Ripping My CDs/Best practices

P

phono1

New Member
Hey Everybody,

New here. I'm sure i'm not posting in the correct place, but hopefully somebody will send me to the right area of the forum.

I want to start ripping my cd collection to .WAV, BWF, or just making disc images for play back on my digital audio server (iTV/Playstation). I have been using itunes, but wonder if there is something better.

Also wondering what others are doing for media storage. Anyone using a network hardrive?


Please tell me about your set ups and best practices for digital file playback and organization.


Thanks a lot!

(((hifi)))

The basic system
Klipsch Cornwalls - upgraded crossover/binding posts etc.
Rotel RB-850 X2 running mono
Creek OBH-22 Passive Volume Control
Musical Surroundings Nova II PhonoStage
Musical Fidelity V-DAC
Apple iTV
Sony Playstation
JA Michell Tecno Dec w/modified RB250
Ortofon Jubilee Cartridge
--------------------------------------
Audioquest Opt5 Toslink Cable
Audioquest Colorado interconnects
Audioquest MontBlanc Speaker Cable
 
Register to hide this ad
For the most accurate (not the fastest, mind you), look into Exact Audio Copy (EAC).

Rip to WAV or FLAC. Lossless is better.

Ken
 
phono1 said:
New here. I'm sure i'm not posting in the correct place, but hopefully somebody will send me to the right area of the forum.
Click to expand...

Moved to Digital Formats for you. You should get a lot more meaningful advice here. Enjoy and welcome to AK!
 
For ripping, I use EAC to FLAC. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. It is open source, which means that it is not controlled by some corporation, e.g. Apple. It is compressed so files sizes are smaller than WAV, but retains all the information from the original source (e.g. CD). Think of a FLAC file as a folded up newspaper, all the info is there, but the package is smaller.

<Rant On> Apple does not like it when they are not in control, so Apple devices and software will not play FLACs. Apple likes to think this will keep people from using FLAC and open source players like Foobar2000, but in my case it instead keeps me from using any Apple products ever, period. You can go the MP3 route and lose audio quality, and you can also go the ALAC route and have lossless files that play on Apple products, if you want to be controlled by a corporation.<Rant Off>

For burning, I use Brrnn. Or Brrrn, or whatever its called, freeware that is super easy to use, works great and can make CDRs straight from FLAC files.

EAC (for ripping), Foobar2000 (for playback) and Brrrn (for burning) work so well that I have never felt the need to investigate further. I chose them when I was early in my move to digital music file storage and playback after much research and I feel I made good decisions. YMMV.
 
KeninDC said:
For the most accurate (not the fastest, mind you), look into Exact Audio Copy (EAC).

Rip to WAV or FLAC. Lossless is better.

Ken
Click to expand...

On advice given in a thread where I asked about ripping problems, I downloaded this. Haven't made it too far yet, it's not picking up the track information. I recognize that this data doesn't come off the CD, but is fetched off a site somewhere.

Do I need to subscribe to get this capability? It's almost a non-starter for me if I can't get the track names, as a lot of my CD's are from overseas, and I have no way of tying in the track names..

Thx,

bs
 
bshorey said:
On advice given in a thread where I asked about ripping problems, I downloaded this. Haven't made it too far yet, it's not picking up the track information. I recognize that this data doesn't come off the CD, but is fetched off a site somewhere.

Do I need to subscribe to get this capability? It's almost a non-starter for me if I can't get the track names, as a lot of my CD's are from overseas, and I have no way of tying in the track names..

Thx,

bs
Click to expand...

http://blowfish.be/eac/Setup/setup1.html

See the section on setting up freedb.

Jeff
 
bshorey said:
On advice given in a thread where I asked about ripping problems, I downloaded this. Haven't made it too far yet, it's not picking up the track information. I recognize that this data doesn't come off the CD, but is fetched off a site somewhere.

Do I need to subscribe to get this capability? It's almost a non-starter for me if I can't get the track names, as a lot of my CD's are from overseas, and I have no way of tying in the track names..

Thx,

bs
Click to expand...

I think you have to put in an email address...although I've used a fictitious one and it seems to work fine. You have to manually request the track info through the "Database" menu option "Get CD Information From".

If you use the setup wizards I think it runs through all of the necessary stuff.
 
The install process should step you through all the requirements. Even downloading some required files first if needed.

I had to select I think install as "Expert" to get a lot of features visible on the menus. I suppose you could try to find adding some options if they don't appear on the menus. Otherwise you may just as well reinstall.

Anyway you should be able to access the freedb database. The other trick is to get the title, artist, time in the order you prefer. There are samples and formats available online.

here's a tutorial
http://www.teqnilogik.com/tutorials/eac.shtml
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom