it's taken me a while to get things running. Hopefully you will save some time setting up.

"working flac settings for Grip CD ripper in Gutsy."
note, it would be prudent to get a flac package beforehand.
Gutsy Gibbon
grip (V. 3.3.1) configuration

config>cd> device: /dev/cdrom checked are: rewind, startup, reshuffle, poll disc, poll int. 1
(these are generally self-explanatory and accord with personal preference)

config>rip>ripper grip paranoia, disable paranoias, rip file format : /home/robert/Desktop/wavriptemp/%n.wav
(my DVD-RW is <1Year old, and my cd's are in mint condition. if you've scratches or an older drive, I would sacrifice some time and try to eliminate the pops and clicks that may occur)

config>rip>options nice: 5, auto eject, delay 0, all other fields blank
(nice refers to processor cycle priority, higher value denotes a greater importance. with an older drive, I've read that a delay may help getting things up to speed)

the following are exclusive to FLAC encoding parameters:
config>encode>encoder>
encoder:flac
Encoder Exec:/usr/bin/flac,
encoder com:--best -V -o %m %w -T "ARTIST=%A" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%t" -T "ALBUM=%d" -T "TITLE=%n" -T "GENRE=%G" -T "DATE=%y"
(this allows for ID3 tags for flac (and oggs too, probably) and quality 8.. i compared "V8" with "V", both with "--best", and the size an album ripped both ways was the same; if there was a difference, as reported by gnome file properties, it's >100kB
encoder file ext:flac
encoder file format:/home/robert/Desktop/Audio/flac/%d/%t %n.%x
for my needs, with most often multiple album artists, album sorting is optimal. of course, amarok provides the miraculous feature of sorting your entire library HOWEVER YOU WISH. you can sort by extension, and within each extension folder sort by album, bit rate, whatever parater you wish!

config>encode>options del wav, all else default, but adjust the cpu number to what's appropriate for your machine, this way, simultaneous encodings will go on, allowing for the most efficiency and reducing the discrepancy between ripping speed and encoding speed, provided that there is one- it helped by about 10 seconds per album ripped, in my case, with my Acer Aspire 5570z.

config>ID3> leave all blank if flac., command line takes care of your metafile needs. leave character set UTF-8 (or ISO****).. should have no effect.

config>DiscDB> default, but does anyone know of a free DB server for which to add to possible DB servers? (is Gracenote available? or perhaps, for its use, winamp and itunes pay for its usage for their software)

config>proxy> if necessary..

config>misc> Email is for cdinfo submission. I don't use lowercase coz it messes with my optic scanning.. harder to group words when glancing over a list of files with wordsallconnected. the other settings i have are personal: don't lowercase, don't show tray,
checked: don't change to underscores, replace incompatible characters by hexadec (this makes me feel less uneasy about missing characters in my metainfo if i glace at a folder and see characters, albeit incomprehensible ones like?/c) or of the sort.allow high bits


For me, configuration by trial, error, and online query took about an hour, and writing this took about 20 minutes. hopefully it will save someone time so that they can work on other more important matters-like pondering the universe.

i've been using itunes, then winamp, both in VISTA, but now with ubuntu, I've found rythmbox to be a satisfactory replacement, but Quod Libet to be superior to anything else-including RB- I've encountered. currently I have nearly 7k songs, around 15% of which are .flac. QL can search and browse with ease and efficiency.