or "ripping" refers to the transfer of audio from a CD in a CD-ROM drive to a computer file. This is not the same as recording audio as it plays from the CD-ROM. In this instance the audio is converted from its digital source to analogue, delivered to the sound card, and reconverted back to digital. Degradation of the audio piece can result from the latter.

If your CD ROM supports this feature, RealJukebox can read the digital music data directly from your CD, bypassing your sound card for the best possible sound quality.

A method of retrieving audio samples from an Audio CD in order to create a computer audio file.