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eac vs windows...artwork help etc...

i have a few thoughts...

i started using windows to rip my cd's which is a very simple process...put in the disc, hit rip in windows media player and scan with squeezecenter (i use squeezecneter/transporter). bam...i have my album in losless format and all tags/artwork in squeexecenter...done. well i read all the time how eac and flac will provide an audible benefit and is simply a better way to create audiophile level material...so i give it a go...eac was fairly simple to set up and operate i suppose, i did this a while back for a short time so i remembered some. it downloaded the flac program automatically too. i was able to get data but i could not get artwork. i started some threads on slimdevices, and here and still could not do it. the consensus seemed to be drag a jpeg into the album folder and name it cover.jpg and do a full scan but this did not work. so on to the next program...mp3tag. i downloaded it and think i have it sort of figured out. i can get art attached to a song but if i want the whole album to have art i have to attach it to each song.

this is pretty complicated and i would guess between all the programs there are some settings i may have wrong (or processes) too. is there really a benefit to all this mess vs windows one step process? does flac really sound better? isn't lossless lossless, whether it is named flac or wma lossless? does eac really rip better? these questions have been bouncing around my head for a bit so i thought i would ask you guys.

any tips on getting artwork into squeezecenter are welcome as well!!
richard_stacy
gmood1
1,251 posts
 
If not WMP's ripper, just use Dbpoweramp CD ripper. It will take care of the tags for you and you can rip it to any format you please. It doesn't get any easier.
frederick21's avatar
frederick21
49 posts
 
In Mp3Tag, click the first song of an album, Ctrl key and click last song of an album. Click on the icon of the world. It finds the cover art (I must say, though, the last update is causing a bit of fits on this). Exit out of that 'find' box (don't know what else to call it) and click the save button. Each song will be saved with the album art embedded in the individual song file.

I've stopped placing a folder.jpg pictures in the album folder. I would rather embed it into the individual song. Therefore, if I ever move it around ( don't know why you would do that, but who knows) it still has the correct art attached.

No?
trucker
20 posts
 
I use EAC to rip and tag and use WMP to find artwork. Can't say it's the best way but I have been doing it a while so it doesn't take long, and I find WMP finds decent versions of the cover art.

I rip each album to a separate folder in my FLAC directory, WMP usually figures out that this is an 'album'. Various artist albums can have problems, but if you sort by song, then click the column top that is file locations, the various artists on a single album will appear in a row, then shift-click or ctrl-click to highlight them all, then right-click 'find album info'

If WMP doesn't have find the album art, I find a decent cover, save it, then drag it into WMP.

Don't forget if Squeezecenter already knows about the music and you add album art later, it won't show up unless you do a 'clear library and rescan everything'.

WMP seems to keep it's own tagging system, so you will need another program for FLAC tag management that will work with Squeezecenter. Your tag management program should be able to imbed the artwork in the FLAC file automatically if you choose, then it will show up if you drag single songs to a portable device.

My system is probably needlessly tedious, but I really don't trust programs that 'fix' everything automatically. I recall many complaints when earlier itunes versions would redo your whole file structure by default. Ouch!

Good Luck!
moemoney's avatar
moemoney
158 posts
 
I have been using EAC for all my ripping, and I have around 3000 songs in FLAC, as of two weeks ago went to WMP and I can't undersatand why anyone would want to rip again in EAC. I fine EAC's error correction to be less the helpful if not useless.
jayb77
46 posts
 
I at first thought eac was better so I re ripped all my music in lossless on eac but a couple of albums I couldent. Well now I have a new dac the W4S and now the wmp ripped tracks sound better! more life like less boring. But I dont know I wish some one would help me out too.
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