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Topic: FLAC Frontend Help (Read 5621 times) previous topic - next topic
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FLAC Frontend Help

please help.
i have spent more time than i've planned to on figuring out how the FLAC frontend works.
i have read the manual, searched the web but i am still confused.

all i want to do is compress WAV (from a CD) to FLAC

few things i don't understand:


1.  Level 8 of encoding. is the quality still lossless? is it true that the only draw back to more compression(higher level number), is the time it takes to compress.

2. Does Replaygain normalize the volume of the track?

3. Align on sector boundaries.  - what use is in that?

4. is it possible to compress a CD straight to FLAC? or do you need to to convert the tracks to WAV files first?

thanks in advance.

FLAC Frontend Help

Reply #1 –
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1.  Level 8 of encoding. is the quality still lossless?
Of course it is

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is it true that the only draw back to more compression(higher level number), is the time it takes to compress.
Correct.

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2. Does Replaygain normalize the volume of the track?
Indirectly, yes. It tells the player (if it supports Replaygain) to adjust the volume. It does not alter the original wave form. Otherwise, it would no longer be lossless.

Both question 1 and 2 have been answered and discussed numerous times, BTW. Have you bothered searching the forum first?

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3. Align on sector boundaries.  - what use is in that?
From FLAC's own help file: Align encoding of multiple CD format WAVE files on sector boundaries. I still don't get it, though. Just take it from me that it isn't of great consequence anyhow.

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4. is it possible to compress a CD straight to FLAC? or do you need to to convert the tracks to WAV files first?
Don't think there's a ripper that goes straight to FLAC without intermediate WAV. EAC doesn't, in any case, and EAC's by far the recommended ripper, especially if you're that picky about sound quality that you're apparently willing to store 800 kbps lossless files.

FLAC Frontend Help

Reply #2 –
Although EAC will still create intermediate wav files it is still possible to set it up in such a way that they will automatically converted to FLAC files and tagged properly.

For a good guide on how to set it up check Case's page here.

FLAC Frontend Help

Reply #3 –
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Although EAC will still create intermediate wav files it is still possible to set it up in such a way that they will automatically converted to FLAC files and tagged properly.
Absolutely, that's what I meant, actually. Just search the board and the many EAC+FLAC guides all over the net for the right setup, and you're up for a fun ride

[span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%']Edit: wording.[/span]

FLAC Frontend Help

Reply #4 –
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3. Align on sector boundaries.  - what use is in that?

see the flac docs: http://flac.sourceforge.net/documentation.html

search for 'sector-align'.  in any case, you probably don't want to use it.

Josh

FLAC Frontend Help

Reply #5 –
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Although EAC will still create intermediate wav files it is still possible to set it up in such a way that they will automatically converted to FLAC files and tagged properly.

For a good guide on how to set it up check Case's page here.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=235534"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]



I initially set up FLAC.exe to get the file hand-off from EAC, but my impression was that it made both apps run annoyingly slowly...something I didn't see when I was doing the same thing with high-quality --alt preset standard MP3.  So now I use EAC first, then do a drag-n-drop batch encode of all the .wavs to FLAC using the FLAC front-end. Is it that FLAC encoding (at 'best' preset, with verification )  is much more CPU-intensive than LAME encoding, or are there trick and tweaks for making them play nicer together, or am I imaging things?  (My 'puter is a vintage 2003 Dell Dimension running XP Home -- don't recall the specs right now, but it's pretty fast with most apps).

FLAC Frontend Help

Reply #6 –
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4. is it possible to compress a CD straight to FLAC? or do you need to to convert the tracks to WAV files first?[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=235530"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
As the other replies have mentioned, you must first convert to wav, but what they didn't add was that the "conversion" is very simple.  A wav file is simply the raw data from the CD plus a header (and a trailer?) that makes it compatible with the DOS file system.  So, while it would be possible to create a program that didn't actually write the data out to disk, it wouldn't have many advantages.

WRT Krabapple's comment about flac being slow when run by EAC -- I use EAC to handoff files to flac, and on rare occasions when I'm doing something cpu intensive with my pc while I'm ripping/encoding, there will still be one or two compression jobs left after EAC finishes up, but normally by the time EAC is done ripping the next track, flac has finished so I don't really care if flac is running slower than usual.  That's on a P4-3.2, w/1GB.

-- Rick
------- Rick -------
--------------------

FLAC Frontend Help

Reply #7 –
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WRT Krabapple's comment about flac being slow when run by EAC -- I use EAC to handoff files to flac, and on rare occasions when I'm doing something cpu intensive with my pc while I'm ripping/encoding, there will still be one or two compression jobs left after EAC finishes up, but normally by the time EAC is done ripping the next track, flac has finished so I don't really care if flac is running slower than usual.  That's on a P4-3.2, w/1GB.

-- Rick
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=235580"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


I agree about FLAC, actually -- it's not that FLAC runs slower that bothers me -- I don't really care how long that takes --  it's the slowdown in EAC's ripping that's a pain, because loading and ripping and unloading CDs is already the most time-sucking part for the human part of the interface. And I have a couple hundred CDs left to go, still.  I wonder what sort of 'assembly line' FLAC archiving practices people have come up with here?  Running more than one EAC or FLAC window, for example?  Multiple CD drives?

Anyway I think I'll run some more attentive comparisons and see if I'm really losing much time.  My impression was that the FLAC.exe handoff actually caused EAC to *pause* sometimes during its ripping.  I also have a vague sense that before I used the -V (verify) flag, this didn't happen.  Does that make sense?

FLAC Frontend Help

Reply #8 –
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I wonder what sort of 'assembly line' FLAC archiving practices people have come up with here?  Running more than one EAC or FLAC window, for example?  Multiple CD drives?

My impression was that the FLAC.exe handoff actually caused EAC to *pause* sometimes during its ripping.  I also have a vague sense that before I used the -V (verify) flag, this didn't happen.  Does that make sense?
I think I recognize what you're describing. In my view, the most convenient way of getting the full potential of EAC's ripping, no matter what format you're encoding to, is to check Make all compression tasks sleep in the Compression Queue Control Center under the Tools menu. This little option will postpone compression of the WAVs to (in your case) FLAC, which will allow you to rip a couple of tens of albums while you're at your pc, while all you have to do is change disks and check and correct titles for tagging. Then, when you go to sleep or don't have anything else to do at your computer, just untick the Make tasks sleep option. That'll make EAC and the FLAC encoder convert your albums while you're away. Just give it a try on 1 album, and you'll see how easy and fast it is.

FLAC Frontend Help

Reply #9 –
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I wonder what sort of 'assembly line' FLAC archiving practices people have come up with here?[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=235604"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I just finished ripping about 350 CDs.  For online (as in everyday, not as in file sharing) use I first detected gaps and then copied the individual tracks, compressed with flac.  As I mentioned, by the time EAC was done, flac was usually done.  But even if it wasn't, my next operation, while the CD was still in the drive, was to rip it again using "create image with cue sheet", uncompressed, so flac had plenty of time to catch up.  (I'm about to get on topic, here.)

Now what I've got is a 160GB drive about 2/3 full of individual, tagged flac tracks for daily use, and another 160GB drive almost full of one-wav-per-CD and cue file archives which I intend to compress with flac and roll off to optical media.

So I'm also extremely interested in the idea of automating the job, particularly as those 350 humongous wav files are in 131 separate (artist) directories, and flac.exe doesn't do directories.

I'm thinking of a wsh program to automate the process.  Feed it a directory tree and let it work overnight.  Kind of like Flac Frontend, but with directory support.  Currently I'm using foobar2000 to add tags (REM) to the cue files, so I suppose I should automate that process also. 

What sort of features would you like to see?
------- Rick -------
--------------------

FLAC Frontend Help

Reply #10 –
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3. Align on sector boundaries.  - what use is in that?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=235530"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


It's useful when a group of .wav files are not correctly cut along CD sector boundaries (1/75th of a second).  This can happen when a large .wav (ie a concert recording) is tracked by an audio editor such as Cool Edit or Soundforge which do not cut along CD sectors by default.  When the resulting waves are burned to CD, the burning software generally fills in the missing split second with digital silence, which results in clicks and pops between tracks.  Aligning on sector boundaries takes a split second from the beginning of the next track and appends it to the previous track, resulting in CD compliant files.

Of course, if you are dealing with files you ripped from CD, they are already on sector boundaries.
 

FLAC Frontend Help

Reply #11 –
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So I'm also extremely interested in the idea of automating the job, particularly as those 350 humongous wav files are in 131 separate (artist) directories, and flac.exe doesn't do directories.

I'm thinking of a wsh program to automate the process.  Feed it a directory tree and let it work overnight.  Kind of like Flac Frontend, but with directory support.  Currently I'm using foobar2000 to add tags (REM) to the cue files, so I suppose I should automate that process also. 


Every CD my collection is first ripped to a directory tree on an external drive, set up like  E:flacfiles/[genre]/[artist]/[album] , and thsi directory structure is reflected in the EAC filenaming config; all I have to do is choose the genre directory , EAC creates the ones under that automatically from the freedb info.  Once the night's ripping is done, I run a search for *.wav files, select all the results, drag and drop them into the Flac Frontend, and let it do its thing.  The originals are automatically deleted, and the flac tags are automatically generated from the tree structure.


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What sort of features would you like to see?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=235855"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


I would like a robot that feeds CDs into the drive tray and removes them when they're done.  Over and over and over.  (I actually found a website once where a guy had built something like this...)