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Topic: What to rip with on Mac (Read 10789 times) previous topic - next topic
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What to rip with on Mac

Dear Natives,

We are using EAC to rip CDs so we have the highest quality archive. Some of my colleagues will be creatng a similarmusic library on a Mac, since EAC is not available on the Mac, what is the equivalent software?

liz

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #1 –
MAX or XLD come highly recommended for Mac OS X users.  I believe that XLD (and maybe MAX) are AccurateRip compatible and you have the options to rip to numerous formats including FLAC, QuickTime VBR AAC, Lame mp3, etc.

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #2 –
Thank you.

Do you know if a FLAC file ripped on a PC is readable by a Mac?

liz

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #3 –
It sure is.  Just like an mp3 or AAC file ripped under Windows 7 will playback under Windows 2000, Windows XP, Mac OS X, various Linux distros, etc.  The files created by ripping applications are OS independent.

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #4 –
Here's another vote for XLD

I find it has better defaults, is easier to configure, and supports AccurateRip.  Max is fine too but I don't believe it supports AccurateRip.

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #5 –
Guys thank you so much. I have one last (dumb) questions. Great that those formats are OS independent So moving files between machines will work, but....If I have a mixed Mac & PC network if the PC ripped the music and it's on an external NAS drive can a Mac, on the same network, read the files?

Alternatively is there a way to synchronise audio files between a Mac & PC?

Or is that a step too far today?

Great active forum, I love it!!!

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #6 –
Quote from: lizat on
If I have a mixed Mac & PC network if the PC ripped the music and it's on an external NAS drive can a Mac, on the same network, read the files?

Alternatively is there a way to synchronise audio files between a Mac & PC?

The problem you may encounter is finding a file system compatible with all file sizes that you may want to share with both OSes. OS X can read/write FAT32 but if you are ever going to want to use files >4GB you'll have to use NTFS to keep the Windows OS happy which will mean you'll have to use a 3rd Party solution such as NTFS 3G (free) or Paragon NTFS (commercial). Alternatively you can use MacDrive to make Windows HFS+ compatible but it is more expensive.

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #7 –
Thank you FFooky I shall investigate

liz

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #8 –
I don't think you will have issues unless you have a bunch of single files that are larger than 4GB.  Otherwise FAT32 should work just fine.  I have my ALAC archive, along with ripped DVDs and downloaded movies, all on a FAT32 hard drive and have yet to encounter an issue.  You also might want to look into exFAT if you are running Windows Vista or 7.  I don't think Mac OS X supports it yet but my guess is that it will soon have to as the SDXC standard (the next step beyond SDHC cards) has adopted it as the file format for future card releases (the first 48GB and 64GB SDXC cards will be released either by the end of January or the beginning of February).

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #9 –
Quote from: kornchild2002 on
MAX or XLD come highly recommended for Mac OS X users.  I believe that XLD (and maybe MAX) are AccurateRip compatible and you have the options to rip to numerous formats including FLAC, QuickTime VBR AAC, Lame mp3, etc.


MAX does not do AccurateRip due to it being impossible to integrate AccurateRip with a GPL program which incorporates many other libraries which are not under his copyright so he can't change the license for them. MAX does not feature CDDB integration for the same reason even for closed source programs GraceNotes terms and conditions are pretty onerous.

sbooth has been busy with a new program called "Rip" though which does integrate AccurateRip. He has not released the source I presume he'ds deciding if he should keep it closed or dual license it such that anyone can build a non AccurateRip enabled version.

http://sbooth.org/Rip/

Personally I think the AccurateRip developers are wrong in their assertion that allowing open source implementations would cause bad data to be uploaded to their database however it's their database and their code so they can do what they like with it.

Regarding SDXC it's unclear when it will be supported. It uses a new file system called exFAT which is subject to Microsoft patents. It's only currently supported by Windows 7, Windows Vista and the most recent version of Windows CE, it's not even supported by Windows XP as MS refuse to back port the file system driver.

I imagine it could be a while before support shows up in OS X as Jobs will want to extract the best deal possible from MS with respect to licensing. It's also vaguely possible that they could not support it at all and try and bury the standard.

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #10 –
Not to go too far off-topic but the problem with Apple not supporting it is that people could not use their Apple computers with future digital camera releases.  Kind of pointless especially since Mac OS X carries that stigma of being an audio, photo, and video centered OS.  Still, I think that Apple will support it in the future without having to buy a 3rd party solution (MS is striking deals with digital camera and camcorder manufacturers, only a matter of time before they work with Apple).  I wasn't aware of Rip being developed.  My Apple friends all use XLD but they previously used MAX.  Either way, I think that every OS will have to support exFAT if they want to work with digital cameras.  Microsoft might be digging themselves into a shallow grave by not supporting exFAT with Windows XP.  They might be doing this to force people (at least photography enthusiasts) to upgrade to Windows 7.

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #11 –
Actually there is an exFAT driver from MS for XP and 2003. 

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=955704

There is also apparently a read-only Linux driver, but I don't know if there is an official site for it.

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #12 –
Quote from: kornchild2002 on
Not to go too far off-topic but the problem with Apple not supporting it is that people could not use their Apple computers with future digital camera releases.


Not entirely true. From what I've seen it would be perfectly possible to clean room a read only driver that didn't infringe on the patents. OS X only has NTFS read support for example. I suspect that an RO driver will be done for Linux sooner or later. For digital stills cameras the 32GB maximum you can get with SDHC is more than most people need. It's digital video that makes the 32GB look small.

I imagine we will see full support under OS X at some point what we are never going to see at least in the mainline kernels is write support under Linux. I imagine there will be embedded devices using dodgy binary only modules written under license from MS.

The other thing that we'll probably see is a exFAT FUSE (file system in user space) driver much like the NTFS-3G driver that can be used on Linux and OS-X for full NTFS support. This has the advantage of allowing people in jurisdictions where the patents don't apply to use the functionality.

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #13 –
Quote from: lizat on
Thank you.

Do you know if a FLAC file ripped on a PC is readable by a Mac?

liz


Of course, why not?
Try play the FLAC with "Cog", not bad.
Hong Kong - International Joke Center (after 1997-06-30)

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #14 –
Quote from: ffooky on
Quote from: lizat on
If I have a mixed Mac & PC network if the PC ripped the music and it's on an external NAS drive can a Mac, on the same network, read the files?

Alternatively is there a way to synchronise audio files between a Mac & PC?

The problem you may encounter is finding a file system compatible with all file sizes that you may want to share with both OSes. OS X can read/write FAT32 but if you are ever going to want to use files >4GB you'll have to use NTFS to keep the Windows OS happy which will mean you'll have to use a 3rd Party solution such as NTFS 3G (free) or Paragon NTFS (commercial). Alternatively you can use MacDrive to make Windows HFS+ compatible but it is more expensive.


The choice of a local filesystem (FAT, NTFS, HFS, etc.) does not matter in this scenario. A network share has its own filesystem layer. A typical NAS with CIFS/SMB support (aka "Windows share") is readable and writable by Windows, Mac OS X and most Unixes.

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #15 –
Quote from: johnsonlam on
Quote from: lizat on
Thank you.

Do you know if a FLAC file ripped on a PC is readable by a Mac?

liz


Of course, why not?
Try play the FLAC with "Cog", not bad.


Well, I know it shuold be but... in my "other life" I produce a lot of Word documents (on the PC) and although they are readable on the Mac those with complex formatting (typically high structured numbering and bullets) are often not truely presented and maintainable on the Mac;  I am not using word 2007 it has too many small hiccups and means a lot of redeveloping of word templates which I will have to so at some point, so it may be that the latest versions are truely portable.

The point here is really that bitter experience has tought me to be cautious, hence my question.

Anyway thank you and I shall give it a go........... liz

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #16 –
Really guys thank you for all the information, a lot to think about and play with!
 

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #17 –
Quote from: chelgrian on
MAX does not do AccurateRip due to it being impossible to integrate AccurateRip with a GPL program which incorporates many other libraries which are not under his copyright so he can't change the license for them. MAX does not feature CDDB integration for the same reason even for closed source programs GraceNotes terms and conditions are pretty onerous.

Personally I think the AccurateRip developers are wrong in their assertion that allowing open source implementations would cause bad data to be uploaded to their database however it's their database and their code so they can do what they like with it.


Code to access AccurateRip is fully compatible with the GPL, we would even gladly give out access example code without a license. There are conditions of usage of AccurateRip in a program (that is not source code related), they are: you tell us before hand about the program and its usage of the database, permission to access is then given. If the program/device is commercial then we would have a signed contract to access ARs database.

Only two programs submit to AR, EAC and dBpoweramp, these two submit through the standard AccurateRip access dll, which ensures that offsets are correct, we are not talking submissions to freedb where one record does not effect the submission of future records if keyed with a wrong offset. You might not like it, but it is the only way to ensure that the quality of the database is not impaired. This has nothing to do with open source program from having read only access to the database.

>MAX does not feature CDDB integration for the same reason even for closed source programs GraceNotes terms and conditions are pretty onerous.

The code to Access CDDB could be supplied, but without the username and password, this would be fully GPL compliant, you might find that CDDB access is not included in MAX because gracenote want $$$$.

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #18 –
Quote from: lizat on
Well, I know it shuold be but... in my "other life" I produce a lot of Word documents (on the PC) and although they are readable on the Mac those with complex formatting (typically high structured numbering and bullets) are often not truely presented and maintainable on the Mac;  I am not using word 2007 it has too many small hiccups and means a lot of redeveloping of word templates which I will have to so at some point, so it may be that the latest versions are truely portable.


Ah, yes indeed, I have the scars too. But that is a problem with Microsoft Word and constantly changing file formats within that program, and the fact that the PC and Mac versions never seem to be in sync (and you can have the same problems with different versions of Word on the same platform).

It's different and better with audio: the codec formats are specified, tightly, so that a non-broken program will understand the data files properly, however they were produced and whatever platform they were made on. If you can get the files from one OS to the other, there are no further gotchas.

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #19 –
Quote from: spoon on
Code to access AccurateRip is fully compatible with the GPL, we would even gladly give out access example code without a license. There are conditions of usage of AccurateRip in a program (that is not source code related), they are: you tell us before hand about the program and its usage of the database, permission to access is then given. If the program/device is commercial then we would have a signed contract to access ARs database.


Placing additional restrictions is not GPL compatible. Clearly you can remain GPL compatible by distributing the code without an access key to the database embedded in it then supplying that key separately to the end user. I assume when you say "without a license" you mean place into the public domain.

Quote
The code to Access CDDB could be supplied, but without the username and password, this would be fully GPL compliant, you might find that CDDB access is not included in MAX because gracenote want $$$$.


MAX Does have CDDB1 code in it and can talk to FreeDB. CDDB2 code and specifications are only available via a developer agreement with GraceNote the terms of which are incompatible with incorporating support in to any open source program. Sure you could reverse engineer the CDDB2 protocol and write an clean room GPL compatible implementation but given you couldn't access GraceNote's database what on earth would be the point?

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #20 –
Quote from: chelgrian on
OS X only has NTFS read support for example. I suspect that an RO driver will be done for Linux sooner or later.

A bit off-topic, but...

The latest Mac OS X actually has read / write support for NTFS, though not enabled by default.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?sto...090913140023382

There are also a number of Linux projects to support NTFS as well.  NTFS-3G via FUSE for example includes R/W support (which I now see that you've mentioned) (more).

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #21 –
Quote from: fracai on
The latest Mac OS X actually has read / write support for NTFS, though not enabled by default.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?sto...090913140023382

There are also a number of Linux projects to support NTFS as well.  NTFS-3G via FUSE for example includes R/W support (which I now see that you've mentioned) (more).


Well, for me this is exactly on topic as in the wider scheme of things with my project I need to know this and have dug up various bits of information. So I know about NTFS-3G with FUSE but not enabling OS X so this is very useful. I wonder if anyone has any experience or view about the comparative performance of these two options?

liz

What to rip with on Mac

Reply #22 –
As previously said, it shouldn't matter with a NAS setup as that will have its own setup independent of the file system used for the storage (something I completely missed out on).  The file system would matter only if you were directly hooking the hard drive up a computer.