role and uses of cue sheets

Hi

Thanks for the reply

Please elaborate - I'm all ears (and a little wet behind them)

Is this where roxio toast comes into it?

And how different and what differences will it be between storing a disc image and recreating through aiff?

Also by creating an disc image, is this image/file a total stand alone file with nothing else needed for the recreation if a cd? This is the bit that I haven't looked into too much but have been a bit stumped about. This is where my idea of archiving my cds comes into play

Cheers

Peter t

Thanks ed2345

So creating a disc image is copying the cd EXACTLY as it is as an entity itself?

What are the shortcomings of creating a cd from aiff without or without a cue sheet (and what is the difference) with respect to sound quality, structure, functionality and anything else I should know.

(The purpose of the ripping is two fold: archive to re create cds if needed in future and playback through my imac and jbl monitors I recently picked)

Thanks again for your input

hi ed2345

again i really appreciate your time in responding to me (and your responses) and hope you understand the value in all of this for me before i start ripping 800 cds

So creating a disc image is copying the cd EXACTLY as it is as an entity itself?

great to confirm.

am i right in my understanding tonight that this can be done through disk utility - creating image and burning cd?

What are the shortcomings of creating a cd from aiff without or without a cue sheet (and what is the difference) with respect to sound quality, structure, functionality and anything else I should know.

Each track will have the same audio as the original CD. However, burning from ripped tracks does not preserve the same sagues or gaps, nor does it recreate any non-audio information that was on the original CD.

in not creating non audio info, does this mean tags will diappear from aiff files being used ti make a cd? also what other non audio info is there apart from time cues?

do cue sheets overcome this? how do i go from a cue sheet to a cd (i've been googling quite a bit on all these questions and feedback today) and how does the replacement cd (from the cue sheet) compare to the original, again in form and function?

in order to not ask you too many more dozens of questions (and at worst just a couple)....what would you do? let me set out my objectives and what i have (more or less) already decided and what i haven't:

1) for home playback i will be using aiff files (lack of tags pushes me from wav which i would have preferred)

2) for portable music i will be using my old mp3 files whilst sticking with my iriver h340 and alac or aac for any apple devices i may be using - i'll keep a copy of these on the hard drive of my imac for easy and immediate access

3) i want an archived copy - as mentioned if cds go missing or get damaged. what would you do in my shoes? disk image? use aiff fies for these (or even wav if i changed from aiff to wav)? cue sheets (see my unclearness a few paragraphs above)?

if i get my head around the movement of the digital age then i could decide that i will never need to (re) create a cd as all will now be on pcs and macs...but i haven't taken that step over the mental line yet

thanks again

peter t

am i right in my understanding tonight that this can be done through disk utility - creating image and burning cd?

Yes. If you have Roxio on your machine, go ahead and do this with one CD, so you can see the results before you start the big project.!

can i do this without Roxio, ie disk utility, for the creating disk image and burning function, within imac (that i am yet to use)?

as i don't have roxio toast any other names /programs you can throw at me?

Other non-audio information can be embedded videos or documents that are on some CDs.

"a-ha!!!" moment for me

Yes. The standard Audio CD format does not have tags for the tracks.

"huh?" moment here.

but when i rip cds aren't the tags from the cd? or are they from the database service the ripper accesses? and therefore why does wav have no tag (or major issues)?

or have i missed something?

If I were in your shoes? Personally, I no longer have interest in the original CD. I just rip the tracks I want, and usually never touch the CD again, and definitely would not feel any urge to recreate it in the future.

i'm thinking i might accept and have to give in to this. the times are indeed a changing. and i probably will not be ever looking at recreating my cds. i actually cant see the need to either. i guess if the berlin wall can come down then maybe i can move on with this shift too.

As far as the format for storage, you could get into a big discussion on the relative merits of WAV, AIFF, ALAC, and FLAC, but from an audio perspective they are all equivalent.

i guess this is a discussion for another time but after some testing on a number of steely dan tracks in recent weeks (as part of this whole process of mine) i have myself thinking/being fooled that there is a difference to what i can hear between aiff, wav and alac when heard right next to each other. i'm not saying it's fact but.... 🙂

finally (for now), can you shed any further light for the use or need for cue sheets for my purposes (apart from disk image -> cd production that i've almost let go of)?

as you can probably see above in my mindshift here this discussion has been very beneficial ed2345

peter t

Last question (probably):

Does itunes get these at the time of importing or ripping? I ask this as I'm looking at using xld for ripping and curious to always learn how these things all work

Thanks yet again

interesting re tags - it sounds like the only reason wav files do not have embedded tags is due to a lack of support out there rather than their structure/set up - is that right?

ed2345 thanks heaps for giving me your time to answering all my questions and hekping me sort out my process. as well as finding out about about disk images that i hadn't directly dabbled in before.

you've saved me heaps of time both in research (in informing and confirming) and my soon to be ripping and storing process which will not be tied down with using cue sheets

cheers

peter t

So I assume some players like the two you mentioned are mac compatible?

I'm thinking now I'll sus those out and see how wav comes up compared to what I am hearing through itunes in another format.

I dare say some of these libraries may have features that itune may fall short on

I certainly was looking to avoid naming albums and artists in itunes by using wav there