9 ms·

I rip my CDs in a two-step process: first to FLAC, then convert to mp3. The mp3s go in my phone, I have 33GB so far and my collection isn't even half ripped. I

by mark-r 8y ago

I rip my CDs in a two-step process: first to FLAC, then convert to mp3. The mp3s go in my phone, I have 33GB so far and my collection isn't even half ripped. I haven't checked how big the FLACs are lately but I'm sure they'd be a much bigger burden.

vortico 8y ago
This is pretty reasonable. 16/44.1 FLACs aren't that large, especially considering that 4TB HDDs are available for $70 these days.
brewdad 8y ago
I do the same. MP3s of yy entire CD collection sit on an SD card in my car and a Sandisk Ultra Fit USB drive in my wife's car. The FLAC files live on an external USB drive in my home. I still have Spotify for the times I want to listen to something I don't own or want to listen to one specific song without drilling down multiple menus to find it.
aidenn0 8y ago
If you are concerned about space, consider vorbis, AAC, or opus. They all will achieve a higher quality at a given bitrate (or equivalently a lower bitrate for a given quality).
- vortico 8y ago
  Note that the difference is not large. A 128 kbps opus or AAC might be comparible to a 160 or 192 kbps MP3. So it's less than 2x improvement of file size.
  - leetcrew 8y ago
    AAC has an additional advantage though, which is that many phones and receivers can transmit AAC files over Bluetooth without reencoding. this is technically possible for MP3 too, but very few devices implement it. the loss of quality from transcoding lossy to lossy is usually a lot worse than the difference in quality between codecs and bitrates (within reason).
    - vortico 8y ago
      Interesting, didn't know the Bluetooth fact. I don't usually deal with AAC myself, since opus is so close in every quality/feature, and the AAC patent license is sometimes costly to use commercially ($0.98 per software sale).
    - mark-r 8y ago
      Even though it's theoretically possible to send over Bluetooth without reencoding, I wonder if it happens in practice. The audio pipeline has too many stages and each of them would have to retain the encoding.
      - leetcrew 8y ago
        good point. the developer settings on my pixel 2 allow me to set the preferred codec, but I've never dug into it enough to know whether the setting is actually honored. all my music is MP3 anyway so it's going to sound awful over Bluetooth no matter what.
        voltagex_ 8y ago
        Similar developer settings on the S8+/Note 9 - as soon as you connect to a device that doesn't support your chosen codec, it'll reset. I can tell the difference between APT-X and AAC, but I've got no idea if the AAC is being re-encoded.
- mark-r 8y ago
  I'm not that concerned, 256K mp3 has been good enough. Although it wouldn't be hard to automate a conversion to another format for my entire collection, given that I have lossless originals.
  - wishinghand 8y ago
    If I have a large FLAC collection and want to export the whole thing to MP3 or AAC copies, what would I do to automate that?
    - aidenn0 8y ago
      For AAC or MP3: ffmpeg and a makefile with a pattern rule is pretty reasonable; (substutite any make-replacement if you prefer). If you are doing AAC, make sure you use the Fraunhofer FDK AAC not the builtin one (the builtin one used to be terrible, but is now somewhere between "okay" and "pretty good" but the FDK is still considered better last I checked, and your distro may not have an up-to-date ffmpeg). ffmpeg is pretty good about preserving metadata. If you want ID3v1 tags for MP3 (only needed for older players), then pass -write_id3v1; there's little downside to putting the id3v1 tag on there as it's quite small. Links for basic ffmpeg encoding; it shows with .wav input but ffmpeg can read flac just fine and should preserve tags: 1,2 For Ogg output, oggenc can read flac directly and preserve tags, so I've never tried using ffmpeg. I however, ripped my CD collection to a single flac per disc plus a TOC, and abcde[3] will automate that, including a musicbrainz or CDDB lookup for tagging. 1: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/MP3 https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/MP3 2: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AAC https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AAC 3: https://abcde.einval.com/wiki/ https://abcde.einval.com/wiki/
    - justin66 8y ago
      It's point and click with Foobar 2000, though there might be a plugin needed. Certainly not anything that isn't on their download page. You should be able to populate the playlist, right click, and convert to whatever format you'd like. I've done this for batches of thousands of tracks without much difficulty.
nirvdrum 8y ago
Slightly off topic, but do you use something other than iTunes for this process? I'm looking for a good way to manage a FLAC library.
- mark-r 8y ago
  I use an older version of Media Monkey on the PC. I would have upgraded to a newer version but they removed the interface to the LAME encoder. This was before the patents expired so I should check them out again, but the old version does everything I need. I quite like it.
- lozf 8y ago
  On Windows "foobar2000" is fantastic for playback and transcoding, looks pretty basic, but performs well and has lot's of plugins to modify look and feel as well as extra functionality. On Mac, XLD is great for ripping and transcoding, but I'm not sure what's the hot favourite for playback these days.
  - nirvdrum 8y ago
    Thanks for the pointer. I'm largely on Linux and my wife largely on Mac, but I'm sure I can spin up a VM somewhere if the software is worth it.
    - lozf 8y ago
      Oh snap! Haven't used Windows or Mac outside of occasional work use for >10 years - all BSD or Linux (mostly Debian since then)... I've heard good reports from people using foobar2000 under Wine, but on Linux there's many fine options depending on your preferences - Audacious or Deadbeef are more like foobar, or there's Quod Libet or Ex Falso if you prefer something "bigger". Personally I haven't used these GUI players for a while as I tend to have a terminal window always open and just point `mpv` to a directory, playlist or file. I use `ffmpeg` (compiled with recent codecs) for transcoding and for ripping there's `RubyRipper` or `abcde`.
- AsyncAwait 8y ago
rograndom 8y ago
I've been ripping to FLAC, and then convert to ALAC via avconv. The ALAC files go into iTunes, FLAC files stay on my server as an "archive". I then let iTunes convert the files it syncs to my phone / ipad to which ever size I need for that device, and I can still listen to uncompressed songs when I'm at my desk. I keep the Flac around in case sometime in the future I want to change formats for whatever reason.
- criddell 8y ago
  Why do you think FLAC is better than ALAC for your archive? They are both open source, lossless formats.
thirdsun 8y ago
Do you manually convert to mp3? iTunes has an option to convert lossless audio to a lossy, space saving AAC at a bitrate of your choice on the fly when syncing to an Apple device. I‘m sure there are similar solutions in Android land.

by mark-r 8y ago

vortico 8y ago

This is pretty reasonable. 16/44.1 FLACs aren't that large, especially considering that 4TB HDDs are available for $70 these days.

brewdad 8y ago

I do the same. MP3s of yy entire CD collection sit on an SD card in my car and a Sandisk Ultra Fit USB drive in my wife's car. The FLAC files live on an external USB drive in my home. I still have Spotify for the times I want to listen to something I don't own or want to listen to one specific song without drilling down multiple menus to find it.

aidenn0 8y ago

If you are concerned about space, consider vorbis, AAC, or opus. They all will achieve a higher quality at a given bitrate (or equivalently a lower bitrate for a given quality).

vortico 8y ago
Note that the difference is not large. A 128 kbps opus or AAC might be comparible to a 160 or 192 kbps MP3. So it's less than 2x improvement of file size.
- leetcrew 8y ago
  AAC has an additional advantage though, which is that many phones and receivers can transmit AAC files over Bluetooth without reencoding. this is technically possible for MP3 too, but very few devices implement it. the loss of quality from transcoding lossy to lossy is usually a lot worse than the difference in quality between codecs and bitrates (within reason).
  - vortico 8y ago
    Interesting, didn't know the Bluetooth fact. I don't usually deal with AAC myself, since opus is so close in every quality/feature, and the AAC patent license is sometimes costly to use commercially ($0.98 per software sale).
  - mark-r 8y ago
    Even though it's theoretically possible to send over Bluetooth without reencoding, I wonder if it happens in practice. The audio pipeline has too many stages and each of them would have to retain the encoding.
    - leetcrew 8y ago
      good point. the developer settings on my pixel 2 allow me to set the preferred codec, but I've never dug into it enough to know whether the setting is actually honored. all my music is MP3 anyway so it's going to sound awful over Bluetooth no matter what.
      - voltagex_ 8y ago
        Similar developer settings on the S8+/Note 9 - as soon as you connect to a device that doesn't support your chosen codec, it'll reset. I can tell the difference between APT-X and AAC, but I've got no idea if the AAC is being re-encoded.
mark-r 8y ago
I'm not that concerned, 256K mp3 has been good enough. Although it wouldn't be hard to automate a conversion to another format for my entire collection, given that I have lossless originals.
- wishinghand 8y ago
  If I have a large FLAC collection and want to export the whole thing to MP3 or AAC copies, what would I do to automate that?
  - aidenn0 8y ago
    For AAC or MP3: ffmpeg and a makefile with a pattern rule is pretty reasonable; (substutite any make-replacement if you prefer). If you are doing AAC, make sure you use the Fraunhofer FDK AAC not the builtin one (the builtin one used to be terrible, but is now somewhere between "okay" and "pretty good" but the FDK is still considered better last I checked, and your distro may not have an up-to-date ffmpeg). ffmpeg is pretty good about preserving metadata. If you want ID3v1 tags for MP3 (only needed for older players), then pass -write_id3v1; there's little downside to putting the id3v1 tag on there as it's quite small. Links for basic ffmpeg encoding; it shows with .wav input but ffmpeg can read flac just fine and should preserve tags: 1,2 For Ogg output, oggenc can read flac directly and preserve tags, so I've never tried using ffmpeg. I however, ripped my CD collection to a single flac per disc plus a TOC, and abcde[3] will automate that, including a musicbrainz or CDDB lookup for tagging. 1: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/MP3 https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/MP3 2: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AAC https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AAC 3: https://abcde.einval.com/wiki/ https://abcde.einval.com/wiki/
  - justin66 8y ago
    It's point and click with Foobar 2000, though there might be a plugin needed. Certainly not anything that isn't on their download page. You should be able to populate the playlist, right click, and convert to whatever format you'd like. I've done this for batches of thousands of tracks without much difficulty.

nirvdrum 8y ago

Slightly off topic, but do you use something other than iTunes for this process? I'm looking for a good way to manage a FLAC library.

mark-r 8y ago
I use an older version of Media Monkey on the PC. I would have upgraded to a newer version but they removed the interface to the LAME encoder. This was before the patents expired so I should check them out again, but the old version does everything I need. I quite like it.
lozf 8y ago
On Windows "foobar2000" is fantastic for playback and transcoding, looks pretty basic, but performs well and has lot's of plugins to modify look and feel as well as extra functionality. On Mac, XLD is great for ripping and transcoding, but I'm not sure what's the hot favourite for playback these days.
- nirvdrum 8y ago
  Thanks for the pointer. I'm largely on Linux and my wife largely on Mac, but I'm sure I can spin up a VM somewhere if the software is worth it.
  - lozf 8y ago
    Oh snap! Haven't used Windows or Mac outside of occasional work use for >10 years - all BSD or Linux (mostly Debian since then)... I've heard good reports from people using foobar2000 under Wine, but on Linux there's many fine options depending on your preferences - Audacious or Deadbeef are more like foobar, or there's Quod Libet or Ex Falso if you prefer something "bigger". Personally I haven't used these GUI players for a while as I tend to have a terminal window always open and just point `mpv` to a directory, playlist or file. I use `ffmpeg` (compiled with recent codecs) for transcoding and for ripping there's `RubyRipper` or `abcde`.
AsyncAwait 8y ago

rograndom 8y ago

I've been ripping to FLAC, and then convert to ALAC via avconv. The ALAC files go into iTunes, FLAC files stay on my server as an "archive". I then let iTunes convert the files it syncs to my phone / ipad to which ever size I need for that device, and I can still listen to uncompressed songs when I'm at my desk. I keep the Flac around in case sometime in the future I want to change formats for whatever reason.

criddell 8y ago
Why do you think FLAC is better than ALAC for your archive? They are both open source, lossless formats.

thirdsun 8y ago

Do you manually convert to mp3? iTunes has an option to convert lossless audio to a lossy, space saving AAC at a bitrate of your choice on the fly when syncing to an Apple device. I‘m sure there are similar solutions in Android land.