Ripping audio CD at the very best/lossless quaility?

Nattawat

I planned on ripping audio CD with the sound quality as highest as possible. Size is not the problem here, as long as the quality is perfect the size doesn't matter.

I want to know which codec is the right one for lossless quality. I heard of the FLAC codec, but I'm not sure if that's the best one yet. Plus, will the quality varies through different CD-ripping software? I want to know which software works best for ripping audio CD with highest quality possible, I don't care if it's a paid program.


Thanks in advance,
Nattawat

DrageMester

Many people use FLAC. My personal favourite is the Monkey's Audio format also known as APE. It compresses to approximately half the original size.

I use Exact Audio Copy in Secure ripping mode for ripping and encoding Audio CDs - it will encode to APE format if you configure it properly.

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easterbunny

quality does vary slightly among diffrent cd ripping software but not by much , for most accurate extraction use exact audio copy in secure mode+right drive offsets , , theres 2 ways to get the offsets
a) you could use eac to perform offsets detection test if you own one of the reference cds thats listed in "technology" section of eac's site (must be original cds)
b) just look up your drive in this database
http://www.accuraterip.com/driveoffsets.htm or use google

heres a comparison of loseless codecs
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index....ess_comparison
wavpack seems to be the overall best

gnutellafan

try dBpoweramp's R12 reference ripper for the most powerful and secure CD ripper. Also much easier to set up and use then EAC. If you use either dBpoweramp or EAC, be sure to use AccurateRip.

Encode to a lossless codec like FLAC, WavePack, or MA.

bjd223

Some good info, however I am curious...

Wouldn't lossless mean zero compression? Most of the lossless formats seem to compress the data by more than half. I assume something must be dropped to get a compression rate that high.

platinumsword

Lossless audio formats (such as TTA and FLAC) provide a compression ratio of about 2:1

Lossless compression formats do not remove information from the audio, Where as Lossy compression formats do ( IE MP3,AAC ).

FLAC is also a popular archive format for owners of CDs and other media who wish to preserve their audio collections. If the original media is lost, damaged, or worn out, a FLAC copy of the audio tracks ensures that an exact duplicate of the original data can be recovered at any time.

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AgainstTheGrain

Concerning ripping -- besides EAC very good CD-ripping can be done with Plextor drives using PlexTools software, coming with the drive (newer versions can be downloaded from plextor site). With Plex drives this combination (Plextor drive + PT; at least amont a few I tried) gives best results.

nikyvoyage

There were a lot of critical commentaries in Wiki and other sources regarding the APE codec.

For example: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index....ess_comparison

I made some experiments with a series of programs. For the moment I prefer FLAC and feel skeptical about APE.

Many experienced people recommend the EAC as the best program for audio compression for the offset corrections and other security advantages.
For the moment I am using jetAudio.

I would like to learn more about other programs.

What about these?

VUPlayer

Easy CD-DA Extractor

Ashampoo

jetAudio

Roxio

dBpoweramp

Plextor

Which of them you use - and recommend?

Nick.C

The main disadvantage with Monkey's Audio is that it is symmetric - i.e. about the same processing effort required to decode as to encode. Development also seems to have stalled, v3.99 has been out for quite some time now.

FLAC, TAK and Wavpack are asymmetric and require much less processing effort to decode than to encode, making them more suitable for use on low power devices.

At hydrogenaudio the most common software recommendation for ripping CDs is between dBPowerAmp and EAC - the fundamental difference being that EAC is free and dBPowerAmp is not. Both use AccurateRip to assist in ensuring that the accuracy of the ripped audio is as good as it can be.

I use EAC / AccurateRip for ripping to WAV image and CUE file then foobar2000 for encoding in FLAC and any additional tagging requirements. foobar2000 is also an extremely good tool for transcoding to another lossless or lossy codec.

AllanDeGroot

If size is not an issue why bother with losless compression at all?

Anything I feel like archiving as other than a 320KBit/sec mp3
I archive as WAV.

No compression, no decompression, no problems.

And wav can be converted to ANYTHING at will.

follow the K.I.S.S. principle.

Now as a direct answer to the following question seems justified:
Basically the lossless codecs eliminate "empty space"

they work similarly to the way video information is stored in dvd-format.

Instead of storing data for each "frame" they start with a frame that is significantly different from the previous one then the data for each subsequent frame is simply a list of ONLY what changed.

Periodically they start over with a "Fresh" frame worth of data, but that allows an enormous
ammount of compression without actually losing anything.

Lossless audio codecs typically apply a similar method of operation.

It's like looking at a persons face just staring at you on a video screen
how long can the image freeze before you notice?
and how much dat is actually different in the frames when someone blinks?

Do you need to rewrite the data for the parts of the image of their hair,
nose or ears when only their eyelids move?

THAT is how they squeeze 2hours of viedo onto a DVD.

But even with the "lossy codecs" much of what is lost is data that by
definition you could NEVER hear anyway.... high frequency sounds beyond
the perception of most people, other "softer sounds" that are masked by
louder sounds, etc...



AD

Matth

Lossless compression of many other forms of data (unless already subject to compression) is long accepted.

While other data is generally compressed by finding repeating elements, this does not work for audio.

To give a really simple example for audio compression - encode the change in sample value as a signed byte, +/-127, if the change is too great, tag as -128 and then present the full 16 bit value - samples which compress sucessfully are shrunk by 50%, with a 50% expansion penalty for those which do not.

More advanced lossless compression tries to minimize the differences by using a prediction for the next value, and where it reduces the data, by applying a mid/side conversion.


Also, APE / Monkeysaudio is on the move again...
http://www.monkeysaudio.com/versionhistory.html

After a brief stutter of 4.01b1/b2 in 2006, it's now up to 4.05 in 2009
Main thing seems to be a Directshow filter

trish3usa

Hi,
As of 3/21/09...
seems like EAC.EXE is no longer available at WWW.EXACTAUDIOCOPY.DE
now it is "Express Rip" by NCH Software?
RIPSETUP.EXE or something like this....
any feedback is appreciated.
THANKS
Noob

Whappo

I just tried it and everything is O.K. here. No mention of those other programs.

Ibex

Exact Audio Copy is still available, "Express Rip" is just a banner advert.

DrageMester

What you are seeing is simply a Google Ads banner advertisement on the EAC page:



The EAC program is still available.

EDIT: Ibex was much faster.

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gnutellafan

I would again encourage anyone looking at EAC to look at dBpoweramp. The latest release R13.2 is amazing, especially the ****-data. It gets ****-data from 4 providers and uses the best from each. It also gets album art.

t0nee1

I use both EAC and dBpoweramp--> to Flac (Lossless)....
There's also CDex, btw...I encourage anyone to try them all and pick what-works-for-them.....

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