Ripping

Also known as Digital Audio Extraction.

The process of converting songs from an audio CD to a computer audio file. To be able to put a CD track on a computer, you need a program able to 'extract' the audio and store it as data information. The result is an audio format called a WAVE file (extension .wav) on your computer.

When the transfer is from CD to MP3, the process is both ripping and encoding.