Lossless Cd Ripping Software
Kristin Banyas
Most websites state ALAC and FLAC will sound the same. When I rip a CD, I do it in FLAC, ALAC, and MP3. It takes more time but by doing this I have all the formats I may need for now and later. Storage space is not an issue with my NAS. You may want to take your favorite sounding CD and rip in both FLAC and ALAC and give both versions a careful listen. Let your ears decide. If they sound the same, ALAC saves a little storage space.
If you are playing a track directly from the server to the DAC, there is at least some room to argue that the decompression process would make some difference in sound quality. There is little support for the idea that ALAC files would sound different than compressed FLAC files since both would require decompressing.
However, if you are using a Roon Core and a Roon Endpoint, there is nothing to support the idea that FLAC, ALAC, WAV, or AIFF files, compressed or not, will sound any different. Why? Because the files that need decompressing are all decompressed BEFORE they are sent to the endpoint so the endpoint is going to receive the same exact data regardless of file format used. There is no technical reason for there to be a sound difference.
I have a pretty good ear and I have never heard a difference between lossless compressed and uncompressed formats on my system. Of course, I use a Roon Core and a Roon Endpoint. I use FLAC and compress all of my tracks.
Mark, one of the things I like about dBpoweramp is that is is much easier to use than XLD. I am a computer guy and I found XLD confusing to use compared to dBpoweramp. I guess what I am saying is that I think the price of dBpoweramp is worth paying if you can.
I just received my 2010 mac mini. I am about to rip my CD collection, but not sure how. I have not downloaded a music playback software program as of yet, such as Amarra, not sure this is required for ripping, or if there is another ripping software I have to have installed. I would like to store them in FLAC because it seems the most future proof without taking up too much space and this way I'm not married to apple.
Open iTunes, and set it to rip lossless ALAC. (You can choose whatever option/format you wish, but lossless is normally what people here want.) Once you have it in one lossless format, you can convert to any of the others. I use ALAC because it is lossless and compressed. AIFF is lossless but uncompressed and takes more space, and I am not one who can detect any difference. Wav is another option, and some here suggests they can hear a difference between wav and the others. You should check this for yourself.
If I have a CD where I might worry about the rip quality (bad scratches, for example), or you want to rip directly to FLAC, XLD (which is free) gives more feedback on the rip. I never actually do anything about the warnings, so I decided it wasn't worth the trouble. But I use XLD to convert from FLAC to ALAC, for example.
(2) When you rip your CD, I recommend using XLD, though iTunes will rip them for you just as well. XLD gives you the opportunity to edit the metatdata before you rip the files, meaning you can get the album artwork and such right the first time. Also artists, titles, etc.
If you are absolutely determined to rip to FLAC, then let me suggest you use the Squeezebox Server software as a library manager. Since these are all CD's, you can use "Squeezeplay" as your player, and everything will work pretty well. It is limited to CD quality however. You can rip the files directly to FLAC with XLD, and still maintain the benefit of being able to easily correct any bad metatdata.
Sorry to hijack the thread. I am in a similar situation to the OP, but with a macbook pro. You mentioned that "a dozen or so settings" need to be set right on XLS before ripping to make easier. Could you please give more details?
Great information. Thanks so much. I guess I'll abandon FLAC and go for one of the Apple formats. I will do an A or B test today to see if I can notice a difference, but AIFF will probably win due to space. Although I do have a 750GB HDD.
Aiff and wav are usually the uncompressed, space-wasting options, and ALAC and FLAC are both compressed, lossless options. I would suggest one of the compressed options unless you have a compelling reason to do otherwise (keeping in mind that any one of these will allow you to generate any or all of the other three without having to re-rip anything).
I use an iPad as a glorified remote control & although the Mac is connected to a tv in my listening room, I only use it when I am updating to a newer version of iTunes or PM & updating artwork for newly ripped CD's. The rest of the time it's "headless".
(1) Decide where you want to store your music. And external disk is usually a good solution for this. I personally install MacOS on the external drives if I use them with a Mac, and format them to use MacOS.
(2) Decide how you want to store your music. I use the following "formula" which is slightly different from iTunes default setup. I force iTunes to accede to my format, but not everyone wants or should do that. On the disk, there is a top level folder called "Music", and under that a series of other folders.
If you are using iTunes - setup the location of your media files and be sure to uncheck the options mentioned below, or iTunes will go and attempt to rearrange your disk for you, spoiling all that planning and careful work.
The end result of this is you can rip a CD, and have it automatically appear in your iTunes database with all the metadata set correctly, and with the physical files in a well known easily maintained (and backed up!) location.
You can also prove this to yourself. You can mark and delete every entry in your iTunes database - being very careful to NOT DELETE THE FILES - and recreate your iTunes database perfectly, with full metadata, all the album covers, etc., in just a very few minutes.
When I re-rip a CD with iTunes and save to ALAC, I found it will usually inherit the same metadata that I have on the mp3, so I do that first, and then delete. At the very least, having the data in the GUI can make cutting and pasting and editing the metadata go faster.
With XLD, you will be able to see it retrieve the artwork before you rip them, and you can load the artwork from XLD's search, or from artwork you find in a browser. (I have to do that occasionally with some of the less mainstream disks we find...)
I think I would create a brand new space for your new RIPS and just start filling it up. Then create a new iTunes library and point it to your media space. That is much harder to type than to do, and the library itself is tiny compared to the size of the media files.
Thanks for your recommendations on the settings. I am having difficulty using XLD. I downloaded it but am having a hard time finding it and launching it on my Mac mini. I am making the change over from a PC so it may be me not knowing what to look for. But, I cannot get it to load and place an icon anywhere. I WAS able to launch it once and made the settings changes you suggested.
When you install an application on the Mac, it puts it in the "Applications" folder. Essentially, you just need to open up the "Applications" folder and XLD will be in it, usually in alphabetical order.
Click on the finder icon. It is the funny looking blue face on the dock at the bottom of your screen. You might have to run the mouse down there to get the dock to show. Usually the finder icon is the leftmost icon.
When you do that a window will open, on the left hand side you should see a list. One of the items in the list is "Applications" - just click on that. The list on the right should change and display a list of the applications installed on your Mac. Scroll down to the bottom, and you should find XLD at or very near the bottom of the list.
Click and hold on the XLD icon (you don't want to run it yet...), and after two or three seconds, while still keeing the mouse button depressed, drag the icon down to the Dock. Wheverever you point the icon stif should "move aside" to allow you to put the icon there. Once you are happy with the location in the dock, release the Mouse button and the icon for XLD should settle in.
As for the slow part - adding the file directly to the iTunes library makes it a little slower, but not that slow. You are not, by any chance, reading from a NTFS formatted volume that is write enabled to the Mac are you?
1. The "Superdrive" firmware deliberately handicaps the drive when ripping audio CDs, making the drive super slow. An external (not the Apple external), preferably containing a 5.25 inch form factor drive, can be up to 10 times as fast.
2. The "Superdrive" can have a very short life span, becoming increasingly unreliable until completely failing to read discs. This can severely slow ripping with XLD because XLD will repeatedly try to get an accurate rip from a disc (there's a preference for maximum number of retries) whereas iTunes may simply proceed with a bad rip and give no hint of uncorrectable errors having occurred. Note that it is normal for XLD to be slower than iTunes at ripping, but it certainly shouldn't be taking nearly the real time of the audio.
I currrently have three drives that I have use on my 2010 Mac Mini. To my surprise one really stands out and sounds clearly better, the Oyen Digital MiniPro 1TB External 2.5-in FireWire 800/400, USB 5400 rpm with the Oxford 943 chipset. This drive is bus powered from the firewire meaning there is no out board power supply. The other two drives are only used as back up.
I just finished (thank god) ripping 1550 CDs via ITunes AIFF with the error correction box checked. I use Pure Music for play back but Rob at Pure Music recommended that I do not ripp music while Pure Music is booted up, so just have I tunes on for ripping.
Even after ripping 1550 CDs in AIFF I still have plenty of room left on my 1TB drives. I like the sound of the AIFF files. When your done your ripping make sure you copy the files to at least one more drive for back up.
c80f0f1006