Lossless compression

[prodangle]

Does anyone here use any sort of lossless compression? I've got loadsa spare harddisk space, so I've been thinking of ripping CDs using some sort of lossless format from now on. Lossless ogg seems to be pretty good. Is there any sort of simple plugin for Winamp/Cdex that will support this, and what experieces have peoples here had? Is it any slower to encode, or do you notice the differance etc?

[binary hero]

i want to try flac sometime soon.

[dylman]

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php :)

[baafie]

I've tried it once. Worked fine, but the files were a tad large for my likings.

[Somebody]

I only use flac if I need to upload some samples to be encoded.

[prodangle]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've had a play today with Monkey's Audio and FLAC. Monkey's Audio seems to encode slightly quicker, and I like the fact that it allows tags. It also seems to give smaller file sizes (with the files I've tested at least). I know there are political reasons for going with FLAC, but I think I'm gonna start using the monkey from now on, the main reason being tags :)

I can't really notice any differance between 192kbps mp3 and lossless, but it makes me feel better that I'm not losing anything :)

If anyone's interested, here are some quick links to some handy FLAC utils I found. (They can all be found straight from the sourceforge site)

Flac executable:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/flac/flac-1.0.3-win.zip?download

FlacDrop (A cool flac gui)
http://www.inf.ufpr.br/~rja00/lossless.html

Flac winamp plugin:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/flac/flac-1.0.3-winamp2-plugin-fix-1.zip?download

As for MonkeyAudio, the main program from the site does it all really, and it works with Cdex effortlessly.
http://www.monkeysaudio.com

Never thought I'd see the day when I stop using mp3 :D

[Aero Zeppelin]

I really don't care. I encode at high bitrates like 320kbps which I know is CD-quality to the ear. If there is a difference why the hell should I care if I can't tell the difference.

I might switch to ogg or something like that once those dumbass lawsuits begin. I'll have to think about it.

[prodangle]

I've just found out that FLAC does allow tags within files, but the Winamp plugin doesn't allow editing them via the 'file info' dialog. If only. Ah well, monkey it is...

[whiteflip]

my harddrive is too small for monkey audio :(

if i had a new style computer one of those PIV 2.2ghz shits with 512mb ram and 2 120 gb hard drives i would use monkey audio. especially with a wireless network and a bunch of other wired pc's with network play lists :) sigh.......

[prodangle]

Originally posted by whiteflip
my harddrive is too small for monkey audio :(

if i had a new style computer one of those PIV 2.2ghz shits with 512mb ram and 2 120 gb hard drives i would use monkey audio. especially with a wireless network and a bunch of other wired pc's with network play lists :) sigh.......

2*120 gigs? I'm almost there...

I wouldn't mind the rest of these specs though :)

[whiteflip]

1 120gb drive
1 100gb drive
partitioned
unless you have some sorta super 220 gb drive

those are the specs i would set up
except 6gb for system
24gb for programs
90gb for movies and monkey audio

and the second 120gb drive would record everything on the first drive incase of massive drive faiulre. its a built in back up.s