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[benn600]

I am getting ready to start ripping my collection to FLAC.  Please help me determine if my settings are the best possible.
I don't care if it takes a lot longer--I want to do it right once and for all.

I am using quality setting 8 (highest)
Ripping and encoding separately (1 total concurrent operation)
Verify encoding (what does this do?)
Analyze audio during ripping

I really need to know if I should use the normalize before encoding feature and if so, what percentage?  I would love normalized music but don't want to sacrifice quality to get it.

I'll wait to start until I get good answers!  Thanks!

[Alex B]

At first, you may want to check this thread out:

Topic: How can I ensure quality of a ripped music file

I am using quality setting 8 (highest)

FLAC has always unaltered audio quality (lossless = the same as original). This setting is for the compression amount. A more compressed file is slower to encode. 5 or 6 might be a better option (faster, but not much bigger).

Ripping and encoding separately (1 total concurrent operation)

Simultaneously should be faster.

Verify encoding (what does this do?)

It is a FLAC option that probably checks each file after encoding.

Analyze audio during ripping

This is used for Replay Gain.

I really need to know if I should use the normalize before encoding feature and if so, what percentage? I would love normalized music but don't want to sacrifice quality to get it.

No, you should not use the Normalize option. It is a process that changes the files permanently. Instead you should analyze the files and use Replay Gain on playback.

[jgreen]

Ben--
Echoing Alex B here, DO NOT Normalize.  It is a permanent and irreversable  change to your files.  Instead, use replay gain, and join the ongoing argument if you wish as to the correct Replay Gain level, happy that Replay Gain can be changed at any time.

I originally ripped my collection to WAV.  Over the last year I have converted it all to FLAC.  For me, the motivation was primarily the enhanced tagging (over WAV) as well as disk space.  FLAC in particular of the lossless formats has a low CPU burden on playback. 

In analyzing the quality settings, scthom chose 6 as the default because he noticed a dramatic giveback in CPU effort in decoding 7 or 8, while the additional space savings was tiny.  My recommendation:  use 6.  Quicker to encode, easier to decode.

As to verify, I check it but I've never referred to it later.  I'm not sure what would happen if verify found an error, that's a question for scthom.  It takes about 30% longer to use it, but why not.

If I understand padding blocks, this is to create a consistent file size for tagging, so that tagging changes don't change file size.  I think.  It mght be something else completely, but I check it and so far nothing has exploded.

Personally, I would rip, then encode.  This is how I did it, and I liked the idea that I was looking things over every step of the way.  IMO, there is a lot of spooky voodoo involved in accessing the CD, and no matter how fast CPUs get, optical disk technology figures out a way to punish us for hoping for the best.  So I rip first, look it over, then encode to FLAC.

Good luck.  Make sure that you have the latest FLAC encoderf/decoder, available in the third party plugins area. 

[benn600]

I have been noticing some distortion on a song that only appears when I play it through Media Center, and not Video Lan Player (using FLAC).  How can I disable any automatic gain control because it seems like it might be hurting my music quality more than anything.

[jgreen]

Ben--
I can give you the basics of what to look for, as long as you're accessing your files locally.  If you are accessing files remotely (across a network), that introduces a whole other wombat and someone else much smarter will have to chime in.

First, go to tools/options/playback/DSP and output format.  Here you can disable any EQ or replay gain.

If you are still hearing distortion, look in "Output Mode" (just above it) and try switching from Direct Sound to Wave Out.

[JimH]

Make sure you have the right FLAC plug-in.  Check the FLAC thread (scthom is the keeper) on the Third Party board here.

[kingdaddy]

I don’t know if Accurip will work with MC11 but I know it will for EAC which I would recommend.  the Accurip add-on is a internet data base that compares known accurate rips to your rip and it lets you know the confidence level of the ripped file and it has a built in drive calibrator.  I concur, don’t normalize.  I had to re-rip 180Gig three times, one more time and I would have given up.

[JimH]

How can you know that the "known accurate rips" aren't flawed?

If you use the secure rip in MC, there's no reason to verify anything.  It won't create a bad rip.

[kingdaddy]

They have some reference files on-line and you go through your collection until you find one on their reference list, when it says OK, you rip that file and it compares it to yours and sets the offset of your drive.  I'm not sure how they know the reference files used to calibrate your drive are known good, but they obviously thing they are perfect bit for bit and I have noticed it pick out every known bad file I have even though the secure mode in EAC at highest level says that it corrected the errors, so I guess I believe them to an extent.

Some bit for bit fenatics pointed me to this add-on and sware by it and since I dont have the time or inclination to research it as much as they calim they did I just took their word for it.
 

[benn600]

I think the as long as I don't use my computer while it's encoding or ripping, that will help.  I also use secure rip, check the files, write log, etc. and it seems that as long as I get a true 100% rating from the log file, I don't have any trouble.

Whenever I see a lower percentage, I am very likely to find problems--even the "required 3 re-reads to get good data" statements are worthless and I will re-rip.  I found that one of my drives is much better at reading scratched discs.  I actually have a CD-Rom, CD-RW, DVD-RW, 2nd DVD-RW and the CD-RW drive, a very cheap, generic drive, is by far the best at reading scratched disks and giving me a 100% rating.  I usually stick four discs in and set to rip them all.  It rips a song, then encodes that track while ripping the next.  It usually rips much faster than it encodes.

So far, I seem to be having good luck as long as I check the logs.  I have a few discs which are scratched and not repairable (less than 1% of my library) so I may end up replacing them.  It is interesting that I have gathered music over the years from iTunes and other sources but suddenly find myself spending money ($426 today) on buying CDs.  I went to two local used CD shops and purchased 70 CDs--some of which I purchased tracks on iTunes!  I strongly desire a complete FLAC library...the biggest problem I have is that certain open-source songs aren't even available in FLAC.

Does anyone know where I can get the Super Mario songs from XOC in FLAC?  I emailed the author and haven't gotten a response yet.  You can find that I am talking about on http://archive.org

I'm lovin' this high quality music, even if I can hardly (if at all) tell the difference...I just feel better!