Transfering CDs to iTunes FLAC. Am I missing....?

I'm in process of ripping my 600~800 CDs to flac now having bought a Squeezebox and recently added a Transporter.

I use EAC. It's actually not hard to set up. The myriad number of things you can do are what make it a little overwhelming at first. The best thing to do is go to the hydrogenaudio.com forums or just search in google for flac and find the hydrogenaudio link. They have a page that tells you exactly how to set it up using flac as the compressor. It's worth it to spend a little time doing this. They'll tell you the command line and another place how to set up the tags. Very nice. Or if you want I could just send you my EAC profile which'll have all that stuff.

Compilation discs, soundtracks, musicals and classical discs can import with some unexpected results for file names, artist/composer names and folder structures.

Yes, definitely a good point. For those cases above, I uncheck various artists and put in whatever I want to reference it by. For example a classical CD of Mozart will be tagged by the pianist (under artist in Transporter). Just change the Artist to Mozart (and uncheck various). The Pianist's name will still be in the file name. But it won't cause your Transporter display to show all these other names other than what you know it by. If you have a compilation or soundtrack and don't do this you'll have all number of things to sift through when trying to find what you want.

regards, David

You can also use Dbpower amp to rip files in Apple lossles and still use itunes as a music manager. And FWIW Db poweramp is a better ripper than itunes. Using DB allows one to use accurip checking and allows for secure and ultra secure rips, none of these features are available in itunes.

Is anyone using Apple TV as a bridge to a sound system? I have apple tv hooked up to my nad preamp but am disappointed with the sound quality. I believe most of my music in itunes is compressed as mp3. Is there a better way to run my itunes as my digital source??

Hi RW:
Thanks so much for the tip. That's great to know!

John,

You can convert Apple Lossless to FLAC using dbPowerAmp. This is an EXCELLENT program that does conversions from one file type to another. And, it costs only $14. You can download a free trial version off the 'Net.

One very cool feature is that it has a command line interface in addition to its GUI. This means that you can batch convert all of your Apple Lossless at one time, if you like...

-RW-

Thanks Ejresh, I feel a it better (especially because I've already ripped close to 100 CDs). That is a good point though about not being tied to Apple. Right now I find the iTunes interface pretty slick, so don't feel much of an itch to have more features or something else. I especially like that I don't have to manually label or tag anything.

I guess I'll take a peek at Foobar to see if there are some features that I'm missing.

Anyways, thanks for all the advice and tips!
John.

John, don't loose any sleep over the FLAC vs. Apple Lossless format on your files. The sound quality will be excellent with both. If you like the organization and interface of iTunes, it makes sense to use Apple lossless. I personally didn't want to be locked into using iTunes and really like the customization of Foobar. It has many advanced features and plugins that I really wanted to exploit with my home theater PC to feed my audio OCD.

The Transporter is a really slick device and works with the Apple Lossless format, so it sounds like this would be the perfect choice for you. Getting all your music imported is a seriously tedious task, so whatever process and program you choose for ripping should cause you the least amount of grief. You will really enjoy having all your music at your disposal when it's all done. Enjoy!

Guys - thanks so much for the info. Argh, I guess i'm dumber than I thought. I somehow assumed Apple Lossless was FLAC...don't know why. Darn, I don't know when this stuff needs to be so difficult...;-) Is Apple Lossless not as good a format then? I definitely want to use the best format I can for archiving my music. Also, I intend to use the new Slim Devices controller for accessing and selecting music on the fly as I walk around the house.

So, it sounds like I have to jump through some serious hoops to get everyhing organized on FLAC on my Windows machine...Would things be easier if I bough a Mac Mini - perhaps avoiding any of that Foobar stuff...

Any links you might have on guidance for the process would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
John

John, I have over 1300 albums in FLAC format on a hard drive, and if you've found a way to import to FLAC using iTunes, please share! I'm using iTunes version 7.6 as well and there's no choice for importing to FLAC on my PC. Are you sure you didn't choose Apple Lossless format?

I used EAC to extract from discs and use Foobar 2000 as a player and there were many growing pains learning the programming language to get all the files tagged correctly, but it was worth it. Good choice on the FLAC format for sound quality. My only advice, if you have a large library, is test, test, test before doing the whole shot. Compilation discs, soundtracks, musicals and classical discs can import with some unexpected results for file names, artist/composer names and folder structures. Good luck.

In my opinion, FLAC is the ideal lossless format for as Slim Devices product, since it's natively decoded by the unit.

How did you get iTunes to rip into FLAC? On my Mac, with my iTunes 7.6, going to iTunes-->Preferences-->Advanced-->Importing, I only see the option of AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless, MP3, and WAV.

iTunes should function well as your music organizer, and also works with the slimserver software.

Good luck,

Michael