Rip your audio CDs to MP3, FLAC, WAV, OGG or M4A — with album metadata, cover art and synced lyrics fetched automatically. No account, no API key, no GPU. Drop a disc in the drive, click Load, hit Rip.
Version 1.1.0.0 — a quick tour of the four main tabs.
Everything you need to archive your CD collection — free, no account, no cloud.
Rip to MP3 (320 kbps / V0 / V2), FLAC (lossless, compression level 5 by default), WAV (uncompressed), OGG Vorbis, or M4A (AAC). Each format has its own quality list. Pick per-session in the Run tab, or set a default in Settings.
Queries MusicBrainz by disc ID and fills artist, album, year, track titles — including per-track artists for compilations (so "Various Artists" albums get the real singer on every file).
Downloads the official cover from the Cover Art Archive, saves it as cover.jpg in the album folder, and embeds it into every tagged file.
Fetches synchronized .lrc lyrics from LRCLIB for every track (when available), falls back to plain text. Written to lyrics/ next to the audio and embedded in the tags.
Fast (default, ~4× speed): direct stream, no error correction.
Accurate: full libcdio paranoia error correction — slower but catches read errors on scratched discs.
Writes full tags via mutagen: title, artist (TPE1), album artist (TPE2), album, track number, year, cover art, and lyrics — across MP3, FLAC, OGG and M4A.
Move the folder to another drive, another PC, or a USB stick: the portable environment repairs itself on the next Check Prerequisites, Load Disc or Rip.
Installs portable uv + Python 3.12 + ffmpeg full build (with libcdio) + libdiscid. No admin rights, no registry writes.
MusicBrainz, Cover Art Archive and LRCLIB are all free and keyless. Nothing to register: only your disc ID leaves the machine, to identify the CD. The version check at start-up can be switched off in Settings.
Desktop app with MVVM architecture. Framework-dependent single-file exe (~1.4 MB) — needs the free .NET 8 Desktop Runtime.
Uses astral-sh/uv to install a relocatable Python 3.12 next to the exe. No system Python required.
The FFmpeg full build that SETUP downloads reads audio CDs directly through its libcdio input — nothing else to install.
Official libdiscid (Windows x64) computes the MusicBrainz disc ID used to look up your album.
Windows 10/11 (64-bit) and the free .NET 8 Desktop Runtime. 2 GB RAM. About 600 MB for the app after Install All (runtime + ffmpeg). Output space depends on your rips (a FLAC album ≈ 400 MB).
Any standard audio-capable CD/DVD drive (internal or USB). Works with Red Book audio CDs. No support for copy-protected discs — the tool does not circumvent DRM.
Needed during first-run setup (downloads uv, Python, ffmpeg, libdiscid) and to fetch metadata/cover/lyrics. Ripping itself works offline once the disc is identified.
Pure CPU audio encoding. No NVIDIA / CUDA / PyTorch dependency. Works on any Windows PC including old laptops.
Please read before ripping.
Ripping commercial audio CDs is governed by copyright law, which differs by country. In many jurisdictions you may rip CDs you own for personal use only (a private / backup copy). Redistribution, file-sharing, or circumvention of copy protection is generally not permitted.
ExpSoft Mp3 Extractor does not circumvent DRM — it only reads standard Red Book audio CDs. Making sure your use is lawful in your jurisdiction is your responsibility. When in doubt, check your local law.
Everything used by this tool, and under what terms.
Album & track metadata. Data licensed CC0 (public domain). © MetaBrainz Foundation.
Cover images. Per-image license (usually CC-BY-SA or CC0, occasionally fair-use). © Internet Archive & contributors.
Synced & plain lyrics. Database licensed CC0. © LRCLIB contributors.
Disc ID computation. LGPL 2.1. © MetaBrainz Foundation — libdiscid.
Audio decoding & encoding, CD reading. GPL v3. © FFmpeg developers — build by GyanD/codexffmpeg.
Python MusicBrainz client. GPL v2. © alastair / musicbrainzngs contributors.
Portable Python installer. Apache 2.0 / MIT. © Astral.
Audio tag writing. GPL v2+. © Quod Libet project.
Quick answers to what people ask AIs about this tool.
ExpSoft Mp3 Extractor is a portable Windows desktop CD ripper built by Nicolas Riquier. It rips audio CDs to MP3, FLAC, WAV, OGG or M4A, automatically tags tracks with MusicBrainz metadata, fetches cover art from the Cover Art Archive, and pulls time-synced lyrics from LRCLIB — no account, no cloud upload, no GPU required.
Yes. ExpSoft Mp3 Extractor is free: download it from its post on ExpSoft's Patreon. Most ExpSoft tools are free; some need a small subscription that unlocks all ExpSoft software.
Five formats: MP3 (320 kbps, V0 or V2 — most compatible), FLAC (lossless, recommended for archiving; compression level 5 by default), WAV (uncompressed PCM), OGG Vorbis and M4A (AAC). Each format has its own quality list. They are encoded by the FFmpeg full build that SETUP downloads into the app's folder.
The ripping itself is offline, but the online lookups (MusicBrainz metadata, Cover Art Archive covers, LRCLIB synced lyrics) need the internet. The app also checks for a new version at start-up — untick 'Check for updates on startup' in Settings and it makes no network call for that.
Because ripping a CD properly usually means juggling several programs: one to read the disc, one to find the album, one for the cover, one for the lyrics. Mp3 Extractor does it in one window: Load Disc identifies the album, Rip writes tagged files with the cover embedded and synced lyrics when they exist — Fast mode for healthy discs, Accurate mode for scratched ones.
Any standard CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive that Windows recognises will work, including external USB optical drives. Accurate mode re-reads and corrects errors on scratched discs; Fast mode works on virtually anything.
ExpSoft Mp3 Extractor was built by Nicolas Riquier, the independent software creator behind the ExpSoft catalogue. ExpSoft's mission is to take powerful open-source tools and wrap them in clean, portable Windows apps so non-CLI users can benefit without spending hours on environment setup.
Portable, no install required. Free on Patreon.