FLAC for beginners

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

 

When I've tried to read some of the other FLAC threads in this forum, I feel as if I've just wandered into the middle of a movie, and have no frame of reference. I want to get started ripping my CDs to FLAC soon, and I would like to ask for any general advice you may be able to offer for beginners. If you were starting today, would you do anything differently? I guess I know so little about it, I don't even know what to ask--aside from the few questions below.

In addition to my vast reams of commercially-released CDs, I also have about 100 disks that I burned from my LP collection. These were done using a stand-alone CD player/recorder (i.e., not a computer drive) hooked up to my audio system. These disks play fine in my DVD/CD drive on my computer, and iTunes even recognizes the track titles on some of these (how I don't know!). But I'm wondering whether FLAC will have any trouble with these. Will I be able to manually insert track titles if I need to? What about album cover art--can I include it? Can FLAC be imported/converted to MP-3 by iTunes, so I can play them on my iPod?

[Lethevich]

Unfortunately the best way to do it will be slightly time-consuming...

This guide details how to use EAC to its maximum effect, but it's a bit heavy going. Fortunately most of it is just how to set EAC up, so only needs to be done once.

Lossless is nice in theory, but it's a nightmare to produce glitchless rips (mainly the fault of the PC, CD drive, CD surface, admittedly), this is the best way to do it ATM.

[Gustav]

But I'm wondering whether FLAC will have any trouble with these. Will I be able to manually insert track titles if I need to? What about album cover art--can I include it? Can FLAC be imported/converted to MP-3 by iTunes, so I can play them on my iPod?

Nope, no cover art, and Itunes won't read flac either. So, you can't play them in your ipod. But, you should get Mediamonkey, it converts flac into any format you want.
http://www.mediamonkey.com/

[Keemun]

I have never used MediaMonkey, but this is process I have used to convert FLAC to MP3:

1. Use FLAC to decode the .FLAC files to .WAV files.
2. Use ABC Amber Audio Converter to convert the .WAV files to .MP3 files.

[Catison]

I am fairly lucky because I use Linux, and FLAC is integrated very well into all the media players.  I use a program called grip which uses cdparanoia and the flac encoder for very very precise extraction.

Valkyrie,

I would suggest you review all of the lossless audio codecs you can find and serious think about which one will serve your purposes.  If you plan on using iTunes for awhile, there is really nothing wrong with apple's lossless codec.  In the future, you can just automate the conversion to a different format.

[drogulus]

   

In addition to my vast reams of commercially-released CDs, I also have about 100 disks that I burned from my LP collection. These were done using a stand-alone CD player/recorder (i.e., not a computer drive) hooked up to my audio system. These disks play fine in my DVD/CD drive on my computer, and iTunes even recognizes the track titles on some of these (how I don't know!). But I'm wondering whether FLAC will have any trouble with these. Will I be able to manually insert track titles if I need to? What about album cover art--can I include it? Can FLAC be imported/converted to MP-3 by iTunes, so I can play them on my iPod?

     OK, these are now CDs from LPs, right? And they are tagged, so what you want is to transcode to a lossless format and preserve the tags you have, is that right?

[Keemun]

I'm using MediaMonkey right now to convert .FLAC files to .MP3 files and this seems to be better than the process I mentioned earlier because it does it all in one step.  Thanks for posting it, Lethe. 

[Lethevich]

I'm using MediaMonkey right now to convert .FLAC files to .MP3 files and this seems to be better than the process I mentioned earlier because it does it all in one step.  Thanks for posting it, Lethe. 

Thanks, but I think you mean Gustav Never tried MM myself.

[Gustav]

Thanks, but I think you mean Gustav Never tried MM myself.

It's a really neat program, and converting from flac to mp3 with ease is only one of its many strengths. It also has an incredible build-in software that let's you edit multiple filenames at once. There is also a build in function that gets album art and information from Amazon.

[Catison]

It's a really neat program, and converting from flac to mp3 with ease is only one of its many strengths. It also has an incredible build-in software that let's you edit multiple filenames at once. There is also a build in function that gets album art and information from Amazon.

There is a program that is very similar in linux called Amarok.  I use it every day, although it doesn't do gapless playback, which is a must for something like the Simpson CD I am listening to right now.

[Lethevich]

It's a really neat program, and converting from flac to mp3 with ease is only one of its many strengths. It also has an incredible build-in software that let's you edit multiple filenames at once. There is also a build in function that gets album art and information from Amazon.

I would be interested in MM if it can split flac/ape wraps with cue files into seperate tracks (either the same format or mp3). So far the "simplest" way I've found to do this requires them being uncompressed and put into a wav editor which can split using the cue, but to be able to skip a stage in this process would be nice.

[Gustav]

I would be interested in MM if it can split flac/ape wraps with cue files into seperate tracks (either the same format or mp3). So far the "simplest" way I've found to do this requires them being uncompressed and put into a wav editor which can split using the cue, but to be able to skip a stage in this process would be nice.

man, aren't you going to be excited to see this:
http://www.medieval.it/content/view/28/70/

[Lethevich]

man, aren't you going to be excited to see this:
http://www.medieval.it/content/view/28/70/

Danke, I'll test it out.

[Keemun]

Thanks, but I think you mean Gustav Never tried MM myself.

I knew you had posted something up there. 

[sound67]

When I've tried to read some of the other FLAC threads in this forum, I feel as if I've just wandered into the middle of a movie, and have no frame of reference. I want to get started ripping my CDs to FLAC soon, and I would like to ask for any general advice you may be able to offer for beginners. If you were starting today, would you do anything differently? I guess I know so little about it, I don't even know what to ask--aside from the few questions below.

I have already completed the FLAC-ing process on 5,000+ CDs, using these two programs for ripping and tagging:

http://cdex.softonic.de/ (ripping)
http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html (tagging)

"EAC" is a program that was useful in the bronze age of CDDA ripping, but today's drives provide perfect bit-by-bit ripping anyway, so you won't need EAC except maybe for CDs that are visibly damaged. CDEX does the job much more quickly, without endless fine-tuning beforehand, and just as reliably. 

In addition to my vast reams of commercially-released CDs, I also have about 100 disks that I burned from my LP collection. These were done using a stand-alone CD player/recorder (i.e., not a computer drive) hooked up to my audio system. These disks play fine in my DVD/CD drive on my computer, and iTunes even recognizes the track titles on some of these (how I don't know!). But I'm wondering whether FLAC will have any trouble with these.

I don't see how the original SOURCE of the CD would affect the encoding in any way. You'll probably have to enter the disc info manually, but that's all.

Will I be able to manually insert track titles if I need to? What about album cover art--can I include it?

With Mp3Tag you can add cover art to your FLAC, no problem.

Can FLAC be imported/converted to MP-3 by iTunes, so I can play them on my iPod?

No, Apple does not support the FLAC format (now, there's a big surprise  ). But programs like Foobar and db Music Converter provide easy batch-processing of FLAC files, converting them into every other format available.

http://www.foobar2000.org/
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm (her you'll have to download FLAC; OGG etc encoders manually).

Unfortunately, the superior itunes CD database is not available for FLAC ripping, you'll have to use the free-of.charge "freedb" instead. That means you'll have to correct a lot of the info manually. I always wonder why some people even bother to submit their badly edited CD info to freedb. In the course of ripping my collection I uploaded (or reedited) hundreds of freedb CD "!sheets".

Thomas

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Thanks for all the advice folks! In answer to some questions, the CDs I burn from my LPs really have no tags, unless you count the tracks I insert manually as tags. Thus, I don't see how they can carry any information except where the tracks begin and end. (It is still a mystery to me how iTunes recognized the track titles on one of these CDs.)

I have wondered whether CDs made in a CD Recorder are somewhat different than commercially-issued CDs. For one, we have an old portable CD player that is clearly on its way out. However, it uniformly refuses to play any CDs I have made myself, and only plays commercial issues. Also, in searching for a new CD player to replace my Marantz CD-63, I was looking on AudioAdvisor.com, and one of their selling points for a certain CD Player (think it was a NAD) was that it has no problem playing home-made CDs.

Do any of you have/use WinAmp? I am interested in this because, with my new Vista 64-bit system, NONE of my media players will RECORD a radio stream. I used to record a couple of jazz shows every week ("All Out" on KCSM, and "Rise" on KPFK), but now I can't do it any more. I read that WinAmp will rip CDs to FLAC, but I wonder if it will also record.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

I have already completed the FLAC-ing process on 5,000+ CDs, using these two programs for ripping and tagging:

How much drive space is necessary for these? Are you using a RAID array?

[sound67]

I have wondered whether CDs made in a CD Recorder are somewhat different than commercially-issued CDs. For one, we have an old portable CD player that is clearly on its way out. However, it uniformly refuses to play any CDs I have made myself, and only plays commercial issues. Also, in searching for a new CD player to replace my Marantz CD-63, I was looking on AudioAdvisor.com, and one of their selling points for a certain CD Player (think it was a NAD) was that it has no problem playing home-made CDs.

ANY consumer CD unit today plays CD-R/RW (the CD-ROMs you made on your standalone recorder). Only very old CD players (or, sometimes, over-priced "voodoo" units) may have problems with them or not play them at all. But if you're going to FLAC your entire CD collection anyway, why invest in a new CD standalone? Instead, you may use this:


http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/wireless_music_systems/devices/3817&cl=us,en

A wireless audio player that combines high-quality D/A conversion of music files (containing a D/A converter that is used by quality brands as Arcam, Cambridge, Harman/Kardon etc) with Internet Radio. All you need is a router (if you don't want the PC running all the time you can even use a network-attached HDD to store your music files). Works nicely.

Do any of you have/use WinAmp? I am interested in this because, with my new Vista 64-bit system, NONE of my media players will RECORD a radio stream. I used to record a
couple of jazz shows every week ("All Out" on KCSM, and "Rise" on KPFK), but now I can't do it any more. I read that WinAmp will rip CDs to FLAC, but I wonder if it will also record.

Don't know about that, maybe you'll need a plugin. However, WinAmp workd "out of the box" for FLAC playback in Windows Vista.

Thomas

[sound67]

How much drive space is necessary for these? Are you using a RAID array?

For about 5,300 CDs it took 1.3 TB (compression factor "5" under FLAC). Most of the files are about 40-45% of the original CD tracks(WAV), sometimes only 30% (specifically, on piano solo music!). I'm using a 2TB drive by Western Digital (from the MyBook series, very reliable!). I don't use automatic backup of files but rather mirror them manually.

Thomas

[drogulus]

Thanks for all the advice folks! In answer to some questions, the CDs I burn from my LPs really have no tags, unless you count the tracks I insert manually as tags. Thus, I don't see how they can carry any information except where the tracks begin and end. (It is still a mystery to me how iTunes recognized the track titles on one of these CDs.)

Do any of you have/use WinAmp? I am interested in this because, with my new Vista 64-bit system, NONE of my media players will RECORD a radio stream. I used to record a couple of jazz shows every week ("All Out" on KCSM, and "Rise" on KPFK), but now I can't do it any more. I read that WinAmp will rip CDs to FLAC, but I wonder if it will also record.

     Yes, Winamp is good for ripping to FLAC, and it will autotag commercial CDs, with the usual problems of mistaken identity and misspellings, etc. For your LP derived CDs you could use Winamp to rip to Windows Lossless which you can drop into iTunes directly and convert the files to whatever you choose from the options offered, including their own lossless format. That would be a good way to go, because if you wanted to have FLAC or WMA Lossless files to use in programs or players that don't accept Apple formats you could simply hold on to the files and keep them in an archive separate from iTunes. If you don't want the headache of a separate archive you could use iTunes as both your archive and ripper, do your tagging in iTunes (manually for the LP CDs), and then if you need to turn them into FLAC or some other format, use Winamp or dBPowerAmp for that.

I have wondered whether CDs made in a CD Recorder are somewhat different than commercially-issued CDs. For one, we have an old portable CD player that is clearly on its way out. However, it uniformly refuses to play any CDs I have made myself, and only plays commercial issues. Also, in searching for a new CD player to replace my Marantz CD-63, I was looking on AudioAdvisor.com, and one of their selling points for a certain CD Player (think it was a NAD) was that it has no problem playing home-made CDs.

     That was a great CD player. The new Marantz players will do what you want. They're pretty much the same as the CD-63. Though you can get cheaper players that will play CD-R/RWs.

     Incidentally, once you've tagged your CD LPs, you can re-burn them from iTunes or Winamp. Now they're tagged CDs.