Hi all,
I am very new to this. I am familiar with other forums for cars/music...where a new guy asks a question and is SLAMMED with look at old questions...ect. I am sure someone has asked this before, so pointing me in the direction of the answer is great...or response with advice. Please be kind.

I want to put all of my CD's (200+) into FLAC format. I wish create additional files at the same time in either MP3 or .wav (if .wav is viewed as superior). I can then transfer the more compressed (MP3/windows player format) to my mini audio player.

Yes...I am a novice...I want this process to be simple (not fast) but superior. I have a very good ear for music and quality replication...but I am a fool many other matters. Please provide direction and advice.

Some recent threads I know of:
Flac (w/Cuesheet) to MP3, Mac/Linux User with a few questions ...

Then there is the always popular (I am surprised it is not one of the latest threads):
> REACT 2 Released, New version of this popular ripping tool
This program does exactly what you need! It is fantastic! It will rip a CD and make virtually anything you want from only one rip. However, you should note that the most recent recent EAC does not work with the actual REACT2.0, you need Synthetic Soul's modified version. Some recent users (including myself) were hung up with that problem.

You'll find this is a rather polite forum. I am in no way a major contributing member to the forum, but I've learned that it is better to bounce ideas in this place---describe your own research so we have an idea of where you've been, gauge where you are, and finally tell you were you might want to go.

Thank you for your reply and advice. I have researched opinions and chose to record my CD's in FLAC. I am utilizing EAC as my decoder and plannned on utilizing LAME for my MP3's.

I am in need to know if this approach is flawed. I am looking to make a FLAC copy of a CD and an MP3 simultaneously.

Thanks for any other advice!!

No. Your approach is not flawed. Just use REACT2 to encode to both FLAC and mp3 simultaneously, and keep the FLAC files safe. As long as you you have the FLAC files, you can be happy with the knowledge that you can convert them to any format you like at any time without loss of sound quality.

In fact, this is exactly what I do. I have backed up all my CDs to FLAC images using REACT2 and use LAME encoded mp3s for daily listening.

ROHANGC...I currently have EAC 3.97, but the person above posted that I will need an earlier version to work with REACT2. Is that correct? If you could throw in a few step-by-step (as detailed or not) directions as possible, I will greatly appreciate it. Any other viewers, please help me out if you can. Thanks again all!

No. SamHain86 was saying that you will need to use my version of REACT with later versions of EAC (0.99).

You can use any LAME version that you want.

Take a look at the REACT wiki page, and you can download my mod here.

There's no real easy sep-by-step guide. Take a look at the article, take a look at the thread, get it installed, and take a look at REACT.ini. It's not that difficult, honest.

Like Synthetic Soul just said, you need to use his REACT mod to make it work properly with EAC 0.99 PB3 (the latest version).

In fact, I used this version of EAC with the REACT mod to rip all my CDs until about 5 days ago, and I had no problems during the process.