This site is written as a single HTML page. All contents are on THIS page, and are not written in any logical sequential order. In other words, it's as if the whole book's here, but the chapters are all over the place.
What does it mean in practice?
For best results, you should not simply read it from top to bottom - if you do, you might find it slightly incoherent. Instead, make use of the internal hyperlinks: start with a topic of interest, zoom in via those hyperlinks and use your browser's "Back" button to navigate. Since all contents are on this page, once it's loaded, navigating is blazingly fast.
Lastly, this page is a synthesis of a large and diversified contribution of many members of a.b.s.l groups. I've tried my best to remain impartial: whenever I have a personal opinion/preference, I clearly state so. Everything else is the merged opinion & know-how of a good many long-time members of the lossless groups, and as such, comes as close as possible to what an official page for a.b.s.l. might be.
to
a.b.s.l
("alt.binaries.sounds.lossless")
newsgroup & sub-groups
"...the lossless faq for fuckwits" (n. goode)
Note:
1. What's "a.b.s.l" and what's this FAQ page for?
"a.b.s.l" stands for "alt.binaries.sounds.lossless". It is a Usenet binaries newsgroup dedicated to lossless audio contents. Its aim is to post and download lossless music as attachments. While a.b.s.l is not a discussion group, discussions are welcome (especially those that are on topic) since the toll on bandwith and news servers' storage space is negligeable. In other words, if you have any questions/ideas/etc, don't hesitate to post them.
Since its birth, several sub-groups have sprung up (a.b.s.l.classical, a.b.s.l.jazz, a.b.s.l.country, etc) and no doubt more will in the future. The contents of this website applies to the entire hierarchy (i.e. a.b.s.l and all its sub-groups). To make things easier for you to read (and for me to write), I'll refer to the entire lot simply as "a.b.s.l". In other words, whenever I say "this group", or "a.b.s.l", it is implied that all sub-groups are equally concerned - unless otherwise noted.
The purpose of this web page is to help newcomers and veterans alike to find their way and live in harmony, participate in the groups - passively (i.e. just downloading) and/or actively (uploading/posting) - and to hopefully help everyone find something they like & enjoy.
This site is mainly written for PC users. If you are a MAC user you'll find MAC-specific information here: Welcome to the Mac OS X Corner of the Lossless Audio World - site created and maintained by a long-time MAC user member of absl. UNIX users are welcome to contribute to this site with material which would help them with UNIX-specific issues. Either that or emulate the above-mentioned MAC site, UNIX style, and let me know the URL so that I can include a link to it right here.
There are no "rules", and no "moderators". We all expect users to be grown-up and "do the right thing".
The groups self-regulate: if you behave in a way that fits within the spirit of the groups, you'll enjoy a place where freedom *IS* the rule. If not, expect some sharp comments by other members. The users of these groups make them what they are, not some arbitrary document or FAQ-man with a big stick "à la MP3-Land" telling people every day what to do and not to do, and how.
This website does not profess to be a what to and not to do page: it is simply a reflection of the spirit of a.b.s.l. This spirit may and probably will evolve as more participants help mold it. Indeed, everyone - veteran or newbie - is a part of it all, and is welcome to suggest ideas to the group as well as changes to any of this website.
A bit like in real life: you meet a bunch of people, you gauge the atmosphere, and if you decide you like it, you try to fit in, yet with your own personality. Fitting in doesn't mean you must become a mindless robot: you can have your own way, your own personality. Everyone else expects you to be different, not just a prefabricated clone of the "perfect brainless & obedient member".
Many a time, the different and fresh approach of a new member will enrich the group to the point where even long-time members will not only enjoy the *new blood* input but also be inspired to further refine the posting techniques they had long settled into.
Observe what's going on, get the flavor, and if you're of good will, you'll fit in just fine while remaining yourself.
You don't need to contribute to be able to download.
If you're new, download to your heart's content - you can't go wrong. But when it comes to uploading, take your time before you take the jump: see what other people do, especially the regular posters. The technical tid-bits are much more involved than for posting MP3s, although not insurmountable. However, it takes time to master them to the point where your posts will be useful and appreciated. If you do take the time to watch and understand, you'll notice that even long time posters further refine their technique every now & then.
You'll see different posters chose variations around a same theme:
Some people post headers 5km long, describing every bit of the post - others post cryptic 10 character long headers; some ppl post a whole array of support files, others practically none; you'll find most people take care to at least describe the contents of their posts via an NFO/TXT file.
Again, there is no rule on exactly how to do it or else! Use your judgment and do what you think is best - do what YOU would like to see others do. If it falls flat on its face, then revise your thinking. If nobody complains, and if you get praises for your postings, then you are obviously on the right track.
Believe me, I screwed up many a time myself (and still do, I'm sure), but there is nothing like being willing to listen to constructive criticism and adapt if needed to get along with other people and make the a.b.s.l groups a success story for everyone.
Lossless audio groups are for people who want an exact replica of the original music material source. The penalty is that, all other things being equal, a lossless audio file is many times bigger (and thus longer to upload/download) than its MP3 equivalent (even at highest quality settings - 320KB, etc). But that is the price lossless fans are willing to pay for the sake of 100% integrity of the material. You could say lossless fans are kind of purists: even if the recording is a shitty 1935 LP, with a 300Hz-3kHz bandwith, the lossless user will want the no-loss replica.
How is this "lossless" result achieved?
The principle is similar to MP3s in that the original WAV files (i.e. the actual digital musical contents of your CD) are compressed to take less disk space and transmit quicker over the Internet. From WAV files, you now end up with music files that are called *.APE, *.FLAC, *.SHN, etc (there are several "lossless" schemes around) instead of *.MP3.
Here ends the similarity, though: the big difference with MP3 (and other "lossy* compression schemes such as MPC, Ogg, etc) is that when you decompress a lossless file, you end up with the exact original WAV file. As if you had ZIP'ed or RAR'ed it. I won't go into more details here in this introduction - if you want to know more about it, check the Compressing software section.
As well as taking longer to up[down]load, lossless files naturally take up much more HDD space than MP3s. This brings me to point out a difference between lossless and MP3 users in their thinking of why they download music in the first place:
Still, if you decide you don't want to burn a CD from some APE/FLAC/etc material you downloaded, but wish to play those files directly from HDD just like MP3s (i.e. without first converting them to WAVs), there are several solutions. Here are a couple:
Conclusion:
If you're mostly interested in getting *quick bulk* music easily playable from your computer's HDD, and find the idea of going back to CDs to play music a pain in the butt, then a.b.s.l is probably NOT for you. Even if you have zillions of gigabytes of hard drive space, the steps involved between downloading and getting to play the music will give you the shits no end.
On the other hand, if you view the exercise as lossless enthusiasts do, and accept that some substantial active input from your part is needed (even just to download and play the music, let alone to upload), then this may be for you a home with new horizons of enjoyment & satisfaction.
You need a little investment in software. Luckily, most of it is freeware, i.e. the investment is in time rather than money.
Note: a few news servers offer a web-based interface, i.e. you can use your Internet browser (instead of/as well as a news reader) to access the newsgroups. See the News Servers section for details.
The easiest way around is to download and install one of the several freeware "front-end" applications such as "Frontah", which together with "plug-ins" specific to each compressing algorithm, will decode any of the various lossless compressed files. For details on Frontah and alternatives, see section "Front-end decoding tools".
The other issue is platform compatibility: APE is a Windows only format, whereas FLAC works on all platforms. I hear you ask: "how do I decode APE files on my Mac then?". See this excellent site created by a long-time absl member: Welcome to the Mac OS X Corner of the Lossless Audio World.
2. What are the rules?
3. Can I just download stuff right away, or do I need to contribute?
4. I'm familiar with MP3 music. How's "lossless" different? Is it for me?
As you'll notice, a.b.s.l posters go to great lengths to ensure that not only the musical content is posted accurately, but also supply detailed info regarding the layout of the CD, verification schemes to allow downloaders to make sure nothing got corrupted (even if audibly unnoticeable), etc.
5. Ok, sounds interesting but a bit overwhelming; what are the steps to download and enjoy the music?
You will naturally also need an Internet connection and access to a news server. Not all news servers carry all newsgroups. Also, "quality" varies greatly from one server to the next. For an explanation on this "quality" term as well as many other useful hints, see "News Servers" section.
APEs are created by Monkey's Audio, FLACs by SourceForge. Both these compression applications are freeware, but are not compatible with each other - i.e. you can't decompress a FLAC file with Monkey's Audio app, and vice-versa.
MAC users, please see this excellent site created by a long-time absl member: Welcome to the Mac OS X Corner of the Lossless Audio World.
This being a rather broad topic, I'll split it into sub-sections:
In most NGs (newsgroups) there is no such thing as a *sub* NG for requests: you simply post your requests within the group - this is the case for a.b.s.l. How do you do this ? No hard and fast rule, but most people post a header along the lines of:
"REQ: some artist - some CD title, please!"
You can optionally add variants such as: ".... pretty please, grovel grovel", etc :-)
From my limited experience, it is always a good idea to WRITE something in the body of the message, i.e. not simply post a header. For instance, a header like:
"REQ: anyone got Mr Bean's Best of?" accompanied by a body text like:
"I really dig this guy. I've been on the lookout for this particular CD for a long time. If anyone could upload it, it'd really make my day :-) Thanks in advance!"
....rather than just a header (with no body content) like:
"REQ: Mr Beans - Best Of"
Not sure why, but it seems to get more sympathy - and more chances of a positive outcome.
If you've got downloading (meaning downloading + decompressing + verifying + burning CD) under control, then you're half way to posting successfully. Posting requires everything downloading does, plus a few more things:
Binaries is used in the Usenet world to indicate the type of contents a particular newsgroup deals with. It is in opposition to text, or discussion.
Text/discussion newsgroups are dedicated to messages: you open the message in your newsreader, and read the contents - like an ordinary email.
Binaries newsgroups deal with file attachments: you don't just post/read text, you mostly post and download attached files - audio, video or anything else - which your newsreader saves to your hard disk for you to handle later with the appropriate application.
For an overview of Usenet, Newsgroups, Netiquette in Large Binaries Newsgroups, "Trolls", "Spam", Cancelling posts, and more, see the excellent site: UsenetHelp. And when you get to the stage where you are ready to post something, check the same site at this page: How to post large binaries to Usenet.
"Lossless" refers to the result of a compression/decompression process: after encoding/compressing, and then decoding/decompressing data, there is NO "loss" whatsoever, i.e. what you get in the end is the exact copy of the original - unlike an MP3 file. It is the same principle as that of popular compression applications such as WinZip and WinRAR. The idea is that it manages to fit the original data into a smaller than original size, without losing any information, so that when the reverse process (decompression/decoding) takes place, you end up with the exact duplicate of the original data.
Why compress/decompress? Two reasons: to save storage space and to cut down on transmission time (via the Internet, where even with fast access, data transfers are at the very least a thousand times slower than hard disks).
While lossless compression is taken for granted in *normal* data, audio contents are somewhat different: the very popular MP3 format has set a precedent by which it is assumed by the average music listener that what (s)he hears is more or less the same as the original music. This is of course not the case, and thus the reason why a.b.s.l and other music material newsgroups have appeared on Usenet: because of people who are not satisfied with MP3 approximations, however close, and who want the EXACT original contents of the music on the CD (or whichever source).
Ok, but why *new* weird and wonderful apps to do this when WinZIP and WinRAR can do the job and everyone has them?
Audio lossless compression, a bit like MP3, relies on specific programs: the reason simply being that while WinZip or WinRar would do the job perfectly accurately, they would do it very inefficiently. Audio contents do not lend themselves well to effective reduction in size when handled by compression algorithms from ZIP and RAR.
As a result, a number of dedicated audio compression/decompression applications have appeared, optimized to handle WAV files (i.e. the uncompressed audio data on your CDs) and yield comparatively much smaller files. The compression ratio varies a lot depending on the musical material, but all things being equal, a WAV file compressed into APE for instance (i.e. by Monkey's Audio - one of the popular lossless audio compressors) will end up 50% of the original WAV file whereas WinZIP or WinRAR would only manage 80 to 90% of the original.
Since the issue of transmission via the Internet is crucial, a 20 hours download (and upload in the first place) reduced to 10 hours instead of 18 hours is naturally a cause for rejoicing. Lastly: if you are one those people who still can't believe there is such a thing as "lossless" compression, check out this very neat explanation by one of ABSL's members.In spite of what would seem pretty clear and obvious in this FAQ, real life experience has shown that some people in ABSL and sub newsgroups still don't get what "lossless" actually means.
If you are one of them, read the following, written by an ABSL member. Here goes: The first thing you need to recognize is a distinction between lossy compression, in which some data is permanently discarded or "lost" (hopefully nothing easily noticed), and lossless compression (mathematical algorithms reduce file size without discarding anything, and allow for exact recreation of the source material). .mp3s. .oggs, lossy forms of .wma, and .jpeg images are all examples of lossy compression. FLAC, Monkey's Audio, .zip, and .rar are all lossless compression formats; the content can be decompressed to an identical, bit-for-bit copy of the original. You should also be aware that lossy audio compression involves much more than a narrowing of frequencies to those perceptible to the human ear (which would obviously be limited to far less than 2:1 compression rates). .mp3s encoded at --alt-preset standard or -V 2 Lame preset VBR are considered "audibly transparent" (most people cannot distinguish the .mp3 from the original) yet are up to 7 times smaller than the source audio. So it also follows that spectral frequency analysis alone is not a sufficient measure of actual audio quality of compressed or decompressed audio. The quality of a lossy compressed file can vary widely, depending on rate of compression, encoding settings, etc. And some content can be compressed much more than others without suffering. For example, an image with large blocks of solid colors and little detail can be compressed much more than a picture of the same size with color shading and intricate details. For that matter, not all software tools are equal, as some algorithms are much more efficient than others (Photoshop can create a much better .jpeg image than can Paint, even at similar file sizes). Also, repeated lossy compression will necessarily degrade the content, no matter what quality settings are used for subsequent compressions (think about photo-copies of photo-copies, and just say "No!" to anyone re-encoding/transcoding lossy audio). I would agree that .rar/.zip archives of compressed audio is very inefficient; while it may be convenient for organizing "sets" of files, there is little appreciable gain in archiving compressed content in regards to file size. Archiving might make sense for uncompressed audio, but would again be inefficient - FLAC, APE, and other lossless audio formats allow higher compression rates. But I assure you, a file properly extracted from such an archive will be the same file, bit-for-bit, as the source. BTW, the differences in compression rates for lossless audio formats are a function of compression time, and do not affect quality (it's lossless, remember) but the differences in these rates are fairly small, and the relatively tiny file size savings for the highest rates are hardly worth the exponentially longer time required. For the simplest analogy, think of lossy compression as snipping away at a sponge with scissors; it may still look like the same sponge and still do the job nearly as well, but will always have parts missing. Lossless compression would be squeezing the sponge to a smaller size instead; releasing the pressure (decompressing) would allow the sponge to snap back to its original state. I assure you, lossless compression exists (and yes, the Earth is round!) Now it's up to you to educate yourself further (Google is your friend ;) and, if necessary, to do your own testing to convince yourself.In this context (i.e. newsgroups), this term refers to the structure of a number of newsgroups derived from a common theme newsgroup.
Sounds confusing, LOL?
Ok, taking the example of a.b.s.l, originally a newsgroup dedicated to *ALL* lossless music: over time, some people felt the need to *split* the group into sub-groups, each specific to a particular style of music. Currently, at least 3 sub a.b.s.l groups exist: a.b.s.l.classical, a.b.s.l.jazz and a.b.s.l.country. The word hierarchy simply means the ensemble of a.b.s.l and all its sub-groups.
What's a news server?
Simply a server which holds a copy of the posts on a number of newsgroups (NGs). If you're unfamiliar with the concept, check this next paragraph for a simplified overview of Usenet and news servers - or, for more in-depth answers, see this great site: UsenetHelp.
Quick overview of Usenet
Usenet is a world-wide network of over 100 000 NGs - a.b.s.l and subgroups being only just a few of them. There is no single repositary of these NGs: instead, there are hundreds of thousands of news servers dispersed around the globe, each carrying the SAME NGs: for instance a.b.s.l on news server xxx in Tokyo is the SAME a.b.s.l as the one carried by news server yyy in Rio de Janero.
Every so often all these news servers "synchronize": they "talk" to each other and fill in their respective missing data, i.e. stuff posted through other news servers. For instance, if you post something on a.b.s.l on news server xxx in Tokyo, it will show up there instantly, but will be seen nowhere else; yet, after a short time, when news servers "talk" to each other and "update" their contents, your post will appear on news server yyy in Rio, zzz in Capetown, etc.HTTP, NNTP... huh?
Most news servers only use the NNTP protocol for access. NNTP is one of the 4 most common protcols, the other 3 being HTTP, FTP and SMTP/POP (i.e. email). This is the reason why you normally need a Newsreader application in order to post to or even download from newsgroups - your email client & web browser are not NNTP-enabled. However, a few premium servers offer a dual-access mode: one using the standard NNTP protocol (accessible via a Newsreader), and a web-based interface, which you can access with your Internet browser.
While not as flexible as a newsreader, a web-based interface has the advantage of allowing you to access your News server's favorite groups from any computer (i.e. home/work/friend's/etc) that may not have a newsreader installed but will have a web browser available. Also, in the case of LANs (especially in a work environment), the administrator may have blocked NNTP to the workstations - trying to prevent you from spending your day at work cruising around a.b.s.l (the hide!). With a web-based news server, you can then still enjoy your day at work on a.b.s.l. To this day, I'm only aware of 3 premium servers offering both NNTP and HTTP acess:
More on news servers in general...
In theory all news servers should be the same regarding access to newsgroups since they all duplicate the same Usenet groups, as described a couple of paragraphs back. In practice, they are not. To start with, the decision to carry some newsgroups and not others is entirely up to each news server. While there are over 100 000 NGs around, virtually no news server carries them all, except a few rare "Premium" servers. This means for instance that your closest access news server may or may not carry a.b.s.l, and if it doesn't, you won't be able to access a.b.s.l .
Next thing is "quality": for a number of reasons (too complex to describe here, and which I know next to nothing anyway), the process of "synchronization" (also called "propagation") more often than not results in lost and/or corrupt data. For instance your 15 files posted on xxx server in Tokyo will end up with only 10 files on yyy in Rio, out of which 2 will have missing segments and 3 others corrupt contents.
Sounds like they haven't got their act together, right? I agree, but such is life, and until they pull their fingers out, we must find work-arounds.
Lastly, there is the issue of retention. This simply means how long posts are stored on news servers. Posts are not kept there forever - each news server has limited storage space. After a period of time which may range from 2 or 3 days to several weeks, news servers "purge" older posts.
What does it mean in practice?
Well, if you have limited time to dedicate to checking out NGs for material you want to download, and especially if you have a slow link, you will find that a low retention time spells missing out on posts you want to grab: by the time your newsreader gets to downloading the files you've selected, they've been deleted from your news server :-(
Second, you may find numerous and boringly repetitious examples of posts which have missing files, corrupt ones, etc. Everything to make you feel "shit, it'd have been easier to buy the CD!".
But wait, all is not gloom & doom...
Where do I find a news server?
The cheapest and easiest place to start is with your ISP: most ISPs have a news server, the access of which for you (as a paying customer) will be "free". Unfortunately, most ISPs' news servers are lousy: they carry few newsgroups and their "quality" is poor. This means that even if you're lucky enough and your favorite NGs are available, your chances of finding corrupt, incomplete, or altogether missing posts are high, and their retention time is so low that it is a race against the clock to download things in time before you see the files disappearing off your server faster than your 20MB/s ADSL Internet connection can grab them.
So, what's the alternative?
A "Premium" news server. Drawback is it costs money. Advantages: you'll find all the NGs you're interested in (and if by any chance they don't carry an NG you want, you can request them to add it to their list), very high "quality" (very few posts missing/corrupt), and long retention time (1 or 2 weeks, sometimes much more).
Cost?
Starts from around US$5/month. Some servers "cap" (i.e. "limit") your download amount, others cap your speed instead. Check this site for a comparison of features and prices between servers:
Usenet Servers Comparison Data
Here are links to some Premium news servers websites. If your budget is really tight, consider at least Tera or Bubba, which offer free limited downloads (around 75MB/day) - not enough if you're downloading 2 CDs per day, but still useful even then, for the purpose of for example downloading those 2 or 3 files that just disappeared of your free NSP before you could get to them.
Lastly, here is a neat workaround for ppl with a very tight purse:
If your ISP's (Internet Service Provider's) news server (i.e. the one you get for "free" through your ISP membership) is average and you therefore end up continuously having to ask ppl to repost missing segments, if not entire tracks, consider a "no-expiry block purchase". Let me briefly explain: most premium NSPs offer monthly subscriptions; you get a certain amount of GB for each month, and when the month is up or your usage has chewed up all your download "credit", you're up for another month's subscription. In other words, even if you don't download a single byte, your xxx # of GBs of credit is not "forwarded" to the next month - it is simply lost, as is the money you paid for that month.
Shared Secrets News and Octanews have an interesting formula: you can buy "no-expiry" blocks of 2 and 4 GB (around 2 and 4 $ respectively). This is a great investement for people who rely on their ISP's NSP: since the "blocks" have no expiry (i.e. you don't have to use them within a month - they're available forever till the bytes have been used up), you can "make up" for your lousy ISP's server's performance by downloading from Shared Secret the bits that are missing.
Some other premium NSPs may offer a similar service, in which case, let me know and I'll add them here. I've personally used Octanews block formula for 2 years at this time of writing and I still have credit left on my original 4 dollar / 4GB block purchase.
"Segments" are the "sub-parts" of a file posted as an attachment on newsgroups. When you send an attached file via email, it gets sent as one chunk. When you do it on newsgroups you have to split it up into "segments". Don't ask me why, it's just how it is.
So, how do I join the segments to recreate the original attachment?
Most newsreaders worth speaking of will do this automatically for you: they'll look for the various segments posted on your news server's NG, and show them as ONE header for the lot. When you "download" the file, your newsreader will download ALL the actual separate segment files, assemble them back and save it to your HDD as the original attachment (before being split into segments).
Conversaly, if you post your files with an application dedicated to posting binaires such as PowerPost, it's all transparent, i.e. you don't have to worry about a thing: they will automatically split the attached files for you and post them as individual segments.
For more in-depth information, take a look at the excellent site: How to post large binaries to Usenet.
There are many newsreaders around, some free, some not. MAC users, please see this excellent site created by a long-time absl member: Welcome to the Mac OS X Corner of the Lossless Audio World.
For the purpose of downloading binaries, Outlook Express, while having the merits of being free, being automatically installed on your PC without you even knowing about it (LOL), and being easy to use, is unfortunately next to useless. You need to look into one of the following:
Here are some links to help you with Agent:
Unofficial FAQ for alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent
How to deal with incomplete binaries (check this out before you drive everyone nuts with repeated track repost requests)
QuickStart; setting up Agent (site in Dutch)
One caveat - it doesn't do much in the way of checking for valid folder names: it will for instance happily create a folder ending in a period (illegal) which means you can't access it without pulling up a command prompt.
Also supports meta-groups: for instance combine a.b.s.l with a.b.s.misc, a.b.s.monkeysaudio, a.b.s.pac and a.b.music.shn for a huge supergroup that behaves like one newsgroup. BNR2 lets you specify target dirs before d/ling.
Only downside is: no posting. You need to use another reader in conjunction with BNR2 to join discussions - which means downloading headers again - but if you want the meta groups and aggregate servers features, it is well worth it.
Here is a great site to help you with BNR2: Binary News Reaper 2
Personal note: only real gripe I have with it: if a post is missing segments, it is a pain in the ass to find out which ones are missing - something that even Forté Agent manages very neatly.
For about 9 months now I have been using NewPro as my reader, and I think it is very good as far as the handling of multiple servers is concerned. It is easily set up to download headers from one server only, and downloading the bodies from another! In my case I use Giganews for the headers and my local ISP's server for the bodies, since the last gives them free. If my ISP is not complete, Giganews provides the missing segments automatically...
A great feature of NewPro is also the Watch/Auto part: define a filter for a certain post, set it up to watch for headers coming in, and to download the bodies automatically as soon as the files are complete to a predefined folder. I love that part! Had all my Samson François coming in that way!!
Nice is also the use of "Subfolders" containing all the groups one is interested in. The folder acts as one great group, e.g. my lossless subfolder has abmc, abs-flac-c, abslc, and absmc combined. I never have to bother whether a track is complete on one group or another.
Lastly, here are a few links to "general" (i.e. NOT application-specific) help sites:
Since there are several lossless compression applications around, downloading files from a.b.s.l and being able to use them (which means "decoding" them into WAV files in order to burn your CD) would suggest having to install all of these apps. From the downloader's point of view, this is clearly a drawback (although you'll find that in practice APE and FLAC are the only two used in a.b.s.l).
Luckily, most of these applications are written in a way that makes life easier for everybody: the "core" part of the app, i.e. the program that does the actual encoding/decoding (compression/decompression) is only a smallish executable which not only does the useful work, but has facilities to include launching parameters.
What does all this technical bull mean in practice?
Simply that each of these lossless compression apps has a "magic file" which can be used as a "plug-in" to a general purpose front-end program (i.e. one which can encode/decode many if not all these formats). A bit like plug-ins for PaintShop Pro or PhotoShop: within the main program, you invoke gadgets which process your pics, this being achieved by a third party program without even realizing it's there doing the actual hard work - but more importantly, without having to install and run each of these plug-ins as a separate application.
Totally lost?
Check the following, it's easier than you might think. Here are some front-end applications:
"Frontah". It's freeware, easy to use, and looks cute. No members of a.b.s.l has ever had one complaint about it, so you can definitely expect it to work reliably. The only minus is it will NOT work with Win-9x OSes (i.e. Windows 95/98/Millenium), only with the NT family (NT/W2K/XP). I'll refrain from commenting about the fact that in my opinion it is not a drawback at all since the NT family is the only worthwhile OS Microsoft ever wrote. Ooops, sorry, looks like I didn't quite manage to refrain.
"Multi Frontend", made by Wim Speekenburg, in combination with Case's "Tag". Highly recommended by a veteran a.b.s.l poster.
"dBpowerAMP" is neat for its ability to play compressed files on the fly (lossless as well as lossy ones - Ape, Flac, Shn, MP3, WMA, Ogg, etc). It's freeware. Beware that dBPowerAmp can "bypass" FLAC's built-int integrity check, and decode a corrupt FLAC file into a WAV one without warning you of any error. In other words, while it's great for playing APE/FLAC/etc files without having to first decompress them into WAV files, it may be safer to stick to Frontah and Multi-Frontend when performing "permanent" conversions (for example, when you decompress the lossless files into WAVs for the purpose of burning a CD).
Here are the websites links:
Lastly, you can do away with these apps and burn the CD directly from the compressed files (APE/FLAC). This is possible with Nero with the right plugins: Nero will then decompress the files into WAVs on the fly while it's burning the CD. But beware: these plugins ignore bitstream errors (they will happily decode and burn a duff file - i.e. you end up with a coaster). Therefore one must use internal verify features before burning, and you might as well just decode the files. The one exception might be OptimFrog since its verify is extremely fast (probably just checks the md5). In conclusion, unless you don't mind coasters, take the slow boat and use the proven steps and applications.
If you want to experiment with the idea, you can find the plugins here:
Mausau's audio plugins for Nero Burning ROM
MAC users, please see this excellent site created by a long-time absl member: Welcome to the Mac OS X Corner of the Lossless Audio World.
Till recently, these were the 2 main contender schemes to implement "file verification". Wozzat? A simple way (from the user's point of view) to provide a kind of "signature" of the files posted: this signature, when tested at the receiving end allows the downloader to 99.9999...% certify the integrity of the download. If any file included in this verification signature does not pass the test, you're alerted.
These programs do NOT fix problems, they simply tell you whether you have corrupt files or not.
Both are freeware. Here are the websites links to a few applications implementing these schemes, together with some comments:
MAC users, please see this excellent site created by a long-time absl member: Welcome to the Mac OS X Corner of the Lossless Audio World.
PAR (and the newer PAR2 algorithm) is short for "parity". Very technically involved, so I won't even try to explain how it works since I don't understand it anyway. But here is the useful bit to you and I:
The purpose is to actually FIX corrupt (and even MISSING) files.
Huh? Why not simply repost corrupt/missing files?
Yes, that would be a perfectly valid way of doing it. However, the beauty of PAR/PAR2 is that it does a real magic trick by which it manages to potentially repair a lot more data than would be needed by simply duplicating/reposting it.
As if you're actually get something for nothing. Too good to be true? No, it does work, believe you me.
PAR has been around for a long time, and is extensively used in "warez" groups. The application is known as SmartPAR. PAR2 is relatively new, and is particularly well suited to lossless audio because of the fact most files are not the same size (something which SmartPAR doesn't cope with very elegantly). The application is known as QuickPAR. Unless you have some obscure reason to do so, forget SmartPAR, and get on the bandwagon: QuickPAR is the way to go, as you'll notice from the ever-growing majority of posts using it.
Both are freeware. Here are the websites links:
QuickPAR also does the job of "file verification". In other words, you don't need to bother with SFV / MD5 any longer: if you're downloading and there is a PAR2 file, you can use it to "check files" + "repair them if needed" all in one step. If you're uploading, you can save yourself the time of creating SFV / MD5 files by simply creating a PAR2 set.
Here are a couple of excellent QuickPAR tutorials:
For now, here is a very simplified overview on how to use QuickPAR if you're a downloader:
A QuickPAR set comprises one very small PAR2 file which contains no repair "blocks" (i.e. it provides information only, and does no hold any repair data) and a bunch of "volume" files which do contain repair blocks. They will look something like:
Some Artist - Some Title.PAR2 <== this is the small information file
Some Artist - Some Title.vol000+01.PAR2 <== first of the repair files: it contains 1 block of repair data
Some Artist - Some Title.vol001+02.PAR2 <== next repair file: it contains 2 more block of repair data (you now have 3 blocks)
Some Artist - Some Title.vol003+04.PAR2 <== next repair file: it contains 4 more block of repair data (you now have 7 blocks)
...etc...
With the small information file, you can verify the integrity of the music files. If they pass the test and no repair is needed, then you don't need to worry about the other PAR2 files. If the test tells you it needs XXX number of blocks to repair corrupt/missing files, then you need to download enough of the repair files to match or exceed this XXX number of blocks. For instance:
If QuickPAR2 tells you it needs 4 blocks, you will need (in the example above) to download all 3 repair files (the first 2 files, "vol000+01" and "vol001+02", only provide 3 blocks).
If QuickPAR2 needs 8 blocks, and if the above 3 repair files are the only ones posted, you need to request the poster to upload more PAR2 repair files. Make sure you let her/him know how many blocks you need.
MAC users, please see this excellent site created by a long-time absl member: Welcome to the Mac OS X Corner of the Lossless Audio World.
WinRAR is not freeware, although not expensive.
The majority of the lossless music posted is compressed with one of the dedicated audio compressing apps (APE/FLAC/etc) and that's all there is to it - i.e. you don't need WinRAR at all. However some posters "RAR" up the resulting APE/FLAC/etc file(s). This is actually pointless, since binaries posted via the NNTP protocol (i.e. newsgroups) are always split into segments: as a result, the downloader never faces the dreaded syndrome of "Ouch!!! My 120MB W2K service pack download from M$'s site just screwed up, and now I have to start all over again".
But since you're likely to come across these multiple RARed-files posts, you should be prepared to handle them if you want to download the music. As of v3.11, some significant changes were made in the WinRAR format, which is why you should have this version (or later) to decode RARed posts.
By the way, if you wonder why WinRAR when WinZIP is even more "well known": WinZIP's way of splitting files is not very elegant to say the least. WinRAR does it just right.
Lastly, if you are posting and insist on using WinRAR, do NOT set it to compress: chose "store" mode. This is because the APE/FLAC/etc file is already compressed, and WinRAR will not reduce its size by any significant amount. At the same time, the time taken to compress/decompress it in store mode will be a fraction of that needed if using any of the compression levels.
Here is the website link:
MAC users, please see this excellent site created by a long-time absl member: Welcome to the Mac OS X Corner of the Lossless Audio World.
There are tons of applications that will burn your CDs successfully, some commercial software, some freeware, some in-between (meaning: a free version with some limitations, and a fully-fleged paying one). Here is a list of some:
MAC users, please see this excellent site created by a long-time absl member: Welcome to the Mac OS X Corner of the Lossless Audio World.
How to burn your CD:
Firstly, whichever application you use, always choose DAO (Disc At Once) mode, and make sure the software doesn't try to add silence between tracks (Nero is notorious for doing this).
Next, if a CUE sheet (i.e. CUE file) is posted along, you can use it, but make sure the software you use can understand it. There are some compatibility issues between CUE sheets generated by different software. As nearly all posters use EAC to extract the data, the CUE file will have been generated by EAC. One obvious answer is to use EAC to burn your CD. Another program you can use that understands CUE sheets created by EAC is burrrn.
So.... what do I do with the CUE sheet?
Two main choices:
The above assumes the tracks were posted as individual WAV files (as they should be). However, some posters insist on posting the CD as one big WAV (i.e. "image" mode). In this case a CUE sheet is mandatory: without it, the CD will still burn ok, and the music content will be perfectly valid, but the entire CD will appear to have only 1 track.
Again, make sure your burning application can understand the CUE sheet you feed it, since most besides EAC and burrrn are unable to use the most common type of sheet posted. It shouldn't come as a surprise that this type is usually referred to as "noncompliant".
Sometimes the poster will scan the various parts of the CD (front & back covers, booklet, CD itself, etc) and post them along with the rest of the posting. If you're wanting scans for the CD you're downloading, and they are not provided by the poster, check out the many Internet sites that offer tons of scans:
Can't afford to buy jewel cases?
Then check these sites out: they'll show you how to make CD cases from sheets of paper.
Now all we need is some clever person to come up with a way of creating blank CDs out of paper...
If you are used to MP3 groups, one of the most puzzling things you'll encounter on a.b.s.l is all these different types of files:
*.APE, *.FLAC, *.SHN, *.NFO, *.PAR, *.CUE, *.RAR, *.MD5, *.PAR2, *.LOG, *.SFV, etc.
Geee.... things are so much simpler in MP3-Land: all files are simply *.MP3. So how do I know I have rounded up all the files of a post? Do I need to have all these extensions present for it to work and me being able to burn a CD?
It is not as bad as it first looks. I'll split it into 2 main categories:
In this case, you'll see a whole bunch of *.RAR files. All of them are necessary since they will make up one huge compressed sound file (APE/FLAC/etc) which will normally be the entire CD.
Here you'll notice a bunch of either *.APE, *.FLAC, *.SHN, etc, files: these make up the music content, each one as one track of the CD.
Now what about the other files? And how come in some cases there is a whole plethora of them, and in others virtually none?
This is simply due to the decision the poster made about posting "support" files or not. Some will post the whole lot, others none, and some just a selection. The bottom line is that, insofar as the music content of the CD, only the APE/FLAC/etc (or RAR) files are needed. All other files are there only to help you check and make sure the music files are ok (*.SFV, *.MD5, and *.PAR2), fix corrupt files if needed (*.PAR and *.PAR2), give you a report on the CD extraction process (*.LOG), provide CD burning instructions (*.CUE), and simply to tell you all about the CD (*.NFO and *.TXT).
In other words, if you're new and all this stuff is just too confusing for you, you can at the limit simply download just the music files, decompress them into WAV and burn the CD. Unless you don't care who's playing what, the NFO file is also a pretty good choice. When you feel more at ease, I'd suggest you at least download the PAR2/SFV/MD5 file (if provided) and run it to confirm all your music files are corruption-free. This might save you from creating unnecessary coasters. And if you DO find some corrupt files, then PAR/PAR2 files are the next choice for downloading.
Occasionally, people go to town and provide pictures of the CD booklets, and even "preview" files of the songs - i.e. short samples of each song in a usually lossy format - i.e. MP3 for example. In such cases, all these files will be zipped together into something called "...... support and preview.ZIP".
Last but not least, you need to feel at ease with your newsreader to make sure you are aware of all the files for a given music post. Whether you decide to leave out some of the anciliary files is your choice, but this choice must be based on solid ground, i.e. you making sure you've spotted ALL the files of the post you want to download.
This involves experimenting with your newsreader some: get familiar with re-sorting your headers list in different ways - i.e. by date, by poster, etc. Sometimes, headers from different posts begin with the same strings of characters, and one can easily miss seeing one (or more) header belonging to a given post because it/they will be out of order.
Luckily most posters include a (file x of y) part in their headers. This gives you a chance to easily check you see all files relevant to your desired download.
Example:
Some Artist - Best of (01 of 12), yEnc, "Artist - Title.NFO"
Some Artist - Best of (02 of 12), yEnc, "Artist - Title.PAR2"
Some Artist - Best of (03 of 12), yEnc, "Artist - Title.SFV"
Some Artist - Best of (04 of 12), yEnc, "Artist - Title - 01. track 1 name.FLAC"
Some Artist - Best of (05 of 12), yEnc, "Artist - Title - 02. track 2 name.FLAC"
Some Artist - Best of (06 of 12), yEnc, "Artist - Title - 03. track 3 name.FLAC"
etc
This can be due to several things, but the most common cause is "missing segments". Depending on the newsreader you use, incomplete files (i.e. files with missing segments) will be clearly identified.
If you use a Premium news server, you'll by and large be spared the daily pain of missing segments, but if not, expect it to be a regular occurence.
The other - rarer - possibility is: one or more segment is corrupt.
So what do I do about it?
See next section: Dealing with incomplete binaries.
If your newsreader lets you clearly identify the missing segments, you can either:
This is the preferred method because the poster might justifiably say:
"hey wait, on *my* news server, this file has NO missing segments".
If a poster has to repost 200 different missing segments for 200 different people because 200 news servers can't synchronize properly, it can get tiresome. This is obviously a slightly exaggerated case, but you see the point.
On the other hand, if each of these 200 people download the PAR/PAR2 files, each will be able to repair their various missing segments.
How lousy non-premium news servers can get is something that challenges my vivid imagination every week.
If you only see 12 posts out of 16 from someone, then nothing, either the poster has a problem or your news server has one. If nobody else complains, then chances are that it is your news server playing up and decided to "drop" the transmission of the missing 4 files altogether. Not at all an uncommon thing.
In this case, you can always try asking the poster to repost the 4 files (although you more often than not, you won't get much luck), or forget about that post, or lastly decide you've had enough and subscribe to a "premium" news server. Or at least, consider the very inexpensive solution of using "non-expiry blocks" to complement your ISP's news server.
So you've got this great CD you want to share with the group and wonder: "how do I go about posting it?"
The first step is to extract (or "rip") the digital audio contents. The result will be one or more WAV file(s). Most CD burning software can do this, but be aware that audio ripping is a very tricky process: without even adding the complication of how to deal with scratched CDs, accurately ripping audio contents is much more difficult than simply playing the CD, even though one could think the processes to be much the same - after all, when you play your CD, the software/hardware has to "read" all the digital info, right?
Yet, somehow, this is so: you'll find many a software/hardware setup ("hardware" mostly meaning the CD player/writer, as the rest of your computer doesn't have much impact on the results) playing CD xxx perfectly, and yet if you use it for audio ripping, you'll end up with totally garbled WAV files. This means that you should be a lot more picky about what software you're going to use to rip CDs than you are to play them or even burn them.
Luckily the answer is simple: EAC (Exact Audio Copy). It is near unanimously accepted as by far the most reliable software for the job, and as a bonus, is freeware.
Configuring and using EAC to get a *perfect* rip
The most important settings for EAC as they apply to ripping can be found in the first two items listed under the EAC menu on the menu bar. They are the EAC Options (F9) and Drive Options (F10). The default settings are pretty good for the most part. Still, there are a few that should be changed and others that should remain in the default state as they can and often will produce undesired results. Only the settings that directly affect what you will post are going to be covered here and will be addressed in order except for the first item since it influences which settings are made available.
The first setting to check is the last item on the Tools tab, labeled, "Activate beginner mode, disable advanced features". Make sure it is unchecked. If it is checked, uncheck it and click OK. You will need to reopen the EAC Options menu again after doing this.
Fill up missing offset samples with silence: check
No use of null samples for CRC calculations: uncheck
Synchronize between tracks: check
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks: uncheck
Disable 'CD Autostart' for audio and data CDs while EAC running: check
Display times using Frames: check
Automatically write status report after extraction: check
Normalize: uncheck
Naming scheme
Make sure to include the track number in your scheme and place it before the track title so that sorting by filename will render the proper track order.
Make sure to use a delimiter between the different parts of the file name to make the possibility of automated tagging and renaming easier. Avoid using more than one type of delimiter in your naming scheme. Try to pick a delimiter that does not commonly appear inside the title of an artist, album or track. Do not use spaces as delimiters.
Here are some examples of good naming schemes:
%D - %C - %N - %T
%D\%C\%N. %T
%D\%C - %N - %T
There is no one magic set of settings that will guarantee the best rip. The best settings to use here will depend on your drive and can also depend on the condition of the CD you are ripping. EAC keeps track of the drive options settings separately for each drive that you have in your system. Before you use any drive with EAC for the first time, you should make sure it is configured properly.
Insert any audio CD into the drive you are configuring and click the "Detect Read Features" button. Once the routine is finished click Apply. These features will automatically be applied under the Secure modes section of this tab and "Secure with the following drive features (recommended)" will be selected automatically. You may want to run this routine a few times and use the results that are most consistent.
Accurate Stream
Drive caches audio data
Drive is capable of retrieving C2 error information
Burst mode
Additional information on how to configure these settings will be included in the Ripping section.
It is recommended that you run the "Autodetect read command now" routine before you use a drive with EAC for the first time. The rest of the options on this tab are pretty self-explanatory and should be looked at. It is unlikely that any of these will need to be checked, however, if you experience a problem that is consistent any of these description(s), check the appropriate box(es).
All drives rip with an offset. This means that the starting point of a every ripped track will be shifted from the actual starting point that is on the disc by a constant amount. The direction and size of the shift depends on the make and model of the drive and amounts to no more than 1/20 of a second and is often far less than 1/100 of a second. Because the size of the shift is constant and depending on its direction, the only data that is lost will either be at the very beginning or the very end of the disc.
EAC is able to correct this shift, but if your drive can't overread, it will not be able to recover the lost data. In order to maintain proper timing EAC will replace the missing data with null samples but only if the "Fill up missing offset samples with silence" setting under the Extraction tab in the EAC Options (F9) is checked.
Use read sample offset correction
You can install the program which gives you access to a database of over 140,000 titles (at the time of this writing) in order to determine your offset. The AccurateRip web site contains a fairly comprehensive list of drive offset corrections collected from people who have used the program and submitted their results.
If you choose to configure a read offset correction for your drive, but don't want to install AccurateRip, simply look up your drive in the database making sure that the make and model of your drive exactly matches one of the items listed in the table. If you see your drive in the database, make sure that at least two people have contributed to this entry before using the number in the Sample Offset column. Select "Use read sample offset correction" and enter the number you found in the database in the box directly below the selection.
This database of user-submitted drive offset corrections can be found at:
If your drive is not in the database or only has one submission and you don't want to install AccurateRip, leave either "Use read sample offset correction" or "Use combined read/write sample offset correction" selected with the corresponding value set to 0.
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out
It is preferable that this setting be checked, but only if your drive supports this feature. Checking this setting with a drive that doesn't support this feature can result in a ripping error.
You can determine if your drive is capable of overreading by running the "Detect read sample offset correction" routine. It will tell you whether your drive can overread in the Lead-In, Lead-Out or both.
To use this setting your drive must be able to overread in the Lead-Out if the read offset correction is a positive number. Conversely, the ability to overread in the Lead-In is required for a read offset correction that is a negative number.
For more information about offsets and drive features, visit the following site:
There are three methods by which EAC scans for the location of additional indices to be used when creating a CUE sheet.
Each method has three levels of accuracy. Like the with extraction method settings, the best method here depends on the drive being used. Choose the method that gives you the fastest results with the accuracy set to Secure.
If you cannot find a method that works with the accuracy set to Secure then the index information used in CUE sheet might not always be correct. That being said, a setting of Accurate will still be better than a setting of Inaccurate.
The information in this tab has no influence on the ripping process but for those who are interested, here's a link to help in Determining your write offset.
At a later date it may be included in the burning portion of the FAQ.
It is possible to configure EAC to create compressed files. This will not be covered here except to say that unlike flac, Monkey's Audio cannot be configured to verify upon creation. What will be covered here are settings that are often incorrectly configured which produce bad results.
Add ID3 tag
Use Offset Correction for encoding and decoding: uncheck
Test & Copy means that EAC will read a track in its entirety as a test and then go back and read it a second time in order to copy it to your drive. The test read will generate a Test CRC which can be compared to a Copy or Read CRC generated from the read used to create the copy.
1. Get CD Information from freedb
2. Create a CUE sheet (optional)
3. Extract tracks using Test & Copy
After the ripping is done click OK. The "Status and Error Messages" window should open up. If this window doesn't open, review the "Show status dialog after extraction" setting under the General tab in the EAC Options (F9).
4. Verify your rip
Next, check the CRC column in the main window for any track that shows a "#" which indicates that the test did not yield the same data as the copy that was written to your drive. An "OK" in this column means that the data from the test read generated the same CRC (also called a checksum) as the data used to write the copy.
It is not uncommon to see EAC report a "Timing problem" when ripping in Burst mode. So long as Test & Copy checksums match (CRC column displays "OK"), timing problems can be ignored.
A Suspicious position or a CRC mismatch (CRC column displays "#") means that a ripping error had occurred. Inspect the CD to see if it needs cleaning which can often make a difference. If the extraction method was set to Burst mode, switch to Secure mode and re-rip any tracks with suspicious positions or CRC pairs that do not match. Read the next section to see how to improve your chances of getting rips that are error-free.
Configuration Tips
Matching checksums with Suspicious positions and Overreading
Checksums don't match
1. Use Secure mode
2. Uncheck the C2 setting
3. Determine if your drive caches audio data
So long as the Status dialog is able to report read errors in addition to sync errors, changing the "Drive caches audio data" setting is not necessary. There are quite a few drives that actually don't cache audio data and checking this setting will do nothing but slow down the ripping process; it will not make your rips any more secure. It is 100% safe to rely on EAC's "Detect Read Features" routine to determine whether your drive caches audio data.
4. Reduce the extraction speed
It is helpful to experiment with a disc that has enough damage to cause errors (but not enough damage that it can't also be ripped accurately) in order to determine what settings work best with any given drive. With adequate hardware that is properly configured, errors will only occur when a disc has some type of damage or defect and will always be revealed when a pair of checksums don't match. Depending on the severity of the damage or defect, it might not be possible to get an error-free rip.
Accuracy
You might be asking what the difference is between accuracy and precision. Consider an archer shooting at a target. If the archer is capable of splitting his arrow he is demonstrating precision. If the archer is capable of hitting the bull's-eye he is demonstrating accuracy. It is possible to do one and not the other. The archer can split the arrow anywhere on the target but not hit the bull's-eye, and conversely, he can hit the bull's-eye with more than one shot but still not split his arrow.
With EAC it is possible to rip in error and do so the same way more than once. The result is a precise rip that was still in error. A rip with an error is not an accurate one. Generally speaking, a precise rip is usually an accurate one, but there will always be exceptions. IOW, a pair of test and copy CRCs that match are no guarantee that the rip was accurate.
A good solution to this problem of not knowing for certain that your rips are accurate is to install AccurateRip. Mentioned earlier in the section on offset correction, AccurateRip is a program that works with EAC which allows you to compare your rip against a rip made by someone else of the same CD. At the time of this writing, the AccurateRip database contains over 190,000 CDs and is still growing.
For more information on this free program and how to install it, visit:
CUE Sheets
There are four types of CUE sheets. Each type is intended for a specific way of ripping; one type is dedicated for an image of the disc as a single file and the other three depend on how EAC is configured to handle gaps (shown in the table below). The configuration is located at the bottom of the Action menu on the menu bar. In order to maintain compatibility with other software, do not change this item from its default setting.
Again, make sure you use the default setting, which is, "Append Gaps To Previous Track". It is inappropriate to post more than one type of CUE sheet considering that all the tracks are (and should be) ripped with the gap setting fixed at one selection. Burning a disc using the wrong type of CUE sheet can and commonly will result in improper start points for each track.
In the Ripping section, it was recommended that a CUE sheet be created by selecting "Create CUE sheet > Current Gap Settings". This choice will always create a cue sheet that properly corresponds to the currently selected Gap setting. With the default gap setting, the "Current Gap Settings" selection will generate a Noncompliant-type CUE sheet. Choosing "Current Gap Settings" will take the guesswork out of what sheet to make in the event that you can't remember which sheet goes with which gap setting.
For more information on gaps and CUE sheets visit:
Although this setting is dependent on two other settings which will be discussed later, it can negatively affect the timing of the first or last track extracted from the CD if it is not checked. Make sure this setting is checked.
Unchecking this setting will make CRC generation more universal. The CRC will be calculated from the entire track, not just part of it.
Checking this setting will reduce the possibility that a ripping error may occur at the transition between adjacent tracks.
This setting removes silence between tracks which alters the track timing. Make sure it is unchecked.
Checking this setting will minimize disruption during a rip in the not-recommended event that a disc is loaded in another drive. Checking this setting may also serve as an additional (albeit very limited) safeguard against copy protection software that can be found on newer CD titles; but only if EAC is open before such a disc is loaded and no such software had previously been installed.
CD times are exact when given in frames (1/75 of a second). Unless this setting is checked, times will be displayed in the log file as decimal which is only an approximation.
Checking this setting will automatically generate a log file after a rip has completed which you can use to demonstrate that your rip was successful or not.
Make sure that this setting remains unchecked, otherwise the volume for every track will be different from that which is on the CD being ripped. Even worse, tracks which were intended to be quiet will be as loud as (if not louder than) tracks that were intended to be loud. There are newer and better ways to adjust track volume, that unlike this setting, can do so unobtrusively. NEVER use normalization when posting to absl.
Though this is largely a matter of personal preference, consideration for the recipient of your upload should be taken when creating a naming scheme.
This is one of the most commonly used schemes. It satisfies all the criteria mentioned above with " - " as the delimiter, though it can often create long file names which can be difficult to read when used in the subject line of a post.
This is another common scheme with ". " as the delimiter. With its minimalist approach, short subject lines can be constructed. The down-side to this scheme is that filename contains nothing unique to tie the post together when sorting by filename. This makes it difficult for people who download more than one album to the same folder.
This is an example of a scheme that serves as a compromise between overly-long subject lines and the inability to tie a single album together when sorting by filename.
Drives without the Accurate Stream feature are not capable of addressing audio data correctly. Unchecking this setting helps to correct this problem but can't fix it completely. If this feature is not detected, your drive will not be able to provide consistent results and should be replaced. This is really only an issue with drives produced in the previous decade. If EAC detects that your drive has the Accurate Stream feature then it is safe to check this setting.
Despite common misconceptions, it is safe to rely on EAC's test for audio caching. Some drives do cache audio data even though EAC reports that they don't. This is because the size of the cache is less than what EAC requests per read command and every read request will automatically clear the cache of its contents.
Uncheck this setting unless you are absolutely certain that it works correctly with EAC. Although many drives are detected as being able to report C2 error information, very few do so properly.
Burst mode is perfectly acceptable and although it is faster, the drawback to using this method of extraction is that no attempt is made to detect and recover errors.
Determining the read offset correction of your drive used to be a painstaking process which involved trying to find at least one CD in your collection which is an exact match to that in EAC's limited database. With the advent of AccurateRip, this process has now been greatly simplified.
AccurateRip Drive Offset Database
This setting only applies for an offset correction that is set to something other than 0.
DAE Drive Features Database
Monkey's Audio and flac have their own method of tagging. Uncheck this setting if EAC is configured to use either of them.
This setting must be unchecked, otherwise additional silent samples will be added to the end of each track which are not present on the CD from which they were extracted. In the case where tracks are intended to run together without a pause, an audible gap will be introduced.
After inserting a CD into your drive, the first thing you'll want to do is press Alt+G or click the icon of a CD located next to the icon of a mailbox. This will retrieve text information for the disc from the freedb database either remotely or locally if you have it installed. You should briefly verify that the information entered is correct, since sometimes information from freedb can be inaccurate. You can easily change the titles you see in the track listing window or in the boxes above it by editing them directly.
This can be done by first pressing F4 or by selecting "Detect Gaps" from the Action menu. After gaps have been detected, make sure that "Append Gaps To Previous Track (default)" in the Action menu is checked. Finally, create a CUE sheet by selecting "Create CUE sheet > Current Gap Settings". Directory information will be included in the CUE sheet if it is specified in you naming shceme. Be sure to remove it with a text editor. More on CUE sheets will be covered in the next section.
From the Action menu, select "Test & Copy Selected Tracks > Uncompressed" or just press F6. If you don't select any tracks to copy before doing this, EAC will assume that you want to extract all of them.
Look over the "Status and Error Messages" dialog and check for any "Suspicious positions". Once you have finished, click OK. It is not necessary to click the "Create Log" button since this should be done automatically. If a log isn't created automatically, review the "Automatically write status report after extraction" setting under the Tools tab in the EAC Options (F9).
Ripping errors resulting in CRCs that don't match and/or Suspicious positions can sometimes be avoided through simple changes to your drive configuration.
Suspicious positions with matching checksums either at the very beginning of the first track of a disc or at the very end of the last track of a disc while using Secure mode, suggest that the "Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out" setting is checked when it should not be. Review the instructions on how to configure this setting properly. This can sometimes happen in Burst mode with a drive that is capable of overreading. In this case try the track again using Secure mode.
Whether or not a suspicious position was reported and whether or not the EAC says the copy was OK, test and copy CRCs that don't match show that at least one of the reads was done in error. To troubleshoot possible configuration problems successfully, change only one setting at a time and test each change by re-ripping the track that gives you an error. Strictly following the order of these configuration changes is important.
The first thing you want to do is switch from Burst mode to Secure mode since Burst mode is incapable of recovering errors.
If CRCs don't match when using Secure mode, the first thing you want to do is make sure the "Drive is capable of retrieving C2 error information" setting is unchecked.
If ripping with the C2 setting unchecked isn't helping it could be that the "Drive caches audio data" setting needs to be checked. This is especially true if you notice that any portion of the Error correction indicator lights up extremely quickly and the Status dialog only indicates that there were sync errors or indicates no errors at all.
After disabling C2 and verifying that "Drive caches audio data" is set correctly, you may find that tweaking the "Speed selection" setting under the Offset / Speed tab in the Drive Options (F10) can improve your drive's ability to get an accurate rip from a stubborn disc.
So far the word "precision" has more often been used to describe a successful rip rather than the word "accuracy". Unfortunately without a drive that correctly reports C2 error information with 100% accuracy, you cannot get EAC to guarantee you an accurate rip all by itself.
AccurateRip
Gap setting Corresponding CUE sheet
Leave Out Gaps Multiple WAV Files With Leftout Gaps
Append Gaps To Previous Track (default) Multiple WAV Files With Gaps (Noncompliant)
Append Gaps To Next Track Multiple WAV Files With Corrected Gaps
The ESSENTIAL Ripping Guide for EAC - Gaps & CUE Sheets
There are several lossless compression formats around, all of which are freeware:
The 2 most popular are APE and FLAC. Both include built-in "safety checks", meaning that if you encode (= compress) a file, transmit it over the Internet, whoever decodes it (= decompresses it) will automatically be notified if the file is corrupt. This is a very useful feature since the files are inevitably going to be transiting via the Internet through newsgroups, i.e. be exposed to a fair chance of getting corrupt. To my limited knowlege, this "safety check" feature does not exist in the other lossless formats.
If you are new with posting, I'd suggest you use one of these 2 formats. Not meaning the others don't have their merits, but without getting into the pros and cons of various formats, using APE or FLAC will at least give you the chance of getting help from other users in case you need it, since at least 99% of posters in a.b.s.l use them.
Creating APEs is a no-brainer. After you've installed Monkey's Audio, the program's default settings are right and don't need to be tweaked for producing perfect lossless files from your WAV ones. In case you like to fiddle, you'll find that, similarly to ZIP and RAR, it offers several levels of compression. Don't bother, and simply use the default, i.e. "high" (and NOT "extra-high): "extra-high" only very marginally further reduces the size of the APE files while taking for ever to encode/decode.
I think it fair to say that, if you're new to posting and thus not set in your ways yet, you'd probably want to try FLAC in preference. Unless you have a secret deep and vengeful grudge against Mac and Unix, you'll be glad to know you're making life easier for users of those platforms.
Here is some easy to read basic info on FLAC as well as some more technical info.
MAC users, please see this excellent site created by a long-time absl member: Welcome to the Mac OS X Corner of the Lossless Audio World.
Lastly: if you are one those people who still can't believe there is such a thing as "lossless" compression, check out this very neat explanation by one of ABSL's members.
While some newsreaders can post binaries, you'll definitely want to use a dedicated binary posting application. It will make your life easier in many respects:
Regardless of the binary posting program you choose, make sure it can be configured to use the yEnc encoding method. This has nothing to do with the WAV ==> APE/FLAC/etc. encoding; it is a scheme for posting binary attachments to the usenet. yEnc will reduce the size of the transmitted data by a good third over previous methods such as UUencode. So just make sure you post in yEnc format!
For more information about it, check either of these excellent resources:
What is yEnc ?
Learning tricks with yEnc
To post binaries, we recommend that you use Yenc-Power-Post-A&A. We also recommend that you use QuickPar, since it is not uncommon for parts of your post to be lost or become corrupted as they are transmitted through the internet.
Both of these apps are freeware and can be found at the following links:
Yenc-Power-Post-A&A
QuickPar
IMPORTANT - Make sure Power-Post and QuickPar are configured to work in harmony with each other!
Choose a value for "Default Max Lines Per Part" no smaller than 3000 and no larger than 7500.
The common consensus is to use a part size towards the larger end of the scale.
Select the "For yEnc" radio button and enter either the same number that you used for the Power-Post part size or enter a number that works out to be an even fraction of this amount like 1/2 or 1/3, but nothing smaller than 1/5. As an example, if you chose 7500 for the number of lines in Power-Post, you may want to use 1500 yEnc lines for the size of your blocks.
Using a block size that is a fraction of the part size allows corrupt articles to be fixed with less waste compared to using a block size that is the same as the part size. In the event that a part is missing, additional blocks can be downloaded without any waste at all (provided the part size can be evenly divided by the block size, of course).
We recommended that you create at least 5% redundancy, but post no more than 5% (preferably less, such as 2-3%) while keeping the rest on hand for a reasonable amount of time (~1 week) to be posted by request only.
Duh?
Power-Post provides a neat feature: while these apps are designed to post only binaries (i.e. attached files) and can't normally be used to post text messages, they offer a way to include a text message along with the first one or all the posted attached files. In other words, together with the file posted as an attachment (which your newsreader will decode and save to HDD), you can also post a small text message which will appear as a standard newsgroup text post.
The obvious candidate is your NFO file: a nice touch to add to your overal posting is to include a replica of your attached NFO file in the form a such a text message. For the downloader it means (s)he can find out all the info about your post without having to download the NFO file and go dig it out of whereever it's been saved on HDD.
So, how do you do this?
With Power-Post, when you see the dialog box where you fill in the details of your post (such as chosing the newsgroups to post to, chosing the name of your headers, etc), you'll notice a TAB named "[0/n] Prefix text". This is where your text message goes. Simply open your NFO file, select all contents, copy into clipboard, and paste into this "[o/n] prefix text" field. At the bottom of that TAB, be sure to select "First file only" and NOT "All files": since this text post will appear as a header separate to the header containing the binary file posted, you only want this to be posted once - you don't want your 15 files posted turning into 30 files, each second one having the same text content.
A further refinement is to make your NFO file the first file in the list. Easy to do: "move up" "move down" buttons in the dialog box. This will result in something neat like:
Mr Bean / Best of, yEnc (01 of 15) "Mr Bean - Best of.NFO" [0/1] <== this is the "text" message post
Mr Bean / Best of, yEnc (01 of 15) "Mr Bean - Best of.NFO" [1/1] <== this is the attached NFO file
Mr Bean / Best of, yEnc (02 of 15) "Mr Bean - Best of (APE).SFV" [1/1]
Mr Bean / Best of, yEnc (03 of 15) "Mr Bean - Best of (WAV).SFV" [1/1]
Mr Bean / Best of, yEnc (04 of 15) "Mr Bean - Best of.PAR2" [1/1]
Mr Bean / Best of, yEnc (05 of 15) "Mr Bean - Best of - Track 1.APE" [~/45]
Mr Bean / Best of, yEnc (06 of 15) "Mr Bean - Best of - Track 2.APE" [~/33]
etc
As you can see, the first file (the NFO file in this case) seems to get posted twice. The first instance (denoted by [0/1] at the end) is the text message you copied/pasted into Power-Post. All the other headers correspond to the attached files you queued up for uploading.
PS: this [0/1] text message post is also the perfect candidate for replies: if you wish to make a comment to the poster, ask for some info, etc, then reply to that [0/1] header.
At the very least, you should include an "NFO" (or TXT) file. Always use plain text format. You can use Notepad or any text editor, or if you want to produce professional looking nfo files with minimum amount of typing, use some of the free software for that purpose: they have a cute Windows front-end, you click on buttons and fill in the fields, the results look good, are consistent, and you're sure not to forget anything of importance.
Here are a couple of sites:
If you want to do fancy stuff like scan the covers and booklet of the CD, you'll naturally need a scanner and some basic imaging software (usually the software that comes with the scanner is ample enough). The expected picture format is usually JPG. If you want to dig further into this area, check out this site: Scanning Basics: all about digital images.
I'm sure there are more ways of organizing your posting than my limited brain could even dream of, so I won't even try to suggest how you should go about it. In another section, I'm describing my own routine, which you may find useful if you don't know how to get started or find your own routine is not working.
Instead, I'll just point to a few things that pop into my head.
Give some thought about how you're going to name your headers. They are very important as they will be determinant in attracting people's attention to your post in a way YOU wish them to be. After all, the purpose of you uploading stuff is because you want enthusiasts of that music to spot it and download it.
As mentioned in the introduction of this document, you'll notice huge variants - seems like there is no standard: some headers are only 10 characters long and require a CIA decrypting tool to get a clue of what is being posted, others are so detailed they require a 22" screen to see the end of them.
I guess it is fair to say there is no right or wrong: it is highly a matter of personal opinion as to what makes the header good. So, instead of concentrating on how to do it right, think of how you, yourself, react when you're confronted to thousands of headers: think of what attracts your attention, what you find useful / appealing / informative / useless / annoying / etc. And do whatever YOU think is best.
The only useful hints I can suggest are:
Mr Bean / Best of (01/15) yEnc "Mr Bean - Best of.NFO"
Mr Bean / Best of (02/15) yEnc "Mr Bean - Best of (WAV).SFV"
Mr Bean / Best of (03/15) yEnc "Mr Bean - Best of (FLAC).SFV"
etc
The (x/y) part can cause some newsreaders to screw up completely as it can be misinterpreted as the segment count (the part at the end of the header which looks like: [xxx/yyy]). Instead, use the word "of", for instance: (01 of 15), as in:
Mr Bean / Best of (01 of 15) yEnc "Mr Bean - Best of.NFO"
Mr Bean / Best of (02 of 15) yEnc "Mr Bean - Best of (WAV).SFV"
etc
Say you post "Mr Bean's Best of" and "Mrs Jones' Lullabies". If you chose to start your headers with the file count part, you will find the result may well look like this:
(01 of 15) Mr Bean / Best of - yEnc - ......
(01 of 13) Mrs Jones / Lullabies - yEnc - ......
(02 of 15) Mr Bean / Best of - yEnc - ......
(02 of 13) Mrs Jones / Lullabies - yEnc - ......
etc
Obviously not very satisfactory. What you want is enough "unique" characters at the begining to ensure the sorting will work. In this case, you could for instance chose:
Mr Bean / Best of (01 of 15) ....
Mr Bean / Best of (02 of 15) ....
Mr Bean / Best of (03 of 15) ....
...
Mr Bean / Best of (15 of 15) ....
Mrs Jones / Lullabies (01 of 13) ....
Mrs Jones / Lullabies (02 of 13) ....
Mrs Jones / Lullabies (03 of 13) ....
etc
For the same reason, unless you are posting 9 files or less, get into the habit of using 2 digits for your file numbering system: (01 of 15), (02 of 15), ..., rather than (1 of 15), (2 of 15), etc. This will fix the problem of your files being listed in a messy looking way like:
Mr Bean / Worst of (1 of 11) yEnc "Mr Bean - Worst of.NFO"
Mr Bean / Worst of (10 of 11) yEnc "Mr Bean - Worst of - 07. Name of track 7.APE"
Mr Bean / Worst of (11 of 11) yEnc "Mr Bean - Worst of - 08. Name of track 8.APE"
Mr Bean / Worst of (2 of 11) yEnc "Mr Bean - Worst of (APE).SFV"
Mr Bean / Worst of (3 of 11) yEnc "Mr Bean - Worst of (WAV).SFV"
Mr Bean / Worst of (4 of 11) yEnc "Mr Bean - Worst of - 01. Name of track 1.APE"
etc
The easiest way to do this is surround the filename with quotation marks ("). For instance, instead of posting a header like:
Folk/Mr Bean/Best of (05 of 14, yEnc) Mr Bean - Best of - 01. first track.APE [~/33]
add quotation marks around the filename:
Folk/Mr Bean/Best of (05 of 14, yEnc) "Mr Bean - Best of - 01. first track.APE" [~/33]
This makes the life of downloader so much easier, especially if the filenames only include the tracks, as in:
Folk/Mr Bean/Best of (05 of 14, yEnc) "01. first track.APE" [~/33]
You can imagine what a mess the download directory will be if (s)he is downloading 5 CDs to the same directory on HDD. If at least it is obvious what the filenames are going to be, the downloader is warned to move the first lot of files downloaded to another dir before the next lot begins and (s)he ends up with 5 "track one" files, wondering which file goes with which CD.
Classical/Beethoven/5th Symphony .....
While the above example might seem pointless (if it's Beethoven, it's going to be classical music, right?), it is actually very useful for downloaders. In a group like a.b.s.l (disgarding its genre-specific subgroups for the moment), all types of music are posted, from J.S. Bach to the latest head-banging metal stuff. Most people are only looking for one or more specific genres. If the header starts with it, the downloaders can more easily zoom into the music they are after.
Don't forget you and I don't know every artist in the world: don't assume that because the header says "Led Zeppelin", the downloader MUST obviously know that it is hard rock music. If the downloader is not interested in rock (s)he may well never heard of Led Zeppelin, the same as if you're not into jazz, you may have never heard of a jazz giant like Monty Alexander.
At the same time, even within the genre of music you're interested in, you may well be unaware of artists that are right up your alley. If you see a post titled "Joe Blob ..." it could easily be that Joe Blob's music is in YOUR style - simply a new-to-you artist/band.
Regarding a.b.s.l subgroups, this is naturally not so important, although there is still room for sub-genre labelling. For instance, just within the Jazz world, there are many variations which some people will love and others loathe. Consequently, even if you post in a.b.s.l.jazz, you still might want to title your header like "Bebop/Miles Davis ....", "Acid jazz/Vibraphonic...." etc.
Also, remember that some people crosspost to several groups, in particular to a subgroup of a.b.s.l as well as to a.b.s.l itself: while specifying the "genre" description in a.b.s.l.classical as "classical/Mahler..." may seem pointless, the poster may also be crossposting to a.b.s.l where the "classical" hint will be useful - and since you can't crosspost with different headers, the "redundant" information makes sense.
A bit of structural organization will help you making posting a near background task while ensuring no "bad surprise" such as staring in dismay at your own headers & realize you posted WAV files, posted the wrong tracks, forgot some, forgot to update the copy of your NFO template, etc.
Give some thought to what to do with your posted material in regard with your repost policy:
If you indicate you're willing to keep your posted material for 2 weeks in case of needed reposts (be they entire files or just segments) or of additional files not posted the first time (PAR/PAR2), you have to make sure you can find them easily, and yet not forget about them since they will chew up your disk space.
While it is considered bad Netiquette to crosspost to many NGs, crossposting to 2 or 3 is actually a good thing. Remember that crossposting does NOT use additional bandwith nor news servers storage space: your post does NOT get posted twice (or 3 times, etc), nor does it get stored twice: the news server you posted it to stores it once, and simply *flags* the various NGs you crossposted to so that each will display your post.
If you are posting music of which the genre corresponds to an existing a.b.s.l subgroup, post it there as well as to a.b.s.l itself. For this to work, the news server through which you're posting (which can be different to the one you're using with your newsreader - that is, assuming you are posting with PP, not with your newsreader, of course) carries all the groups you're crossposting to.
As well as subgroups of a.b.s.l, there are other lossless groups which may be candidate for crossposting, such as a.b.s.misc, a.b.music.classical, and others. These last two, while not specifically "lossless", seem to have evolved more or less into lossless groups.
You'll find most people "publish" their repost policies, i.e. state in the NFO file what they are prepared to repost (i.e. just file segments, etc), and for how long they are holding their posts in storage. You'll find that, more and more, posters prefer to post PAR2 blocks when requested for fills, as they are much more versatile than any other form of repost.
The usual practise is to generate 10% of the material posted in PAR2 blocks and store them locally on your HDD, along with your posted music. Some ppl post only the very small PAR2 file, which does not contain any repair block but is enough to let the downloader check the integrity of her/his download and to know how many repair blocks are needed in case of corrupt/incomplete downloads. Some post just a few blocks (the first 2 or 3 repair files, i.e. 3 to 7 blocks), as this will take care of the "normal" syndrome of occasional missing segments while being a near insignificant amount of "unnecessary" data.
Do NOT post the whole 10% of repair blocks systematically with your main posting: it is a waste of News servers storage space and of bandwith. Wait for repair requests, and only then post the required number of blocks.
Any a.b.s.l member wishing to describe her/his method is more than welcome - let me know and I'll include it here: the more ideas, the better everyone can improve their way.
I created a few directories ("folders" if you prefer) with specific purposes:
- a "SEND" directory , and under it, a "DONE" one
- an "EXTRACT" dir
The "EXTRACT" dir is where the WAV files ripped from CD end up.
The "SEND" dir is where I move the contents of the "EXTRACT" dir once I've compressed the WAV files into APE, then added NFO, PAR2 files etc: it is the dir where "waiting to be posted" material sits.
The "DONE" subdir is where I move posted files to (from the "SEND" dir) and keep them for the period of time I see fit (for the purpose of reposting bits if needed, and/or to post additional PAR2 files if requested).
I have EAC and other audio CD apps set up to look up my local CDDB rather than query the Internet every time I shove a CD in a tray. Apart from the advantage of being instantaneous, it allows you to tailor the CD descriptions to your likings. Result is that when you extract the audio contents with EAC, EAC will automatically create filenames according to what you expect and want them to be.
I insert the CD, launch EAC, hit F6 (T&C, i.e. Test and Copy WAVs), then leave it do its thing and go about my daily life. 15 seconds. (Naturally, this is the "normal" routine: in the first place (but this is a once-off only thing), I set up EAC properly - secure mode, cache disabled, test CD-ROM features, etc: see Audio ripping software section). Since EAC remembers the last extract directory, which in my case is naturally the "EXTRACT" above-mentioned, I know where to find the WAV files every time.
Once EAC has finished extracting, I say "yes" to the dialog box where it invites me to create a LOG file. 2 seconds.
Lastly, I get EAC to create an "image" CUE (Menu: Action | Create Cue Sheet | Single WAV file), which takes a minute or so as it causes EAC to *calculate* the gaps. Save it, and then create a "track non-compliant" CUE.End of ripping phase.
PS: thanks to someone's hint, I actually now start with pressing on F4: this makes EAC detect the track pregaps right from the beginning with the bonus that they will show in the "Log" file.
I launch Monkey's Audio, which like EAC, remembers the last used dir, and thus automatically points to my "EXTRACT" dir. Click "Add Folder", click GO, and again go about my life while Monkey gets busy compressing. 15 seconds.
When Monkey's done, I select/highlight the WAV files with Windows Explorer, and hit SHIFT + DEL to kill the WAV files. I now see the bunch of APE files instead, along with the LOG and CUE files.
I highlight the APE files in Windows Explorer, right-click and PAR2 them - which takes 1 or 2 minutes. While this goes on, I drag/copy my template "NFO" file into the "EXTRACT" dir, rename it and edit it to suit the CD extracted, then CTL+A to select the entire content, CTL+C to copy to clipboard, and save and close the renamed NFO file.
By now PAR2 has finished its job, and I have all the files to be posted in my "EXTRACT" dir. I select them all and move them to my "SEND" dir, ready to be posted.
I launch PowerPost, which also conveniently remembers its last used dir. Highlight all files in the "SEND" dir (except the bulk of the PAR2 files - I only select the first 3 PAR2 files). I click on "Sort PAR" button which sends the NFO and the first PAR2 files to the top of the list, click on the "Prefix [0/N]" TAB, CTL+V to paste the content of the NFO file (which is still in the clipboard), pick the newsgroups I want to post to, tailor the header names to suit the post, and click GO. Less than a minute.
Much the same as WhyNot's:
- a "FLAC rip" folder
- a "Post" folder
- a "FLAC backup" folder (where I put posted albums for back up to dvd when it reaches 4+gigs).
EAC is of course set up correctly for the drive I am using.
I have various "Profiles" already set up in EAC, I select the relevant profile (eg, i have one labelled "Flac", one "WAV only", one "Compression Only (for mp3s)"). This avoids errors by not having to manually configure EAC settings every time you want a different end result. Normally I will select "Flac" profile, and this will rip and encode to FLAC, and preserve the WAV for later conversion to mp3. I insert the CD, check details are correct (artist, album, track names) then from EAC taskbar select ACTION>>TEST & COPY SELECTED TRACKS>>COMPRESSED. Leave it to do its thing.Once the CD pops out, I click OK. EAC is configured to automatically generate the log file, so I click on my rip folder, and check the log file to ensure all the CRC's match.
If all is well, I will then change EAC profile to "Compression (MP3), select TOOLS>>COMPRESS WAVs, and EAC will default to my "FLAC rip" folder displaying only the wav files. I select these, hit OK, and it will then encode the wavs to mp3, and deleting the wavs at the same time (pre-configured in the "Compression" profile).Check tags. As I have configured EAC, the FLAC album has almost perfect tags. I only have to change the track number to include a leading 0. Tag the mp3 album (using copy/paste).
Create MD5/SFV. Highlight tracks, right click, and pre-installed proggy creates these in a few seconds.
Create nfo file. I create the nfo from the mp3 album as there are a lot of ready-made programs available for mp3 but not lossless, and then use that as a template to suit the CD. Again this automatically defaults to the album in the "FLAC rip" folder.
Create pars. Open Album, select tracks, right click, select "Quick par">>Create Recovery Volumes. Generally I will only create a few pars (Extra pars can easily and quickly be generated on request). Once again the pars are included in the relevant album folder.
Drag folder to powerspost. Enter artist & album details,Select relevant newgroup(s), hit "Post" button. I also have an option to set timer to a more convenient time should I need to use the bandwidth. It will then automatically post at the selected time.
That's all there is to it :-))
Many members of a.b.s.l contributed to this page. We all hope it will help newbies and veterans alike, and endeavor to update it as often as possible. Any suggestion, however *unimportant* is welcome. If you want to make a suggestion just post a message to the main group.
Here are the nyms (i.e. nicknames) of the people in a.b.s.l who contributed with material, ideas, and constructive criticism:
Thanks to all of you for making this page what it is! J