Best program to rip CD's to FLAC files?

Discussion in 'Computer Audiophile: Software, Configs, Tools' started by Gravity, Jan 27, 2016.

  1. earnmyturns

    earnmyturns Smartest friend

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    Metadatics has a similar function, but the free metadata sources lag/miss some of the more exotic albums/box sets like this which is in Allmusic but not in the free sources AFAIK.
     
  2. m.i.c.k.e.y

    m.i.c.k.e.y Facebook Friend

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    For a benefit of the doubt, reinstalled again EAC's newest version. Compared it w/ EZ CD Audio Converter and dbPoweramp ...

    90's UI...same things that i don't like...did not even finished the rip... disinstalled.
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2017
  3. wnmnkh

    wnmnkh Friend

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    It's really dbpoweramp. There is no contest for both convenience and speed while also absolutely securely ripping CDs.

    EAC, as far as I am concerned, it is almost like free version of dbpoweramp but without convenience and speed.
     
  4. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    I've actually switched over to XLD. I had to take some time to get the settings for it right, but now it's a very secure although slow method of ripping. I'm okay with it being slow if that means increased accuracy.
     
  5. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    Yeah, decent secure rips are really the only thing that matters. Levels of eye-candy or config hand-holding are completely irrelevant once you've set it up. You don't want to discover that your rips suck 400 CDs in.
     
  6. MrTeaRex

    MrTeaRex His head's not fat, he's my brother!

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    EAC's secure mode is slower because the developers disagree on methodology. dBpoweramp's secure mode is actually the same as burst mode the vast majority of the time. If the results from the burst match the AccurateRip database, it calls it secure. On new discs, it rips in burst mode twice and (if the bursts match) calls it secure. EAC's secure mode actually reads every sector at least twice, every time. Does that mean dBpoweramp is always securely ripping CDs? The dBpoweramp developer would have you believe so while EAC's developer does not believe so. It's up to you whether you're comfortable calling matching bursts secure or whether you want every block read and confirmed.

    dBpoweramp secure rip explanation: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/secure-ripper.htm

    EAC secure rip explanation: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/overview/basic-technology/extraction-technology/
     
  7. wnmnkh

    wnmnkh Friend

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    As far as I know, dbpoweramp does not go burst mode when secure mode is selected. It's far slower than burst mode (randomized and slower read speed). I believe as long as CRC is correct, it is certainly the rip is secure (whether it is burst or secure or not.) dbpoweramp does go for EAC as soon as it detects error and re-read troublesome blocks until either it gets right or give up after multiple tries.
     
  8. MrTeaRex

    MrTeaRex His head's not fat, he's my brother!

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    dBpoweramp doesn't technically switch into burst mode when secure mode is selected, but the two function the same unless the checksum does not match the AccurateRip database. At that point, secure mode attempts error correction while burst mode does not. Here is the description from the dBpoweramp link:

    "Firstly we thought it was important to move away from the [read block][re-read block] & compare method, this method jiggles the CD drive backward and forward head many times a second causing stress to the drive (in Illustrates opinion). A new strategy is to rip in complete passes (AccurateRip is able to jump in and stop a rip after any pass it if agrees with AccurateRip). In addition Ultra Secure passes can be used to detect those hard to detect errors."

    EAC utilizes both AccurateRip and the read block / re-read block / compare method that dBpoweramp moved away from. I'm not saying one is better than the other, it's just a matter of whether you're comfortable calling matching passes secure. The dBpoweramp article also highlights some potential issues with EAC's handling of C2 error pointers, so nothing is perfect. [Edit: Nothing digital is perfect. I don't want the vinyl townspeople after me with pitchforks.]

    The visual below is from the dBpoweramp link for reference.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2017
  9. crazychile

    crazychile Eastern Iowa's Spiciest Pepper

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    This is a slight diversion from the original topic but what do you guys tags looks like for ripping FLAC files? I'm using dBpoweramp, and am relatively new to FLAC so I've been experimenting with different tag configurations. I see some that are very simple and some quite complicated. What do yours look like?

    Thanks!
     
  10. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    fyi, years of ripping with XLD at "not the slowest mode" (paranoid mode? could be the slowest) gave me perfect rips according to the accurate rip database. And they sounded fine. Average speed of rip per cd was about 3-5 minutes.

    Do keep in mind transports fail quite often and rips will slow considerably before you end up looking at or replacing the drive or the drive interface. Happened to me twice in 6 years or so, and not because I was a ripping machine, these things just do not hold up.
     
  11. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Well the mode I use does a test rip of every track before ripping the actual track. Given that I only rip infrequently these days, I do not mind.
     
  12. Mshenay

    Mshenay Barred from loaner program. DON'T SEND ME GEAR.

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    Frankly I tag with Tag & Rename, EAC never does it correctly for me. As far as how to tag that's up to you... or whom ever your ripping/tagging for

    An going back to the "secure or not" I use Test and Copy on my EAC settings as well, I've not had any issues with accuracy or a lack there of. I do compare my rips to play back straight from the disc from time to time and I've not noticed or heard any differences. But my ripping time is around 45-50 minuet's per CD... an that doesn't include the time I spent tagging either -.-
     
  13. Xen

    Xen Friend

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    I tag using foobar2000. It now can access MusicBrainz for excellent tag information and falls back to FreeDB. I also use DR meter through foobar, which writes DR information to each tag. Unfortunately, I use FLAC/CUE and I use a few more steps to embed the tag into the FLAC. This of course is not always compatible as many players are not compatible with full tags in a FLAC file with multiple tracks. This is just how I started to store my ripped CDs over a decade ago and am just being contrarian by not using individual tracks in individual FLACs.

    I have switched to AAC (variable bit, Q=109) instead of MP3 (LAME, variable bit, V0).
     
  14. gimmeheadroom

    gimmeheadroom New

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    Ok since nobody mentioned it, for *NIX ffmpeg. It does pretty much everything and one of the things it does really well is convert just about any audio or movie format to anything else.

    $ ffmpeg -i infile.wav outfile.flac

    It's good for scripting unlike GUI tools. I had to convert around 250G of APE, WV, and MPC to FLAC. I wrote some scripts to do it.

    What's the opposite of "burned?" Extinguished?

    I extinguished a bunch of FLAC albums today, I know, it's bizarre. But I burned CDs from some FLAC albums. It takes around a minute on a fairly fast desktop to extinguish a CD's worth of FLAC back to WAV.
     
  15. DigMe

    DigMe Friend

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    It’s called ripping when you move it fromCD to PC.
     
  16. gimmeheadroom

    gimmeheadroom New

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    DOH! Of course. So I should call converting from FLAC to WAV sewing? ;)
     
  17. IndySpeed

    IndySpeed Friend

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    Being that I use Linux, I probably have a much smaller audience even within a group of audio enthusiasts (niche within a niche if you will). Nonetheless, I use cdparanoia which if I remember correctly was made by the same person that invented the flac file format. In addition, I use his software on my Linux box to convert the raw wav files to flac format as my archival format.
     
  18. supertransformingdhruv

    supertransformingdhruv Almost "Made"

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    The great thing about cdparanoia is that it's the base that's used for a great number of linux rippers. I'm a fan of asunder, but even the default gnome application Sound Juicer uses cdparanoia.

    The fun thing is how long I didn't realize that and forced myself to suffer abcde.
     
  19. luckybaer

    luckybaer Friend

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    I use Media Monkey, because I'm too lazy to learn much of anything new. I could probably learn how to use JRiver Media Center (since that's what I actually use to organize my digital library), but like I said: LAZY.
     
  20. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    I use dBpoweramp for ripping CD's. Auto tagging and album art is spot on, plus the built-in "accuraterip" is good for common albums. The feature I like best however is the custom Dynamic Naming, so you can specify where it rips to.

    For example: "[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][artist][][]\[year] - [album]\[IFVALUE]disc,[disc]-[][track] - [title]"


    This would create (or add to) a directory in my media raid like this: Pink Floyd\1973 - Dark Side of the Moon\01 - Speak To Me.flac

    Or if it was a multi-disc album, it would look like this: Pink Floyd\1979 - The Wall\1-01 - In the Flesh.flac
     

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