[slim] Re: Just getting started...
jmpage2 Wrote: Just a comment on this whole hard disks are cheap so rip to FLAC thing. Yes, hard drives are cheap, you can probably get a couple of 200GB drives and rip all of your stuff to FLAC. Then if you want to back it all up effectively you will need to buy another couple of hard drives or set up a RAID, etc... all of a sudden not as cheap. Especially if you need a transcoded copy of your music for devices that don't support FLAC. I had a buddy with a bunch of music that was not backed up. His motherboard went out and corrupted the hard drive. Now he gets to rip 400 CDs again. Fun.If you are happy with MP3 quality at the moment, rip and backup FLACs to a 'normally-offline' disk and just keep the MP3s versions on-line. That way you miminise the cost, and always have a FLAC backup. DVDs are an option but you'll only get 12-15 CDs per DVD, so for a large collection that's a fair number of DVDs to restore if you have a crash. Quicker than re-ripping though! -- Patrick Dixon ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
What button is that? Could you provide some more detailed instructions about how you do this in foobar 2000? I'm assuming that you are coverting into mp3 or ogg. Does it also transfer the metadata from the FLAC file to the other format? I'm not sure about a button, but if you select all the files, right-click and choose one of the Convert options, that'll do it for you. There are many options including command-line driven conversions for those not built-in to Foobar2000 (e.g., for FLAC files I use a JavaScript script file to tell iTunes to convert to AAC for iPod listening). Tags are definitely preserved. SBB Visit our website at http://www.ubs.com This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required please request a hard-copy version. This message is provided for informational purposes and should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any securities or related financial instruments. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
JJZolx Wrote: That's correct. There's no difference in sound quality - all levels are lossless. I use FLAC's default compression level, which I believe is 5. You gain very little in file size by going higher. You should play around and run FLAC from the command line using the different compression levels on a couple of WAV files and see for yourself the differences in encoding time and file size. The only difficulty that I am having now, is having the dbpowerAMP program travel to the internet and retrieve cd/track/artist information. Can someone provide an easy step by step method of ripping CDs to FLAC and getting the information about each disc downloaded with it? If this means ditching the dbpowerAMP program that is fine. Do not feel the need to be too specific, just say what program you are using, how you point it to the FLAC Codec and what setting you use to rip the music with all of the information about the music included. Thanks a lot for the assistance. -- bjmacdow ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
On Wed, 2005-04-20 at 08:49 -0700, bjmacdow wrote: The only difficulty that I am having now, is having the dbpowerAMP program travel to the internet and retrieve cd/track/artist information. I use CDex and EAC on Windows boxes, either will get the CDDB/freeDB data where possible. On Linux, I use grip Then I use flacfrontend on windows to compress and tag. There are lots of ways to do it. -- Pat http://www.pfarrell.com/music/slimserver/slimsoftware.html ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
RE: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
Last time I used dbpowerAMP it did look up the CD data! Is it not working? James -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Pat Farrell Sent: 20 April 2005 17:14 To: Slim Devices Discussion Subject: Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started... On Wed, 2005-04-20 at 08:49 -0700, bjmacdow wrote: The only difficulty that I am having now, is having the dbpowerAMP program travel to the internet and retrieve cd/track/artist information. I use CDex and EAC on Windows boxes, either will get the CDDB/freeDB data where possible. On Linux, I use grip Then I use flacfrontend on windows to compress and tag. There are lots of ways to do it. -- Pat http://www.pfarrell.com/music/slimserver/slimsoftware.html ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss NOTICE: If received in error, please destroy and notify sender. Sender does not waive confidentiality or privilege, and use is prohibited. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
Okay, after getting stuck on the whole EAC/CDEx/Mareo/Flac/Ogg thingymajig I've been searching around the 'net and I've found this. On another messageboard it was suggested to use '_VUPlayer_' (http://www.vuplayer.com/vuplayer.htm) so I've loaded it, and even though I've only given it a very quick run through, it seems to do everything I need. Just thought I'd post it on here so anyone looking for a CDripper that interfaces to a database for track names, and then to encode to FLAC, OGG, MP3 etc., can add it to their option list. -- CavesOfTQLT ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
James, I used dbpowerAMP, set it to code to FLAC and was ripping Morrison Hotel, an easily id'd disk and it did not do an autofill of the information. My DSL was definitely operating at the time. Not sure what the issue was, I will try it again tonight if time permits. Craig, James (IT) Wrote: Last time I used dbpowerAMP it did look up the CD data! Is it not working? James -Original Message- From: discuss-bounces (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com [mailto:discuss-bounces (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com] On Behalf Of Pat Farrell Sent: 20 April 2005 17:14 To: Slim Devices Discussion Subject: Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started... On Wed, 2005-04-20 at 08:49 -0700, bjmacdow wrote: The only difficulty that I am having now, is having the dbpowerAMP program travel to the internet and retrieve cd/track/artist information. I use CDex and EAC on Windows boxes, either will get the CDDB/freeDB data where possible. On Linux, I use grip Then I use flacfrontend on windows to compress and tag. There are lots of ways to do it. -- Pat http://www.pfarrell.com/music/slimserver/slimsoftware.html -- bjmacdow ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
CavesOfTQLT Wrote: Okay, after getting stuck on the whole EAC/CDEx/Mareo/Flac/Ogg thingymajig I've been searching around the 'net and I've found this. On another messageboard it was suggested to use '_VUPlayer_' (http://www.vuplayer.com/vuplayer.htm) so I've loaded it, and even though I've only given it a very quick run through, it seems to do everything I need. Just thought I'd post it on here so anyone looking for a CDripper that interfaces to a database for track names, and then to encode to FLAC, OGG, MP3 etc., can add it to their option list. I will give this a go this evening also. Thanks Caves. -- bjmacdow ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
If you are going the mp3 route, I highly recommend using one of the LAME encoder's high quality VBR presets. version 3.90.3 with setting --alt-preset standard or version 3.96.1 with setting --preset standard are recommended. Using CBR is just wasting space in my opinion. You may also want to try a listening test with --preset extreme - a higher bitrate VBR setting than standard. If you can't tell the difference on the type of music you listen to the most, use the standard setting. -- jth ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
JTH, I am the total Novice here. I just did a search on LAME encoders as I did not know what they were. On Friday I will do a listening test, and then, if necessary, reformat the 200gb drive and start over ripping with LAME. Thanks for the suggestion. You prefaced your suggestion with, if you are going the MP3 Route. Is there a better route to consider that will also allow a fair amount of compression and decent reproduction? -- bjmacdow ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
--- jth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If you are going the mp3 route, I highly recommend using one of the LAME encoder's high quality VBR presets. version 3.90.3 with setting --alt-preset standard or I agree. Rip with Exact Audio Copy (EAC) in secure mode and let EAC encode it for you as well using LAME 3.90.3 with the --alt-preset standard switch. I've ripped about 800 CD's with this method and couldn't be more pleased (unless I had enough storage space to do it with FLAC.) http://www.exactaudiocopy.de __ Do you Yahoo!? Plan great trips with Yahoo! Travel: Now over 17,000 guides! http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
Squeezebox2 supports mp3, flac, and wav in the hardware - so these are natural choices if you're starting from scratch. The other route is flac - http://flac.sf.net/. flac is a lossless audio compressor. This means your music should sound the same as CD, at the expense of greater file size than mp3. You'll get compression of 20 - 60% with flac depending on the style of music. Typically it uses about 3-5x as much space on disk as a high quality mp3 file. Again, you may or may not be able to tell the difference with your equipment and ears, so add some flac files to your listening mix. Get a friend to help you perform a double-blind ABX test if you're really serious about it. :-) -- jth ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
Ok...I am a total novice at this. For clarification, does EAC have LAME 3.90.3 embedded into it as an option? Or do you rip through EAC and then compress everything ripped again with LAME 3.90.3? Thanks for your assistance and clarification. -- bjmacdow ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
Ben, one of the best places I have found for information about compressed audio formats is www.hydrogenaudio.org It contains a vast amount of information but try not to be intimidated. When you have time browse the FAQ section there. Since you are going to be using a Squeezebox2, you should stick with MP3 or FLAC. I personally use LAME 3.90.3 with --alt-preset standard --scale x.xxx I calculate the scale with WaveGain in album mode. That way all of my albums have the same relative loudness. One could also use MP3gain on the files after compression but I would find it easier to do it before hand. However if I had Squeezebox2 and enough disk space I would go the FLAC route for sure. Good luck, Steven On 4/19/05, bjmacdow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: JTH, I am the total Novice here. I just did a search on LAME encoders as I did not know what they were. On Friday I will do a listening test, and then, if necessary, reformat the 200gb drive and start over ripping with LAME. Thanks for the suggestion. You prefaced your suggestion with, if you are going the MP3 Route. Is there a better route to consider that will also allow a fair amount of compression and decent reproduction? -- bjmacdow ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
CavesOfTQLT wrote: Sorry to jump into this thread but reading those flac comments makes me want to try it out. Can someone point me to a good 'copy that CD into flac' site or just to indicate the steps/instructions I need to do this using EAC or other software. So far all my CDs are encoded in mp3 and Ogg (mainly because my personal DP reads these formats), but I'd like to start using flac for all my new CDs, in readiness for my SB2 system. Any help/pointers appreciated. This was discussed a little over a year ago in a previous thread, you can see my response there: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpost.php?p=12002postcount=2 But in a quick summary here is what I did. I used EAC to encode directly to FLAC. It is identical to setting up EAC to encode to LAME. You just select Other Codec in the settings and point to where the FLAC.exe file is located. You can get the codec at http://flac.sourceforge.net/ plus links to other software that supports FLAC. Settings for using alternative codecs in EAC can be found at http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/EAC/. dbPowerAmp, can also rip from CD to FLAC. It worked well in a few trials that I did. If you are not willing to wait for EAC I think it is a good substitute. Even with its AccurateRip feature turned on , which I would recommend, it was about twice as fast as EAC. If you have any questions feel free to ask. Tom ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
--- bjmacdow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Ok...I am a total novice at this. For clarification, does EAC have LAME 3.90.3 embedded into it as an option? Or do you rip through EAC and then compress everything ripped again with LAME 3.90.3? Thanks for You have to download the LAME codec separately. It is available here: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=28123 You then must go into EAC's settings and point it to the codec. On that same setttings screen is a place for the --alt-preset standards switch. The 3.90.3 version of LAME is best if you intend on using the --alt-preset switches. Otherwise you can use a more current version. __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/ ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
Again IME, it's the small differences that you hear in a short A-B listening test, that make the big differences to your enjoyment over the longer term. Source first is a hi-fi adage, and you can't get much more 'source first' than looking after the bits on your disk. You can then buy a better pair of speakers (or whatever) down the road, and not worry that you can now hear the compression artifacts. -- Patrick Dixon ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
CavesOfTQLT wrote: Can someone point me to a good 'copy that CD into flac' site or just to indicate the steps/instructions I need to do this using EAC or other software. from the FLAC FAQ: http://flac.sourceforge.net/faq.html#tools__eac_and_flac How do I set up EAC to rip directly to FLAC? See Case's excellent EAC configuration page. http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/EAC/index.html Or use MAREO to rip to multiple formats at once. http://mareo.netfirms.com/ --rt ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
bjmacdow Wrote: Out of curiosity...how much time would it take to burn a standard 12 track CD in EAC to Flac and/or LAME?There are acouple of ways to do it: you could rip (not burn) to WAV, and then setup a batch process to run overnight using flac and lame to generate compressed formats, wiping the WAVs when you're done, or you can use something like MAREO (which I haven't tried) to run them both directly from EAC. The second is likely to be a little slower. EAC queues compression tasks up, so the queue would just extend if you fed the draw more quickly than the PC could compress. (Beware that you don't kill EAC before the queue is empty or you'll end up with some files that didn't get compressed.) Obviously, it depends on the speed of your processor and CD reader, but just ripping and converting to flac, I reckon you should estimate about 10 per hour. If you don't use the accurate mode it's quicker, but more risky. The problem is that it's difficult to just sit there and just watch, and when you start doing other things on the same PC it tends to slow down! -- Patrick Dixon ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
bjmacdow Wrote: Thank you all for the information and for pointing us to the various resources available. I second that. Thanks everyone. I'm currently trying -fuzzyT-'s suggestion of using _Mareo_, mainly because I'd want something that can rip and encode to ogg and flac at the same time, and as I normally use CDEx for my ripping and mareo states it will work with it it's a given that I give it a try. At the moment I'm just following the set-up on the mareo site, and then I'll be ready to give it a track to rip. -- CavesOfTQLT ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
CavesOfTQLT Wrote: At the moment I'm just following the set-up on the mareo site, and then I'll be ready to give it a track to rip. Well after two hours trying I've given up on it. I keep getting errors from the Mareo command line window and I'm at a loss where the problem is. If anyone has got mareo working with either CDEx or EAC, converting into FLAC and OGG, with the resulting files having the following syntax 01-She Loves Me within an artist/cdname file configuration, could you please give me a copy of the parameters (in the mareo.ini and EAC/CDEx), etc., of how you've done it. I'd be extremely grateful because at the moment the whole thing has got me completely and utterly stuck. Rob -- CavesOfTQLT ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
Just a comment on this whole hard disks are cheap so rip to FLAC thing. Yes, hard drives are cheap, you can probably get a couple of 200GB drives and rip all of your stuff to FLAC. Then if you want to back it all up effectively you will need to buy another couple of hard drives or set up a RAID, etc... all of a sudden not as cheap. Especially if you need a transcoded copy of your music for devices that don't support FLAC. I had a buddy with a bunch of music that was not backed up. His motherboard went out and corrupted the hard drive. Now he gets to rip 400 CDs again. Fun. -- jmpage2 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
jmpage2 Wrote: Just a comment on this whole hard disks are cheap so rip to FLAC thing. Yes, hard drives are cheap, you can probably get a couple of 200GB drives and rip all of your stuff to FLAC. You missed the point. Rip to FLAC so that you'll never need to rip again. Say you had your collection in FLAC, but some day you decide that your entire collection should be in another lossless format, or you'd like to create some low-rate mp3s. You run a conversion script and you're done. If you had only lossy files then you'd need to rip everything again or you end up with horrid quality sound. Then if you want to back it all up effectively you will need to buy another couple of hard drives or set up a RAID, etc... all of a sudden not as cheap. Especially if you need a transcoded copy of your music for devices that don't support FLAC. I had a buddy with a bunch of music that was not backed up. His motherboard went out and corrupted the hard drive. Now he gets to rip 400 CDs again. Fun. Or you back up to DVD-R like many of us. I get an average of about 16 CDs per 4.7 GB disc. You only need to back up any file in your collection once, unless you re-rip it or change something like a tag. I label the disks and keep a spreadsheet listing the albums on each disk. You can get a fairly large music collection onto a 100 disk spindle. -- JJZolx ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
On Tue, 2005-04-19 at 12:32 -0700, jmpage2 wrote: I had a buddy with a bunch of music that was not backed up. His motherboard went out and corrupted the hard drive. Now he gets to rip 400 CDs again. Not at all clear to me that ripping to Flac or ACC or WMA or anything else would have any impact on this argument. Backups are needed, or you have to accept that the 700+ CDs on the shelf are the backup. If you want faster backup than that, you have to use some other media, DVDs, disks, zillions of floppies, etc. My point was that disks are so inexpensive that the disk saving between FLAC and a lossy compression format is not worth the effort. The pain of loading hundreds of CDs is a major part of the psychic cost of losing your music. My music is spread over three disks, it is unlikely that all three will go out at once. I chose to have only one copy of the music in FLAC on disks, and consider the shelves of CDs to be my backup. YMMV, etc. -- Pat http://www.pfarrell.com/music/slimserver/slimsoftware.html ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
If you have 800 CD's, that's probably an investment of £6k-£12k 500Gb of disk (more than enough to hold 800 Cd's in FLAC) will cost £500. (+£500 for a set of backup disks). Surely it's worth it to: 1) get your CD's out of the room and into storage 2) never worry about having to re-rip to a better format - how much is your time worth - we only live once (I think) As your enjoyment of the music you have paid for increases, you MAY be tempted to improve your hi-fi - MP3's (in ANY form) do not compare with FLACS/WAV's once you have a certain level of reproduction equipment and a certain level of expectation about how you'd like things to sound. IMHO, MP3's are great for portables/in-car/internet download - and that's it. Flame-proof suit deployed :o) -- Phil Leigh ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
--- bjmacdow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Out of curiosity...how much time would it take to burn a standard 12 track CD in EAC to Flac and/or LAME? This depends greatly on three things: 1) The speed of your CD drive - Obviously, the faster your drive can extract the audio the quicker the overall process will move. 2) The condition of your CD's - One of the primary reasons everyone uses EAC is that it has a secure mode that reads every bit on your CD at least twice to make sure you get a bit perfect rip. Therefore, EAC takes at a minimum twice as long to extract your audio even if you CD is in pristine condition. If on the second read it detects an error it re-reads it again and again until either it perfectly extracts the data or determines that it cannot be read and fails. During this process on a badly damaged disc it can slow the read process to well below 1x. I ripped a CD once with EAC that had portions that I could not even play on any other CD player because it was in such bad shape and got a bit perfect copy but the process took 8 hours. 3) The speed of your processor - Once the audio has been extracted (into a WAV format) it must be encoded using your chosen compression format (MP3 or FLAC). This is a very processor intensive process. It can take forever on an older computer. If I have a CD in pretty good shape I can rip it using EAC in secure mode and encode it using LAME (MP3) with the --alt-preset switch in ten minutes or so. I have an AMD 2800+ processor with 1GB RAM and a Plextor Premium 52x CD drive. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
RE: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
Here is a link to a site that I found interesting. Although he favors WMA lossless for his collection--which many people here would disagree with--he does offer a good discussion on using EAC and why a lossless format is his preference.. Disclaimer: I am NOT taking a side on FLAC vs WMA. There is some good content here regardless of what you think about the format choice. http://www.virroaudio.net/ripping/EACconfig.htm -Original Message- From: Todd Fields [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tue 4/19/2005 5:44 PM To: Slim Devices Discussion Cc: Subject: Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started... --- bjmacdow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Out of curiosity...how much time would it take to burn a standard 12 track CD in EAC to Flac and/or LAME? This depends greatly on three things: 1) The speed of your CD drive - Obviously, the faster your drive can extract the audio the quicker the overall process will move. 2) The condition of your CD's - One of the primary reasons everyone uses EAC is that it has a secure mode that reads every bit on your CD at least twice to make sure you get a bit perfect rip. Therefore, EAC takes at a minimum twice as long to extract your audio even if you CD is in pristine condition. If on the second read it detects an error it re-reads it again and again until either it perfectly extracts the data or determines that it cannot be read and fails. During this process on a badly damaged disc it can slow the read process to well below 1x. I ripped a CD once with EAC that had portions that I could not even play on any other CD player because it was in such bad shape and got a bit perfect copy but the process took 8 hours. 3) The speed of your processor - Once the audio has been extracted (into a WAV format) it must be encoded using your chosen compression format (MP3 or FLAC). This is a very processor intensive process. It can take forever on an older computer. If I have a CD in pretty good shape I can rip it using EAC in secure mode and encode it using LAME (MP3) with the --alt-preset switch in ten minutes or so. I have an AMD 2800+ processor with 1GB RAM and a Plextor Premium 52x CD drive. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss winmail.dat___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
Rob, Mareo really doesn't like any blank lines in the mareo.ini file. Make sure every line that's not a command line has a semicolon at the beginning. Make sure there's not a blank line at the end of the file -- very easy to overlook. The command must be one line - no breaks. Use an editor that shows (and preserves) lines without breaking. I'll attach my current working mareo.ini -- I rip to mp3 and FLAC. I let EAC do the output path for MP3s and put the output path for my FLACs into the mareo.ini. I also have separate setups for CDs with various artists and comment out the one I'm not using. Try mine the way it is (changing drive letters and paths to suit you) then, one change at a time, modify the ini file to do what you want. Robert CavesOfTQLT wrote: CavesOfTQLT Wrote: At the moment I'm just following the set-up on the mareo site, and then I'll be ready to give it a track to rip. Well after two hours trying I've given up on it. I keep getting errors from the Mareo command line window and I'm at a loss where the problem is. If anyone has got mareo working with either CDEx or EAC, converting into FLAC and OGG, with the resulting files having the following syntax 01-She Loves Me within an artist/cdname file configuration, could you please give me a copy of the parameters (in the mareo.ini and EAC/CDEx), etc., of how you've done it. I'd be extremely grateful because at the moment the whole thing has got me completely and utterly stuck. Rob ; MAREO - (M.)ultiple (A.)pplications (R.)unner for (E.)AC and (O.)thers. ; ; LIST OF LITERALS AND THE VALUES THEY REPRESENT ; ; Literal FromFinall Value ; @program@ Command Line Parameter # 1 EAC or CDex ; @finalname@ Command Line Parameter # 2 Encoded File Final File Name ; @source@ Command Line Parameter # 3 FULL Source File Name ; @dest@Command Line Parameter # 4 FULL Destination File Name ; @artist@ Command Line Parameter # 5 CD Artist Name ; @cdname@ Command Line Parameter # 6 CD Name ; @songname@Command Line Parameter # 7 Song Name ; @track@ Command Line Parameter # 8 Track (song) Number ; @year@Command Line Parameter # 9 Year of the CD release ; @genre@ Command Line Parameter # 10 CD's Music Genre ; ; @11@ Command Line Parameter # 11 Anything User Defined ; .... .. ; @nn@ Command Line Parameter # nn Anything User Defined ; ; @ownpath@ MAREO finds out the full path to MAREO, without the the ending backslash ; @fullname@MAREO finds out the full temporal name with the encoder extension ; @pathonly@MAREO finds out the full temporal path, without the ending backslash ; @nameonly@MAREO finds out the temporal name, without any extension ; @extonly@ MAREO finds out the encoder file extension withouth the dot (ie: OGG) ; ; NOTE: insteado of (for example) @[EMAIL PROTECTED], you can use a full path like c:\encoders\lame.exe ; ; THIS IS A LIST OF ACTUALLY USABLE ACTION LINES, TAKEN FROM HYDROGENAUDIO.ORG RECOMMENDED SETTINGS. ; JUST UNCOMMENT THE ONE YOU NEED TO USE. ; ; ; --- ; MP3 LAME STANDARD (180-220 kbps VBR -- usually averages around 192 kbps): ; --- mp3 NONE NONE C:\Audio\MP3\Encoders\lame-3.96.1\lame.exe --alt-preset standard --add-id3v2 --ta @artist@ --tl @cdname@ --tt @songname@ --tn @track@ --ty @year@ --tg @genre@ --tc ÜberStandard - UberNet.org @source@ @dest@ ; ; --- ; for VARIOUS artists - MP3 LAME STANDARD (180-220 kbps VBR -- usually averages around 192 kbps): ; --- ;mp3 NONE f:[EMAIL PROTECTED]@ C:\Audio\MP3\Encoders\lame-3.96.1\lame.exe --alt-preset standard --add-id3v2 --ta @artist@ --tl @cdname@ --tt @songname@ --tn @track@ --ty @year@ --tg @genre@ --tc ÜberStandard - UberNet.org @source@ @dest@ ; ; --- ; Flac 'MAXIMUM COMPRESSION' (slow) ; --- flac NONE g:\Flac'[EMAIL PROTECTED]@[EMAIL PROTECTED]@ C:\Audio\Compressors\Lossless\flac-1.1.1-win\bin\flac.exe --best --replay-gain -V @source@ -o @dest@ -T artist=@artist@ -T album=@cdname@ -T title=@songname@ -T
Re: [slim] Re: Just getting started...
I did my A/B test with a good pair of headphones. One thing that I noticed immediately -- the soundstage for an MP3 song (in comparison with a non-compressed one) just collapses into practically nothing. A song that immediately comes to mind is Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi. The acoustic guitar that opens the song is really alive in the non-compressed version. Almost flat in the MP3. All the notes are there, but the stuff you won't ever miss is gone. You may not hear it, but you'll notice when it's gone. Robert Patrick Dixon wrote: Again IME, it's the small differences that you hear in a short A-B listening test, that make the big differences to your enjoyment over the longer term. Source first is a hi-fi adage, and you can't get much more 'source first' than looking after the bits on your disk. You can then buy a better pair of speakers (or whatever) down the road, and not worry that you can now hear the compression artifacts. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
Ok. I have downloaded the dbpowerAMP program and it provides an option of 1-8 compression for FLAC. Which would you folks represent. If something is ripped into FLAC Format should the sound be the same for each compression level, but the time it takes to rip each disc is longer as the compression level gets higher? -- bjmacdow ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Just getting started...
bjmacdow Wrote: Ok. I have downloaded the dbpowerAMP program and it provides an option of 1-8 compression for FLAC. Which would you folks represent. If something is ripped into FLAC Format should the sound be the same for each compression level, but the time it takes to rip each disc is longer as the compression level gets higher? That's correct. There's no difference in sound quality - all levels are lossless. I use FLAC's default compression level, which I believe is 5. You gain very little in file size by going higher. You should play around and run FLAC from the command line using the different compression levels on a couple of WAV files and see for yourself the differences in encoding time and file size. -- JJZolx ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
