from the source itself:
"FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. Grossly oversimplified, FLAC is similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality. This is similar to how Zip works, except with FLAC you will get much better compression because it is designed specifically for audio, and you can play back compressed FLAC files in your favorite player (or your car or home stereo, see links to the right for supported devices) just like you would an MP3 file.

FLAC is freely available and supported on most operating systems, including Windows, "unix" (Linux, *BSD, Solaris, OS X, IRIX), BeOS, OS/2, and Amiga. There are build systems for autotools, MSVC, Watcom C, and Project Builder. "

Not that I’ve done a conclusive check, but as far as I can tell FLAC and SHN have about the same compression ratio(when FLAC Frontend is using the default settings, which I recommend.) So I’d just go for the one you’re most familiar with, the difference is not big anyways.

First of all you need to get your cd’s onto a computer. I know there’s plenty of rippers out there, but the one that’s recognised as the best is Exact Audio Copy(EAC,) and I’d definetely go with this one due to the great features the software has:
"Its unique secure mode reads all audio sectors twice for greater accuracy. If a read error is detected, EAC will reread those sectors up to 82 times to get the best result. In most cases EAC is able to recover audio data even from serious scratched CDs where other programs end up with tracks full of clicks and pops. When even EAC is no longer able to recover the data it will report the exact locations of the suspicious positions. This combined with offset correction makes the program one of the few audio extractors out there that can make perfect copies of audio tracks."

You can get EAC here:
http://www.ping.be/satcp/softwaredae01.htm#EAC”>http://www.ping.be/satcp/softwaredae01.htm#EAC
A walkthrough on how to configure EAC on your computer:
http://www.ping.be/satcp/cd2mp3-en.htm”>http://www.ping.be/satcp/cd2mp3-en.htm

-Just remember to choose to rip to wav, not mp3 when you’re ready to go. This is fairly simple though, just press the "wav logo" on the left menu of the program and you’re rolling.

As for a FLAC software:
http://home.wanadoo.nl/~w.speek/flac.htm”>http://home.wanadoo.nl/~w.speek/flac.htm
-this program is really easy to use, just open the FLAC Frontend, drag and drop the wav files you want to compress and press encode.

The FLACH homepage:
http://flac.sourceforge.net/”>http://flac.sourceforge.net/

yeah, thanks a lot, I already used the one or other hint extensively

…what would you use as shn software? which shn freeware is the best?

are shn and flac just 2 different methods to compress wavs or are there any advantages/ disadvantages to prefer the one or other?

I totally see your point about the space and bandwidth that flac’s need. Though I’m a bit more uncertain that most people are on dialup modems these days, however that’s not really a issue we need to debate Dual posting of format, both lossless and mp3 is a great offer that caters both does on high and low speed connections. Sometimes though a taper might not want his shows to be shared as mp3’s for various reasons, but if you then choose not to have the show up at fsf, this is totally acceptable since it’s your site after all

I also agree on your point about flac/shn not necessarily being lossless, but that they in fact can come from mp3 sourced cd’s. That’s why I check every cd that I recieve in a trade to see if it’s mp3 sourced, even the ones that has a clear lineage goes through this test before I trade them to others(or upload them to fsf for that matter.) An explanation on how to do this is posted here: http://www.freakscene.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=5341″>http://www.freakscene.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=5341
And if I manage I’ll try to post some freq analyzis that shows the difference.

And I also hear you loud and clear on the fact that running the site get’s more and more expensive as you need more bandwidth and hd space, and I think some sort of donation scheme would be totally justified. The site is awesome and so many people are benefitting from your great work, so some contribution back to you is just common sense.

hi.

how can we make it clear that the donation is meant for running the site, and not payment for the bootlegs even though you call it "donation for running the site", it might be hard to differ it from the fact that we’re then actually paying for the bootlegs.

Some people may think of it as a smart trick to make money of bootlegs.

This is a diificult matter.