Ripping to lossless on a Mac...help please :)

[goldsdad]

Questions:

~ When trying to convert some CDs in iTunes, some tracks were not converted at all because the CDs were degraded (no scratches, just old). I am hoping XLD can use error correction to "fix" these issues. Does XLD do this kind of correction?

 

XLD will try harder than iTunes to get a correct rip. Ensure the ripper mode in XLD preferences is "XLD Secure Ripper". It's slower than "Burst" mode and slower than iTunes but should be more likely to succeed where iTunes has failed. There's a third mode option of "CD Paranoia III" which you can try if "XLD Secure Ripper" is unsuccessful.

 

~ I have heard ALAC may not be a good choice because of a theoretical "jitter" issue which compromises quality. Is this true?

 

Not true in my experience. ALAC is lossless and the files are created correctly by both iTunes and XLD. Some people have reported hearing differences in sound quality when comparing playback of lossless formats. Put your mind at rest by comparing ALAC and AIFF conversions of some tracks then deciding which suits you. In any case, you'll be able to safely convert from one lossless format to another if you change your mind in future.

 

~ Assuming AIFF is the best choice based on the factors above, what would be the best settings? I see a lot of tutorials for FLAC conversion but not for AIFF. When I checked the Wiki page comparing lossless formats I also did not see any AIFF reference there.

 

Regardless of choice of AIFF or ALAC, a couple of XLD settings should be made to suit your iTunes setup. Post a screenshot of the Advanced tab of iTunes Preferences.

 

~ XLD has an option that says somethign about C2 error pointers (if your dirve supports this). How do I know if my drive supports this?

 

I don't know and I leave the C2 option disabled.

 

~ If you rip a gapless CD to multiple lossless tracks and then later convert those lossless files to mp3, can you join the tracks as one file when converting to mp3 so that you can remove the gaps? I've had problems playing gapless albums as multiple tracks in mp3 format on my iphone.

 

I'm not aware of iTunes being able to concatenate the audio from separate files into a single file. There's a command line program called SoX which can do it. http://sox.sourceforge.net/