[Flac] FLAC CD Archive

Tue Sep 26 14:01:06 PDT 2006

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Dan Phillips wrote:
> With regards the toc problem not compensating for starting from track
> 0,  is it possible to use the cdrtoa -t or -T options to compensate for
> the shift. I am not sure I fully understand the option, but I came
> across it and thought I would mention it.

I believe the -T and -t flags (to cdparanoia?  AFAIK, cdrdao doesn't
support -T or -t switches, and I've never heard of cdrtoa) allow for
adjusting how audio data is read from the CD (ie: in case your drive
doesn't accurately position...similar to -O, but by altering the LBA
address (-t) or fixing buggy drive behavior (-T) instead of adjusting
the rip position by individual samples (-O)).  These three options are
for fixing the "rip position", making sure the audio samples in your
ripped file match the correct samples on the disc.  None of these
options fix the problem with the TOC/CUE file on discs that don't start
at 'zero' (more below).

> The method I was using was this one I found through google - all in one
> file like this:
> cdrdao read-cd --with-cddb --datafile album.bin album.toc
> cueconvert album.toc album.cue
> flac --endian=big --sign=signed --channels=2 --bps=16
> --sample-rate=44100 --cuesheet=album.cue album.bin
> 
> Works going there, but not sure about getting back.

The problem with this (in my experience) is it won't "cleanly" make a
flac/cue file that will match the original CD's discid (cddb query).  If
all your discs have track 1 starting at frame zero, you're golden.

By way of example, below are some results from my "problem" CD (The
Police, Synchronicity).  First, I read the TOC using cdrdao...note that
track one starts at frame 32, *NOT* at frame zero.  When converted to a
cue file and merged into a flac file, any pregap *DISAPPEARS*, which
means you can no longer create a proper cddb discid!  Even more, cdrdao
*DOES NOT RIP* the first 32 frames of the disc!!!  Maybe the first 32
frames are all digital silence, but I want to make flac files that
*EXACTLY* match the audio on my CDs (kind of the point of lossless
compression, isn't it?!?).  Using cdparanoia and specifying a start of
track one has a similar effect (rip starts at frame 32, not at frame
zero!), but cdparanoia allows specifying a start track of zero (only
valid for disks with non-zero start frames for track 1!) or a specific
LBA ([0:0:0.0] indicates sector zero, and works for all discs).

Finally, note that EAC correctly rips the *ENTIRE* disc (including the
first 32 frames!), creates a cue file that matches (example below), and
which can be attached as metadata to a flac file.  A correct cddb discid
can then be calculated from the resulting flac/cue file combo for
subsequent rips or other usage (recent audio players are beginning to
support the resulting flac/cue file combo as the same as the actual CD,
in terms of how they behave when playing, pulling up track/artist info
based on cddb query in addition to any embedded metadata).

The difference between a PREGAP entry in your cuefile (cdrdao) and an
INDEX 00 entry (EAC) might not seem like much, but it's the difference
between having the entire CD in your ripped file or just part of it.

Ugly TOC/cuefile details follow...

<quote>
naibed:/home/music# cdrdao read-toc --device /dev/cdrom --fast-toc
Synchronicity.toc

Cdrdao version 1.1.9 - (C) Andreas Mueller <andreas at daneb.de>
  SCSI interface library - (C) Joerg Schilling
  Paranoia DAE library - (C) Monty

Check http://cdrdao.sourceforge.net/drives.html#dt for current driver
tables.

Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'

/dev/cdrom: PLEXTOR DVDR   PX-712A      Rev: 1.01
Using driver: Generic SCSI-3/MMC - Version 2.0 (options 0x0000)

Reading toc data...

Track   Mode    Flags  Start                Length
- ------------------------------------------------------------
 1      AUDIO   0      00:00:32(    32)     03:22:55( 15205)
 2      AUDIO   0      03:23:12( 15237)     03:36:60( 16260)
 3      AUDIO   0      06:59:72( 31497)     04:02:18( 18168)
 4      AUDIO   0      11:02:15( 49665)     03:05:45( 13920)
 5      AUDIO   0      14:07:60( 63585)     02:00:00(  9000)
 6      AUDIO   0      16:07:60( 72585)     05:05:10( 22885)
 7      AUDIO   0      21:12:70( 95470)     04:14:02( 19052)
 8      AUDIO   0      25:26:72(114522)     04:59:03( 22428)
 9      AUDIO   0      30:26:00(136950)     05:13:55( 23530)
10      AUDIO   0      35:39:55(160480)     04:15:37( 19162)
11      AUDIO   0      39:55:17(179642)     04:33:53( 20528)
Leadout AUDIO   0      44:28:70(200170)

<snip>
Reading of toc data finished successfully.
naibed:/home/music# cueconvert Synchronicity.toc Synchronicity.cue
naibed:/home/music# cat Synchronicity.cue
CATALOG 0082839373524

FILE "data.wav" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
PREGAP 00:00:32
INDEX 00 00:00:-32
INDEX 01 00:00:00

TRACK 02 AUDIO
INDEX 01 03:22:55

TRACK 03 AUDIO
INDEX 01 06:59:40
<snip>
</quote>

<EAC cuefile>
REM GENRE Rock
REM DATE 1983
REM DISCID 9B0A6C0B
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v0.95b4"
PERFORMER "Police"
TITLE "Synchronicity"
FILE "Police - Synchronicity.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "Synchronicity I"
    PERFORMER "Police"
    INDEX 00 00:00:00
    INDEX 01 00:00:32
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "Walking in your footsteps"
    PERFORMER "Police"
    INDEX 01 03:23:12
 <snip>
</EAC cuefile>

- --
Charles Steinkuehler
cstein at newtek.com
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