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[xzero]

Can anyone recommend a good program that will simply let me place a CD into my drive, label the tracks and artists, and let me directly rip them in .flac format (ala .mp3 ripping)? Everything I've come across seems overly complicated.

[dolbyman]

try this guide

http://www.recipester.org/Recipe:Rip_CD_to_FLAC_19246511

seems pretty easy 

[eyore]

Not having much luck with that dolbyman.
It says to download Flac and  CDex (managed to get CDex fine) . I already have  Flac (correct version) but it seems CDex is a little fussy with XP.
Just crashes even with the suggested workarounds 

[xzero]

I managed to do it after playing with it for a half hour, but the files won't play in anything and some of them register as only 1 kb. Obviously this means I did something wrong. Any ideas?

[dolbyman]

sorry never done ripping to flac..and I don't have any audio cd with me to test it

[Turbo]

I promise I don't work for these guys.  I've just been using this program for years without any problems.  You purchase it once and get free upgrades for life.  You can rip a CD to flac or any other format quite easily.  You can also convert just about any audio format to any other audio format.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

[nowisthetime]

I promise I don't work for these guys.  I've just been using this program for years without any problems.  You purchase it once and get free upgrades for life.  You can rip a CD to flac or any other format quite easily.  You can also convert just about any audio format to any other audio format.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

I will second dbpoweramp too! awesome program!

and I don't work for this either.

but if you don't feel like paying for the program, you can try this program, Exact Audio Program.

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

And here is a guide for ripping in FLAC format using EAC.

http://www.mousebits.com/smf/index.php?topic=449.0

nitt

[eyore]

Just downloaded and tried that one (Exact Audio Copy)
Seems to work well apart from the fact it rips as wav first and then converts that to flac.
Now the stupid  question 
As I'm not too clued-up about all these different formats, will that result in an uncompressed file?
(You need to choose "compress" to get it to convert to flac or it stays as a wav file).
Sorry to sound dumb but I've always ripped at 128 mp3 but we are more demanding here now so, should any CDs go out of print, I'd sooner upload them in as high a quality as possible.

Oh, apparently, the problem with CDex is caused by a dud codec somewhere in the system (it checks every one). Of course, finding which one is dud will be no easy task 
As soon as it finds it, it stops loading with the "CDex CD-Ripper has encountered a problem and needs to close.  We are sorry for the inconvenience". Yeah, sure you are..............

[pixelated]

Just downloaded and tried that one (Exact Audio Copy)
Seems to work well apart from the fact it rips as wav first and then converts that to flac.
Now the stupid  question 
As I'm not too clued-up about all these different formats, will that result in an uncompressed file?
(You need to choose "compress" to get it to convert to flac or it stays as a wav file).
Sorry to sound dumb but I've always ripped at 128 mp3 but we are more demanding here now so, should any CDs go out of print, I'd sooner upload them in as high a quality as possible.

WAV is an uncompressed format and FLAC is a lossless compression method/format.  The FLAC file retains all the audio information that is in the WAV file but in a smaller file.  In theory, burning the FLAC files as an audio CD should recreate the quality of the original source CD.  I've never tried it myself but I have a strong hunch it works, otherwise there would be rants on the 'Net bashing FLAC.

[eyore]

Right, got it now. Thanks (I'm learning) 
Still full quality but smaller files.
Easy when you know.

[Turbo]

In theory, burning the FLAC files as an audio CD should recreate the quality of the original source CD.  I've never tried it myself but I have a strong hunch it works, otherwise there would be rants on the 'Net bashing FLAC.

It has worked for me.

[xzero]

Extract Audio worked fine for me. Thanks!