Best ripping format for future encoding?

[Ucodia]

Hello,

I am about to reencode my 200+ disc library and as I don't know what kind of encoding I would need in the future,I would like to know what is best the best ripping output format I could use so I can encode it later with the exact same quality as if I directly ripped and encoded my disc the final format?

Anyway I always assumed that CD ripper softwares were first ripping the disc to a raw file format and then encoded to the final format. What is the format of this raw file? Wav? Or am I totally misconceiving the ripping/encoding process?

Basically I want to put in place a process where this

CD ---> CD Ripper ---> Intermediate Format
Intermediate Format ---> Music Converter ---> Final Format

Would give the exact same final output quality as this classic process

CD ---> CD Ripper ---> Final Format

Thanks for the help.

[Spoon]

Re: Best ripping format for future encoding?

Any lossless format can be used, wave, aiff, FLAC, apple lossless.

[pablogm123]

Re: Best ripping format for future encoding?

You can encode your rips to any lossless format, because lossless is lossless, and they will retain the same data, as extracted from real CD.

Personally, I would go for FLAC or WV formats. Reasons: They are open source, implement a standard way for tagging and store a hash of audio stream, so that you always can verify their integrity.

[Ucodia]

Re: Best ripping format for future encoding?

Thanks very much for the quick answers. I was already having a multi-encoder setting involving FLAC and MP3 so I won't have to change my actual settings.

Just for my information. In which format does CD Ripper extract data before processing it to the final format?

[pablogm123]

Re: Best ripping format for future encoding?

Thanks very much for the quick answers. I was already having a multi-encoder setting involving FLAC and MP3 so I won't have to change my actual settings.

Just for my information. In which format does CD Ripper extract data before processing it to the final format?

For me, it seems that:

-When you rip in burst mode, it encodes the files on the fly.

-When you rip in secure mode, rips to RAM, and then encodes to final format.

[Ucodia]

Re: Best ripping format for future encoding?

I do use secure mode. The program then surely dumps the disc in a memory stream or in a physical temporary location but I was wondering what kind of format was being used. Just for my information.
FLAC seems to be the optimal transition format anyway.

[pablogm123]

Re: Best ripping format for future encoding?

The CD/DVD drive returns PCM audio without header. The program has to encode that format into the desired format.

[Ucodia]

Re: Best ripping format for future encoding?

Ok so basically it stores pure PCM without container. Thanks for the information.