Lossless archive of CD collection

[G)-(OST]

Hi. I want do lossless "backups" of my audio CD collection, and was wondering if there was a solution that would allow me to do the following:

1. Do a complete rip of a CD (complete with audio in gaps between tracks and "secret" audio prior to track 1)
2. Archive this in a lossless format (FLAC, Shorten, whatever) or even (single image WAV+CUE)
3. Give me the ability to then do a full restore of the CD from the lossless file.

Just hoping to get some of your thoughts on this, what are your suggestions?

THANX

[redwudz]

I use CloneCD for that. Any similar type of program should give you a exact 1:1 backup of your CDs. Since it's a digital format you should never have any losses as long as you use quality CD media.

[celtic_druid]

I'd use Exact Audio Copy. Any other secure ripper would be ok though.

[G)-(OST]

Only 3 comments about it (EAC) in the tools section. Not sure if it creates a single image WAV+CUE though, as this is what i'm aming for

[dphirschler]

EAC should handle getting everything off the disc. Do a single wav + cuesheet secure rip. That's the best way I know of. It even gets the CD-text and sub-indexes. You might want to do an Alt+G first to get the song titles, then you can add CD-text to your backups even if your original didn't have it. But double-check your cuesheet after the rip. I am not sure if it detects PREGAPs or POSTGAPs. You may have to add those manually

If you are going to compress, I recommend FLAC. It's playable as a FLAC file, has built-in error correction, and it's supported by many hardware players and software players alike. Plus, it might free up enough room for you to add scans of the artwork on the same backup CD (or DVD - I like to back up several CDs onto a single DVD). Oh, and if you use Burrrn (or similar software) for burning the backup, you can burn from the FLAC files without the need to convert to WAV first. Of course you will want to modify your cuesheets to reflect that change.


Darryl

[G)-(OST]

EAC should handle getting everything off the disc. Do a single wav + cuesheet secure rip. That's the best way I know of. It even gets the CD-text and sub-indexes. You might want to do an Alt+G first to get the song titles, then you can add CD-text to your backups even if your original didn't have it. But double-check your cuesheet after the rip. I am not sure if it detects PREGAPs or POSTGAPs. You may have to add those manually

If you are going to compress, I recommend FLAC. It's playable as a FLAC file, has built-in error correction, and it's supported by many hardware players and software players alike. Plus, it might free up enough room for you to add scans of the artwork on the same backup CD (or DVD - I like to back up several CDs onto a single DVD). Oh, and if you use Burrrn (or similar software) for burning the backup, you can burn from the FLAC files without the need to convert to WAV first. Of course you will want to modify your cuesheets to reflect that change.


Darryl

Thats pretty much what i want to do. Thanks Dazza (thats Darryl in Ozzy lingo)

[Cornucopia]

I am not sure if it detects PREGAPs or POSTGAPs. You may have to add those manually...

EAC can detect Pre- and Post-Gaps (and all other Indexes), you just have to manually tell it to do a search. This can be a time-consuming process, 'cuz it has to read through the whole P,Q subcodes on the whole disc (it's not all listed in the TOC).
But it's just a one-click menu item [DetectGaps - F4], so for EXACTNESS, it's usually worth it.

Scott

[G)-(OST]

I've never used EAC before. I noticed on the website there are two versions. One with Disc at Once (eac-0.95b4-cdrdao.exe), the other without (eac-0.95b4.exe). Why two versions?

[Jim44]

From the EAC "What's New" page:
"As a new additional feature there is now the possibility to use CDRDAO for writing CDs from EACs layout editor (like burnatonce), hope this will improve compatibility with most writers. Again, read more in the "News.rtf" file"

Hope that helps,
Jim