Why no FLAC in CDex/EAC? Options

[analogy]

See title. Why isn't there a simple option to use FLAC as an external encoder like you can with virtually every other compressed format out there? Instead I have to dick around with the manual external encoder settings.

[NeoMoose]

I don't even think CDex has been updated in almost 6 months, if not longer. I'm almost assuming it's dead.

[analogy]

I've actually taken to using EAC lately because I heard some audible clicks in a CDex rip that don't show up in EAC, so I'm hooked there. The trouble is that EAC's interface is horrible, and it doesn't do FLAC natively.

How does everyone here rip FLAC and have it tag properly and everything?

[guruboolez]

How does everyone here rip FLAC and have it tag properly and everything?

Explained here:
http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/EAC/index.html
and here:
http://users.skynet.be/fa214783/eac/eac2.htm

[rjamorim]

I don't even think CDex has been updated in almost 6 months, if not longer.  I'm almost assuming it's dead.

Albert Faber functions on work fits. Eventually you'll see a flood of new features and bug fixes, and then CDex will hibernate for another bunch of months.

[jvmo]

Got my EAC setup here:
http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/EAC/index.html

Changed it slightly to:

-6 --replay-gain -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" -T "comment=EAC 0.95prebeta5 / FLAC 1.1.0" %s

Now I'm busy ripping my cds, bought a Western Digital 160G drive yesterday at Fry's for $70 (well, when I get that $30 mail in rebate in two months :-).

jan

PS. Any hints on how to convert from FLAC (when I'm done) to Lame mp3 for my mp3 player, with foobar?

[guruboolez]

PS. Any hints on how to convert from FLAC (when I'm done) to Lame mp3 for my mp3 player, with foobar?

By using fb2k's diskwriter (presets for lame are include; you just need lame.exe somewhere on your harddisk and specify the path). Tags are all reported, except replaygain informations.

[analogy]

Thanks for help everyone. I tried a search and didn't come up with anything, and I'd RTFM but there isn't one. =( Hopefully fixed in version 1.0?

For foobar, you can use the "commandline encoder" option in diskwriter, and I believe you can use standard Foobar Playlist code to pass tags onto your MP3 encoder. As soon as I rip some FLACs I'll be able to tell you some more.

[jvmo]

diskwriter...
I haven't tried that yet, so please forgive my ignorance... When I use foobar diskwriter to convert from flac to mp3, does it copy my directory structure too? I want my flac under e:\flac, my mp3's under e:\mp3.. then \artist\album\.....mp3

Will that work?

Thanks, jan

[analogy]

Under the diskwriter settings in the preferences dialog (ctrl-p, then look for diskwriter under the "components" tree), uncheck the "always ask before writing" box and check the "same as source file directory" box. That way any transcoded files will always be written to the same directory.

Diskwriter will transfer all tags form the source file to the new file except replaygain, which is okay since when a file is transcoded to a lossy format the replaygain information, especially peak information, becomes invalid anyway.

I may know nothing about EAC, but I know my foobar. =D

[jvmo]

I was unclear :-(

This is what I want when I convert:

e:\flac\Heaven 17\How Men Are\*.flac

converted to

e:\mp3\Heaven 17\How Men Are\*.mp3

in one fell swoop... And the same for everything else under e:\flac, all converted into similar named folders under e:\mp3. That way I can copy e:\mp3 to my mp3 player in one drag...

Thanks for any info, jan

[analogy]

I just realized I didn't properly read your question, sorry. You weren't unclear, I was reading too fast.

Since your directory structure is based on tagging information, you can use standard foobar playlist code to generate your directory tree:

Output file name formatting:
%artist%\%album%\%_filename%

Check the "create subdirectories" box.

Set "output directory" to E:\mp3, or check the "Always ask before writing" box and point it at E:\mp3 when you do the conversion.

Completely untested, but should work.

This post has been edited by analogy: Jun 29 2004, 02:52

[zver]

PS. Any hints on how to convert from FLAC (when I'm done) to Lame mp3 for my mp3 player, with foobar?

Since you allready using eac to rip cds,you can try Mareo.You can rip in same time to flac and mp3.

This post has been edited by zver: Jun 29 2004, 04:50

[JeanLuc]

The trouble is that EAC's interface is horrible, and it doesn't do FLAC natively.

How does everyone here rip FLAC and have it tag properly and everything?

IMO, once you get used to EAC's interface, you will find it quite logical. And copying a command line into a field with compression options shouldn't be that much of a problem ...

I use EAC with FLAC Q7 (tags will be written during compression) and Tag & Rename (any masstagger will do) for comment fine-tuning ... additionally I create a 'noncompliant' cuesheet to be able to restore the original CD at any time.

[jvmo]

Played with the diskwriter a bit last night and got it to do what I want... I think my file name string is something like "%artist%\%album%\%_filename%", and I have "create subdirectories" checked (from memory, I might be off a little). That works fine for me. Does feel like foobar is slower doing that conversion than dbpoweramp, is that so? Don't know however if I can let dbpoweramp mass convert my whole flac directory...

On the danger of being sacrilegious, can anybody tell me how to use diskwriter to convert to WMA?

Thanks, jan

PS. Nice suggestion ripping to both FLAC and MP3. I'm almost halfway through my cds though :-) And I'm not sure yet what exactly I will convert to for use on my mp3 player, an Archos gmini 120. I need some free space on that to backup my compactflash card with pictures when I'm on vacation. The Archos plays mp3 and wma...

[leland]

Jeanluc, can I ask what your noncompliant cuesheet is? And how you create it?

I'm going to embark on the great rip of summer 2004 to multiple flac files, but I also want a cuesheet around for the gaps.

Best way for EAC to do this in one fell swoop?

Or should I give up and just use one flac file?

Or should I let this thread be in peace and resurrect that huge multi/single post from a while back?

[ChangFest]

Jeanluc, can I ask what your noncompliant cuesheet is? And how you create it?

I'm going to embark on the great rip of summer 2004 to multiple flac files, but I also want a cuesheet around for the gaps.

Best way for EAC to do this in one fell swoop?

Or should I give up and just use one flac file?

Or should I let this thread be in peace and resurrect that huge multi/single post from a while back? 

Creating the non-compliant .cue sheets when you rip to multiple .flac files will be of benefit. For one, you can use that .cue sheet with Burrrn or EAC to re-burn your .flac files to an exact copy of the original CD. Also, if you use foobar2000, you can use those .cue sheets as playlists for the files; just drag and drop into foobar. Foobar will add replaygain info to the .cue sheet and take it's album list information from it as well.

[jvmo]

Got Foobar working with wma, thanks to some other posts on this board...
I had to add WMA to the list of converters though, in diskwriter, after that it worked fine. Foobar is very nice :-)

Thanks all!

jan