typically sounds very bad. 160kbps or higher is recommended for CD quality audio; I don't even like 128kbps because I can hear the compression, and cymbals tend to sound "digitized" and "pixelated".
Enter the average length of time to rip & convert a CD to MP3:
(11 minutes is typical using MusicMatch free version)		 minutes

Enter the average length of time to rip an LP; 45min is typical
(45 minutes is estimated based on LP length, cleanup & track conversion)

 minutes

SUMMARY
Disk Space Requirements
Disk Space Required in megabytes (MB):
 MB
Disk Space Required in gigabytes (GB):
 GB
Time Requirements*
Estimated time it will take in hours to rip your CD's:
 Hours
Estimated time it will take in hours to rip your LP's:
 Hours
Total Estimated Ripping Time (both CD's and LP's):
 Hours

* Note about Time Requirements

Time requirements reflect the amount of time to rip & convert CD's using one computer and one CD-ROM drive. Of course, using multiples computers and/or multiple CD-ROM devices can reduce the time substantially. Still, it takes time, doesn't it?

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