Newbie - confused about flac

[Qstick333]

I have searched a bunch but was not able to really find an aswer to my question. I am a complete newbie when it comes to trading and flac. I have only used mp3 files on my computer.

Flac files are on dvdr's correct? If so, do I need a dvdrw drive on my computer to download them onto my harddrive, or will a regular dvd (play only) drive be enough to copy them to the harddrive? Will I need a dvdrw drive to burn flac's onto a new dvdr?

If I have a flac file on my computer, is there a way to copy that file as an mp3 and burn to a cdr, so that I could enjoy the file at my office, car, etc...

Also - I have read the faq about the various programs that are available to listen and copy flac...what is your reccomendation as to which I should download.

Thanks for your help and patience,

Zach

[U2Lynne]

flac files are just a different type of lossless compression like shns. They can be stored on DVDRs or CDRs, just like shns. So, what you need to do is get Traders Little Helper (check the software section in our FAQ in the menu above) and decompress them to wav. From there, you can burn them to a CDR to listen to wherever you want. Do Not decompress them to mp3 and then burn them because then you are making them lossy and you will loss out on some of the sound.

If you just want to listen to them on your computer, you can get foobar2000.

(I'm making the assumption that you are on a PC, not a Mac.)

[Five]

yeah get foobar2000 make sure its the "special installer" and select the full installation when you install it and you will be able to play pretty much any audio format.

winamp also works but its a little tricky to set up

see the links in my signature

[TheMamba]

Also, with foobar, there is no need to decompress before you burn.

Drag all the FLAC files into foobar, double check that they're in the correct order, hit CTL+A (selects all the files), right click, then select Write Audio CD. Done.

[Qstick333]

I am trying to get foobar, but the link on this site takes me to the Dell notebook ordering page in a language other than English.

Is there a better link out there? Thanks!

Zach

[Five]

works fine.

just tried it

get the special installer

http://foobar2000.org/

[Qstick333]

Thanks for the link. I just downloaded the special version. The link from the FAQ is not functional. It takes me to the page previously described.

Zach

[Five]

ahh, thanks we will fix that up

[Qstick333]

I am happy to help with something ....lol

I understand I can now listen to flac files with foobar, but I can I burn them with foobar also?

[TheMamba]

I am happy to help with something ....lol

I understand I can now listen to flac files with foobar, but I can I burn them with foobar also?

yes, see my post above.

[Qstick333]

I feel much like an idiot...but

when I highlight the files and right click them, I don't have anything even close to Write Audio CD. There must be something that I am doing wrong???

THanks for all the ehlp, the site is amazing!

[TheMamba]

Foobar: Did you get the normal installer or the special installer? (Should have gotten special)

Write Audio CD:

http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/4982/untitled9mn.jpg

[Qstick333]

I got the special, but I will reinstall in the morning.

[Qstick333]

I decided to reinstall, I got the write audio cd part now but I got the following error message.

INFO (CORE) : startup time: 3375 ms
INFO (CORE) : opening file for playback :
INFO (CORE) : location: "file://C:\Program Files\DC++\Downloads\bucket2004-12-30.flac\bucket2004-12-30d1t01.flac" (0)
ERROR (foo_burninate) : Nero libraries not found. Please install Nero first.


What should the next step be?

Thanks,

Zach

[DoIFeelLucky]

foobar2000's CD-ripping and CD-writing capabilities only work if you have Nero installed. However, if memory serves, the Nero demo (http://www.nero.com/nero7/enu/nero7-up.php) will work. And as I recall, some things keep working in foobar2000 after the demo itself expires (gotta love .DLLs). Not sure if burning is one of those.

Come to think of it, you don't need foobar2000 or Nero to burn FLAC files!

You can use Burrrn (http://www.burrrn.net/?page_id=6)
or burnatonce (http://www.burnatonce.com/index.htm?downloads).

Both are free.

Both include an optional ReplayGain scanner for modifying the level of the audio being burned.

Burrrn supports (by default) FLAC, SHN, and APE lossless formats, in addtion to the major lossy formats and a few other lossless formats that aren't even used here (WavPack, OptimFrog, and TrueAudio).
burnatonce supports FLAC natively, and you can add support for APE (no SHN, though).

Burrrn only writes audio CDRs.
burnatonce can burn audio and data CDRs, plus there's a free, though slightly complicated way to burn data DVDs that you can add to it. You can also use it to erase CDRWs.

Burrrn defaults to Disc-at-Once recording - this means no 2-second pause. I'm not even sure if it can do anything else. It's pretty idiot-proof that way; I've never had problems with that.
burnatonce has the option to select 2-second pause or not. I don't remember what the default is. Also, it allows you to manually set pre- and post-gap values on a per-track basis, which I could see being useful to some people.

In the end, Burrrn is probably the easiest choice for people around here.

[Qstick333]

I downloaded Burnnn and have had no problems making copies of stuff on my hardrive. However, I cannot figure out how to burn something off of a cdr onto my hardrive. I cannot get Burnnn to recognize anything in the drive, however foobar does recognize (but I don;t think I can burn to my hardrive with foobar???) the cdr.

Dell Musicmatch also recognizes the cdr if that matters. What is the preferred way to get flac and other (some are mp3) files from a cdr onto my harddrive so that I can burn them onto another cdr?

Thanks for the help,

Zach

[Five]

a program called Exact Audio Copy

Nero doesn't make an exact audio copy
Neither does Easy CD Creator et al

exactaudiocopy.de

also check the link in my signature to learn how to compensate for the offsets for your specific drives. this is also very important!

[DoIFeelLucky]

Yeah, EAC is definitely the way to go. Just for clarity's sake, though:

"burning" refers to creating a CD or DVD from files already on your hard drive.
"Ripping" is the term used to describe extracting digital media from a CD or DVD onto your hard drive.

Exact Audio Copy is pretty much the greatest audio CD ripper for Windows, which is why it's usually the first one that people here will recommend. Burrrn only burns audio CDs - it has no ripping capability.

[SundayDriver]

Yeah, EAC is definitely the way to go. Just for clarity's sake, though:

"burning" refers to creating a CD or DVD from files already on your hard drive.
"Ripping" is the term used to describe extracting digital media from a CD or DVD onto your hard drive.

Exact Audio Copy is pretty much the greatest audio CD ripper for Windows, which is why it's usually the first one that people here will recommend. Burrrn only burns audio CDs - it has no ripping capability.


Doesn't CDWave also support digital extraction?
without all the pops :)

I use burnatonce for burning audio CDs, works great.
The only minor issue with it is that the default is a 2 second pause in between tracks. You have to go back, and switch that manually for each track, you can't just change it once for all of them. But at least it gives you that option, not like other crap programs such as Nero.

Nero :disbelief
You can't fathom the number of coasters I've burned with Nero.

[Five]

Doesn't CDWave also support digital extraction?
without all the pops :)

I use burnatonce for burning audio CDs, works great.
The only minor issue with it is that the default is a 2 second pause in between tracks. You have to go back, and switch that manually for each track, you can't just change it once for all of them. But at least it gives you that option, not like other crap programs such as Nero.

Nero :disbelief
You can't fathom the number of coasters I've burned with Nero.
what pops?

can cdwave compensate specific read and write offsets? can burrrn? I think not!

Try copying an audio cd to an audio cdr and re-extract from that and generate checksums from both to see if your copy is 100% exact. Using EAC I can get an exact copy. That's what I'm talking about.

[DoIFeelLucky]

I use burnatonce for burning audio CDs, works great.
The only minor issue with it is that the default is a 2 second pause in between tracks. You have to go back, and switch that manually for each track, you can't just change it once for all of them. But at least it gives you that option, not like other crap programs such as Nero.
Actually, there's a way to set no 2-second pause as a default option for all CDs. Click the Settings menu, then Options... - in the window that opens up. There are four different groups of settings that you can choose from the list on the left. Pick Audio Mastering; one of the options available is "2 Second Pause." Now when I create an audio CD project, there is no pause between tracks by default. Hope this helps.

[SundayDriver]

what pops?

can cdwave compensate specific read and write offsets? can burrrn? I think not!

Try copying an audio cd to an audio cdr and re-extract from that and generate checksums from both to see if your copy is 100% exact. Using EAC I can get an exact copy. That's what I'm talking about.

Pops, as in little half second spikes in the wave form, easily seen in any .wav editor, and painful to listen to.

[SundayDriver]

Actually, there's a way to set no 2-second pause as a default option for all CDs. Click the Settings menu, then Options... - in the window that opens up. There are four different groups of settings that you can choose from the list on the left. Pick Audio Mastering; one of the options available is "2 Second Pause." Now when I create an audio CD project, there is no pause between tracks by default. Hope this helps.

Thanks, I set it up.

Now here's my other question about bao: does it automatically use TAO or DAO burning modes? From what little information I was able to find in this thread, it seems like TAO:

http://www.burnatonce.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=181

Or is it that since you're just burning a created image, it doesn't matter? :hmm:

[DoIFeelLucky]

That's a pretty old post. I'm not sure which it uses. The website says it's a GUI for a few things, including the cdrdao project from Sourceforge, which is a set of tools for DAO burning only.

Also, it has options for writing CD-Text, and that is only possible when burning DAO.

I dunno, I just use Burrrn for audio CDs these days, I find it suits my needs more than any other program right now. Been burning a lot of CDRs with that program these past few months, no problems.

[Five]

Pops, as in little half second spikes in the wave form, easily seen in any .wav editor, and painful to listen to.
you're doing something wrong or else everything on this site would have those pops and it doesn't. everybody in the trading world uses EAC to avoid problems like you describe. perhaps you are accidentally using burst mode when it should be secure mode :hmm:

[SundayDriver]

you're doing something wrong or else everything on this site would have those pops and it doesn't. everybody in the trading world uses EAC to avoid problems like you describe. perhaps you are accidentally using burst mode when it should be secure mode :hmm:

:hmm:

How would I go about knowing/changing that setting in EAC?

[SundayDriver]

That's a pretty old post. I'm not sure which it uses. The website says it's a GUI for a few things, including the cdrdao project from Sourceforge, which is a set of tools for DAO burning only.

Also, it has options for writing CD-Text, and that is only possible when burning DAO.

I dunno, I just use Burrrn for audio CDs these days, I find it suits my needs more than any other program right now. Been burning a lot of CDRs with that program these past few months, no problems.

I just updated burnatonce for DVD burning. I'll take a look at Burrrn.

I would think that if it doens't have gaps, it would be DAO, but maybe not.

[Five]

:hmm:

How would I go about knowing/changing that setting in EAC?
hit F10 to pull up drive options, make sure you're in secure mode

also check the link in my signature about EAC, you can learn to set the offsets and all that jazz. there's an article there called "the truth about offsets" which really helps to explain what is wrong with 99.9% of ripping progs.

[SundayDriver]

hit F10 to pull up drive options, make sure you're in secure mode

also check the link in my signature about EAC, you can learn to set the offsets and all that jazz. there's an article there called "the truth about offsets" which really helps to explain what is wrong with 99.9% of ripping progs.

:eek: :disbelief

Only figures, I was in burst mode all this time. Thanks, I'll switch it to secure mode and switch the offsets and see what happens.

[Five]

cheers!

I'm glad to help you work that out.