Making a perfect audio cd rips?

[The Reverend]

I'm wanting to rip my entire audio cd collection as images to my computer. I plan on using Virtual Clone Drive to mount the images. It's from this point I'll use a program like EasyCd Extractor to make rips from this point. My question is how does Clone Cd vs. EAC (Exact Audio Copy) stack up. I want the highest quality rip.

When I use EAC to make a rip, it just doesn't have a lot of options for making good ID3 tags like with cover art. And when I use EasyCD Extractor I'm not sure it's producing a high quality rip, but I know it's producing a high quality encode. Plus ripping into flac for long term storage is fantastic, but doesn't allow for any kind of tagging of album info.

I want to have some kind of "master"/lossless file that has been ripped with the utmost precision that contains all the relevant album info. Edit(fix a "pop" or "scratch" sound) them if needed them in SoundForge. With this "master"/lossless file I could create a mp3-128kb file for a cell phone. A mp3-320 for my iPod. A lossless file for streaming to an network attached music player.

Please help because I want to embark on making a well ripped & encoded digital collection of my 600+ cd's.

 

[Webslinger]

I'm wanting to rip my entire audio cd collection as images to my computer. I plan on using Virtual Clone Drive to mount the images. It's from this point I'll use a program like EasyCd Extractor to make rips from this point.

Why do you want to create images? If you need .wavs on your system, just use Exact Audio Copy with the original cd. And if you want the best quality rip that's what you should be using. You can also use Exact Audio Copy to convert directly to whatever lossless file format you want. Best long term storage will always be a lossless audio file. That file can't change. A cd image file won't change either; however, at least you won't ever have to worry about extracting audio from an actual audio file.

 

[The Reverend]

Thank you for replying

1. I want to have some kind of "master"/lossless file that has been ripped with the utmost precision that contains all the ID tage info.

2. Edit(fix a "pop" or "scratch" sound) if needed in SoundForge.

3. With this "master"/lossless file I could create a mp3-128kb file for a cell phone. And mp3-320 for my iPod. And lossless file (with album info) for streaming to an network attached music player.

I have a lot of questions about storage and master audio files. I hope I can find solutions to them all. Thank you.

 

[Webslinger]

I have a lot of questions about storage and master audio files. I hope I can find solutions to them all. Thank you.

If the end result is mp3 you should be using EAC with Lame MP3 encoder. EAC is going to give you the best result with respect to sound quality.

Use the database tool in EAC to "get information for cd from"; then rip automatically to .mp3 from EAC.

I don't feel the proper answers to your question should involve anything other than EAC.

Moving thread to the Third Party Product forum . . .

 

[The Reverend]

Number 1 question

My question is how does Clone Cd vs. EAC (Exact Audio Copy) stack up? I want the highest quality rip.

 

[Webslinger]

My question is how does Clone Cd vs. EAC (Exact Audio Copy) stack up? I want the highest quality rip.

Clonecd doesn't rip to audio files; it doesn't extract audio to .wavs. Clonecd will create an .image, but it doesn't create .wav files.

Use Exactaudiocopy with the lame mp3 encoder.

 

[The Reverend]

Thank you for replying...

Clone Cd does make audio images. After mounting an audio image with Virtual Drive, then any audio ripping program would have access to what it thinks is a redbook audio cd in a standard cd-rom. So at this point any ripping program will rip it with equal quality. Because the hard work has been done with CloneCD. So my question is what is the quality of "rip" CloneCD can create vs EAC.

I love EAC but its lack of features doesn't support me. EAC just doesn't have the flexibility as EZCD Extractor does.

 

[Webslinger]

Clone Cd does make audio images.

Yes, but it's not the same thing. Also, Clonecd's Audio profile is by default set to "bad" (fastest) for "Audio Extraction Quality". You can edit the profile, and change that to "best (slowest"), but it's still not the same as ripping to a .wav.

In answer to your question, quite frankly, EAC does a better job than anything else at ripping audio if you're interested in quality. Clonecd does a very good job (and, in fact, in development, Olli often made reference to Exact Audio Copy), but nothing really tops EAC for precision and error checking, once EAC is set properly. Clonecd does a good job (I'm also pretty sure Olli never implemented offset correction, but that's fairly minor--perhaps, even pointless).

Maybe someone else will tell you what you want to hear, but for the life of me, I can't fathom why someone who wants .mp3s wants to create an image file first, mount it--and then rip from it yet again.

Anyway, I'm done. I've given you my answer.

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

An image of a bad disc will be bad. CloneCD isn't made to handle bad discs or deal with read errors. It creates an image of what it reads and that's it. If you create an image of a bad disc then the image will also be bad. EAC won't be able to fix the flaws from the bad image. If you rip from the original disc it can - in many cases - give you a good backup. Of course EAC can't handle all situations but I've had it help me on more than one occasion.

 

[BuddTX]

I have a similar question, and I will post it here instead of opening up a new thread.

When creating MP3's from EAC (EAC .99 beta 3 and LAME 3.98 beta 6, using alt-preset standard, and the secure mode of EAC, (in case anyone cares!)):

Sometimes EAC can't read my Audio CD's, or starts to do a lot of Error Correction (I had one CD that EAC tried to "fix" for over 18 hours).

BUT, if I take CloneCD, (with AnyDVD running) make an image of the audio CD, most of the time CloneCD says that it created a image without any errors.

Then I take VirtualCloneDrive and mount the image, then run EAC on the mounted VirtualCloneDrive image and BAMN! Most of the time, EAC creates all my MP3's without reporting any error.

So my question is this, is CloneCD really doing a better job of reading my Audio CD's, or is it just skipping over the errors but NOT reporting the errors?

I know that EAC has both a "secure" mode and a "burst" mode, is using CloneCD more like using the "burst" mode of EAC?

Of course, the answer I am hoping for, is that CloneCD can magicly correctly read the disc's that EAC cannot read!

OH, BTW, after using all kinds of polishing compounds to fix scratched CD's and DVD's, I purchased this thing called Skip Doctor, and WOW, it really does seem to help, and is SOOO much easer to use than polishing compounds!

Thanks for your answers!

 

[Webslinger]

Sometimes EAC can't read my Audio CD's, or starts to do a lot of Error Correction (I had one CD that EAC tried to "fix" for over 18 hours).

Some audio cds may contain protection that EAC no longer supports.

So my question is this, is CloneCD really doing a better job of reading my Audio CD's, or is it just skipping over the errors but NOT reporting the errors?

It may just be a case of Clonecd handling some protections better.

 

[BuddTX]

Some audio cds may contain protection that EAC no longer supports.

Thanks! However, I always run AnyDVD in the background, so I always assumed that AnyDVD (currently using 6.4.0.0) took care of any Audio CD Copy Protection. Also, these were older CD's that did have a fair amount of scuffs and scratches. The Skip Doctor really seemed to help fix most of the problems, but there were still some damaged areas.

It may just be a case of Clonecd handling some protections better.

That is what I wanted to confirm.