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S/PDIF Input Software to trap WAV files

I have been going through the forum and I'm thinking about going further into PC audio. I have half a terabyte of MP3/FLAC/OGG files and want to take it up a notch. I'm looking at the M-Audio Audiophile USB external sound card - upgrade from an SB Extigy I and run S/PDIF out to my Levinson 360S. I'm ok with that part of the system - My question is:

How can I go the other way?

Who out there is familiar with a software package that will trap an S/PDIF digital input signal from the Levinson 360S digital out OR the S/PDIF out on the transport. I want to feed CD audio from my transport into my computer to trap it in a WAV file format. So many CD's now put "black magic" on my PC that I would like to go a different route. Please tell me there is a way to do this. I bought the CD's ... I'd like to put em on my Ipod. I DONT want something that will mess with the signal ... just convert it to WAV from S/PDIF. I'm not all that up on exactly how the S/PDIF spec works with the signal. I have read the basics but it might take an EE out there to get it to make sense. Is it as simple as serialized transfer to a open file? I would think there is a conversion of some sort. This will also help with my decision to get a squeezebox or not. WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENS to the digital information as it comes in on the wire and gets trapped in a file?

Maybe a bit to complex to answer ... any help with the software? I know D.A.R.T. will trap an analog signal and convert it to wav. I just want to go digital and trap it to WAV. It has an S/PDIF input, so maybe I'm making it more complicated than it needs to be. If there is conversion involved then the software method might make a huge difference in sound quality. If not maybe I dont need more the the software that comes with the card.

Anyone do this yet? In a way it beats the copy protection Sony is infecting us with.

The Horse
128x128horseface

Showing 1 response by jasonsobel

jasonsobel
29 posts
 
EAC is definitely the way to go to extract audio information off a CD and create WAV files. That said, if you really want to go S/PDIF into your computer, there are many programs that will record the signal exactly.

Audacity is a good freeware program:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

and a GREAT shareware program is CD Wave:
http://www.milosoftware.com/cdwave/

both programs will do what you want, record an S/PDIF signal to a WAV file. If you go with this method, you'll probably want to to break it up into tracks. CD Wave is designed exactly for that purpose, and will always cut on multiples of a CD sector size (1/75th of a second), so that you will avoid sector boundary errors.

all that said, EAC is probably a better method anyway, and quicker than the real-time transfer from an S/PDIF signal.
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