Getting started with FLAC

[admin_exported]

Hi guys,

I'm just getting started in the world of hifi and would like to start copying my CDs to FLAC so that I can retain sound quality whilst gaining the conveniece of digital music. In time I'll be putting my FLACs on a network drive for my hifi to access but for now I'll be storing them on the laptop (haven't bought a hifi yet!).

I've had a little read around and it seems like ripping and playing FLAC files is a bit harder than using iTunes, so I'm utterly lost. I found a guide to using EAC and AutoFLAC on another forum but couldn't get it to work for some mysterious reason. It looked very complicated anyway.

Essentially, I want maximum possible quality and greatest possible ease of use. Could anyone give me some clues about where to start, right from the beginning?

Thanks very much.

 

[DIB]

Have a look at the thread further down about ripping FLAC with Foobar.

dBPoweramp CD Ripper is the answer.

.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I did have a peek at that one and it left me wondering why anyone would use a complicated solution like EAC and AutoFLAC when the one you mention is supposed to be more accessible.

Also, how do you organise your FLAC libraries for the best? With my mp3s, iTunes just sorts it out - will this program also handle that for me? Eventually I'll be using my FLAC library with a Marantz MCR603 and I want to make sure it's all nice and easy to navigate on a small display.

Thanks very much for your tip - I know it must be annoying read these newbie threads.

 

[BillDay66]

+1 for DB poweramp best / easiest Ripper around. It will tag and find album art etc, just like itunes.

If you want to use itunes still than you can rip to ALAC with poweramp or directly with itunes itself. ALAC is apples lossless codec and the same quality as FLAC (whatever anyone else tells you!)

If your set on FLAC then you'll need to download a media player like JRiver media player to play and organise them.

Personally think itunes is a nicer program to use, but thats a personal preference.

...forgot to mention that with poweramp you can convert between ALAC and FLAC easily with no loss of quality so its no big deal if you change your mind later on.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you.

DBpoweramp is looking good - I'll go for that one. Which version do you advise? I don't mind paying for it, I'm just not sure which option I need.

I think I'll use iTunes for my mp3 library and iPod and keep my lossless stuff seperate. FLAC seems more popular and possibly more widely supported than ALAC so I think I'll go with FLAC. I suppose all I need besides a ripper/converter thing is a way of organising the files, as I won't acutally be playing them back on my PC. Would dbpoweramp be able to file them away all nicely for me using a sensible naming system, or should I really be looking at ripping them first and then using another program to organise the library?

Thanks very much.

 

[BillDay66]

In a word yes, you choose the folder you want to out put the files to, and there is a default file structure or you choose your own, like,

FLAC/Artist/Album/track number - title

for example.

Have fun!

 

[michael hoy]

I am currently ripping all my Cd's to FLAC as well.

On a windows based machine I am using dbpoweramp, and yes it works very well.

You can set it up to rip to FLAC, MP3 etc at the same time so no need for a second conversion.

If you have an old PC you could use Vortexbox, this is free and runs on Fedora Linux, the install is very simple and this will automaticaly rip your CD when inserted.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks - which version are you using? It seems there are different ones at different prices.

 

[Alec]

You can set it up to rip to FLAC, MP3 etc at the same time so no need for a second conversion.

Yes I do this, except I do WMA Lossless and MP3, because I use WMP. If there was a lossless format with pretty much blanket support, and support from WMP too, I'd use it.

 

[michael hoy]

This one - R14

 

[Lee H]

I use dbPoweramp, but if you want a simple way of doing the rip and organising your files in to a library at the same time, you should consider MediaMonkey. It does a great job of cataloguing everything.