Guest wrote:What is the best way of storing music on Hard Drive - Flac format???
What is "best" depends on your needs. Flac has many advantages, being lossless, compressed and DRM-free, so it is the format of my choice.
and then ripping to MP3 or WMA or???
If you have ripped your music to flac, converting it to any other format into another directory with MediaMonkey is easy to do (but it is usually not called "ripping" as this is the process where the CD is still involved). The problem for all music managing programs I know today though is the tag-management of several file-formats for the same title in a clever way (See this
thread).
I have ripped a CD as a test which resulted having two files - One in wav format and one in flac format!!!
Which program did you use? MediaMonkey? Most ripping programs generally rip to WAV-Format (uncompressed) first and then convert it into the needed format. If the WAV-file does not get deleted you end up with two files for the same title. Since flac is also lossless as WAV, but compressed, it uses less disk space without losing any sound quality or information. So if you do not need the WAV file for any reason, it is save to delete it. Normally the ripping program does this by itself.
The size of the individual tracks in wav format are much lager than those of the flac format. Should it be that way??
Yes. See above.
Which files should I then use to convert to MP3 for use on my portable Ipod?? Flac or wav??
You decide. But since flac has almost no disadvantages over WAV if you are using MM as primary program, it surely will be the better choice as your music will need much less disk space compared to the storage in WAV-format.
If it is flac format at which transfer rate should the CD be copied ( uncompressed I presume) ?
This question is hard to understand. I would use the highest compression rate for flac that is available to save disk space. Since flac is always lossless it will only end in longer compression calculation times when the ripping software or MM converts the ripped WAV file to flac. Decompression for playback or converting to other formats will always be the same speed.
and how does one convert from flac to MP3 format with MediaMonkey??
Mark the tracks you wish to convert and then have a look at the "Extras"-Menu. For information about different MP3-formats and quality, have a look at the thread that Eyal linked in his answer.
bye
Wolfgang
[quote="Guest"]What is the best way of storing music on Hard Drive - Flac format???[/quote]
What is "best" depends on your needs. Flac has many advantages, being lossless, compressed and DRM-free, so it is the format of my choice.
[quote] and then ripping to MP3 or WMA or???[/quote]
If you have ripped your music to flac, converting it to any other format into another directory with MediaMonkey is easy to do (but it is usually not called "ripping" as this is the process where the CD is still involved). The problem for all music managing programs I know today though is the tag-management of several file-formats for the same title in a clever way (See this [url=http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=27879]thread[/url]).
[quote]I have ripped a CD as a test which resulted having two files - One in wav format and one in flac format!!![/quote]
Which program did you use? MediaMonkey? Most ripping programs generally rip to WAV-Format (uncompressed) first and then convert it into the needed format. If the WAV-file does not get deleted you end up with two files for the same title. Since flac is also lossless as WAV, but compressed, it uses less disk space without losing any sound quality or information. So if you do not need the WAV file for any reason, it is save to delete it. Normally the ripping program does this by itself.
[quote]The size of the individual tracks in wav format are much lager than those of the flac format. Should it be that way??[/quote]
Yes. See above.
[quote] Which files should I then use to convert to MP3 for use on my portable Ipod?? Flac or wav??[/quote]
You decide. But since flac has almost no disadvantages over WAV if you are using MM as primary program, it surely will be the better choice as your music will need much less disk space compared to the storage in WAV-format.
[quote]If it is flac format at which transfer rate should the CD be copied ( uncompressed I presume) ?[/quote]
This question is hard to understand. I would use the highest compression rate for flac that is available to save disk space. Since flac is always lossless it will only end in longer compression calculation times when the ripping software or MM converts the ripped WAV file to flac. Decompression for playback or converting to other formats will always be the same speed.
[quote] and how does one convert from flac to MP3 format with MediaMonkey??[/quote]
Mark the tracks you wish to convert and then have a look at the "Extras"-Menu. For information about different MP3-formats and quality, have a look at the thread that Eyal linked in his answer.
bye
Wolfgang