Help please? I'm perplexed :)

What do you mean by a solution? I think you're going to end up doing some legwork yourself whichever way you approach this - files don't transcode themselves.

Well, how sensitive are your ears? Do you plan to have all your tunes on all your sources? How big is the library anyhow?

All lossless files sound the same, so only use the file type you know how to make and can use in all your programs.

 

Convert to variable bit-rate MP3 (LAME V0 or V2) for portables.

There are all kinds of nasty rumors out there about ripping a redbook CD to ALAC using iTunes on a PC.  I think I would avoid it. 

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/iTunes-ripping-ALAC-may-have-bug

 

Perhaps you should consider using EAC with AccurateRip.  Either directly or inside one of the many PC-based players that use it.  Why bother with Windows Media Player (except at work where they force you to use it, I guess) ... use one of the major thrid-party programs instead.  You know the list (Media Monkey, FooBar, dbPower Amp ...).  If these are not familiar to you, GIYF.  There are many fine tutorials on EAC available, btw.

 

I rip my archival copy to WAV, then create a FLAC -8 (again, either using FLAC directly or usng one of the major players) to capture and store all the metadata and album art. I like to store the cover art in the music file itself, I usually use the cover from the CD Single if available which is way more fun than staring at the same album cover all the time if you use the directory approach).  MuvUnder Cover is FANTASTIC at this, and a little known program.  And xrecode II (also not well known) NEVER messes up any metadata when making ALACs or making compressed files for your portables.  Neither of those 2 are free, btw, but the authors deserve some money.  FooBar, by way of contrast, loses the embedded album art

 

For some reason, I have often found that up-sampling a 44.1 redbook track to 96, then "decimating" it to 48 for making an ALAC, sounds better on an iPod than anything else.  I think Apple naturally prefers the 48-96-192 world to the 44.1-88.2-176.4 world.  Who knows.

 

Lots of people Rockbox their iPods and then use FLAC for everything.   This won't help you at Work where you can only use WMP -- so take the WAVs there.  WMP will supply its own metadata and album art when you play the files.  Use your lovingly created FLACS (created with one of the major programs) from the EAC-created WAVs on your own PC (with the same major program you chose).

 

Convert to a compressed AAC or uncompressed ALAC for you Apple portable devices.  I would use xrecode II and then load them on the device with XPLAY3 (also not free) and never install iTunes, but what do I know?   Even my wife uses iTunes and won't consider anything else depsite hours of lectures from me, complete with a PowerPoint presentation on the real meaning of the Nyquist folding freqency (don't believe what you read here about that -- you do NOT get a perfect reconstruction of every music frequency from 22.05 down even though you sample at 44.1 -- that's a misunderstanding of reality) and some example Fourier transforms (my bride has a PhD in Math Stat from Princeton).  And she just bought a Mac, so I will now be foobaring alone, just like when I was single.

 

Your phones may require MP3's ... again, any of the major Windows players will make these perfectly.  And if you do it right you can be sure that all the metadata in the FLAC shows up in the MP3.

 

You kept score correctly -- I have a WAV, FLAC Original, FLAC upsampled to 96, ALAC, and MP3 version of every track. So what?  They are all named perfectly and in the right directory.  I back up the reference WAV and the FLAC with the metadata.  Yea I know only the FLAC is really needed.  But it all happens nearly automatically.  3 TB disks are $199 on Ammy.  USB 3 is blazing.  And there is nothing more important to me in my non-work life than my music collection (other than my family of course).

 

Good luck, and enjoy.

Edited by wavoman - 10/22/11 at 3:39pm

I'm with both wavoman and Head Injury on this. Use Accurate Rip for the CDs, rip to both FLAC for your home setup and mp3 (I use CBR) for your portables. Once your library grows, you'll have to buy a more storage capacity, but that's pretty cheap.

Good luck.

I don't see the point in lossless on a portable. The audible difference is so small, you're not likely to care when you don't have a lossless file to compare, and you're not likely to care either way on the go.

 

There's also no point in storing WAV files. They're nearly twice as big as losslessly compressed files, and contain the same data. They also don't hold tags like other files.

 

Rip to WAV, convert to a lossless compression format of your choice (ALAC for example) and store and listen to those, then use MP3 on any of your portables. If you need something that plays in both iTunes and WMP on different computers, use ALAC and WMA respectively, no need for WAV.

Since you can use WAV as your lossless files for Windows Media Player, why not just keep the original WAV.  I agree with Head Injury of course that I only need to keep my FLAC -8's, I said that myself, but I keep the WAVs because I am paranoid.  What if the FLAC-eating virus hits, or someone sues FLAC for patent viloation (this happened with .GIF images, so don't laugh).  I have spent hundreds of hours making perfect rips with EAC+AccurateRip, and my WAV backup protects that.  I can always automate getting the metadata again and converting to FLAC -8, but I can never recover if the original rips vanish.  As I have said (now 3 times) I could archive the FLAC -8's, but I made the WAVs with EAC so I just keep them on the external 3 TB drive.  No biggie.  Of couse I only use the FLACs, the ALACS, and the MP3's.

 

If you do not think losselss is great for portables, you have not heard my Vinnie-built iMod with the 5.5-Gen Wolfson DAC and iCube amp, loaded with 48000 lossless ALACs created by decimating 96000 Hi Res files ripped from DVD-A's.  Listening thru vintage button RS-1's, with cups that swivel flat so that the whole rig really is portable and easily arrives with me at my hotel room (the phones are open, so they won't work on a plane, but I mostly drive on biz trips), the SQ rivals (certainly does not equal, but gets close) to both my full Orpheus, and my O2 Mk 1's dirven by a BHSE (two rigs considered among the finest in the world -- and I have done many quick-switch level-matched tests at my home to confirm this).  Switch to MP3's, even 320's, and this no longer holds.  I have Doors, Metallica, Fleetwood Mac etc. tracks that will make you jaw drop -- this has happened at meet after meet.

 

With lesser portable rigs and noisy conditions, of course MP3 is the way to go.  But I spend enough "restless nights in one-night cheap hotels and sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells" to want the finest possible SQ on the road.

When you sell a CD, you should destroy all the copies of the music you made.  Otherwise you are cheating the artist, who needs to be paid.  Artists make our lives bearable, and they deserve a share of your wealth.

 

Buy hi-res digital downloads and enjoy.  Problem solved.

 

If you can't afford all the music you want, work more hours or take a second job.  There is no difference between music and a car.  If you cannot afford the car you want, would you steal it?

 

If you no longer want a physical CD but wish to retain your digital copy, destroy the physical CD in an environmentally responsible way (which is not easy to do, but if you look you can find community resources to help you achieve this).

 

Sorry to preach, but you hit a hot button.

 

Music is intellectual property.  Intellectual property is property.  The term for people who take someone's property without paying for it is "thief".

 

I understand "everyone" does this.  That is no excuse.

 

Be the first among your friends to do right, and spread this message.

 

I apologize for the rant.