dbpoweramp or media monkey

[lordhutt]

looking to rips cd's to flac and also to convert flac to mp3.

its been years since I ripped anything.

These are 2 of the better programs, correct?

Recommendations?

[aedipuss]

eac or dbpoweramp would be my first choices.

[Dr_Layne]

dbpoweramp. Accuraterip databas, and can encode to more than one codec at the same time.

[Kaizen 32]

I think MediaMonkey is incredible, works just fine on difficult cds and gives me plenty of control over the compression settings, but I've never tried dbpoweramp.

[Poppa_Meth]

MediaMonkey is great is you are looking for an iTunes replacement. For the best quality rips to you can get dbpoweramp and EAC are the best. dbpoweramp is a little easier to setup and use than EAC but does cost you a little money.

[lordhutt]

MediaMonkey is great is you are looking for an iTunes replacement. For the best quality rips to you can get dbpoweramp and EAC are the best. dbpoweramp is a little easier to setup and use than EAC but does cost you a little money.

Rip quality is my main concern.
I have jukebox software for my touchscreen and I use Tag and Rename for all my ID tagging.

Also as Dr_Layne said about ripping to more than one codec at a time.... I'm assuming this means I can rip to FLAC and MP3 at the same time?

Thanks for the replies.

[Poppa_Meth]

I suppose that is right. I've never used that particular functionality of the software. I usually rip everything to FLAC and if I want a different format I use the Batch Convert in dbpoweramp to convert to the other format. It's quicker than ripping and since you are coming from FLAC there is no additional quality loss.

[Kaizen 32]

Why is MediaMonkey's rip quality considered inferior? I thought lossless was lossless?

[Poppa_Meth]

It isn't bad by any means. It just doesn't use the Accuraterip database or have quite as much you can tweak.

[AlanHK]

CDEx is a very good CD ripper.
Gives you every option for MP3.
Doesn't do FLAC out of the box, but is easily added.
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=CDex_and_FLAC

-- actually while looking up the links, it seems the current version does include FLAC, I haven't upgraded for a while.

[Bonie81]

As far as CD ripping is concerned, All, CDex, EAC, Media Monkey and dbPowerAmp will serve purpose.
1) CDex - Easy to use GUI will give you all settings/options for the best quality. Latest version supports Flac.
2) EAC - You can achieve the best quality by configuring external encoder command line options. This has internal CD Burner.
3) Media Monkey - I like personally for tag detailing. the version I used Pro (FREE) by replacing original mp3 encoder with lame. I do not know if latest version has same feature of replacing mp3 encoder or not?
4) dbPowerAmp - Only the one with Fraunhofer MP3 Encoder, (But, lame mp3 encoder exceeded the quality bench mark).

To to rips cd's...
1) cd's to flac.
2) cd's to mp3 (avoid converting flac to mp3).

To burn mp3 or flac to Audio CD use Burrrn, an easy to use GUI.

[Kaizen 32]

I didn't know about Accuraterip. I doubt that would make any difference for me, since almost none of the CDs I rip would be in the database.
Why should we avoid converting FLACs to MP3s?

[Bonie81]

Why should we avoid converting FLACs to MP3s?

B'coz original CD is considered to be the highest quality source.
If you do not have original CD, you may go for flac --to--> mp3.

[lordhutt]

Why should we avoid converting FLACs to MP3s?

B'coz original CD is considered to be the highest quality source.
If you do not have original CD, you may go for flac --to--> mp3.

But if FLAC is lossless... I know it is compressed but should still be bit for bit when uncompressed.

Not saying you are wrong as I don't know for sure but it just doesn't make sense?

[AlanHK]

Why should we avoid converting FLACs to MP3s?

B'coz original CD is considered to be the highest quality source.
If you do not have original CD, you may go for flac --to--> mp3.

No.
Wave in to flac == wave out from flac.
Perfectly, exactly. That's the whole point.

The CD->wave extraction though can be imperfect if the disc has any flaws. The better rippers have options to check and retry to compensate.

(Even if you don't see a wave file, the software will create a temporary file or a stream equivalent to wave.)