Community Newsletter: Q&A: Advice needed for ripping a huge music CD collection
- 1/18/08 4:08 PM
File names truncated
by ikofig - 1/21/08 5:38 AM In reply to: Do it right the 1st time. by PreymantasI also like to name my mp3 files using the convention you do and I keep all of them on a 300GB drive (yes, it's backed up - thanks for asking). However, Windows truncates my file names, so if I have tracks by a band with a longer name with a long-named album, I end up with file names that may not even get to the track number. How do you get around that? (I use XP Home SP2)
CD Changer with Digital Optical Output
by tracker925 - 1/23/09 4:09 PM In reply to: File names truncated by ikofigI cannot tell if this was ever answered in the thread. I have a Sony CD Changer with (1) a digital optical output and (2) two analog coaxial outputs.
I would like to use an audio grabber like EAC to add the title information and confirm accuracy.
A. Is there a way to connect the CD Changer using the Digital Optical Output to the Laptop? and
B. Then I would like to turn the CD Changer on and walk away, letting it and the software copy the collection. That is my goal. I see that there is a PCMCIA card called "Creative Audigy 2 ZS Notebook". Will this do the job?
Thanks I cant seem to find the answer to this anywhere....
Plan for future
by LeeMeador - 1/21/08 9:25 AM In reply to: Do it right the 1st time. by PreymantasI have to agree with Prey's insights. I decided to put all my music on a computer about 3 years ago. My goals were to have the songs available for me to listen over the internet when I was at work and to be able to load up my IAudio U2 music player, my daughters IPOD, burn audio CDS and burn MP3 CDs to play in my car or on the living room DVD player. I messed around with it and came up with this.
* I rip to 320 Kbs MP3. This allows me to burn an audio CD from the MP3s that sounds just like the original CD to my ears. It is lossy but not too much is lost.
* The MP3 encoding is done with Lame and the alt-insane setting is what I like.
* I use CDEX to rip and encode. It allows me to run multiple copies of the program at one time and rip as many CDs as I have optical drives.
* Naming is like Prey's but I only do one level of folders. The level is artist-album instead of artist and then album.
* After ripping I move the folder with all the files to a folder called 'new'. I listen to it one time to make sure it has been done correctly. (Sometimes I mess up and only rip one file on the CD. Sometimes there are songs that don't rip very well.) If its bad, I redo it on a different CD or DVD drive on my computer. Only then do it move it to its final home.
* The final home of each CD is a folder for various genres. For me, I use rock, jazz, classical, christmas, gospel, ethnic, rap and country. This fits with my families music preferences so everybody doesn't have to wade through everyone else's favorites.
* With CDEX I can rip two CDs at once on two drives on the old P3 700 MHz Windows 2000 machine in about 30 minutes. Its just long enough to eat a meal, take a shower, etc. So I can go by and change CDs as I go about my life. On my faster P4 3.0 GHz machine its just a few minutes to do 2 CDs and I can surf or type at the same time.
* My 500 CDs take up about 200 GB at this time (but note what that includes below).
* I let Windows Media Player find some album covers. I don't like the way it likes to modify the MP3 files though. It works pretty well to just Google for the album name and one of the top 3 or 4 will have a picture of the album. Some obscure CDs don't work this way so I scan them in. The image file goes into the folder with the MP3 files.
* Sometimes I put a text file with the song names and details. It gives a place to put lyrics or recording dates or song writers or whatever. You could put the date you ripped it but the date on the song files tells you that.
* You have to decide what to do with "various". When the song list for a CD pops up after CDEX searches for it on CDDB it might not be the way I like it. I remove "the" from the front of any musical group. (It makes it easier to find "The Beatles" amoung the "B"s instead of the "T"s.) I change "Various Artists" to "Various" to make the file names shorter.
* After ripping compilation or soundtrack CDs, I pull the songs up in some MP3 tag editor and change the artist on the song from "various" to the actual artist's name. It makes it easier to see, in Winamp, for example, what all you have by some artist.
* I haven't got a plan I like for dealing with the different MNP3 tag versions. You might want to think about it. Do you want to use V2 tags only or V3 tags only or do you want both. I've ended up with a mixed bag and the pain point is such that I want to solve it.
* I use EDNA, a python program to serve up my MP3s to me when I'm somewhere else. It creates a "web site" where I can see album covers and all the songs and pick ones to listen to. It doesn't work very well if your internet connection is really slow. I use basic authentication to keep random people from getting to my music so only I have access.
* I got a 330 MB USB drive which I use to keep a copy of all the music. That's my backup. (The other backup is the bookshelf full of original CDs.)
* Because the 320 KB MP3 files are pretty large, I periodically run a batch program that I cobbled together to transcode all the ripped original MP3 files to other bit rates, putting them in a different folder tree. (Transcoding is done with Lame from the command line and changes the bit rate of the song from 320 to some lower resolution while it creates a new MP3 file.) The batch program also copies all image files.
* I transcode to 192 KBps for burning MP3s in my car. Anything lower sounds bad and anything with more bits doesn't give me any better sound in my car, with my stereo and my road noise. I call 192 the FM quality.
* I also transcode to 64 KBps for two reasons. If I'm working somewhere that has a slow internet connection, I can still listen to my music at the slow rate. Also, I can put a lot more songs on my pocket MP3 player and with the quality of headphone sound (given the cheap headphones I buy) it's good enough. (I lose headphones so I buy cheap.) I call 92 KBps my AM radio quality.
* NOTE that playing 64 Kbps on my home or car stereo makes my teeth hurt. 192 kpbs on my home stereo is bearable but detectably worse than 320. (Your ears may vary.)
* Having three copies of each song at three bit rates makes the storage larger. That's why it takes so much room for the files. (I recently bought another 500 Gb drive for $97 including tax. That's the price of 10 CDs at a good discount. Its not much to pay for the convenience.)
* Finally, I use Winamp to build giant playlists of songs that I like, or my wife likes, or Christmas music or whatever. Then I put that playlist on random, continuous play on the old P3 machine. I ran the audio output through the attic and to my living room stereo on the "video 1" input. Now anytime we want to listen, we switch the stereo to "video 1" and it starts playing those songs. Its sort of like our custom radio station.
* I also rip LPs but it's only worth the trouble if you have a really good turntable and cartridge and if the CD isn't available. There are still hiss and pop sounds that are really hard to get rid of while keeping the music sounding good. All that time ... just buy the CD if you can.
* I also rip audiobooks but the system is totally different. For example, you have 16 CDs with the same book name and you don't care what the tracks are named. You don't care about stereo. Mono is fine. I would rather have a low bit rate that is on the low end of understandable than take up the space for a voice reading words. You might want to think about books, if you have any.
Thanks.
Plan for future
by Preymantas - 1/22/08 11:31 PM In reply to: Plan for future by LeeMeadorHi LeeMeador!
Thanks, I just wanted to comment on one thing you said that caught my eye which I discovered long after the fact was adversely effecting me thanks to old Billy Boy. 
Excellent post, BTW! Lots of good real world info new folks can draw from. This was a good topic and VERY productive. I'm even exploring some new ground as a result of what other folks have been sharing. 
"* Naming is like Prey's but I only do one level of folders. The level is artist-album instead of artist and then album."
MS recommends, if I'm not mistaken, maintaining folders with less than 1000 entries, either folder or file... That's why I use the hierarchy that I do to keep the numbers of folders and files down per folder to something that Windows won't choke on. The only downside to deep nesting like that is path length.
You should see the knots on my head. Now I use the KISS principle and use as much common sense in naming as I have left after learning that lesson.
On a side note: Sounds like you are in my neighborhood and a warning about thousands of files. I think last time I checked I have about 17,000 online right now and have become VERY drive maintenance conscience. I made the mistake after suspecting that one of my many drives on my LAN was on the verge (transfer rates were dropping like a rock) of losing some data. I suspected it was some clusters or sectors going bad, so I scheduled a CHKDSK after reboot. Well, there were and I lost a few files, fortunately nothing new and I restored from backup.
Moral of the story (from where I sit), make sure you do a backup BEFORE any disk maintenance other than daily or weekly defragging if you're not already.
Better safe than sorry.
Cheers!
Prey
I suggest ripping your collection into FLAC format....
by mcarter44 - 1/21/08 4:48 AM In reply to: Advice needed for ripping a huge music CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
i've got about 250 CD's that i've finally ripped correctly (I think, having done various methods in the past), i now rip all CD's into FLAC, which is a great compression format, that takes about 1/2 space of WAV format yet doesn't lose any of the audio quality.
i use it so that i can then later convert to a WAV format file (CD's)or an MP3 file or any other format. as i understand once you rip to MP3 what sound quality you've lost you've lost for good.
FLAC also play through my Slim Devices, wireless player, which BTW is the greatest investment in music i've made in years as it allows me to play all the music i've ripped to a central server, wirelessly to my home stereo system (which is then hooked to a very good Yamaha receiver and allows me to play full audio quality music in 3 different zones in my house).
to rip in FLAC is use the premium level jetaudio software.
anyways i strongly recommend trying this as obviously with your CD collection you are pretty serious about your music.
LOSSLESS is "A Copy"
by Preymantas - 1/22/08 10:57 PM In reply to: I suggest ripping your collection into FLAC format.... by mcarter44Hi mcarter44!
Absolutely. The only problem is storage and backup space.
MP3's=50-100MB on avg., FLAC=300-400MB on avg. per CD. At that rate and a respectable sized collection and, well, you can do the math.
I'm certain there are programmers feverishly working on the next generation of audio compression alg's and I believe that it will be LOSSLESS at the same size as current high quality MP3's and compatible with current infrastructure. MP3Pro had promise, but I don't see much chatter about it or I'm looking in the wrong places.
Whoever cracks that nut will be sitting on easy street just like the file compression gurus did back in the day.
Cheers!
Prey
organized ripping...
by Darbalu - 1/21/08 7:48 AM In reply to: Advice needed for ripping a huge music CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Ripping a large collection can be a huge and daunting task. It took me 6 months to rip 2,500+ disks. Whether you use iTunes or any other music player, make sure you choose an application that encodes at a high bit rate, organizes the library accurately and can find the correct id3 tags and art work... you don't want to have to re-rip hundreds of CD because of glitches and errors and you don't want to have to manually correct empty info, titles and genres.
If you approach the task with some organization it'll be a lot easier. Organize the CD collection alphabetically and clear yourself an area to work in. Figure out a way to separate ripped disks from not ripped disks. It's easy to miss sections of your collection if your piles aren't clearly separated.
Set a daily goal of the number of disks you want to burn per day... limit yourself to 25 or 30 and spare yourself from getting a migraine or burning out. It's easy to start to hate your collection if you do nothing but sit and feed CD's for days on end. Take a break once and awhile.
Also, I found things went faster for me when I upgraded the computer with at least 2 gigs of memory and that I didn't have any other memory intensive programs running while ripping. You may want to add a large hard drive that you only store music and pictures on. I'm paranoid that a drive will fail and loose all my data so I store the music on 750 gig internal drive and back it up to another 500 gig external drive.
Once you are done, come up with a weekly/monthly schedule to rip any new purchases. If things get shelved or filed before getting ripped, the tend to fall into a black hole and never make it onto the computer. Good luck!!!
organizing ripping...
by Preymantas - 1/22/08 11:11 PM In reply to: organized ripping... by DarbaluHi Darbalu!
You nailed it on the head.
I have a folder called MP3 UPLOADS that I store all my new stuff into that needs processing.
I also have formulated a naming convention for my folders so I know if they are up to my desired Bit-Rate, have full artwork or incomplete.
i.e.
ClassicRock (genre)
..................Jethro Tull(artist)
....................................Aqualung !A(album)
...............................................tracks(titles)
When I'm browsing my folders I know immediately if it is complete (shown above)or I have to go fetch or scan some artwork or be prepared to do an upgrade to the folder with new higher bit rate MP3's to get it up to (my) sniff.
! = my desired bit-rate or higher
A = has complete good quality artwork
a = has only AMG or Amazon small front cover artwork
i = CD is Incomplete and missing tracks or information (reviews etc.)
Cheers!
Prey
Windows media rips to WMA
by jtbenton - 1/21/08 12:43 PM In reply to: Advice needed for ripping a huge music CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
My experience was that Windows Media is fine except if you want to use itunes. I got an iMac and found that when I tried to import my music collectio from my pc, itunes only uses mp3 music. I had to rip nearly everything all over again. So for anything that only uses mp3, don't use Windows Media.
Windows mediaplayer (11) can also rip to mp3.
by Kees Bakker - 1/21/08 12:49 PM
In reply to: Windows media rips to WMA by jtbenton
It's just a setting to choose from: wpa or mp3.
Kees
Format
by wallacerivera - 1/21/08 12:53 PM In reply to: Advice needed for ripping a huge music CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Make sure that when you are ripping a large volume of music that you are putting it into a format that is compatible on all devices. For instance if you choose to rip you music in Windows Media Player an option is to rip the music to a .WMA file which is not playable on an IPod. If you use ITunes to rip your music the default for ripping music is to an ACC file which is not playable on a Windows Media Device. My suggestion is to make sure that you are happy with the file choice so that if your preference change in the future from one portable music device to another that you don’t have to spend the time changing the format of your music files. (Been there done that.)
As for the quality I would suggest ripping your music at no less than 192 kb/s.
ripping music
by b19mag3gie7 - 1/21/08 1:00 PM In reply to: Advice needed for ripping a huge music CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Dan
I use Roxio Easy Media Creator 7.5 to rip my music and it is real good.
It will rip and put it to your hard drive. If you put it on your hard drive you can burn a lot more then if you go from a CD to CD.
Bob
RIP Music Collection
by baddog6915 - 1/21/08 1:13 PM In reply to: Advice needed for ripping a huge music CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I recommend that you use WMP 11. The first thing that you need to do is to set your bit rate. I only rip using either MP3 at 320 or Windows Lossless. I want the highest sound quality that I can get. The best thing is that WMP will automatically eject the disc after the rip is complete. All of the information will automatically be retrieved including the LP cover. The last great thing about WMP 11 is that it can repair all of your music with the correct tags and LP covers with just a few clicks and then let you know when it has finished. The purpose of allowing WMP 11 to do all of the tags is so that you can then organize your music by searching and then moving into another folder or subfolder.
cd conversion
by ppollack - 1/21/08 2:12 PM In reply to: Advice needed for ripping a huge music CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The program I use for all My music conversion would be NERO. I have used this program for many Years. I use it more than any other program. I am a musician and when I get an album together I use NERO to burn all My work Because I trust it so much. Hope that helps
Nero
by djcobp - 1/21/08 7:24 PM In reply to: cd conversion by ppollackWhy why I add a cd to Nero, does it put the last cut on the album first? Am I doing something wrong, or is it a glitch that NERO still hasn't seen? It has been this way for quite some time now.
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
