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Post by geeqner on Apr 25, 2018 11:48:20 GMT -5
Thinking of paying to have my CD Collection (somewhere between 300-400 CDs) converted to probably (2) Formats - like FLAC and (ALAC or MP3)
From the research that I've done so far - it seems that FLAC is a good choice for "Digital Archives" because it easily converts to almost any other format, and seems to have the best trade-off exploit of file size vs fidelity to the original source. The 2nd format will be more for convenience with Portable MP3 Players etc.
Once I have this done, I'm going to park copies of the files on my Home NAS (Synology DiskStation with over 3-Gigs of RAID backup available)
I KNOW that I COULD do this myself
However - My time and getting it done in something less than several months of weekends is worth more to me than the few C-Notes that it will probably take.
So, have any of you in this vast, throbbing collective used anybody for this?
A local place recommended goldenears and they seem reasonable
(From what I've heard, they specialize in Classical, which is NOT the majority of my collection)
Any others?
What has your experience been?
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on Apr 25, 2018 11:57:55 GMT -5
Honestly, for 300-400 CD's, it's really very quick and easy. I sat down with my collection and did a hundred here, a hundred there and was done in no time. I did it while I was watching TV and just kept feeding and retrieving disks.
Also, it's interesting that a place says they "specialize in Classical". Frankly, the ripping drive has no clue what type of musical it's ripping...it's just all 1's and 0's to the disk drive. I can't imaging why a place would say they specialize in ripping a certain genre of music.
Mark
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Post by novisnick on Apr 25, 2018 12:04:27 GMT -5
Honestly, for 300-400 CD's, it's really very quick and easy. I sat down with my collection and did a hundred here, a hundred there and was done in no time. I did it while I was watching TV and just kept feeding and retrieving disks. Also, it's interesting that a place says they "specialize in Classical". Frankly, the ripping drive has no clue what type of musical it's ripping...it's just all 1's and 0's to the disk drive. I can't imaging why a place would say they specialize in ripping a certain genre of music. Mark Mark, it a classic rip-off ! 😋 |
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Post by jlafrenz on Apr 25, 2018 12:08:52 GMT -5
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Post by geeqner on Apr 25, 2018 12:41:32 GMT -5
Honestly, for 300-400 CD's, it's really very quick and easy. I sat down with my collection and did a hundred here, a hundred there and was done in no time. I did it while I was watching TV and just kept feeding and retrieving disks. Also, it's interesting that a place says they "specialize in Classical". Frankly, the ripping drive has no clue what type of musical it's ripping...it's just all 1's and 0's to the disk drive. I can't imaging why a place would say they specialize in ripping a certain genre of music. Mark I STARTED to burn my own - some went really easy, and some were like "slow torture". If I had a PC-Based Changer / Auto-Loader, I might consider doing this myself, but like I said: I feel that my TIME that this would take is better spent doing other stuff (less drudgery) Actually - The "Specialization" comes in the WAY that the music is cataloged electronically - so if you are a "Classical Buff"; then there is probably some merit to this. A friend who is REALLY into Classical explained it this way: - Most of our regular music can be cataloged by Artist / Title / Album / Genre / etc.
- With Classical, many of the "Pieces / Tunes" are portions of larger works (Symphonies / Operas) where it is desirable to keep them grouped together in proper order
- To Classical Buffs - the same piece may be in several sub-types (chamber arrangement, full symphony)
- The Year / Venue / Conductor may also be important (some people may have multiple performances of the same piece and treat them differently
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2018 12:41:39 GMT -5
Have an old pc? Load Vortexbox (all-in-one music server) on it. It takes about 4-5 min/CD in FLAC. After you're finished just do a backup to any HDD, NAS, USB drive, etc. If you don't have an extra pc, just swap out the HDD and xn vortexbox on it- you'll need about 320 gig drive.
I did my whole 400+ CD collection in a couple weeks while watching tv, chores, when I felt like it...
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Post by bluemeanies on Apr 25, 2018 12:55:35 GMT -5
Just wanted to put my 2cents of information in this thread.
First...TO EACH HIS OWN...about ripping or buying cd's in todays audio market but I must say that myself as well as many others have not purchased a CD for several years. It has been at least three years for me and I am starting my fourth.
With streaming devices such as APPLE AirPlay but especially streaming with a Mac Mini using TIDAL I can honesty say for me ripping my collection would be a waste of time and buying CDs is a waste of money. Granted nothing is PERFECT and that includes TIDAL&SPOTIFY so therefore you do have on occasion an urge to purchase a CD that is not in their catalog that you really cannot live without.
Having TIDAL affords me variety, music videos, MQA,catalloging my collection and best of all I have plenty of storage room.
At $19.99 per month with a STRONG discount for Veterans for me it's worth the payment having millions of songs at my fingertips. Chances are most if not ALL of your CD catalog is on TIDAL OR SPOTIFY.
I choose TIDAL because of the CD quality playback and MQA.
It's not for everyone...different strokes for different folks but I thought it should be mentioned.
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Post by indyscammer on Apr 25, 2018 12:57:12 GMT -5
I too did this myself. I would set 20 CDs on my desk and rip them as I walked by....20 an evening is easy and my ripper (JRiver) automatically ejects the disc when complete which gave me a visual clue when it was time to change the disc. Took me a total of something like 20 minutes "concentrated" effort each night and over the course of several weeks I was finished. Now when I receive or purchase a new CD, the first stop is the ripping station and it is easy to keep up that way. I rip when I have a couple of seconds to swap the disc.
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Post by millst on Apr 25, 2018 13:10:10 GMT -5
Ages ago, I ripped my collection with EAC. Similar to the others, I just bit away at it over time. I'd run it in the background during my usual web surfing or whatever.
If you'd rather spend the money, I don't see anything wrong with that. It doesn't take any particular skill or special ability.
-tm
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Post by Loop 7 on Apr 25, 2018 14:16:28 GMT -5
Agree with those who recommend knocking this out in batches.
I use XLD and do a little metadata touch up prior to the rip and it all works out.
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Apr 25, 2018 15:03:23 GMT -5
Agreed... On a typical computer drive audio CDs take about five minutes each to rip. If you've set things up correctly the accuracy of the rips will be confirmed by checksum and the metadata tags entered automatically. Setting up the stuff like file names and tag formats is a pain... but you only have to do it once. I prefer dBPowerAmp for ripping... and I've had VERY few problems with it (Windows only). I also prefer a program called Tag & Rename for editing or entering metadata (when and if I need to). I've never used a "service" for ripping discs, but I have little faith in most commercial services to use the degree of care I would like. Once I made the mistake of purchasing a used album from a service which, for about $25 extra, offered to provide a digitized copy as well. The album arrived in good shape... but there was an actual track skip in the digital copy (clearly, for $25, nobody was going to listen to it to make sure they got it right). Personally, I'd rather take longer, space it out, and not have to worry about correcting problems later. Agree with those who recommend knocking this out in batches. I use XLD and do a little metadata touch up prior to the rip and it all works out. |
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Post by geeqner on Apr 25, 2018 15:50:00 GMT -5
Talked to a co-worker who is a MUCH bigger Computer Geek than me (he has his own side-biz doing IT projects) He may have a multi-Drive PC that can batch-load CDs and may be willing to rent it to me for next to nothing. THAT may be enough of a time-saver to make the process worthwhile for me to handle it myself (Save my moolah for Audio GAS [Gear Acquisition Syndrome] and get that XSP-1 that I've been "eyeballing" for a while  .) |
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Post by wilburthegoose on Apr 25, 2018 15:53:37 GMT -5
I did about 2300 CDs myself. I used dbPoweramp's batch ripper, used an ancient Sony VGP-XL1B CD/DVD jukebox (I ripped 400 CDs at a time), and purchased a metadata subscription. Worked perfectly!
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klinemj
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Official Emofest Scribe
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Post by klinemj on Apr 25, 2018 16:03:04 GMT -5
Honestly, for 300-400 CD's, it's really very quick and easy. I sat down with my collection and did a hundred here, a hundred there and was done in no time. I did it while I was watching TV and just kept feeding and retrieving disks. Also, it's interesting that a place says they "specialize in Classical". Frankly, the ripping drive has no clue what type of musical it's ripping...it's just all 1's and 0's to the disk drive. I can't imaging why a place would say they specialize in ripping a certain genre of music. Mark I STARTED to burn my own - some went really easy, and some were like "slow torture". If I had a PC-Based Changer / Auto-Loader, I might consider doing this myself, but like I said: I feel that my TIME that this would take is better spent doing other stuff (less drudgery) Actually - The "Specialization" comes in the WAY that the music is cataloged electronically - so if you are a "Classical Buff"; then there is probably some merit to this. A friend who is REALLY into Classical explained it this way: - Most of our regular music can be cataloged by Artist / Title / Album / Genre / etc.
- With Classical, many of the "Pieces / Tunes" are portions of larger works (Symphonies / Operas) where it is desirable to keep them grouped together in proper order
- To Classical Buffs - the same piece may be in several sub-types (chamber arrangement, full symphony)
- The Year / Venue / Conductor may also be important (some people may have multiple performances of the same piece and treat them differently
I heard you about your time...I was just pointing out that it's really not much time at all. I used an ordinary PC and simply did other things as each disk was ripping...watching TV, reading, writing e-mails, doing work I needed to do anyway at the PC. Some disks did take a little longer than others, but none were "slow torture". Perhaps your PC was having an issue. Most were done within 1-2 minutes at most. I kept a stack of 10 or so to my right, and completed ripped disks were on my left. Very easy and fast. As far as the "specialization", sounds like they are adding some metadata which you would find useful. Whether or not that is useful to you in the end would depend on how the other person coded each piece relative to what you have in mind and also whether or not whatever playback device you plan to use can search and find selections based on those terms. Frankly, for this type of thing, I tend to operate in images more so than words. So, for example, if I searched for a particular piece in Tidal or from my files on my NAS (using JRiver) - when I see multiple options come up - my eye goes to the album art I recall and I select that. As you think about how you want to get your collection into the ripped domain - make sure you account for how you plan to actually use it (whether you pay someone else to rip them or do it yourself). And one clear piece of advice...use FLAC, not WAV or other formats. You won't regret it! Good luck! Mark |
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Post by rogersch on Apr 25, 2018 23:07:42 GMT -5
Just wanted to put my 2cents of information in this thread. First...TO EACH HIS OWN...about ripping or buying cd's in todays audio market but I must say that myself as well as many others have not purchased a CD for several years. It has been at least three years for me and I am starting my fourth. With streaming devices such as APPLE AirPlay but especially streaming with a Mac Mini using TIDAL I can honesty say for me ripping my collection would be a waste of time and buying CDs is a waste of money. Granted nothing is PERFECT and that includes TIDAL&SPOTIFY so therefore you do have on occasion an urge to purchase a CD that is not in their catalog that you really cannot live without. Having TIDAL affords me variety, music videos, MQA,catalloging my collection and best of all I have plenty of storage room. At $19.99 per month with a STRONG discount for Veterans for me it's worth the payment having millions of songs at my fingertips. Chances are most if not ALL of your CD catalog is on TIDAL OR SPOTIFY. I choose TIDAL because of the CD quality playback and MQA. It's not for everyone...different strokes for different folks but I thought it should be mentioned. Spotify and Tidal are good for main stream music but in my case they have only 50% max of my music collection..... |
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Post by knucklehead on Apr 25, 2018 23:54:29 GMT -5
And one clear piece of advice...use FLAC, not WAV or other formats. You won't regret it! Good luck! Mark I'll second the FLAC recommendation. I've had a couple of my CDs get damaged a while back. One of them was the Grateful Dead, American Beauty. Sitting on a leather seat in 90* with the hot sun beating down on it done it in! Must have been a bad batch of plastic but it would no longer play. Might have had something to do with that bit of a warped look to it. No, it wasn't in the jewel case at the time. A FLAC file taken off that very CD saved me from having to buy a replacement. |
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Post by audiobill on Apr 26, 2018 5:04:18 GMT -5
Don't even consider MP3 - rip at the highest resolution possible - use Apple lossless if you're an apple guy, flac if not.
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Post by mr on Apr 26, 2018 10:37:52 GMT -5
Hey geeqner:
If you are seriously looking for a ripping service, I have a recommendation.
For more than a year, I have been using GoldenEar Digital (goldeneardigital.com) to rip my SACDs and DVD-As. Great guy, great service, reasonable costs. He also does CDs, setting up the files for you. He will provide a mailer last time I checked.
Ari is a hi-fi guy like us, and in my experienced opinion, will provide a safe, legal service you can count on.
MIKE
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Post by melm on Apr 26, 2018 10:38:41 GMT -5
Have a look at the Brennan B2. It's a fine CD player on its own, but contains a hard drive that will let you rip your CDs in lossless FLAC in no time. It's a lovely device that looks nice in a high end system. It has WiFi, Bluetooth, a full function remote, and it creates a database of all your CDs and generates a web page so you can browse, create playlists, and control your Brennan from any browser, tablet or phone. Very cool. I just got through reviewing one for Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. For the cost of ripping, you can own your own ripper, and add new discs as you get them. brennan.co.uk |
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Post by wilburthegoose on Apr 26, 2018 11:29:34 GMT -5
One warning on shipping CDs - In bulk, they're pretty heavy. Heavy - $$$.
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