[ZackT]

"Oh if only I knew then what I know now"....

I've just spent the entire weekend converting lossless files to MP3 and AAC then MP3/AAC Gaining them, my poor laptop has crashed twice, my three external HD's are running hot and my files are everywhere. If I was starting out fresh I'd:

1. Buy one really big (300 or 400 Gb) external hard drive.
2. Convert all my CD's to lossless for home and CD burning.
3. Make a copy of each file as at 224 kbps for use on my iPod/car
4. Gain each lower bitrate file to make the iPod's eq usable in order to add that wee bit of bass.

Then I think I'd be happy.

Anyone else feel they have encoding/filing regrets? It could save newbe's a lot of time and heartache if they thought ahead as where they would like to end up.

I've heard of stories of guys who encoded all their CD's at 128 then took them to a second hand dealer only to regret it later and have to buy back their CD's (shudder!)

ZT

 

[socrates63]

After I bought an iPod, I ripped most of my CDs with EAC and lame (320k VBR). I got max quality MP3s. That's the good part.

The bad part is I should have ripped the CDs with a lossless codec while I was at it. It's not a big deal as it was for reference sake. But it would have been good to have.

 

[Oski]

When I got my iPod, I ripped all my music between 128kbs to 192kbs since it was a mini with only 4GB of storage and I wanted to have reasonable battery life...then in comes the Overture and I had to re-rip all my CDs to 192kbs and 320kbs...took me a whole weekend. Now that I have a new laptop with much more HD space I wonder if I should have ripped in Apple Lossless instead...sigh.

 

[TURBO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oski When I got my iPod, I ripped all my music between 128kbs to 192kbs since it was a mini with only 4GB of storage and I wanted to have reasonable battery life...then in comes the Overture and I had to re-rip all my CDs to 192kbs and 320kbs...took me a whole weekend. Now that I have a new laptop with much more HD space I wonder if I should have ripped in Apple Lossless instead...sigh.

Rip it all to Flac, save it somewhere in your HDD. Encode them as needed to Lame and reply-gain them. Next time, you wont have to re-rip.

 

[blessingx]

I think over the last five years I've reripped/encoded all or most of my CDs (yeah what a waste of time) ...

128 WMA, then
192 CBR MP3, then
192 VBR LAME MP3, then
-r3mix LAME MP3, then
-apfs LAME MP3, then
-api LAME MP3, then
-apx LAME MP3 (wanted at least some VBR space savings), then
192 AAC (giving AAC a shot), then
FLAC (great, but not great tag support at the time, so rerip in ...)
ALAC (now archiving codec), and down-sampling to
320 AAC (but battery life drain is still a bit much so)
224 AAC (and AACgained).

However comtemplating picking up a flash player so 128 AAC or -apfm may be next.

At least everything is of a lossless file (ALAC) now.

 

[Asmo]

Always ripped music 256 CBR or Lame Extreme VBR ever since lame first came out, before that I used WAV and even mp2 for a short while.

Then I switched to entirely lossless couple years ago.

 

[erikzen]

Three tips I've picked up

1)Go lossless - FLAC, Monkey's Audio, even Wave if you have the space. You'll always have a reference quality copy and you can encode to whatever lossy format you want down the road.

2)Back it up - Don't spend days ripping your CDs to lose it all to a hard drive crash

3)Use cue sheets - Not as important as the other two but now that I've played around with cue sheets, I think it's the way to go when archiving.

 

[JWFokker]

I'm slowly re-ripping and encoding all of my albums to lossless too. I used to listen to even 128kbps MP3 format, but since I've upgraded my speakers from Logitech Z-560's to Fostex FE207E's and HiVi RT1L's, lower bitrate stuff has become fatiguing. I can hear the lack of bass extension on low bitrate audio, but it doesn't bother me. But if I listen to it for too long I get a headache. I never used to see the point in encoding higher than 256kbps, but with better hardware it really does make a difference, however subtle. 320kbps LAME CBR is about the minimum for me now, though I prefer APE.

 

[stefan]

I really looked into the issue when i started ripping, and thankfully went for lossless. Chose Monkey's Audio (APE), and all 964 of my CDs are in lossless, backed up on spindles of DVD-Rs + a spare HDD and locked away for safe keeping.

My only regret is should I have gone for FLAC or WAV instead... the main issue was tagging.

 

[audeo]

Back in the dark days of only having dual 120 GB hard drives, I ripped to 256 min. VBR MP3 in iTunes. Now I'm reripping my entire collection into ALAC... what a pain. I wish I had been smarter and just spent a little extra on some extra hard drives when I started ripping four years ago.

When I'm done, I'll make three copies of the entire library and keep one in each place where I divide my time... then do the DVD backup and maybe on more copy on disk for extra backups. The only problem will be keeping them all synced when I keep growing the collection. Other than sync, I think I've got it covered this time. We'll see.

 

[erikzen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stefan My only regret is should I have gone for FLAC or WAV instead... the main issue was tagging.

Can you explain the tagging issues a little more? I was this close to going Monkey's Audio but decided to go FLAC because of hardware compatibility. My understanding was that Monkey's had a more sophisticated tagging system. Why would you prefer FLAC or WAV? Is it a compatibility issue?

 

[Stephonovich]

Gee, I wish I had regrets that simple...

But no, I don't. First time I ripped my music collection as a whole (I'd piddled with MP3 previously, but just a CD or two), I used EAC + FLAC. I have changed my ripping strategy now, however - I used to rip the CD as one continous file, using the cuesheet to seperate tracks. I now rip each track as WAV, with the cue sheet, generate an md5sum for every WAV file, encode to FLAC (with --verify), and create a playlist. I then burn a backup CD, which I use. Originals go into storage. This way, I'm triply protected. I couldn't care less about the condition of my CD-Rs, so I have no qualms about taking them in the car, loaning them out, or what have you. I have the FLAC files that were already verified during the encoding process, should I ever need to burn a new CD. And finally, I have the md5sums of the WAV files to double-check FLAC's built-in verification.

I don't really view it as a regret, just an annoyance. (having to re-rip using this strategy) In theory, I could convert my current FLAC files over to this method, although I'm not sure if the cuesheets would come out correctly.

 

[erikzen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich I used to rip the CD as one continous file, using the cuesheet to seperate tracks. I now rip each track as WAV, with the cue sheet, generate an md5sum for every WAV file, encode to FLAC (with --verify), and create a playlist.

Why did you change from ripping one continuous file to using seperate tracks? What are the advantages? What are the disadvantages of making one file?

Can you explain what a md5sum is and how to generate it?

 

[Stephonovich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by erikzen Why did you change from ripping one continuous file to using seperate tracks? What are the advantages? What are the disadvantages of making one file? Can you explain what a md5sum is and how to generate it?

Mainly for futureproofing. Should I ever get a DAP, I'll want the tracks to be seperate files. Yes, it's possible to split a single continuous file into seperate tracks using the cuesheet, but it's a pain. This way is easier, and it doesn't really have any downsides I can think of.

An md5sum is a checksum in Message-Digest Algorithm 5 format. Basically, a 32 digit hexadecimal hash of the file. Here's a wiki on MD5, checksums in general, hashes. Probably the the most common method of checksums you've encountered is CRC. One of the more prevalent implentations of this is SFV, commonly seen in newsgroups. It's fine for verifying that a file hasn't been corrupted during a download, but it's very easily hacked. Come to think of it, MD5 is fairly vulnerable now as well. There's SHA512 if you're prone to paranoia, or just anal. I might switch, primarily for the latter reason. Doesn't take any longer to generate. (not noticeable, anyway)

EDIT:

I should also mention for the insanely paranoid, (or those posting to newsgroups - only for legal material, of course) there's Parchive. Both file verification and redundancy all in one go.

 

[erikzen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich Mainly for futureproofing. Should I ever get a DAP, I'll want the tracks to be seperate files. Yes, it's possible to split a single continuous file into seperate tracks using the cuesheet, but it's a pain. This way is easier, and it doesn't really have any downsides I can think of.

Thanks! So what's your procedure? Rip CD tracks using EAC/flac.ex, then create cue sheet using EAC, or some other method/program(s)? Is it possible to rip tracks individually and create the cue sheet in one step?