[egglick]

Hey guys. I've recently started re-ripping my music collection, and after some research, I've decided to make 2 copies of each disc. One copy will be a lossless FLAC archive, and the other will be Mp3, for playback in portable players, my future CarPC, etc.

Using the HydrogenAudio Wiki, I've succeeded in setting up EAC to rip the FLAC and Mp3 (Lame 3.96, preset fast extreme) files correctly, but I've got a few more questions...

I've noticed that in lossless music collections, people often have .cue (cd image) files included, but they don't seem to work when you mount them. What is the purpose of doing this?? Should I be doing it too??

I'd also like it if there was a way to set EAC to rip to both FLAC and Mp3 at the same time, without having to stop and change all the settings everytime I want to switch between them. Is there a way to set up some sort of a batch or something to do this??

 

[Cosmid]

I use cue file with ape music file. It works like a playlist. I do not have too many FLAC files, so I did not try that.

And, IMO you do not have to rip every CD in two formats. I keep APE files in my computer. If I want to put them into my MP3 player, I will use a software to convert it into 320k MP3 files. If you do not re-load your MP3 player every day, this way could be better.

 

[mcryptic]

cue files are used to save the gaps in between tracks. Sometimes if you burn a CD the program will set then times between each track to whatever the default is. If you don't care about the gaps you don't need to make a cue file.

 

[Drewpy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by egglick I've noticed that in lossless music collections, people often have .cue (cd image) files included, but they don't seem to work when you mount them. What is the purpose of doing this?? Should I be doing it too??

.cue files are used to define where a track begins and ends within a larger compilation. So something like a live or classical album that doesn't contain "tracks" per-se. When you rip the album you end up with a single large track, and you can't skip to a part of the performance (unless you have the time code memorized). You can have a .cue file that says track 1 begins at 00:00 and ends at 05:30, track 2 starts at 05:30 and ends at 15:10, etc...

Quote:

Originally Posted by egglick I'd also like it if there was a way to set EAC to rip to both FLAC and Mp3 at the same time

MAREO (Multiple Applications Runner for EAC and Others) will do multiple encodings from EAC.

 

[egglick]

Thanks a bunch guys. It sounds like I don't need to make .cue files with my music, because i'm not really concerned with keeping the gapping between songs.

I'll definately give that MAREO a shot, even though it looks a bit complicated.

I've also got another question, which might make me look kinda dumb......how do I convert from FLAC files to Mp3 in EAC? I can't figure out how to load up my FLAC files as the source.

 

[panda]

you have to decode the flac back to wav first to encode through eac. foobar 0.9 can transcode from flac to mp3. try it, it's pretty easy.

 

[egglick]

For some reason EAC doesn't give me the option to decompress FLAC, even though I've been encoding with it. I only see Mp3, WMA, MPC, and APE files. Is there a setting I need to change somewhere??

 

[Drewpy]

EAC is a ripping and encoding prog, why are you trying to uncompresss FLAC with it? The FLAC frontend can decode your files if you wish, but then you lose all the tagging info for when you want to encode the files into another format. Which I don't think you want to do.

If you want to decode/transcode your FLAC files, just create a playlist in Foobar, and use the converter tool. Select the entire playlist (CTRL+A), right click>Convert>Convert to... Then select the appropriate options for the format you want the files to be converted to (WAV, MP3, OGG, AAC, etc...).

You should give MAREO a shot for all new albums you rip. Once you've got it setup correctly (there's a thread at HydrogenAudio), its a simple one click process from EAC to get FLAC for archival purposes, and MP3 (or other format) for portable listening.

 

[Chri5peed]

Audio files only require perfect ripping once. Use EAC to rip and encode to your mp3s w/Lame, set EAC to keep the WAV files(EAC>Compression Options>ExternalCompressionTAB>Uncheck'Delete WAV...')

Then use another encoder(FLAC frontend/dBpowerAMP) to convert these WAVs into FLACs, you'll lose the tags, get a tagging program, .e.g. 'Tag&Rename'.

 

[Drewpy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chri5peed Audio files only require perfect ripping once. Use EAC to rip and encode to your mp3s w/Lame, set EAC to keep the WAV files(EAC>Compression Options>ExternalCompressionTAB>Uncheck'Delete WAV...') Then use another encoder(FLAC frontend/dBpowerAMP) to convert these WAVs into FLACs, you'll lose the tags, get a tagging program, .e.g. 'Tag&Rename'.

That's more steps than you need. Rip to FLAC, and transcode (with fb2k, dbPowerAmp, whatever...) to MP3. You won't lose the tags that way. And you don't have to worry about cleaning up WAV files from your computer after you're done.

 

[Sparky191]

Personally I'm keeping some stuff in FLAC (for archival) and also another copy in MP3. Mainly because it can take a lot of time to re-encode stuff from FLAC to MP3 and usually when I want to put a few tracks on my portables I'm on a hurry. I also keep my MP3 library on a 2.5" external drive so I can bring it with me. My FLAC library is a lot bigger and less portable.

 

[Chri5peed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drewpy That's more steps than you need. Rip to FLAC, and transcode (with fb2k, dbPowerAmp, whatever...) to MP3. You won't lose the tags that way. And you don't have to worry about cleaning up WAV files from your computer after you're done.

Yes, hadn't thought of that. fb2k will only let me convert to 245VBR tracks max, can I get 320?

Its not 'transcoding' either. Thats when you convert from one lossy file to another and lose data. These mp3s will be identical to ones ripped off the CD.

 

[Drewpy]

FB2k also has a custom setting in the convert utility. You can use this to specify your command line options to the encoder. Open the fb2K preferences, and under tools>converter, add a new encoding scheme then select the "custom" item from the drop down list. Whether 320CBR is better than -V0, I don't know. I don't hear a differece, but I'm a computer guy more than an audio guy, I just like listening to music.

Transcoding literally means to transfer from one encoding to another. It has nothing to do with lossy or lossless, though it is usually used in context of lossy conversions. Perhaps a poor choice of words, doesn't really matter.

 

[Chri5peed]

Transcoding is a bad thing to do, i.e. changing mp3s>AACs. Converting from lossless is probably not transcoding at all, just encoding.

I use 320K not because its any better than 256, but because its the best mp3s can go.

 

[Drewpy]

... You're welcome

Transcoding means to transform something (an audio file in this case) encoded in one format (FLAC) to another (MP3). This works by decoding the source file into a temporary format (WAV), and then encoding that resultant file to the new format. It has nothing to do with lossy or lossless, unless you're going to try and tell me that FLAC isn't an "encoding". Transcoding when the source audio file is in a lossy format results in even further loss of resolution, which is why its bad.