I've seen a lot of FLAC re-encodes of C77 music releases. While FLAC is nice and fluffy and stuff, Touhou Lossless Music Collection uses TrueAudio.
Therefore, I convert the cuesheets into unicode, leaving the TrueAudio-encoded files intact – I'm sure that it'll save me quite a bit of bandwidth when a new version of that said collection comes out by placing the .tta files in their respectable subdirectories. I doubt rwx (the guy who posts the collection torrent) would re-encode something into something, when there are TrueAudio encodes available in Japanese P2P networks.
How do I use a .tta file?
I have a couple lossless music files on my computer, and the only way I can run them is through my vlc Media Player. Although, I see that the file is just one big compilation of the entire album. Because of this, I prefer lossy formats such as .ogg files that convert to AAC files and still have great quality, despite being "lossy".
How do I best utilize the Touhou Lossless Collection?
TTA is TrueAudio. To play it, you need a player that supports the format, or a plugin for a player that doesn't.
The official site for the codec is TrueAudio.com; they have a lot of plugins for various audio players available. Myself, I use foobar2000.
On the other hand, the .tta file itself does not contain any information related to separate tracks. To play it correctly, you need to use the supplied .cue file, which is the so-called "cuesheet" that describes how the file should be navigated. foobar2000 supports cuesheets by default.
foobar2000 also has a pretty useful plugin that allows you to convert your music into other audio formats, retaining tags; for example, you can load the cuesheet in the player, select the entire album, rightclick, and choose "Convert", "AAC high". The player will ask you to provide the path to the encoder (neroaacenc.exe, can be found on the internet), and then produce multiple AAC files, each properly tagged using the cuesheet, or, if you so desire, a monolithic AAC file with a copy of the cuesheet. It also supports embedding cuesheets into FLAC audio files.
At last, someone who not only knows what to do, but shares their hard-to-find knowledge.
I was able to download Foobar2000, the plug-in for playing .tta files, load the .cue files and am able to play each track individually via foobar2000.
I'm able to convert the .tta file itself into AAC format, but I still get the big, 1 hour 16 minute audio file that is unsegmented and unpractical. I tried selecting the actual tracks from the cue sheet, but when I attempt to convert them they end up not coming out. Instead I'd get a message saying that a serious error had occured with converting 18 out of 18 tracks (fyi I'm trying to convert Touhou Midnight MAXIMUMTUNE.tta into something practical).
I also tried including both the 18 track names from the cue file AND the .tta file itself.
18 out of 19 tracks failed to convert.
So now I'm struggling with this; how do I make all 18 of the tracks compiled into a single lossless audio file appear individually in high-quality AAC format on my computer?
I renamed it back to CDImage.cue, and they converted exactly how you said they would.
So, there's no need to answer my second question. Thanks to you, I can now enjoy the full benefits of Total True Audio and the Touhou Lossless Collection.
You could as well change the file name in the cuesheet (FILE "CDImage.tta" WAVE) after renaming; that'd work too.
I guess I might have a couple more questions.
For one, what would you personally do witht he .tta and .cue files after the initial conversion? I thought about letting them stockpile, and after a while write them to a disc and delete what's on my computer.
Also, what audio format would you most reccommend I convert the file to? Would converting it to any other file format kill the quality, or am I better off with certain formats more than others?
Lastly, I'm a bit doubtful of the actual quality of True Audio files. I'm not able to hear much of a difference, and it's certainly a confidence killer not being able to differentiate between the lossless and lossy versions of each song. Plus, even the converted lossless files take ALOT more space than my other formats (mp3, ogg…) Is there any way to see the difference in quality, or are all those extra mega-bytes just laying away on my hard-drive for no reason?
Basically, why would I rather download a lossless collection instead of a lossy collection, ignoring the "quality" issue?
These questions do not have any "general" answers suitable for everyone.
I don't convert anything at all; I'm fine with TrueAudio and cuesheets.
If you really need to convert, you might want to use AAC as currently it's the best lossy format available, and it's supported by some portable players as well (for example, iPod, PSP, DSi, and some others). OGG Vorbis is a good choice too, but unlike AAC it's basically "not supported at all" for portable stuff. MP3 has multiple design flaws which makes it a no go for me.
TrueAudio, FLAC, WavPack4+ and OptimFROG audio formats represent a direct "CD image". In other words, if you decompress a lossless audio file, you'll get exactly the same (byte by byte) data stream as on the source CD.
Of course, if your audio system isn't hi-fi, or if your ears aren't "audiophile supreme", you won't see much difference.