Burning CD collection to computer- flac?
 

My new year's resolution is to do a high quality transfer of my CD collection to my home computer network. I was going to use mediamonkey to burn and store them in the flac format- which I understand is lossless. I have several thousand cd's to transfer- and really only want to do it once. Any ideas?
Is flac the perferred format, or would you recommend something else? I am looking for maximum quality and long term stablity. File size is of no concern.
I am always amazed at the knowledge and experience here on the board.
Thanks in advance for you input.
Happy New Years!
Gary

why not wav or aiff?

Would love to do this as well. Good thread!

Why not simply use an application such as AudioGrabber to rip the files from each CD. You can save the files in a few different formats, including .wav or even .mp3. Takes just a few minutes per CD and it even has a feature that allows you to access the FREEDB database, onlne, for quick cataloging of your CDs.

I've been using this for years, it works effortlessly.

Randy

subscribing.

I'm in the process or re-doing my entire collection. My audio system upgrade has reminded me of how piss poor mp3 is. I'm going to keep using iTunes as my "master" app as I am a Mac person and like the ability to have good meta data. You can rip to aiff (lossless format), Apple lossless, or various flavors of mp3 and aac. I can also make playlists with the lossless songs and stream those to my stereo using Airtunes (I'm still trying to figure out if it does any compression...I don't think it needs to as it should sustain up to 54mbps). I can also have other playlists with mp3/aac for ipod.

The downside is two versions of each song but I've already got most stuff ripped to mp3/aac so that isn't an issue.

The dedicated home media servers are just glorified computers so as long as you can get the right high fidelity connectivity (Airport Xpress has toslink for digital connection to my receiver), your computer can do it. Just get a big external drive and put all your music there.

I am a PC guy.
I think the biggest question is what file format to save my music files.
In my opinion, the files need to be lossless, the cd needs to be ripped accurately and the file format needs to be stable over decades. If I have stable lossless files, they can always be converted into whatever format I choose in the future. I just don't want to lose my quality, or ever have to reburn all these cd's again.
I believe the apple lossless files are proprietary- I am concerned that 10 years from now apple may stop supporting the files, at least on a pc based system.
I find the mp3 files have lost some of the quality- but by storing lossless like flac or ape I can always convert it to mp3, and keep the high quality lossless files untouched. Flac is an open source code, so it "should" be supportable forever.
Ape is another lossless file format that has good support.
I have looked at 2 software programs, mediamonkey and dbpoweramp.
I have used mediamonkey, and its interface is much like itunes- which makes it easy to use. I am just looking at dbpower. It's advantage to me so far, is it uses a service called accuraterip, which confirms that your ripped file is perfect by comparing the data with other's files. I find the interface difficult, and playlists seem difficult to manage.
I am actually an audio nut, and usually listen to vinyl- but I will admit that files stored with the flac format, played through an external dac (http://www.stereo-link.com) actually sound ok. MP3 files often sound like am radio on the same system.
I'll continue my search, and post my thoughts here. I hope others-- hopefully many smarter than I, will post as well.
Thanks, listen more, talk less. Good tunes forever!
Gary

so what's wrong with wav? Flac just saves some disc space, but I see wav supported for a long time. I'll have to check if iTunes can handle flac. I use wav or aiff for my recorded stuff, aac for ripped but like you I want higher fidelity.

I am really not sure which file format to use.
Wav files limitations seem to be size, lack of error correction and inability to retag the files. So my choices seem to be wav, flac or ape.
I want to pick the right one.
Gary

Just a couple of observations and my .02 worth. For archival purposes, any compression algorithm that isn't a true "lossless format", should probably not be considered. MP3 may be OK for playback for most, but not for archiving. FLAC, is generally the de facto "lossless" standard these days (SHN being another good one), and .wav (uncompressed), is a good choice also (with space considerations being the only down side). Now, here comes "somewhat" tricky part with "ripping the audio" files from the CDs in the first place (something that I usually avoid if possible). The "audio format" of a CD does not have "check sums", etc. (like "data" files), so there is NO way to be 100% sure that ANY software will "rip" the file with 100% "bit for bit" accuracy each and every time. This "ripping software" is the most critical piece of the equation, and since I'm not current on the "latest & greatest", I'll defer on that one. Lot's of info out there if you're interested...hope this helps. (I've done quite a bit of "live show" mastering, dat > cd transfers, etc., and CDs have always been the weak link "end of the chain" due to the format of the data being stored.)

I am in the process of doing the same thing right now. Just got finished installing a new pair of 320 sata drives to handle the data load.

I use Exact Audio Copy to do the ripping. It is considered the cadillac of ripping tools. Not very user friendly as it has many options, but once you get it set up properly, it can't be beat. It will let you access freedb.org for the cataloging.

By default it will rip to .wav and from there you can do whatever you want as far as long term storage. As mentioned, .shn, .flac or even a simple .zip file would be fine. Leave the albums as .wavs if you have the space.

Do a search for a good EAC tutorial.

EAC is the one I use also on those rare occasions...

Food for thought. I just recently read an article on the legality of coping CDs to your computer. I personally do the same thing and make backups for my car/work in case they are destroyed. They need to be replaced once a month at my rate of destruction especially in the summer months.

From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800693.html

"In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer."

More than you may want to know (or at least more opinions) on digital PC based sound systems:

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/bbs.html

Ed

Lets see if this link works....

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/bbs.html

FWIW, there is a major security vulnerability in the FLAC file format that compromises everything that supports it. I dunno if they've fixed it yet, but a quick googling should find out.

MP3 is whack, using something loss-less like FLAC that doesn't have the security concerns.