[Lyndon]

I am using Media Monkey, and I am converting the WAV files to FLAC.  It brings up a compression chart, and I moved the pointer to no compression.  This is what I want to keep the files lossless, right?  I read in another FLAC thread that it is one of the better 'compressors' without too much loss of music quality, so that is what I am wondering.
Thanks,
Lyndon

[darrenyeats]

FLAC is never lossy. The main point about using less compression is to make the encoding easier (faster). The best thing to do is go for maximum compression. Don't worry you won't lose a single bit!
Darren

[jkelly]

FLAC is lossless - the compression settings have to do with the amount of compression of the file not the audio compression quality.  The settings will have to do with final file size and speed of compression/decompression.  

All in all the -5 seems to work fine for me.

[ted_b]

Don't use the highest compression.  It is a total waste of time (encoding time, that is) vs the little extra space it saves.  -5 or -6is the knuckle in the time vs size curve...it's the right combo.  See here:

In the graphs, the Y-axis shows the compressed file size as a percentage of the uncompressed (wav) file size.
The X-axis shows the speed, for example 10 means a 5 minute track was processed in 30 seconds.

[Lyndon]

Thanks, guys, I appreciate the responses.  I'm picking up the new Randy Newman cd, Harps and Angels tomorrow, and will try the 5 or 6 setting on it.

Now if I can just figure out how to attach album art to show up on my Sansa e200 mp3 player...sigh...

[Spirit]

Further to Media Monkey:
Is MM a good program to rip CDs?
I am new at this and have read that EAC is sometimes harder to use.
Any opinions would help!

[jkelly]

DBpoweramp is another option.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

[Lyndon]

Spirit,
I guess there is a 'learning curve'.  I have been using EAC previously to MM, but have switched to MM because it 'appears' to be an easier one to put music on my mp3 player.  I do a lot of things outdoors in Utah, and want a program that does an excellent job of storing my cd's on HD, as well as converting them to compressed files for on the go.  3 years ago, I was using DbPowerAmp, and I think that is a good program as well.  Whoops, jkelly beat me to it.
For audio books I was having a terrible time, until I rockboxed my Sansa, and now have a bookmark feature.
Lyndon

[bpape]

EAC USED to be harder to set up.  Now it runs a wizard that's pretty tough to mess up.  Using it once set up couldn't be easier.

Bryan

[mgalusha]

dbPoweramp will grab the artwork as well or allow you to acquire it from a TWAIN source such as a scanner.

For items already ripped you might want to check out the Picard tagger from MusicBrainz.org. This a free open source tagger and while a little effort is needed to learn how to use it, it works quite well and also pulls artwork from Amazon. It's written in Python and they have Windows and Linux versions available and are working on a OS X version.

As others have posted a compression level of 5 or 6 is the sweet spot for FLAC.

[Lyndon]

Thanks, Mike
When I downloaded dbPoweramp last week, it wanted me to use a 30 day trial version of allmusic.com to pull their images.  I didn't click that, so I don't know how effective it would have been.  Media Monkey uses images and info from Amazon.
By the way, that was a good review of the Eastern gear.  I enjoyed it.
Lyndon

[Spirit]

EAC USED to be harder to set up.  Now it runs a wizard that's pretty tough to mess up.  Using it once set up couldn't be easier.

Bryan

Bryan:
Thanks for the response.
My problem is, and I am not ashamed or embaressed to say this, that I am not a computer savvy guy.  For some reason when I go onto the EAC website I stare at the screen and think to myself: "OK, not what do I do"!
What I want to do is transfer all of my CDs onto an external hardrive and do the follwoing:
1:  I want to be able to burn CDs in exact duplicate form so that I can hear if a burned CD actually sounds better than the original copy.  I have some blank Gold CDs that I would like to try.
2:  I want to make lossless copies so that I can steam to my Sonos system.
3:  I would like to have the Album art attached so that I can see it on my Sonsos controller.
With these paramaters in mind (gulp) what do I do now?  Is EAC the best program to use?
I also read a new site called ComputerAudiophile.com and most of the guys write that iTunes is just as good as any of them and that one cannot hear any sound quality loss with iTunes compared to EAC, dbPoweramp, etc.
I would aprreciate your's or anone's assistance.  Please get me started!!

[darrenyeats]

Don't use the highest compression.  It is a total waste of time (encoding time, that is) vs the little extra space it saves.  -5 or -6is the knuckle in the time vs size curve...it's the right combo.  See here:

In the graphs, the Y-axis shows the compressed file size as a percentage of the uncompressed (wav) file size.
The X-axis shows the speed, for example 10 means a 5 minute track was processed in 30 seconds.

Ted, you are right. The problem is that 30% more processing is a big figure but is an academic cost. It costs 0% real time because encoding on max compression takes less time than ripping itself. On the other hand the 1% extra compression is a much smaller percentage but it corresponds to a real advantage.

And regardless of relative rip/encode times, encode time is a one-time cost and the 1% disc space saving lasts forever!

In other words, there is no practical reason not to use max compression. On Debian Linux the default is max compression...for exactly these reasons.
Darren

[ted_b]

Darren
Good point on your application (ripping and encoding in same timeframe).  Some of us encode later (after doing other things with wav files like itunes imports using Daemon manager, etc) and the wait times may well be real, and weighted against cheap hard drive space the decision of speed vs space is quite relevant.  YMMV.  But I will agree that my comment of "never use max compression" was ill-advised.

[DaveC113]

In other words, there is no practical reason not to use max compression. On Debian Linux the default is max compression...for exactly these reasons.
Darren

If you have an old computer, encoding wav files into flac on 8 may crash your computer. It does with my 5 yr old 1.8 Ghz/512 Mb RAM HP laptop. 5 seems to work out well for me, and the extra compression you get isn't a big deal IMO, storage is cheap. I also can't (and wouldn't if I could) encode and rip simultaneously.

Dave   

[JRace]

Bryan:
Thanks for the response.
My problem is, and I am not ashamed or embaressed to say this, that I am not a computer savvy guy.  For some reason when I go onto the EAC website I stare at the screen and think to myself: "OK, not what do I do"!
What I want to do is transfer all of my CDs onto an external hardrive and do the follwoing:
1:  I want to be able to burn CDs in exact duplicate form so that I can hear if a burned CD actually sounds better than the original copy.  I have some blank Gold CDs that I would like to try.
2:  I want to make lossless copies so that I can steam to my Sonos system.
3:  I would like to have the Album art attached so that I can see it on my Sonsos controller.
With these paramaters in mind (gulp) what do I do now?  Is EAC the best program to use?
I also read a new site called ComputerAudiophile.com and most of the guys write that iTunes is just as good as any of them and that one cannot hear any sound quality loss with iTunes compared to EAC, dbPoweramp, etc.
I would aprreciate your's or anone's assistance.  Please get me started!!

DBPoweramp is the easiest solution, with the best quality, at a small price.
EAC gives you same quality, not quite as easy to use, and free.
iTunes is easy, free, and potentially not as good quality.

If ease of use and quality is important - DB Poweramp.

[Gordy]

DBPower is the easiest solution, with the best quality, at a small price.
EAC gives you same quality, not quite as easy to use, and free.
iTunes is easy, free, and potentially not as good quality.

If ease of use and quality is important - DB Poweramp.

On the rare occasion when DBpower can't download album art from AMG, simply download the art from Amazon to your desktop and then load it to DBpower.  For very obscure cd's I've gone to the artist's site to find cover art.  Works a treat 

[bpape]

With all of that in mind, DBPoweramp is probably the best way for you to go.  Ripping copies of CD's using EAC isn't intuitive - though there are other ways to do it if you wanted to use EAC for everything but that.

Bryan

[EDS_]

Not to divert the thread, however, can cds ripped with dbpoweramp but played-back through iTunes sound good?  Or should one stay away from iTunes all together?

 

[richidoo]

can cds ripped with dbpoweramp but played-back through iTunes sound good? 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/node/22  iTunes is now version 7.7.
http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/108bench/index5.html
http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/wiki/index.php/ITunes-QuickTime_for_Windows_-_Setup_Guide
http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/wiki/index.php/ITunes-QuickTime_for_Mac_-_Setup_Guide