[Jforsyth89]

I have a few CDS that I want to rip onto my CD in the best sound quality possible. The problem is I don't know where to begin, and don't really know what I'm doing.

Does anyone have suggestions for good software, file formats, and ways to rip a CD so that I keep the sound quality intact?

 

[lordgibbness]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jforsyth89 I have a few CDS that I want to rip onto my CD in the best sound quality possible. The problem is I don't know where to begin, and don't really know what I'm doing. Does anyone have suggestions for good software, file formats, and ways to rip a CD so that I keep the sound quality intact?

I would recommend searching the forums/web for more information, but the ripping software I would use is Exact Audio Copy and either FLAC or LAME to encode the extracted audio data. (N.B. FLAC is a lossless format and LAME is a good MP3 encoder).

 

[Jforsyth89]

Is Exact Audio Copy this E.A.C. I keep on hearing about?

 

[Land]

Yes E.A.C is Exact Audio Copy.

It is the program that rips the cd's, and you can use it with different codecs for different outputs. (e.g. LAME for mp3)

There are loads of guides to audio ripping with E.A.C and LAME on the web, but a lot people here prefer lossless file formats like FLAC. I have no experience using this, but I think you should be able to find some guides on google.

 

[Jforsyth89]

I ripped a cd into .WAV files and I can't tell the difference between the CD and playing from my computer. Is there any reason I should want to use FLAC over .WAV?

 

[Abbadon]

Both FLAC and wav are lossless (identical copies of the cd track). However, FLAC is compressed, which means that FLAC files are much smaller than wav ones.

 

[Rempert]

Advantages of .flac compared to .wav:

Only takes up about 70% or so of the space of a .wav file.
Supports tags. So things like artist, song title, etc. can be entered in and show up when the song plays.

Advantages of .wav compared to .flac:

All media players can play .wav. Not all can play .flac.
.Wav doesn't have to be decompressed by the media player so it will require less CPU work (although on most computers we are talking about an extremely small load anyway).

Soundwise, they should be identical.

 

[pedxing]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rempert Advantages of .flac compared to .wav: Only takes up about 70% or so of the space of a .wav file. Supports tags. So things like artist, song title, etc. can be entered in and show up when the song plays. Advantages of .wav compared to .flac: All media players can play .wav. Not all can play .flac. .Wav doesn't have to be decompressed by the media player so it will require less CPU work (although on most computers we are talking about an extremely small load anyway). Soundwise, they should be identical.

FLAC's compression ratio will vary depending on the music. Usually I get 70% on normal rock and pop stuff. Classical music with quiet passages or music with a lot of certain degree of repitition may compress as low as 40% of the original size.

If you use LAME, I think most people find -v2 option good enough to be almost CD-quality. Anything more might be a waste. If you want to get a little fancy, you try the audio format ogg. Some people think ogg sounds better. As with FLAC, ogg may have limited support by various portable players.

This web site has a wealth of information about audio compression, CD ripping, and CD archiving. Check out their stickies for more information about using MP3 LAME or ogg.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org

 

[Sovkiller]

Audiograbber......

 

[VncentValntine]

I found this to be very helpful in my ripping methods. I enjoy the results I've got due to the tutorials on these threads.

http://forums.danomac.org/viewforum....eeb8e042b5421f

 

[bahamot]

I use Foobar diskwriter plugins.

 

[SprySpectre]

http://www.ubernet.org/?p=UberGuide
For your portable needs, this guide does the trick (just use the more recent builds of EAC and LAME)

 

[CSMR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jforsyth89 I have a few CDS that I want to rip onto my CD in the best sound quality possible. The problem is I don't know where to begin, and don't really know what I'm doing. Does anyone have suggestions for good software, file formats, and ways to rip a CD so that I keep the sound quality intact?

I have good experiences with the Plextor Premium CDRW drive and Plextools software. EAC + a good drive will work very well too and will be cheaper but is more complex to use. It is quite tricky to set up.

 

[iSleipnir]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SprySpectre http://www.ubernet.org/?p=UberGuide For your portable needs, this guide does the trick (just use the more recent builds of EAC and LAME)

Listen to SprySpectre. The guys at ubernet know their stuff better than anyone and have a great instruction on how to set up EAC.

 

[Slogra]

The ubernet guide seems to be pretty old. There are some things that i would change in the guide:

- Not lame 3.90.3 but Lame 3.97b2 is the recommended mp3 encoder now. Most people use a lossless format like FLAC nowadays though. (Here is an optimized flac encoder).
- I didn't find anything about drive offsets (eac->drive options->offset/speed). The offset is different for each cd-rom drive, you can find the offset of your drive here: http://www.accuraterip.com/driveoffsets.htm
- Quote:

Common Mistake: If your .log file says NO DISABLE CACHE, then you need to open EAC, and press F10. Click on the Extraction Method tab and put a checkmark beside 'Drive caches audio data'. Now when you rip, your .log file will say 'disable cache' as it should.

This doesn't make any sense. Check 'Drive caches audio data' when your drive caches, when it doesn't you don't check it because it will slow extracting down.

Here is a better EAC guide imho: http://users.fulladsl.be/spb2267/