Wav

[nvening]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh ic
So, EAC will rip a giant wave track of all which is on the cd. And create a cue file telling the software reading the wave the track info, which means i dont need the id3 thing. Is the ID3 thing the only reason for doing the giant wav thing?
Why do i use the giant wav thing instead of the single wav files, is there no way of storing the track info on wavs if they are seperate files for each track?

[autopilot]

Also, as tommylittleboy@ says, you can mount the file as an virtual CD and rip MP3's from it for use in portable MP3 players that can't handle music thats not in single tracks.

Sorry, maybe I should slow do a bit here.

[Nana]

Actually, no it's not. Winzip is a prime example of lossless compression.

except that winzip is nowhere near the same level of compression as used for music files, also different file types compress by different amounts using a zip type compression. Now as far as I understand it, most music compression systems try and save on file size by eliminating the bits of music you cant hear, very quiet sounds, very high pitched sounds etc, and by eliminating silences as these occupy the same amount of space in a wav and on a cd as full music does. So how does one take a compressed file and re-create the exact wav?

I know that I'm introducing a lot of other factors here, but if you listen to an audio cd on a decent hifi, then listen to a compressed version of the same cd, on the same hifi you'll see what I'm talking about. There's simply no comparison in terms of openness and detail, this is just my experience of messing with audio stuff.

[autopilot]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh ic
So, EAC will rip a giant wave track of all which is on the cd. And create a cue file telling the software reading the wave the track info, which means i dont need the id3 thing. Is the ID3 thing the only reason for doing the giant wav thing?
Why do i use the giant wav thing instead of the single wav files, is there no way of storing the track info on wavs if they are seperate files for each track?

WAV is a VERY old format and can't store ID info, period.

CUE files only store track names, positions and times. Not the same as ID tags.

However, FLAC, Money Audio etc does use ID tags (stored in the file). Thats what I am trying to say - get on the lossless mate. It's all very easy and you won't look back. Trust me

[nvening]

Also, as tommylittleboy@ says, you can mount the file as an virtual CD and rip MP3's from it for use in portable MP3 players that can't handle music thats not in single tracks.

Sorry, maybe I should slow do a bit here.

Dont worry, i get that, but will probs be keeping all the tracks on my HDD in mp3 for my player etc. The wav and cue files will be for archiving.

[autopilot]

except that winzip is nowhere near the same level of compression as used for music files, also different file types compress by different amounts using a zip type compression. Now as far as I understand it, most music compression systems try and save on file size by eliminating the bits of music you cant hear, very quiet sounds, very high pitched sounds etc, and by eliminating silences as these occupy the same amount of space in a wav and on a cd as full music does. So how does one take a compressed file and re-create the exact wav?

I know that I'm introducing a lot of other factors here, but if you listen to an audio cd on a decent hifi, then listen to a compressed version of the same cd, on the same hifi you'll see what I'm talking about. There's simply no comparison in terms of openness and detail, this is just my experience of messing with audio stuff.

I'm sorry, but your very wrong. I shall enlighten you...

FLAC etc get a better compression ratio due to the fact they are specifically designed for audio.

It's not like MP3. Rip a CD with FLAC, burn back to a blank CD and play both CD's in a high end HiFi system. They will sound exactly the same. If there is any difference, it will be due to the media you have burned to.

In very basic terms, it like run lengh encoding rather than redundancy checking (removing data that might not be needed). Obviously its rather more complex than that. I am no expert, but did do compression technology at uni and understand the basics.

The encoding of audio (PCM) data incurs no loss of information, and the decoded audio is bit-for-bit identical to what went into the encoder. Each frame contains a 16-bit CRC of the frame data for detecting transmission errors. The integrity of the audio data is further insured by storing an MD5 signature of the original unencoded audio data in the file header, which can be compared against later during decoding or testing.

http://flac.sourceforge.net/

Monkey’s Audio is a fast and easy way to compress digital music. Unlike traditional methods such as mp3, ogg, or lqt that permanently discard quality to save space, Monkey’s Audio only makes perfect, bit-for-bit copies of your music. That means it always sounds perfect – exactly the same as the original. Even though the sound is perfect, it still saves a lot of space. (think of it as a beefed-up Winzip™ for your music) The other great thing is that you can always decompress your Monkey's Audio files back to the exact, original files. That way, you'll never have to recopy your CD collection to switch formats, and you'll always be able to recreate the original music CD if something ever happens to yours.

http://www.monkeysaudio.com/index.html

With the cheapness and increased sizes of HDD's and faster internet connections, people are using lossless more and more now. All the major name are on the case now - Microsoft, Apple etc. Although the best 2 are generally regarded as being FLAC and Monkey's Audio.

[nvening]

Well the wave files which I ripped with EAC, which uses the LAME codec (authough i thought that was just for encoding mp3s?) suggests that I can but ID3 tags on these wav files I have made. Im confused.

EDIT: pressed save and it does not seem to have applyed the ID3 tag.

So if i do the Lossless thing it kinda updates the file. Would i do the CUE thing with the lossless thing, or would i make the CD into single lossless wave files?

[autopilot]

You can configure most decent rippers, including EAC, to use other encoders for many various formats - FLAC, MA, Apple Lossless, MP3, Ogg, all of those and more. Not just LAME (which is the best MP3 one by the way).

You need to download the encoders you want, install then setup EAC. Check out the FAQ on the EAC site.

[nvening]

So i can setup EAC to rip in lossless WAV?

I think lossless sounds a better solution to the CUE thing.

[autopilot]

So i can setup EAC to rip in lossless WAV?

I think lossless sounds a better solution to the CUE thing.

he he, sorry mate i have confused you. I will try and clear this up a bit...

Option 1)

Just forget WAV's for a second.

Setup EAC with the lossless encoder of your chioce (start with FLAC).

Rip the CD to one long FLAC file, contain all tracks.

EAC will create a CUE file for you at the same time - this is essential if you plan to burn back to a CD at a later date (esspecially if it's a mix or live CD) or play it with winamp etc.

Option 2)

Using EAC, rip the tracks as FLAC single file's.

This way you won't need a CUE file, it's pointless


Option 1 is my persoanl favourite way to do it, because you can always rip single tracks from the large track. BUT, you can't really paste them back together without it sound really bad.

[nvening]

Why would you want them to be whole? You can still burn them onto CD if they are single tracks right?

[autopilot]

Why would you want them to be whole? You can still burn them onto CD if they are single tracks right?

2 word's - gappless playback...

Do you have any CD's which are mixed such as a DJ set?

Any that are live concert recordings?

Audio Books?

Or maybe you just have a few CD's with the odd tracks on it that 'blend' together? An example would be 'Faithless - No Root's' : On that album track 2 blends seemlessly into track 3.

Basically, if there are no gaps between tracks then you don't want to seperate them. Because when you come to play them (or burn them to a CD and play them) - you will have a very annoying gap between the tracks.


My work here is done ...

[silent ben]

Edit: D_D beat me to it

[nvening]

I could not find FLAC in the EAC Compression options, external compression list. How do i set it to use it?

[autopilot]

Have a look at this mate; http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index....e=EAC_and_Flac

[autopilot]

Also look on their for guides using CUE files etc.

You could also try CDex too - http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

EDIT : Not sure about CDex and CUE's.