If I'm ripping my CDs straight to FLAC with EAC, is it neccesary to add "align to sector boundaries" to the switch string?? I download alot of lossless live recordings and always see that this options is used when the tracks are encoded to FLAC.

I've been ripping to FLAC for over a year now and have never had a problem, I'm just wondering if it is a good thing to do to prevent any possible errors in the future.

It shouldn't be necessary unless your rip was bad, no? This might not be the way you'd want to fix a bad rip. Especially with live shows or anything you want to be seamless/gapless*. I'd rather discover the error first, then decide how to deal with it.

*edit: Actually, if I interpret the flac documentation correctly, this wouldn't be an issue as long as you process the whole set (in order) at one time.
edit[2]: Not sure how this would affect an on-the-fly EAC->FLAC rip...

http://flac.sourceforge.net/documentation....ns_sector_align

I know what it is. I was asking if it was a good idea...or being too paranoid.

The link Josh gave you answers your question...

"This option will have no effect if the files are already aligned (as is the normally the case with WAVE files ripped from a CD)."

-Martin.

that option is never necessary. it is only useful if these tracks are contiguous and will be written back to CD (where track boundaries must be at 1/75s points) and you don't want gaps.

Josh

Ok...that explains why it is used with live recordings so much.

Thanks for the input guys!!!

Even live recordings should be cut at sector boundries in the first place and not fixed by the encoder.