a question here please?..if the file which is APE or FLAC is not divided into the actual numbered tracks (e.g. when it should have been a 15 track soundtrack its a single file APE or FLAC). does burning that files into a cd then later on rip it to isolate & get the tracks individually be possible? if it is, does it diminishes the quality of the file (its sound)?

if your flac/ape file comes with a cue, then there is a free program called cue splitter i beleive. (i think its by a place called 'medieval software') you just open the cue and pick where you want it split to. it splits it to one file per track, and then a cue to put them all together. no sound quality loss there. it does make purists cringe, because it screws up the track gapping or something in its generated cue file, and is thus not a 'byte perfect' copy of the whole cd. but the actual audio is lossless and 100% good enough for me.

there was also a flac file i encountered once that could be 'unzipped' with a special program, and it had cue/log/art inside. it was really weird though.

As long as your second CD rip is accurate, it would be lossless.

If you have some tech-savvy, though, Audacity can open, split and save the files to wav.
Then you can use Foobar2000 or something to compress them to FLAC or APE.

Note: you have to split the files manually, selecting where to split.
Also, turn off dithering in the preferences, or your files will be modified. <-Important

I've also used Adobe Audition, with the appropriate filters installed, to open the APE or FLAC file, and then split the tracks off manually and save them to individual FLAC files directly.

(Of course, when there's a CUE file, for me the easiest solution is foobar2000.)

thanks to all who shed some light into my questions. :D

it's a great help! :D

---------- Post added at 03:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:02 PM ----------

thanks to all who shed some light into my questions. :D

it's a great help! :D

Apologies for bumping this, but I've tried using Cue Splitter, and all it does is create a bunch of extra blank files, and it also cuts off the songs in the wrong spot - like two or three seconds early.

Is there something else out there that won't mess up the actual songs?

try using foobar2000. load the cue file, then try to convert while putting the destination settings on "save each track as a separate file". Convert in Wav, burn on CD and voila ! (well, that's how I do it, anyway :D)

Apologies for bumping this, but I've tried using Cue Splitter, and all it does is create a bunch of extra blank files, and it also cuts off the songs in the wrong spot - like two or three seconds early.

in that case, you may have to do it manually.

convert the file to wav (a single large file), and tehn open in soundforge or soundbooth, use hte waveform to see where the song ends and starts, and cut them out one by one. save them as wav, and then convert back to flac. if you do this, you should wind up with a lossless version of each track