General drivel: May 2011

Monday 23 May 2011

FLAC encoding

From http://puddletowndesign.com/FLAC/macRipping.html

Extracting

Launch xACT and select the tab util
Add the tracks from the CD, using the add button.
Check CD Extraction and WAV
Click Execute. xACT will then ask you where you want to extract the files. Create a new folder and use the naming convention Artist - Album (year) [FLAC] and save your temporary wav files there.

Save Your Log

Once the extraction is complete, an output log will pop up. Scroll down and verify if the extraction process went well.
Each file should be recorded successfully. If not, clean up your disc and try again. Although everybody prefers a perfect rip, minor errors are acceptable, you want to look out for sector errors, in the worst cases there will be audible noise from the disc
So if the extraction process went well, copy the output log window's content and paste it to a text file to be named (album title).log that you will save in the same folder as the extracted files.
Log Output After Ripping is Complete

Renaming

To insure better compatibility, higher-ASCII characters (usually characters of a non-English language) must be stripped from the tracks names, along with any of these characters:
\ / : * < > | ?
Now is a good time to do this.

Encoding

So far you've extracted the tracks as wav files, and you've saved the LOG.txt file. Now you need to encode the WAV files as FLAC files. To do so:

In xACT, select the tab encode
Add the wav files you've just extracted using the add button
Select FLAC Compression, set the bar to 8 Smallest and check Verify
Click Encode. xACT will then ask you where you want to save the flac encoded files. Select the folder you created earlier, containing your wav files and your LOG.txt

Getting rid of the temporary wave files

Once the encoding process is over, your folder should contain the tracks in both wav and flac format. Throw away the wav files, you don't need them anymore.

Fingerprint

It's also a good idea to create a fingerprint of your flac files (don't worry, this step is very fast):

in xACT, select the tab checksum
Add your FLAC files using the “add button
Click “Checksum
A dialog window will then ask you to choose the type of checksum you want to perform. Select fingerprint and save the file inside your encoded files folder.