The easiest free way I know to get a FLAC file legally is to go to your local library, borrow a CD, and rip it to your home PC direct to FLAC. You’ll have to deal with the fact that your ODD might introduce some noise, but it’ll be the same noise as playing it from that same drive. Then rip the same disc to MP3.
Yes, WAV is in the middle both times, but that’s how you can get a FLAC file to compare legally.
The noise of the optical disc drive? I, erm, that’s not how digital data works.
More to the point, the easiest way to get a FLAC file would be to record some audio in Audacity (or equivalent) and then output it as FLAC.
Fair, but the recording method comes down to microphone quality; I’m trying to go from a known good recording with something that can/will be lost in the MP3 transition.
The problem with your noise point is, I’ve used ODDs with less-than-impeccable lasers (either laser itself or the housing). I’ve had discs ripped with minor audio corruptions - I’ve always called that ‘noise’ because it’s not the desired signal (and it can create literal random noise in the recording). Maybe there’s a better term for it, but simply put, not all drives are perfect, not all lasers are perfect, and there is a possibility of imperfect copying. It’s just a fact of life. Just like sometimes you might burn a frisbee, there’s times you don’t get a 100% clean rip.
Data corruption is one thing, but calling it “noise” is tremendously misleading because that’s such an issue when digitising from an analogue source. I can’t say I’ve ever experienced it due to the drive, but I have experienced it with scratched CDs. I’ve been using optical drives since the '90s and it’s so rare that bringing it up is really muddying the waters.
With regards to sourcing audio, the emphasis was on “easiest”. Most people haven’t had optical drives in their computers in a long time. Ultimately they’d probably be better off finding something on Wikimedia in PCM as their “known good”. Ripping audio isn’t difficult for you and me but we’re clearly nerdier than most!
lol, I don’t even own an optical drive anymore. I’m 100% streaming these days. It looks like from other comments there are places to buy FLAC files directly (which I’d hope would be decent quality)
It’s all academic though, I’m not really interested in becoming an audiophile. Streaming quality is fine for my needs.
