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Which lossless format?

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Ash View Drop Down
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    Posted: 30 Jan 2022 at 10:26am
I have a lot of my music on CD and some on DVD/Blu-Ray that I want to preserve/archive to SSD and HDD.

Sorry to create yet another ripping thread but I'm back to the old debate of WAV vs FLAC again. I have many rare expensive video game albums and I don't want to regret any decisions later on. Both are lossless. WAV is uncompressed with no metadata support and FLAC is compressed and supports metadata. Seems like a no-brainer but is WAV better for audio editing as it is raw L-PCM and doesn't require transcoding like FLAC would? I may eventually wish to edit audio, which is why I want to futureproof. What about platform compatibility across different computer architecture?

Should I archive in both formats and spend more money on storage drives? Will have to plan for plenty of storage redundancy.

Then the software to use? Exact Audio Copy, dBPowerAmp and VLC Media Player seem to be the most recommended. I need to start the learning curve soon otherwise I won't start at all. lfc jon said that he is no good with computers but in this area, I doubt that I am any more knowledgable, probably less so.
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lfc jon View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote lfc jon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2022 at 10:54am
Your right about me and computers. I use dBpowerAmp It's a one off payment and it's very easy to use. I had some help from this forum so your on the right place. I rip to FLAC as if like me you will probably find you have CDs with incorrect data on them and with FLAC you can change it, It can be long and laborious at first but you will get use to it and speed up. The good thing with this program it is will find the artwork for the album which I find useful when looking for a album on the hard drive.
Reflex M, Solo (both with PSU-1) CuSat50, Lautus, Spatia & Spatia links cables. Ortofon Bronze.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Fatmangolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2022 at 10:57am
You'll probably know already that I use FLAC and dBPoweramp. Works for me.
Jon

Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC.
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Ash View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ash Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2022 at 11:06am
Some metadata like album cover and track name can be incorrect and will need to be changed. Where a lot of my albums are Japanese, the information is written in hiragana, katakana and kanji rather than English. I will probably have to translate a lot of metadata.

If WAV is easy to convert to FLAC, I might archive in WAV and list all the track information in text documents in case I need to copy and paste it across into the FLAC files although there may be tools that do this for you? What populates the metadata when you play a CD? Your computer connects to an online server, recognises the catalogue number of the disc and pulls the data across?
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Chris Firth View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote Chris Firth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2022 at 12:08pm
Originally posted by Ash Ash wrote:

What populates the metadata when you play a CD? Your computer connects to an online server, recognises the catalogue number of the disc and pulls the data across?
Very little of the data comes from the record companies, and if you happen upon something that does come from them the metadata is frequently atrocious.

The computer is guided towards online repositories which have CD data entered by ordinary folk like you or I, so smelling pistakes aren't unusual, punctuation occasionally absent, but more often than not the person ripping the CD manages to enter something that's comprehendible.
Mp3Tag is invaluable.

As for artwork, there are a number of places to go to find it.
Something I use is Album Art Downloader.


The WAV/FLAC conversation I refuse to get drawn into, as life's too short.
The data is ripped to WAV, then post rip converted into a smaller lossless package called FLAC.
On playback the FLAC is unpacked back to WAV.
If you're really paranoid you can compare checksums of the WAV and unpacked WAV.

I use FLAC because it makes for easier network handling with 24 bit files at high sample rates (176.4 & 192 KHz).
With CD spec stuff it matters less.





Edited by Chris Firth - 30 Jan 2022 at 12:09pm
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Mikeh View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mikeh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2022 at 12:35pm
Ash,
Like the others, I use dBpoweramp and FLAC format, uncompressed, for all CD ripping to NAS box. The software is very easy to use and offers the options to alter level of compression to be applied (if wanted). CDs are so quick to rip that it's easy to make multiple copies in different format. I usually make an MP3 copy to go on a USB stick for use in the car, or elsewhere.
Mike

Technics sl1210g with Victor U-2
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote patientot Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2022 at 12:50pm
FLAC all day. There is no loss of quality when converting back to WAV. It also saves a ton of space.
SL-1200 MK7 (modified) + Reflex M + PSU-1 used with AT150-40ML, AT VM95ML, Stanton 680mkII + Ogura, and Shure M35X cartridges.
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