Comments on: CD Audio Extraction

By: Erik

Erik — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:24:19 +0000

Is anyone having problems with noise at the end of their songs when they append the gaps to the previous song? It seems a small amount of music from the subsequent song is being lumped in with the gap that is then being attached to the previous song. The result is a tiny bit of noise at the end of my tracks. Gap detection is returning the same result regardless of method / secure or accurate. I confirmed my drive offset as well. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Erik

By: Kurt

Kurt — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:40:58 +0000

Hi,
EAC indeed comes with Accurate RIP included these days. The confusionn between FLAC and FLAC Frontend,is that FLAC Frontend is a little stand-alone programm, as where FLAC, is just the driver. It does not matter which you install, both will work within EAC.
For playback, I found a gem called 'MediaMonkey' (Free download). It Is the very best audio player I ever came across. It comes with FLAC included. So one can rip straight onto a harddisk using Mediamonkey. Note that ripping with MediaMonkey will be a lot faster than with EAC, but of course at a potential loss of quality, as no programm rips like EAC does.

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:54:56 +0000

Pat,

It appears that EAC now includes the AccurateRip DLLs and they no longer have to be downloaded separately.

There have been some changes with AccurateRip. The original owner sold the site to the company behind DBPowerAmp, which is a good thing. I think part of the agreement was that everything be free and open, and it appears EAC has internalized the accuraterip code now.

By: Pat

Pat — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:27:11 +0000

Danny:

Thanks for the reply. OK, I believe I have EAC & FLAC (labeled "FLAC frontend" on my desktop) installed.

I am still confused as to "Accurate Rip". When I click on the link you have in the tutorial, http://accuraterip.com/software.htm, there is not a piece of code/software/link to download that says "Accurate Rip".

On this page it says:
"Install an AccurateRip compatible program, currently:"
Than it lists three things one could download; "dBpoweramp", "Exact Audio Copy", "Rip(Apple MAC)". Do you see my confusion? I'm looking for something called "Accurate Rip" to install per the tutorial above.

Since I already have EAC installed am I to assume I alreay have "Accurate Rip" installed? Do I also need to install "dBpoweramp", or does this do the same thing as EAC?

If "Accurate Rip" is a seperate download (like EAC, FLAC, Excel, Word, …) there is no link to download it on the url for "Accurate Rip".

Thanks,

Pat

By: firedog

firedog — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:23:53 +0000

I know of hardware/software combi solutions that do this, but they're pricey, b/c you have to buy the hardware that's setup to work with the software.

The only "free" software solution I know of is Vortexbox, http://vortexbox.org/about/

It can be loaded on an existing computer. See if it's what you need.

One comment: My experience is that best sound and performance in a music server is obtained when you have a dedicated computer just for music serving. It can by anything – netbook, Old PC, etc.

Good Luck!

By: firedog

firedog — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:12:15 +0000

Hi-

1. You only need to install one of the programs (e.g., EAC).

2. FLAC link – the page you have the link for brings you to the download page for FLAC – it's in the small print at the top of the page. The rest of the page is basically an ad to try and get you to download the other software.

If you want try these alternate pages to download FLAC:
http://flac.sourceforge.net/
http://flac.en.softonic.com/

Basically, install EAC; install the FLAC codec (I think there's a place in EAC you need to fill in the location of the unzipped FLAC codec); and install Accurate Rip.

You're good to go.

Danny

By: Pat

Pat — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:48:09 +0000

Kurt:

OK, I'm new at ripping CD's to a hard drive but wanted to test the waters a bit before I purchased a NAS for my hundreds of CD's I plan to get ripped to storage. To help with your answer(s) this is what I have & my objectives:
-Windows Vista machine to do the work
-Installing a Sonos system next week along with an upgraded movie/sound system & it will be all internet connected.
-I plan to install a NAS device soon once I get comfortable on what/how I plan to rip & organize things
-Currently I only have one DVD/CD player/writer which came with my HP PC. I will be getting another reader/writer soon.

I'm trying to follow what needs to be done in your tutorial above. I have already installed EAC. If I understand your procedure above I need to install "AccurateRip". When I click on this word/link it bring me to a page that says:
"Install an AccurateRip compatible program, currently:
dBpoweramp,
Exact Audio Copy
Rip (Apple MAC),
XLD (Apple MAC), "

Does this mean I only need one of these programs for windows or do I also need to install dBpoweramp?

In step 3 you write "Install EAC, Accurate Rip, and FLAC". I clicked on your link in step 2 " FLAC Codec" and it brings me to http://sourceforge.net/projects/flac/files/flac-win/flac-1.2.1-win/flac-1.2.1b.exe/download which is a program that does Software Configuration Management. Is this correct?

I have a background in computers and using software so I am "hoping" once I get the right software & plug-in's installed I will pick this up pretty quickly. Famous last words!

Thanks,

Pat

By: Kurt

Kurt — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:47:18 +0000

Dear Carlton, Thank you for your reply. The ReplayGain value had escaped my attention. So far I have archived 30 GB of audio. I have just come to "B", long way to go to "Z"…
I have added the ReplayGain in the Flac Command line just now. (B.t.w.: copying and pasting your command sample does not work as certain caracters turn out different at this end -Belgian keyboard-, that is why I 'adjusted' the command line allready present in EAC. This is how I missed the ReplayGain. Probably I was too scared initially to put it in, and then later, I could not make the link between the command and your little piece on 'ReplayGain'.)
Just so you know, perhaps you can make this fabulous piece of info even better yet, making it idiot proof. So that even people like me can pretend to be a pro.
I'm all set now and very grateful for your input.
Best wishes, Kurt

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:56:06 +0000

Kurt, the ReplayGain calculated value created and added as a tag during Step 8. It's part of the FLAC command line for the encoder.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:04:19 +0000

Thank you very much for this guide. I have had tag problems for two days and was on the verge of giving up on EAC, untill you made clear that 'MP3' stands for 'external etc.' NOW I can create my archiving project for all my Audio CD's.
Repay Gain is still sompewhat unclear, as you do not state where I can find this option in EAC, unless it is another program, or perhaps I should use EAC in playback mode first. I will find out. Meanwhile I am allready copying my CD's to a 1.5 Tb disk. It will take weeks, possibly months.
Thanks a mil. Would'nt have worked without you.
Kurt

By: J. Alan

J. Alan — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:15:29 +0000

Bill, all optical drives are different, so they'll extract a different amount of data (the read offsets play a factor in this). In a perfect reality, everyone would use the same drive to extract audio data. That would ensure that they'd be getting as close as possible a copy of what they wanted with no noticed margin of difference.

The same can't be said for creating a document in Word/Photoshop. It's easier to replicate the same data there, so assuming the file is never altered, it could be replicated at the same size by anyone either from scratch or by numerous copy methods.

By: Bill Wishon

Bill Wishon — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:22:09 +0000

Thanks Carlton, I'll definitely check it out. Late last night I also came across RipStation Micro. Have you ever heard of / used that?

Another thing that I thought of this morning truly puzzled me. I've read a number of threads on message boards about the "bit perfect" copy, and have come to an understanding that doing this is a non-trivial task, but how can this be?

If I make an analogy where instead of "songs" I use the word "documents" or "Photoshop files" then the idea of not getting a bit perfect copy seems absurd. If you can't get back exactly the bits you stored onto the disk then Word or Photoshop won't be able to read the file, and suddenly the CD becomes a pretty bad storage mechanism.

So what is it about the way that music is stored on a CD that makes getting back what the artist / label put down at all a challenge or issue? Why isn't bit perfect copying trivially easy? Just as getting the same word doc you burned to CD back without corruption is.

Best,
~>Bill

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:47:23 +0000

dbPowerAmp Music Converter has a CD Ripper component can rip to FLAC, tag the files, and download the cover art all at once. It costs about $30 for the non-freeware version, and it is well worth it my opinion. I don't know that it can rip to FLAC and MP3 at the same time, but it can to a batch-convert of entire directory trees. So you can rip everything to FLAC and then do a batch convert and create the MP3s in a different directory. If you're converting to MP3 for compatibility with a portable device, dbPowerAmp has a program called Sveta Portable Audio that can do on-the-fly conversion from/to any format. So there would no reason to create the mp3s and store them -- just create them on-the-fly when you sync your device.

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:42:19 +0000

After reading lots on the web about FLAC and then this article I still am left with one (possibly naive) question, that I want to ask before I embark.

Is there a solution (commercial or otherwise, Mac or Win) that automates this so that I can simply insert a disc, wait for the disc to be done and ejected and then insert another?

In between the program would perform an exact copy, encode to FLAC, encode a copy to mp3, tag it from CDDB, download cover art and put the FLAC and mp3 files into different but organized folders.

Yours Hopefully,
~>Bill

By: Glenn

Glenn — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:47:42 +0000

I have some old CDs with pre-emphasis. How do you deal with this issue?

So far I've been using Adobe Audition FFT filter with corners at 3180 and 10600 hz -10dB.

I'd really like to have an absolute indicator of the pre-emphasis bit status rather than comparing the original disc in an audio player vs the ripped audio in the computer – in other words, trusting my ears.

Thanks

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:42:09 +0000

Thanks Danny
That is a relief. Yeah space is not an issue so I will continue with WAV.

Thanks Carlton
Good to know I can convert WAV into FLAC or whatever if needed later.
As long as I don't have to rip them all again!

Cheers J

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:47:49 +0000

I thing tagging is one of the most important reasons to choose FLAC over WAV. I want to have access to all of the song details when I'm searching or listening. It's very easy to convert between FLAC and WAV. dbPowerAmp Music Converter can batch-convert very eaily. It also has a CD Ripper that can do bit-perfect extactions. I think it's better than EAC because it easier to setup, can automatically download cover art, and has more feature. But it does cost about $30 to register it. I now use it instead of EAC.

By: Danny Hoffman

Danny Hoffman — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:16:13 +0000

Hi-
FLAC (lossless compression) and WAV (uncompressed) sound the same. Since FLAC is a lossless compression format, the only real reason to use it is to save drive space. (It has a few other minor advantages, such as tagging, that are of minor importance in most cases).

So if you don't have a need to save drive space, you can stick with WAV.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:19:33 +0000

Like many others, I got a neat SONOS Digital Music System and went ahead and ripped my entire CD collection to MP3 320Kbps using Windows Media Player because I did not know any better. Then I find out later this was not the best option as it does not sound as good as it should. So I start re-ripping in WAV lossless this time. A few hundred discs into it and then I stumble across EAC and FLAC.
So my question is: Is WAV going to be good or should I start again using FLAC which looks like a lot of work. Drive space is not an issue. I don't care if it is bit perfect, as long as it does not sound noticeably different to playing the original CD's. I did all the EAC settings and tried ripping one CD and gave up after 2 tracks because it took so long.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:32:19 +0000

For auto ripping with Sony Media Changer using MCE, you can set the file type to wma lossless and switch on error correction for the device in WMP. This will give lossless files with some attempt at error correction.

You can also set the file type to WAV and then compress later.