I need to rip and orgainize 600 CDs

[marko711]

to a media server I am building. What is the best software to use, both low priced and high end.

[Lon]

I am in the exact same position. I will be putting the CD's on a NAS device (prob. the Buffalo Technology) using WMA lossless.

My question is on the CD licenses. From what I gather, if I activate the license, then I limit my copying and network distribution. If I don't activate the license, is there more than a hypothetical downside?

If the files reside on a NAS device, how does the activated license limit use? How does SlimServer work with licensed vs. unlicensed CDs?

With the investment of 600+ CDs ($6000+), I'm feeling cautious!

I did a search on the forum here but couldn't find a thread on this.

[SiliGoose]

My question is on the CD licenses. From what I gather, if I activate the license, then I limit my copying and network distribution. If I don't activate the license, is there more than a hypothetical downside?

I bet you always drive under the posted speed limit too. ;)

[Lon]

Under the speed limit and in the left hand lane!

[plyons10]

To the second post... obviously, if you can't tell by now, you should not activate the license. That's simple.

To the first post... the best high - end ripping software to use is also low priced! It's called Exact Audio Copy (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) . It makes perfect bit for bit copies of your CD recordings, which most consumer rippers do not. There may be some other "secure" rippers out there by now that are a little easier to use, but EAC is definitely the preferred software.

But EAC will only create a WAV file. What you do with that next is a bit more subjective. If you are interested in creating MP3 files, you should use LAME. I can point you to a great tutorial if you like on integrating the LAME executables with EAC. Generally, if you use LAME to make MP3s, I would not even consider using any quality lower than --alt preset extreme. This quality, or the next higher preset, --alt preset insane, will produce mp3s that are indistinguisable from the original CDs or WAV files, but with about 15-20% of the file size (and... mp3s have a nice well supported tagging feature, id3v2, that wav files lack -- this is important for organizing your files).

However, the mp3 format is a bit of a one-way street -- because the compression technique is "lossy" it is also irreversible. You cannot go back and decide later on that you would rather compress to another format. Or rather, you can do that, but you will then be compresssing an already compressed source and introducing a detectable level of signal loss into your music.

For that reason, some audiophiles prefer to either preserve the original WAV files created by EAC, or to use one of a couple of lossless compression techniques available, like WMA lossless or APE.

I don't know too much about them.

[docrings]

My "low cost" and "low tech" approach is this:

PC computer
Two 52x CD-drives

Two copies of "Audio Grabber" running on the computer (see the Help file on running two copies at once)

Download Here (http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/) and install it.

Download LAME dll HERE (http://mitiok.free.fr/) and unzip it to the audiograbber folder on your hard drive.

Make sure you are connected to the internet via DSL or Cable modem to automatically get album information.

Select the highest bit rate you can possibly handle (256kbps is super, especially if you have high-end gear and audio listening skills). 192kbps is about the highest that I personally *can't* hear a difference so I rip just above that at 256. You will need to have installed the LAME encoder to get these high bit rates.

Running two copies allow you to be ripping in one copy, while you are loading and getting album information on another. When the first stops ripping, the second begins... at times, it is hard to keep up it can go that fast. 600 albums, though will take up your whole Saturday!

Also, figure out how you want to name songs... I just have it put a number for the order of the song, and the song name, with the artist and album names as folders. If you don't include the number, the computer will play them alphabetically, and not in numerical order... not great for albums meant to be played in a certain sequence (classical, etc.) or in the sequence you are used to. Don't worry, though, no matter how you name them, the MP3 player will display all the correct information from the hidden ID3 tag which includes artist, song name, etc.

600 albums at 256kbps will be roughly 86GB... so if you have one of those now cheap 200GB hard-drives, you will be fine for music and room for more.

Good luck!

Doc Rings

PS: Sorry if you know most of this, just want others reading this thread who may be new to MP3's to get some instructions...

[plyons10]

Originally posted by docrings
Select the highest bit rate you can possibly handle (256kbps is super, especially if you have high-end gear and audio listening skills). 192kbps is about the highest that I personally *can't* hear a difference so I rip just above that at 256. You will need to have installed the LAME encoder to get these high bit rates.


You should almost certainly use the presets I mention rather than fixed bit rates. The presets have been "tweaked" and tested and use variable bit rates, which give better fidelity for equivalent file size. The "extreme" tends average about 250-280kbps and the "insane" is 320 VBR I believe.

Either way... ALWAYS USE THE PRESETS.

[docrings]

Originally posted by plyons10
You should almost certainly use the presets I mention rather than fixed bit rates. The presets have been "tweaked" and tested and use variable bit rates, which give better fidelity for equivalent file size. The "extreme" tends average about 250-280kbps and the "insane" is 320 VBR I believe.

Either way... ALWAYS USE THE PRESETS.

I'll have to try EAC... sounds good!

Looks like EAC allows two instances running at once...cool!

"You can open two instances of EAC, enabling you to read audio data from two different CD-ROM drives simultaneously. " from the EAC website.

[plyons10]

Yeah... EAC is really the gold standard. It's just a little tough to configure and bit buggy for some people. Audiograbber should be as good as EAC in most cases. But where EAC will really stand out is in it's ability to perform error correction and to re-read any data over and over again to make sure it really does create a bit for bit copy. This has saved many minorly scratched CDs for me.

If your collection is in good shape, you'll get a bigger kick to your performance and fidelity by switching your LAME parameters to the presets than by switching rippers.

[JonnyBCookin]

If you're going to use EAC and really want to get serious, go here: www.ubernet.org And perhaps you'll expand your collection :D BTW, if you need assistance on setting up EAC go here: http://www.bestmp3guide.com/ This was set up by Chris Myden, the founder of Ubernet.

[brightbulb]

I use a program called buzzsaw ripper.
Fast/easy and native freedb support.

http://www.mp3-converter.biz/buzzsaw-cd-ripper/ (www.mp3-converter.biz/buzzsaw-cd-ripper/)