How to do a "BIT PERFECT" rip of my CD's ?
Jul 5, 2009 at 4:11 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 27
HeadLover

HeadLover

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Hi
I have some MFSL, DCC and so on, and I want to make the PERFECT rip of them to my PC HD for a backup.

What is the most accurate and best way to really get all the data with no errors and bit perfect from the CD?
The most accurate + check for errors and what ever, no matter how much time, I just want to be 100.000% sure I get the data EXACT as in the red book CD.

I want to get it to WAV files (that later will convert to FLAC or whatever LOSSLESS format)

Hope you guys can help me!
 
Jul 5, 2009 at 4:19 PM Post #2 of 27
find a drive that doesn't cache audio, that'll make your job a lot easier!

then read some EAC tutorials, enable AccurateRip and you're good to go
beerchug.gif
 
Jul 5, 2009 at 4:22 PM Post #3 of 27
Any rip software that supports reading multiple times and checksums will produce bit perfect copies. Though, that requires that the drive doesn't cache audio indeed! AFAIK only EAC can protect against caching, the other software rely on the cachelessness. If the copies (two or more) take the same time, the drive doesn't probably cache.
 
Jul 5, 2009 at 6:21 PM Post #8 of 27
Thanks to the OP for posting. It got me thinking, because of have been acquiring a lot of MFSL andbother discs and ripping them into ALAC. I've been noticing some interesting bit rate and file size differentials between the MFSL and DCC discs and their original counterparts--as well as the remastered andboften brickwalled versions--so I thought I would look for an EAC equivalent on the Mac. Found MAX and plan to start trying it out today to see what, if any, differences the bit perfect copying produces.
 
Jul 5, 2009 at 7:54 PM Post #10 of 27
+1 on on using EAC, with AccurateRip.
 
Jul 5, 2009 at 9:29 PM Post #11 of 27
If you want a rip to archive a valuable CD then use EAC and rip to a CUE file. Ripping to a CUE file using EAC gets all of the data that is on the CD (including any pre-gap that may be there for track 1). If you ever lose the CD or want to make a copy to play in the car or at a head-fi meet you can burn a copy using the CUE file and get an exact copy with all of the gaps correct.

If you rip to separate tracks you lose the pre-gap data for track 1. Standard ripping protocol is to append pre-gap data to the end of the previous track. So pre-gap info for track 2 gets appended to the end of track 1. Unfortunately there is no track 0 so if track 1 happens to have pre-gap info that info gets lost.

Most of the time any pre-gap info is silence. However on live CDs the pre-gap may include actual audio like audience cheering or an introduction to the song.

So to be paranoid that you are getting all audio info for a CD for archiving you should rip to a CUE file. A CUE file also makes it easier to burn a copy of the CD.

You can use various tools to later split the CUE file to separate tracks. Foobar will do it. Just load the CUE file and convert the files to FLAC or your favorite format. Unfortunately you lose pre-gap info for track 1 doing it that way.

A better CUE splitting tool is CUETools. Scroll down to the bottom of the Wiki page to get the 1.9.5 development version which has the ability to verify the CUE file using AccurateRip. CUETools will split out a separate track for any pre-gap that is on track 1 if track 1 happens to have pre-gap. You can listen to that (usually very very very short) file to see if the pre-gap is anything other than silence. If it is actual audio you can decide what to do.

Configure CUETools with:
Audio Output: FLAC or your favorite format
CUE Style: Gaps Appended
AccurateRip: Encode and verify

The AccurateRip feature is really cool because it is able to verify the accurate rip info even if you have a different pressing than what is in the AccurateRip database. It does that by calculating various offsets and checking for a match. EAC will sometimes tell you that it was unable to verify any of the tracks with AccurateRip because you may have a different pressing. When that happens you can use CUETools to verify the CUE file against AccurateRip. Pretty cool.
 
Jul 6, 2009 at 1:38 AM Post #13 of 27
Quote:

Originally Posted by Ham Sandwich /img/forum/go_quote.gif
If you want a rip to archive a valuable CD then use EAC and rip to a CUE file. ...When that happens you can use CUETools to verify the CUE file against AccurateRip. Pretty cool.


Great post! Thanks! Learned so much ... really appreciate the tutorial on CUE, very helpful to me.
 
Jul 6, 2009 at 4:01 AM Post #14 of 27
The more I learn about ripping and the CD format the more complicated it all becomes. Getting archival quality exact rips requires that you know what you are doing. There are many ways to go wrong.

Unfortunately it is not possible to be 100.000% sure about a rip. Spoon, the developer of AccurateRip, has mentioned that there are conditions where AccurateRip can report that a rip is accurate when it is not. One problem area is the very end of the last track. If you get a read error there AccurateRip may miss it. So AccurateRip isn't a perfect solution, but it is the best that we've got for now.

Something to watch for with CUETools is that CUETools can decode HDCD info and create a 24 bit file when splitting tracks. So if you are splitting tracks from a CD that has HDCD encoding you want to check whether you have CUETools configured to decode the HDCD or if that option is disabled. If you have a DAC that can decode HDCD then you'll want CUETools to leave the data alone and give you a regular 16 bit file. If you don't have a HDCD capable DAC then you may want to enable the HDCD decoding. It's another example of a feature where you need to know what is going on so you don't end up with a rip that was not what you expected.

I keep CUE file archives of my valuable CDs (like my MFSL discs). I also keep CUE file archives of my discs that have pre-emphasis.
 
Jul 6, 2009 at 6:29 AM Post #15 of 27
I don't understand CUETools, where are all the options I have in EAC ?
Also, are you sure it is better? seem less good
And why not make many tracks instead of only one and a CUE file?

And last, how accurate it? and is it better than EAC and why ??
 
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