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Old 11-14-2005, 02:35 AM
ddubois ddubois is offline
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Default Going digital

I recently got an ipod shuffle for listenting to ebooks with audible.com, but having the device has spurned me to start ripping CDs into MP3s. So I'm third-way through my 500+ CDs with windows media player. This is kind of new teritory for me; I never did the whole napster/p2p thing, if I wanted to listen to something, I just stuck a disc in. But it seems pretty slick to have all my music on a hard drive, sorted into folders by \artist\album, playing songs at random on the ipod, etc. My CDs take up so much farking space, and I can't let my 2 year old in my bedroom because it's the first thing he goes for (and now I have discs without jewel boxes and jewel boxes without covers, driving my nit ass up a wall). So I'm thinking I might like to put all my discs into a digital format, and then get rid of them entirely - sell 'em all on ebay or whatever. Is this plan crazy?

I started reading about some audio forum regarding MP3s versus AAC versus WMVs yada yada and my eyes glossed over. I've been burning them at MP3 192 bitrate, but which I vaguely understood to be sufficient, but now I wonder if I eschew the source media, if I might in the future regret not having higher quailty rips? What issues should I be concerned about with this plan - besides a hard drive crash wiping out thousands of dollars worth of music, of course. I'm thinking about getting a 60gb MP3 player so I can put everything I own and then some onto one 4 inch box (not because I need it, but because it seems cool). But I need it to be compatible with audible.com, which I think works best with itunes. So I wonder: Does itunes imply ipod necessarily?

As for downloading new music to broaden my newly digital collection... I kind of like how when I rip a CD it structures the folders. I tried to download the 'Sound of Music' soundtrack for my wife using something called 'eDonkey', and I ended up with one long-ass MP3 of the whole disc. Being a nit, not having downloaded music fit the \artist\album mold would bug me. Am I abnormal in this regard?

Any advice, links, or thoughts, is much appreciated.

Here's the requisite pic for making a self-serving post:
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  #2  
Old 11-14-2005, 03:22 AM
razor razor is offline
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Default Re: Going digital

[ QUOTE ]
I've been burning them at MP3 192 bitrate, but which I vaguely understood to be sufficient, but now I wonder if I eschew the source media, if I might in the future regret not having higher quailty rips? What issues should I be concerned about with this plan

[/ QUOTE ]

It depends on how important high quality audio is to you. Many people seem to be ok with 128bit, and that's fine I suppose, especially if the music is being listened to in less than ideal settings (car, plane, office, commuting, etc.). But, most people probably haven't listened to music on a half-decent system and don't know what they are missing. I rip everything at the highest bitrate possible and only listen to mp3s when I'm traveling. I would never pay a cent for anything that was less then full CD quality. But that's me,

If you ever plan to spend any kind of money on a real stereo system in the future I wouldn't get rid of your CDs. When I purchased my new stereo system several years ago listening to music on it was a revelation. If you don't expect to listen to music on anything but a medicore system then your plan is fine.
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  #3  
Old 11-14-2005, 07:00 AM
ddubois ddubois is offline
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Default Re: Going digital

"Some last notes: Windows Media Player now freely supports encoding to MP3 from CD. Unfortunately, it uses the inferior Fraunhofer codec. iTunes, however, does not use the Fraunhofer codec. Despite some recent confusion, it turns out Apple wrote their own MP3 encoder for use in iTunes. Unfortunately its quality is much worse then their AAC encoder or other free MP3 encoders. Regardless, WMP does not support VBR encoding, and iTunes doens't use LAME, and LAME is what all the cool kids are doing, so I recommend you use LAME. It's just better."

Is this still true? From this article, sounds like I'll regret not burning in VBR at least, and maybe MP3 VBR is the way to go if I don't want to get invovled in the AAC vs WMA aka "Which player will you marry?" issue.
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  #4  
Old 11-14-2005, 10:56 AM
Jonny Jonny is offline
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Default Re: Going digital

What kind of system do you have razor?

BTW, to the OP, I would NEVER throw away the cd's. I agree that I would never pay for less than CD quality.
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  #5  
Old 11-14-2005, 11:09 AM
MrTrik MrTrik is offline
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Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA
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Default Re: Going digital

I have about 2500 CDs or so. In digital format (MP3) they sit on hard drives and are backed up to other hard drives. I have many on a 60GB player as well.

I still keep the original CDs though. I figure it's yet another backup and it will also allow me to re-rip that music when standards change or improve. I hope I never need to re-rip though, it's a huge chore.
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  #6  
Old 11-14-2005, 11:27 AM
razor razor is offline
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Default Re: Going digital

[ QUOTE ]
What kind of system do you have razor?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nothing too spectacular. Denon 3802 Receiver, Paradigm Reference Studio 20 speakers, NAD C541i CD Player.
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  #7  
Old 11-14-2005, 11:47 AM
razor razor is offline
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Default Re: Going digital

[ QUOTE ]
"Some last notes: Windows Media Player now freely supports encoding to MP3 from CD. Unfortunately, it uses the inferior Fraunhofer codec. iTunes, however, does not use the Fraunhofer codec. Despite some recent confusion, it turns out Apple wrote their own MP3 encoder for use in iTunes. Unfortunately its quality is much worse then their AAC encoder or other free MP3 encoders. Regardless, WMP does not support VBR encoding, and iTunes doens't use LAME, and LAME is what all the cool kids are doing, so I recommend you use LAME. It's just better."

Is this still true? From this article, sounds like I'll regret not burning in VBR at least, and maybe MP3 VBR is the way to go if I don't want to get invovled in the AAC vs WMA aka "Which player will you marry?" issue.

[/ QUOTE ]

I haven't used or looked into using either WMP or iTunes for ripping so I don't know what issues there may be with the codecs they use.
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  #8  
Old 11-14-2005, 12:01 PM
splashpot splashpot is offline
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Default Re: Going digital

As far as having all your songs use the same Artist/Album/Title filename, Tag & Rename works great.
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  #9  
Old 11-14-2005, 01:20 PM
Jonny Jonny is offline
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Default Re: Going digital



[/ QUOTE ]

Nothing too spectacular. Denon 3802 Receiver, Paradigm Reference Studio 20 speakers, NAD C541i CD Player.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not bad, I was considering the paradigms but opted for some Ascend Acoustics 340's instead. HK 3480 stereo reciever. SVS PC+ subwoofer [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Oppo cd/dvd player. Definately a good system for the money.
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  #10  
Old 11-14-2005, 05:36 PM
ddubois ddubois is offline
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Default Re: Going digital

I suppose I could put the CDs into a couple storage boxes in the garage, but really, what's the point? I mean, if I thought I might want to "re-rip that music when standards change", I could just burn lossless. Of course, I don't want to do that though, because that's like ~300 meg per disc. Anyway, I'm 99% sure there exists a lossy good enough that I will never know the difference, but I want to use the best lossy/software/strategy that meets the criteria I need:
1) quality good enough that I can reasonably expect I will never hear the difference. (Since I'm not an audiophile, WMP's MP3 encoder 192 CBR might be enough actually, but I don't know.)
2) auto-import on CD insert, auto-eject on rip complete
3) works with iPod

I stayed up most of the night reading about this stuff, and am making no progress in deciding my strategy.

- iTunes mp3 encoder gets flamed alot for suck quality
- WMA lossy format gets flamed alot for suck quality
- WMA can be converted from iTunes into AAC
- AAC wont play on non-iPod players
- AAC might be playable in WMP if I have a codec
- but .m4a's created by iTunes won't merge seamlessly with WMP's library system
- I still don't really know what all tagging means, in relation to file/directory or softwares' library view
- Exact audio copy with LAME is supposed to be the best encoder
- But EAC is slow as molasses
- And EAC doesn't seem to auto-rip on CD insert
- EAC uses freedb for CD information and it sucks ass. It mis-recognized the very first DJ mix CD I tried. (Both WMP and iTunes knew it.)
- I tried another downloadable EZ something, and it was faster than EAC, but had automation and freedb problems.
- WMP makes folders with the album cover embedded in the folder icon, which is cute, although not important
- Showing the current song's album cover during playback on an mp3 player's display would be cute, but not important
- Having a mangable library is important
- 256 CBR MP3 on WMP seems about 30 meg larger (like 90 versus 60) than 192
- iTunes lets me rip in VBR
- AAC VBR should be the best quality, with less space than MP3
- iTunes' UI makes it look like it can rip VBR MP3, but I'm not sure the result is actually VBR
- iTunes seems to take a heinous performance hit when browsing libary stored across my LAN

Can anyone recommend a site where they talk about this stuff?
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