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Years ago, I had most of my music ripped to AAC in iTunes, easily accessible, browsable, and shuffleable. I now rip each of my CDs to a single FLAC and cue she

Years ago, I had most of my music ripped to AAC in iTunes, easily accessible, browsable, and shuffleable. I now rip each of my CDs to a single FLAC and cue sheet (using XLD on Mac), on the theory that it's the most accurate way to archive a disc. However, I haven't found anything that offers the same accessibility to such a collection as iTunes did. I look through folders, and drag a few cue sheets at a time into Foobar 2000. Any tips?

bombcar 4y ago
Hard drive space is cheap. Do both.
- jcollins1991 4y ago
  hate to say, but this is my way... EAC to flac and leave it on a NAS, then XLD to apple lossless on my macbook and sync to my iPhone... working great for me so far
xprueg 4y ago
I found Swinsian[1] after I ditched iTunes, It works quite good and I’m very happy with it. While I rip all tracks separately the FAQ states: „Swinsian also supports albums ripped as a single file together with a cue file, and FLAC, Ogg Vorbis and WavPack files with embedded cue information„. There is a free trial, maybe this works for you. [1] https://swinsian.com/ https://swinsian.com/
- SloopJon 4y ago
  Very promising: supports macOS 10.8 and later, last updated in 2021, and it read my whole CD collection in just a couple of minutes. Thank you for the suggestion.
  - extra88 4y ago
    I wonder if it's still being developed. It's concerning that it's still an Intel-only build instead of a Universal build that can run natively on Apple Silicon hardware.
    - keybits 4y ago
      I recently contacted the developer about this. He replied that the only reason he hasn’t released a native Apple Silicon build is that he doesn’t have an Apple silicon Mac yet. I was tempted to fund raise and send him one!
      - extra88 4y ago
        My understanding is one can build a Universal app on either platform. Debugging the Apple Silicon side does require an Apple Silicon Mac but a well-developed app with a constrained feature set might "just work." They could make a Universal build and offer it as a beta to those who wish to try. I don't know where they're located but a refurbished Mac mini from Apple is $589. AWS EC2 M1 Mac instances are ~$16/day ($0.65/hour, 24-hour minimum). https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FGNR3LL/A/refurbished-mac-mini-apple-m1-chip-with-8%E2%80%91core-cpu-and-8%E2%80%91core-gpu https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FGNR3LL/A/refurbished-mac... https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2022/07/general-availability-amazon-ec2-m1-mac-instances-macos/ https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2022/07/general-a... https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/dedicated-hosts/pricing/#On-Demand_Pricing https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/dedicated-hosts/pricing/#On-Deman...
    - roboyoshi 4y ago
      The developer is regularly putting out beta releases [1] for the 3.0; With the other comments I found, I assume it's a single person development - probably in spare time - and only using an Intel mac. [1] https://www.swinsian.com/sparkle_beta/sparklecast.xml https://www.swinsian.com/sparkle_beta/sparklecast.xml
nofreelunch 4y ago
You can use foobar to index your music files and assign a hotkey to run a search of your music library. I have found that foobar is faster at locating files than browsing my [excessively large] music collection.
2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
You rip one CD to one unsplit FLAC file? I use EAC to rip each track to FLAC with a cue sheet for the CD and Plex to play it. It seems like a lot of extra steps to play music but when my library started getting huge it was becoming a pain to organize and sync between devices.
rsync 4y ago
"... on the theory that it's the most accurate way to archive a disc ..." I won't argue with this but I think there needs to be a qualifier - the most accurate way to archive a disc while using compression ... Given that an audio cd is encoded in WAV/PCM and we have a WAV file specification, I think ripping to a WAV file remains the gold standard: "... digital audio extraction software can be used to read CD-DA audio data and store it in files. Common audio file formats for this purpose include WAV and AIFF, which simply preface the LPCM data with a short header ..." [1] I like the idea that ripping to a WAV file means I never have to rip that disc again. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_Digital_Audio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_Digital_Audio
- azornathogron 4y ago
  FLAC is lossless, so there shouldn't be any difference in accuracy between the WAV and the FLAC. Of course, this is why people often choose FLAC for archival of ripped CDs. Edit: I only mention this because I can't think why the extra "while using compression" qualifier is relevant except for information loss during compression.
- Taywee 4y ago
  FLAC is lossless. Any audio CD ripped and encoded to FLAC will be the exact same accuracy as WAV.
  - ericbarrett 4y ago
    Does FLAC preserve the exact bytestream of the CD tracks? (As an analogy, PNG is "lossless," but it won't natively preserve the metadata of a raw digital camera image.) The audio will be preserved but there might be interesting details on the CD like easter eggs, copyright text, etc. and I'm not sure FLAC would capture those.
    - pwg 4y ago
      > Does FLAC preserve the exact bytestream of the CD tracks? (As an analogy, PNG is "lossless," but it won't natively preserve the metadata of a raw digital camera image.) No, but if that is the definition being used, neither does WAV store that data either. > The audio will be preserved but there might be interesting details on the CD like easter eggs, copyright text, etc. and I'm not sure FLAC would capture those. Flac does allow for storing a lot of metadata in the flac file itself, including: CUE sheet, a picture (image file), and arbitrary tags (key value pairs). So much of those could be stored in the flac file, but obtaining them (Easter eggs and the like) is dependent upon the program ripping the CD, not the file format storing the result of the rip (flac does not do CD ripping itself).
lowbloodsugar 4y ago
Roon. The commentary is invaluable and links to related music.
plg 4y ago
I use Roon and love love love it https://roonlabs.com/ https://roonlabs.com/
- PcChip 4y ago
  There are dozens of us
ibz 4y ago
cmus [1] is the closest I found to foobar2000. It is my main music player now, after years of disappointment. It supports FLAC and they claim they support CUE sheets, although I haven't tested your particular scenario. The way I use it is I have all my library in it at once, iTunes style. It has good search & playlists, but no drag&drop, since it's just command line... [1] https://cmus.github.io/ https://cmus.github.io/
leonroy 4y ago
I did the same - ripped all my albums to iTunes but after it slowly became more unpleasant to use for my use case I moved to Roon. It’s expensive but Roon does this at a level far beyond iTunes: https://roonlabs.com/ https://roonlabs.com/
thirdsun 4y ago
Why not use ALAC and individual tracks? It's lossless and compatible with iTunes/Music.app and iOS devices (as well as basically any hardware or software player worth using). Using whole files rather than individual tracks is just asking for problems with mainstream players in my opinion. However if you're serious about your music library I recommend Roon. Not cheap but a great solution.

bombcar 4y ago

Hard drive space is cheap. Do both.

jcollins1991 4y ago
hate to say, but this is my way... EAC to flac and leave it on a NAS, then XLD to apple lossless on my macbook and sync to my iPhone... working great for me so far

xprueg 4y ago

I found Swinsian[1] after I ditched iTunes, It works quite good and I’m very happy with it. While I rip all tracks separately the FAQ states: „Swinsian also supports albums ripped as a single file together with a cue file, and FLAC, Ogg Vorbis and WavPack files with embedded cue information„. There is a free trial, maybe this works for you. [1] https://swinsian.com/ https://swinsian.com/

SloopJon 4y ago
Very promising: supports macOS 10.8 and later, last updated in 2021, and it read my whole CD collection in just a couple of minutes. Thank you for the suggestion.
- extra88 4y ago
  I wonder if it's still being developed. It's concerning that it's still an Intel-only build instead of a Universal build that can run natively on Apple Silicon hardware.
  - keybits 4y ago
    I recently contacted the developer about this. He replied that the only reason he hasn’t released a native Apple Silicon build is that he doesn’t have an Apple silicon Mac yet. I was tempted to fund raise and send him one!
    - extra88 4y ago
      My understanding is one can build a Universal app on either platform. Debugging the Apple Silicon side does require an Apple Silicon Mac but a well-developed app with a constrained feature set might "just work." They could make a Universal build and offer it as a beta to those who wish to try. I don't know where they're located but a refurbished Mac mini from Apple is $589. AWS EC2 M1 Mac instances are ~$16/day ($0.65/hour, 24-hour minimum). https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FGNR3LL/A/refurbished-mac-mini-apple-m1-chip-with-8%E2%80%91core-cpu-and-8%E2%80%91core-gpu https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FGNR3LL/A/refurbished-mac... https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2022/07/general-availability-amazon-ec2-m1-mac-instances-macos/ https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2022/07/general-a... https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/dedicated-hosts/pricing/#On-Demand_Pricing https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/dedicated-hosts/pricing/#On-Deman...
  - roboyoshi 4y ago
    The developer is regularly putting out beta releases [1] for the 3.0; With the other comments I found, I assume it's a single person development - probably in spare time - and only using an Intel mac. [1] https://www.swinsian.com/sparkle_beta/sparklecast.xml https://www.swinsian.com/sparkle_beta/sparklecast.xml

nofreelunch 4y ago

You can use foobar to index your music files and assign a hotkey to run a search of your music library. I have found that foobar is faster at locating files than browsing my [excessively large] music collection.

2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago

You rip one CD to one unsplit FLAC file? I use EAC to rip each track to FLAC with a cue sheet for the CD and Plex to play it. It seems like a lot of extra steps to play music but when my library started getting huge it was becoming a pain to organize and sync between devices.

rsync 4y ago

"... on the theory that it's the most accurate way to archive a disc ..." I won't argue with this but I think there needs to be a qualifier - the most accurate way to archive a disc while using compression ... Given that an audio cd is encoded in WAV/PCM and we have a WAV file specification, I think ripping to a WAV file remains the gold standard: "... digital audio extraction software can be used to read CD-DA audio data and store it in files. Common audio file formats for this purpose include WAV and AIFF, which simply preface the LPCM data with a short header ..." [1] I like the idea that ripping to a WAV file means I never have to rip that disc again. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_Digital_Audio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_Digital_Audio

azornathogron 4y ago
FLAC is lossless, so there shouldn't be any difference in accuracy between the WAV and the FLAC. Of course, this is why people often choose FLAC for archival of ripped CDs. Edit: I only mention this because I can't think why the extra "while using compression" qualifier is relevant except for information loss during compression.
Taywee 4y ago
FLAC is lossless. Any audio CD ripped and encoded to FLAC will be the exact same accuracy as WAV.
- ericbarrett 4y ago
  Does FLAC preserve the exact bytestream of the CD tracks? (As an analogy, PNG is "lossless," but it won't natively preserve the metadata of a raw digital camera image.) The audio will be preserved but there might be interesting details on the CD like easter eggs, copyright text, etc. and I'm not sure FLAC would capture those.
  - pwg 4y ago
    > Does FLAC preserve the exact bytestream of the CD tracks? (As an analogy, PNG is "lossless," but it won't natively preserve the metadata of a raw digital camera image.) No, but if that is the definition being used, neither does WAV store that data either. > The audio will be preserved but there might be interesting details on the CD like easter eggs, copyright text, etc. and I'm not sure FLAC would capture those. Flac does allow for storing a lot of metadata in the flac file itself, including: CUE sheet, a picture (image file), and arbitrary tags (key value pairs). So much of those could be stored in the flac file, but obtaining them (Easter eggs and the like) is dependent upon the program ripping the CD, not the file format storing the result of the rip (flac does not do CD ripping itself).

lowbloodsugar 4y ago

Roon. The commentary is invaluable and links to related music.

plg 4y ago

I use Roon and love love love it https://roonlabs.com/ https://roonlabs.com/

PcChip 4y ago
There are dozens of us

ibz 4y ago

cmus [1] is the closest I found to foobar2000. It is my main music player now, after years of disappointment. It supports FLAC and they claim they support CUE sheets, although I haven't tested your particular scenario. The way I use it is I have all my library in it at once, iTunes style. It has good search & playlists, but no drag&drop, since it's just command line... [1] https://cmus.github.io/ https://cmus.github.io/

leonroy 4y ago

I did the same - ripped all my albums to iTunes but after it slowly became more unpleasant to use for my use case I moved to Roon. It’s expensive but Roon does this at a level far beyond iTunes: https://roonlabs.com/ https://roonlabs.com/

thirdsun 4y ago

Why not use ALAC and individual tracks? It's lossless and compatible with iTunes/Music.app and iOS devices (as well as basically any hardware or software player worth using). Using whole files rather than individual tracks is just asking for problems with mainstream players in my opinion. However if you're serious about your music library I recommend Roon. Not cheap but a great solution.