ripping music from cds

chandruybl

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hi,

Sorry if this sounds silly,but i need to know,i have a good collection of Audio cds which i want to convert into other formats for storage in a single unit to hear is it that i use online softwares to rip them into MP3 etc put them in my PC and hear or is there anyother way to do???

:yahoo:
 
You need a PC / Laptop and a CD drive (internal or external) to rip audio CDs. First decide you want to rip to loseless (FLAC, WAV, AIFF etc) or lossy (MP3, OGG) format. In windows you can use EAC, in linux you can use the powerful command line program ABCDE.

My recommendation would be to rip in FLAC using EAC. With FLAC it would be loseless and can be tagged properly.
 
Stick to dBpoweramp, Exact Audio Copy, or XLD. Don't use anything else and especially not iTunes. Stay away from Bluetooth too.

Use AccurateRip to verify the rips are accurate.

I'd simply rip in FLAC or WAV for daily use and also back them up. For on the go, I'd setup a home server that transcodes the FLAC or WAV files to AAC or MP3 if b/w is an issue. Or I'd simply stream FLAC itself, WAV will require more b/w.

A Raspberry Pi would be an excellent solution for a home server on the cheap. If its a PC then something like MinimServer or Subsonic works great too.
 
Hi

MP3 high quality rips, FLAC, WAV, etc work well provided you are using a good media player.....I use a Pioneer LX 55 Blu Ray player which outputs these formats so well that the experience is so warm and true audiophile grade....
 
Digital world is ever changing;
I had moved onto Computer audio in 2010.
At that time I used to use EAC & was ripping my CD's into FLAC.
Later dB came along & allowed me to rip in Wave with Meta Data.
Therefore, I started the 'ripping' process [again]
Its been a while.
I have not completed what I have started.
However, as of today the best imho is dB Power Amp Ripper [properly configured] into Wave [nothing else] Meta Data is 100 % Supported.
I have 16TB of music & counting, part of my 5000 ++CD's are yet to be ripped into Wave.
DO NOT RIP into MP3 - Pure waste of time & the quality is 'below par' :indifferent14:
Enjoy your ride into Computer Audio.
There are lots of playback softwares to choose from - all depends on how complex you want to make it. Foobar & J River are the 'easy' ones to work with & they give excellent results - just get them configured correctly.
 
hi,

Sorry if this sounds silly,but i need to know,i have a good collection of Audio cds which i want to convert into other formats for storage in a single unit to hear is it that i use online softwares to rip them into MP3 etc put them in my PC and hear or is there anyother way to do???

:yahoo:

Hi,

This is not a silly question at all. The topic can get complex and even those with a degree in Computer Science won't agree on one method as the best method or the only method.

There are many ways to do what you are after. What will work for you the best depends on several factors. Since your question is quite open-ended and this is a question many jumping from Audio CDs in to Computer playback have, let me give you a holistic view of the problem and possible solutions.

To begin with some criteria to jump-start your decision making.

(1) How many CDs do you have in your collection?
(2) What quality playback do you want from these rips?
(3) What kind of budget do you have for setting up a playback system.
(4) How is your computer proficiency.​

Let's try to address all the above questions.

Questions 1 and 3 are interconnected, and 2 and 3 are interconnected. The less the number of CDs, lesser the playback fidelity required, lesser the resource/budget required. Naturally, higher the number of CDs, higher the playback fidelity required, higher the resource/budget required will be. Since your exact scenario is not clearly stated, let me begin with some hypothetical scenarios.


Scenario 1 - Causal user : An individual with 200 hundred CDs and need to play them on a smartphone / simple Bluetooth speakers / computer with desktop speakers / entry level component systems.

Solution: Rip them in AAC 192kbps or MP3 320kbps VBR. Keep the files on a desktop or laptop computer. Install and run a server and play wherever you want. For ripping, EAC, dbPowerAmp are favorites. For sharing iTunes is user friendly, install and run with home sharing enabled. Logitech Media Server (LMS) is another simple to use option.


Scenario 2 - Power user : An individual with 500-1000 CDs and need to play them on decent playback system in the best fidelity possible. Most audiophile will fall into this category.

Solution: Typical audiophile is often spoiled for choices. Over-analysis and over spending is a trend. So solution for this lot really varies. It is possible to put together a good playback system for a 1000 CDs collection for under USD 1000. Fidelity can improve to extraordinary when the budget moves up to USD 2000 and nearly the best possible for USD 2500-3000. Here are some recommendations for this lot.

(2a) Ripping: Stay with EAC. dbPoweramp is preferred by many because there should be choices available.
(2b) File format: FLAC is the most popular choice among audiophiles with ALAC equivalent in the Macintosh world. Many people like ripping entire CD to .APE with a Cue Sheet. Some like to rip and store individual .WAV files. Each of these are excellent methods, though debates around these topics can be found. I recommend FLAC.
(2c) Storage: A desktop computer with a well ventilated cabinet is recommended. Though nowadays laptops designed for gaming are serious machines as well and they will suit the purpose equally well offering portability as an advantage. Many audiophile prefer a NAS to store music. I recommend a desktop/laptop eliminating network from the scenario completely.
(2d) Sharing/Streaming: Sharing can be done with simplest of protocols such as Samba / NFS / AFS. More advanced users can set up and streaming server such as LMS / MinimServer. Like I said, there are a lot of choices. What an individual will choose depends on factors including what the person values most.​


Scenario 3 - Digital Connoisseur : Individuals with 1000s of CDs and/or other High-res formats, and highest quality price no object playback systems.

Solution: While entry level digital can be easy and cheap (USD 100 one-box system), top-end digital can be unnervingly complex. At the opposite end of the spectrum, digital is hard to make work together. There are numerous decisions to make, hundreds of hardware, software items to configure.

A user playing at this level should either have a strong background in Computers or should outsource work to an Audio Consultant (to an Audiophile with a strong Computer background, not an IT engineer with some audio knowledge). Discussing on a forum like this can be enlightening/entertaining but is not a substitute for professionally executed task.
 
Rip to lossless for archival or playback.

If one needs smaller compressed files, then convert from above lossless rips to mp3, etc, WHILE saving the lossless file too. So you have lossless + lossy, both of which you can use as per your convenience.

EAC is good but won't allow storage of metadata to wav rips.

dBPoweramp allows wav rips to store metadata which makes it much easier to perform database operations like artist search, album search, etc, on it. IME, dBPoweramp ripping tends to be much faster compared to EAC. This matters when you have a pile of CDs to be ripped.
 
Almost inevitably stepping into the digital world will bring about the question of a decent DAC, I am not sure if OP has thought about it or not. I wish to apologize to OP for opening a Pandora's box. :D
 
Almost inevitably stepping into the digital world will bring about the question of a decent DAC, I am not sure if OP has thought about it or not. I wish to apologize to OP for opening a Pandora's box. :D

Its inevitable. There are no decent CD players anymore, its either a Blu-ray player doing audio CD duty or boutique CD players that cost thousands of dollars.

Nothing middle of the road for folks wanting to enjoy the music without all the technology hassle or having millions in the bank.

Spotify is a much better alternative. I put that and the likes of Saavn, Gaana, Wynk, and Apple Music on the smartphone, introduced CCA and the parents are happy. Its like Worldspace on steroids, especially for my dad who enjoyed the service when it was active.
 
Everyone has suggested the best and I agree on dbpower amp and EAC, but of the two, I would seriously suggest, dbpower amp, just because it not only rips with quality, but also offers features that surpass any other ripper out there. Few of them are

1. Option to convert and rip via windows context menu
2. Multithread support, that actually works.
3. Truck loads of DSP effects
4. ID3 tagging via windows context menu itself.
5. Option to download and save cover art from Internet right from windows context menu.


...and lots more :)
 
I have ripped everything to flac and also made an 256 mp3 copy of every file to use on my phone.
You can even do it with windows media player now. But don't use wmp tag plus it is not working properly.
 
I have ripped everything to flac and also made an 256 mp3 copy of every file to use on my phone.
You can even do it with windows media player now. But don't use wmp tag plus it is not working properly.
Good;
Now, if I may suggest.
Try to get dB Power Amp.
Rip is Wave - for SQ use.
At the same time you can also rip in mp3 into a different folder.
Therefore 1 rip happens in 2 places - different formats.
Currently [for me] dB is sitting on top of the hill.
With Accurate Rip the quality is very good.
 
Accuraterip works based on statistical result submitted over a period of time. It is very unlikely that Accuraterip will have any matching result for Indian Music (Including regional language).

Regarding the format FLAC is also loseless (provides different levels of compression) and should reproduce the music exactly same as in the CD disk.
 
Agree with every word of that. AccurateRip doesn't work well for Indian CDs.

Same holds true for Tagging. Regardless of the ripping software, Indian CDs have very low success rate of pulling correct meta-data. I always end-up doing tagging by hand regardless of the software used for ripping. Don't wanna end up with A. R. Rehman, A.R.Rahman, A.R Rehman, A R Rahman and myriad other spellings showing up in the tag and making it a nightmare to pull all Rahman songs.
 
Agree with every word of that. AccurateRip doesn't work well for Indian CDs.

Same holds true for Tagging. Regardless of the ripping software, Indian CDs have very low success rate of pulling correct meta-data. I always end-up doing tagging by hand regardless of the software used for ripping. Don't wanna end up with A. R. Rehman, A.R.Rahman, A.R Rehman, A R Rahman and myriad other spellings showing up in the tag and making it a nightmare to pull all Rahman songs.

Very true. I use my PC as my primary source and so for me I get the best use out of the folder structure way of sorting. Tagging for Indian music still is far behind the times. Even music purchased from iTunes store does not provide consistent metadata.
 
For Indian albums its been manual for me too. I rely on Wikipedia entries the most. Sadly there is no online Indian portal dedicated to cataloguing the Indian music scene, similar to IMDB or AllMusic. Sadly Wikipedia too is limited for most Indian albums/soundtracks, but thoroughly comprehensive for International acts including their entire discographies.

I've been meaning to give SongKong Music Tagger a try, I read somewhere it works in the background and changes can be undone. I've been using Tag&Rename for ages, but its manual and also permanent. The only thing holding me back is I don't have my music on the PC anymore. The 2 local copies I have have both been moved to external sources for the likes of Raspberry Pi and external storage.
 
I also tag all files manually as part of ripping process. With ABCDE it provides a screen where the metadata can be edited (if found from CDDB we can either accept or edit, if not found enter) before ripping starts. Most of the metadata is based on the information provided in CD inlay if not available from Wikipedia and other sources.

For album art I always scan the CD inlay and keep it in the same folder.
 
I have been using MP3Tag for years and beyond making the process somewhat easier it's not much helpful. It's primarily a batch editing tool. Presents the tags data in tabular form making it easier to see and fix by selectively editing in batches.

It won't fetch tags from Internet automatically. To do that I need to get involved; manual work again. Try using it with files that have no tags at all (such as the ones we rip fresh from CDs). I must type the search text myself. There you go.

Besides, it hardly ever finds tags for Hindi oldies. And the ones it finds, the accuracy is again questionable. So it's not solving the problem.
 
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