Jump to content

How should I rip my CD's to computer Flac wav ect?


merkin

Recommended Posts

I use Winamp for play back and EAC to rip my CD's to my external HD.

I tried using EAC, but it really choked on some of my older more abused CDs and got to the point where it was taking days just to rip a single CD. It was probably user error, I just haven't had the time to sit down and figure it out.

Maybe the more recent versions aren't so clumsy to use - this was several years ago.

Do you have a work around for that, or do you just stick to the pristine CDs?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am trying to remember back then my thinking was that anything compressed was tabo!!!! The audio quality would not be as good!!!

Jay

I was wondering this my self. I was thinking this is what flac was but then I actually went to the website and read it was compressed. Is there any way to rip to the hd uncompressed

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am
trying to remember back then my thinking was that anything compressed
was tabo!!!! The audio quality would not be as good!!!

Jay

I
was wondering this my self. I was thinking this is what flac was but
then I actually went to the website and read it was compressed. Is
there any way to rip to the hd uncompressed

The terms "lossy" and "lossless" were created to address this confusion.

When
you make a ZIP file on your computer, is the data after you unzip it
any different than the original uncompressed version? If the
compression is lossless, then the compressed file is exactly identical
to the original. If the compression is lossy, then the compressed file
is different from the original.

The reason we use FLAC for our
music instead of ZIP is because FLAC will create smaller file sizes
than ZIP when used with music (It has to do with more creative ways of
packing the data based on knowing what kind of information the file
contains).

Ripping files (music) to your computer uncompressed
will not result in any better sound quality, but to answer your
question, yes it can be done. About half of my music collection is WAV
and the other half is FLAC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

so to shorten it up, as long as we make sure the music is in its best quality or lossless then it will be the same quality with flac, plus the benefits of a smaller file, etc.... then are we able to transfer to itunes(or what ever we decide to use) so we can sync to our ipods.

how do we go about doing this(ripping music to our comps lossless) so we get the best quality.

thanks

this has been a good topic and lots of helpful info to some of us that don't understand.

duder

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used dbPoweramp to rip my collection to .flac format. You can use its features to convert those files to other formats as well. Here is a link to the Pro version. http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

I second this opinion. I too use dbpoweramp for ripping it's damm good software...... and to play the files, I use Foobar 2000.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used dbPoweramp to rip my collection to .flac format. You can use its features to convert those files to other formats as well. Here is a link to the Pro version. http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

I second this opinion. I too use dbpoweramp for ripping it's damm good software...... and to play the files, I use Foobar 2000.

Hey Gilbert - just now noticed your profile update. Welcome to Houston! Let's see....from Broken Arrow to Houston....you in the energy business? I am a Control Systems Designer for Mustang. Give me a shout sometime for a listening get-together.

Rick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tried using EAC, but it really choked on some of my older more abused CDs and got to the point where it was taking days just to rip a single CD. It was probably user error, I just haven't had the time to sit down and figure it out.

Maybe the more recent versions aren't so clumsy to use - this was several years ago.

Do you have a work around for that, or do you just stick to the pristine CDs?

To tell you the truth it has only happened on a hand full of tracks out of the cd's that I have done so far. At the moment I have about 6500 tracks burned and a few more hundred to go. On the ones that choked up I didn't know what was happening at first then when I noticed I just worked around it. I know it's not perfect but I burned the song as a WAV file and then burned the WAV file as FLAC. I don't know if there is a better way at doing this but so far it has worked for me.

I am going to re-burn all my cd's to WAV so I will have two copies of the cd, one as WAV and one as FLAC. I also have all my digital pictures on the external HD and I might get another one just to move the pictures to that one or to make a back up of this one.

Last I want to get setup with a wireless system to stream the music to one of my systems, the problem with that is I don't know which system I want to connect it to. I guess I can just move it from one to the other, so we will see.

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

so to shorten it up, as long as we make sure the music is in its best quality or lossless then it will be the same quality with flac, plus the benefits of a smaller file, etc.... then are we able to transfer to itunes(or what ever we decide to use) so we can sync to our ipods.

how do we go about doing this(ripping music to our comps lossless) so we get the best quality.

thanks

The most straight-forward and easist way would be to just use iTunes itself to rip to Apple Lossless. Especially as Apple Lossless is natively supported by your iPod as well as your SqeezeBox streamer. This was the reason why I suggested this in the first place, especially since this seems to be your first real experience with dealing with this. Anyway, to use iTunes to rip to Apple Lossless, first go to Edit->Preferences. About halfway down the dialog box, you should find a button that says "Import Settings". Press it and another dialog should appear. In the very first drop-down list, where it says "Import Using:", select Apple Lossless. If you so choose (it is not necessary), you could check the "Check for errors while reading Audio CDs" checkbox. This will gurantee the best possible quality, but it will take longer to rip a CD. Once you are done, keep pressing the "OK" buttons until you get back to ITunes itself again.

Now, if you really do want to use FLAC, this will be a bit more complex, especially since the iPod does not support FLAC natively. If you have a more recent version of the SqeezeBox, it should support FLAC natively, though. To load the iPod, you will need to transcode FLAC to some format that the iPod will understand, such as plain-jane MP3 (I highly suggest at least 192 kbps, but if you are really anal about the quality, then go to the max 320 kbps).

I've personally used Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to rip things into FLAC. This program is pretty complex and not as straightforward to setup and use as iTunes, but it is a very powerful program and will get the job done.

To setup FLAC on Exact Audio Copy, you first need to download and install EAC. Once EAC is installed, run the program. The first time, it will go through a setup wizard. When you get to the part about using an external codec, tell it to use the FLAC encoder (should be installed with the EAC program in C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What you Should have to do first, is...

carefully tranfer all 10,000 songs to cassette tape.

Then, throw those all away and replace them with CD's of the original albums.

Buy all the CD's

.then take the songs you like, and put those on cassette tapes.

Wait 10 years.

Throw away cassette tapes.

Buy car with CD player.

Burn Cd's of all your favorite songs from original CD's.

wait 6 years.

tranfer all your favorite songs into your computer (in mp3 format)

buy 9,000 more songs,

then convert them to FLAC.

listen to your real favorites on vinyl through vintage equipment.

The End.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a dedicated HTPC system running Windows 7 in conjunction with an XBOX 360. In order to make the system In order to make everything interop as tightly as possible, I use WMA lossless. I used to be a FLAC user, but I had a difficult time getting it to work with Windows Media Center.

I am also an iPod user. However, for my iPod (which I listen to while commuting in the Metro, &c) I use MP3 or M4A, as quality is not as important nor pragmatic to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tried using EAC, but it really choked on some of my older more abused CDs and got to the point where it was taking days just to rip a single CD. It was probably user error, I just haven't had the time to sit down and figure it out.

Maybe the more recent versions aren't so clumsy to use - this was several years ago.

Do you have a work around for that, or do you just stick to the pristine CDs?

Mike,

Here are some instructions for setting up FLAC/EAC 0.99 and properly ripping to FLAC.The only problem I had so far was with a CD that has a deep scratch on it. I've never been able to play that track on any CD player either.

Kudret

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Rick, thanks for the invite, but I'm located about 20min. north of San Antonio, and about 180 miles west of Houston. I'm in the structural engineering business, but I've turned quite a few wrenches on mustangs, including a 66 GT350, and 68 GT500KR (my all time favorite mustang), but mostly early to mid 80's fox chasis.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Rick, thanks for the invite, but I'm located about 20min. north of San Antonio, and about 180 miles west of Houston. I'm in the structural engineering business, but I've turned quite a few wrenches on mustangs, including a 66 GT350, and 68 GT500KR (my all time favorite mustang), but mostly early to mid 80's fox chasis.

Oops....well, there is a community in West Houston called Spring Branch; I didn't realize there is a real city. So, welcome to Texas!

Back to the original post, I have used dBPoweramp to rip most of my CDs to FLAC. I like the results for home use but it is not compatible with many portable players. To transfer to portable I convert to the highest rate possible to MP3. That works fine for now but it is a hassle to maintain another copy. Although drive space is cheap now it is still time consuming.

Rick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...