Music Compiliation Poll

[noddin0ff]

Thought FLAC was developed by Apple...

FLAC = Free Lossless Audio Codec.

You may be confusing it with Apple's lossy AAC format? or their lossless ALE? ...because they all have an 'A' in them? ;-)

Apple's iEmpire does not support FLAC.

More info than you can shake a can of bees at regarding FLAC can be found here
http://flac.sourceforge.net/

[BradH]

It takes much longer to rip to your hard drive than Soundstream, but that's because it uses some pretty heavy duty error correction.

Actually, EAC doesn't use error correction. Here's what it does: It rips a section and then re-reads that section on the disc and compares it to what it just ripped. If it's the same it goes on to the next section. If it's not, it re-rips that section up to something like sixteen times until it's right (I can't remember the exact number). All other ripping software will just swallow the error and move on but if EAC is in Secure Mode it abandons the whole project if it can't get it right after the total number of tries. At that point you try again, sometimes it will eventually work if the problem is caused by scratches on the disc. EAC is a cut above other ripping software because a successful rip in Secure Mode guarantees you got the real thing. Of course, this is a little rough on the CDR drive and some people don't like it for that but it's better than having a flawed rip sitting on your hard drive masquerading as a good rip. Just be sure to use EAC in Secure Mode because if you're not you might as well be using other software.

I still need to figure out the setting to write titles to the discs.

Just yesterday I read somewhere that it's not a good idea. I'll see if I can find that. I burn w/ Feurio because it's the only one that burns on sector boundaries. But EAC in Secure Mode is THE standard for the ripping.

Quality sound is why i dont. I dont want anything worst then a store bought cd.

FLAC files are identical in sound quality to the source they were converted from. Same w/ APE and SHN files. That's why they're called "lossless" as opposed to mp3's which are "lossy". You can even run an MD5 checksum comparison and check it out. In fact, SHN files are often traded/posted with an MD5 file to make sure what you got is the same as what was on the sender's hard drive. For the truly anal, you can even track it from the hard drive to the data disc to another hard drive, each step along the way. The beauty of FLAC is it has its own internal checksums so you don't have to mess with that.

[nobody]

So...are you saying Feurio burns better than EAC or that it burns better than EAC if I'm wanting to write titles to the CD?

[3-LockBox]

OK...can someone point me the direction of one of your FLAC comps so I can give it a go?

[BradH]

So...are you saying Feurio burns better than EAC or that it burns better than EAC if I'm wanting to write titles to the CD?

No, I'm not sure Feurio can even write titles to a cd, that's a separate issue. What I'm saying is they have different features for burning. Feurio is the only software that burns on sector boundaries. Sector Boundary Errors (or SBE's) are a big issue with bootleg traders because it can introduce gaps in the audience applause between songs. It's irritating as hell so that's why I use Feurio. But all burning software sucks in one way or another, it's just a matter of which feature is important to you. A lot of serious traders burn w/ EAC so I'm sure it's better than Acraptec or any other bundled software.

I can't remember if the text titling issue was specific to EAC or not. I'll see if I can find that article later tonight.

[Dusty Chalk]

Actually, EAC doesn't use error correction. Here's what it does:

Then why does it have that little "error correction" bar? The cute little one in the ripping window with the faux red LEDs? And why does it have options for C2 error reporting on the drive? Methinks you've got it wrong. Or at least, optionally wrong.

[BradH]

Then why does it have that little "error correction" bar? The cute little one in the ripping window with the faux red LEDs? And why does it have options for C2 error reporting on the drive? Methinks you've got it wrong. Or at least, optionally wrong.

Good point about the C2 error reporting. I don't use it so I completely forgot about it.

But the LED thing is cool. It's got five rows of sixteen blocks each, representing five series of sixteen re-reads before EAC reports an error at which point the whole LED thing is lit. I guess you could call that "error correction" but it's not in the traditional way I think of it. My point earlier was that it's this re-read function that makes EAC slower than other rippers. Also, I don't think it necessarily abandons the project like I said earlier (although that may be an option). I've seen it re-read and report errors forever on a crapped out disc.

Check out these tutorials from the Coaster Factory. Great stuff for EAC users, especially the Quick Start Manual for beginning users.

http://users.pandora.be/satcp/tutorials.htm

[Dusty Chalk]

No, I thought it was doing actual error correction on that faux-LED bar. After reading that site, I see that you are correct, and that it basically rereads until it gets what it thinks is accurate data. That's not error correction, that's redundant checking. I thought redbook had some sort of CRC or whatnot, and that it was checking against that.

That said, I am right about the C2 thing. But I'll admit I was wrong about the faux-LED bar.

[BradH]

I thought redbook had some sort of CRC or whatnot, and that it was checking against that.

Now there's an interesting idea. But I doubt the industry wants to do anything to encourage accurate ripping.