As far as I concern, you cannot rip the soundtrack directly using a
software, but you can record the soundtrack whilst you play back the video
avi file or VCD. Download a free copy of shareware Audacity from
www.download.com , playback the avi file using Windows Media Player, record
the soundtrack with Audacity simultaneously (it's like you play a vinyl
record and record it on a cassette recorder.), then edit the wave file later
as you wish. (Remember to adjust the volume of the Mixer, too loud you will
get clipping, too small you will get high noise ratio, do it by trial &
error. The mixer can be accessed by double-clicking the yellow speaker icon
on the right of bottom task bar.)
Good luck.
Peter

Is there a simple method of ripping the audio soundtrack from a *.avi
video
file into a wav file?

Many thanks

--
Steevo