Extracting Stereo Audio Track from CD - Pro Tools vs. iTunes

[taylor4814]

When extracting a stereo audio track from my commercially manufactured CD, for the purpose of having a 16-bit 44.1 kHz stereo .WAV file of the track,

- If I use iTunes software, with import settings set to .WAV encoder, 16-bit 44.1 stereo, I get one, stereo file...

- If I import into a 16-bit 44.1 Pro Tools session, it will first convert into the left and right channel mono files for the session, and then I would need to bounce to a 16-bit 44.1 kHz stereo interleaved .WAV, to end up with that same, single, stereo file...

Am I understanding these two methods correctly? And more importantly, what if any is the difference in the resulting stereo .WAV file?

[Top Jimmy]

There should be no difference in the linear PCM data resulting in both files.

Pro Tools cannot work with interleaved files so must convert everything to dual-mono. If you want to bypass this step, just keep using iTunes.

Personally, I use Exact Audio Copy in secure mode for ripping (PC only).

[taylor4814]

OK, thanks... so there would be no reason to think that the Pro Tools software would do a "better" job of extracting the linear PCM data correctly than the iTunes software...?

[Top Jimmy]

Originally Posted by taylor4814

OK, thanks... so there would be no reason to think that the Pro Tools software would do a "better" job of extracting the linear PCM data correctly than the iTunes software...?

Right.

[Shifted Music]

just drag the file from the cd to a location on your computer...

mac os x reads cd's as aif files. but if you really need a wav file for some reason then itunes is fine

[albee1952]

I use Wavelab for ripping tracks from CD's. Wavelab7 runs on Mac now and they have a "lite" version for $99.