Gyro's back-of-a-fag-packet guide to getting your CDs into a file for streaming

Lord J

Newbie
Wammer
May 24, 2020
150
80
48
Northampton
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I know it's presumptious of me to post a how-to guide, but I'm getting bored of the same questions being asked, and the same mistakes being made.

Starting point: you've got a huge pile of CDs

Desired end point: some kind of digital streaming system, playing your tunes

I'm not going to go into playback hardware; PC, Mac, Squeezebox, Sonos, Linn DS, whatevs. In my opinion the only real way they differ is in their user interfaces and expansion capability. They're all digital systems, so the only thing that's going to make a significant difference to the sound is your choice of DAC.

What I'm actually after is your approach and choices regarding ripping your CDs to files, so you can play them on your new system. The overall aim is for you to rip once, and never again, rather than getting half-way through, discovering a problem, and starting over.

This is not an unbiased, equitable guide. I have opinions, and I'm going to spell them out.

Finally, I don't want this to go on for pages and pages - stop me if I get boring. So without further ado:

Lossless versus Lossy

Lossless music file formats are just that, lossless representations of the original CD. Exactly the same digital data as the original CD. Lossy formats sacrifice some data for smaller file size.

The most common lossy format is mp3. mp3 comes with different settings, measured in kilobits per second, the higher the kilobits, the more data, the closer to the original, but the larger the file.

You probably call yourself an audiophile, or at least you're interested in good sounds and music, that's why you're here. Do not use a lossy format. Use a lossless format. If you rip to a lossy format then information is gone for good; you can always transcode down from lossless to lossy for a given application, you can't go back up the way. I'll say that again: USE A LOSSLESS FORMAT.

Compressed versus uncompressed

On the assumption that we're using a lossless format, the three biggies in this arena are FLAC, ALAC and WAV. ALAC is owned by Apple, and is really only useful for Apple kit; namely Macs and iPods. There is also the Microsoft Proprietary WMA lossless, but support for this is severely limited so I'm going to discount it right now.

Lossy formats effectively compress the original data. BUT this does not mean that all compression is lossy. FLAC and ALAC are lossless, and compressed. WAV is lossless, and uncompressed full fat. The usual comparison made is to a Word document (the WAV file), and a zipped copy of that Word document (FLAC or ALAC). If you unzip the file all your words are still there. Compressed is different to lossy.

As we're all aware, disc space is very cheap. Resilient, managed space is less cheap, but still not going to break the bank. iPod space is limited and more expensive, so for your core system (assuming it's not an iPod) the compressed versus uncompressed debate is a red herring.

Tags / Metadata

Tags are chunks of information, embedded in your music files, that describe the file. Artist name, track name, track number, album art, all that good stuff.

FLAC and ALAC support tags.

WAV does not.

Nearly all music management programs maintain their own database of what is in files. So for instance Windows Media Player and MediaMonkey will be able to tell you what is in a particular untagged WAV file because you've told them. If your untagged WAV files become detached from the life-support-system of the player, say through a software malfunction, or you simply decide to change player software or hardware, then you've lost all context of what is in them. Tagged files carry data about themselves around with them, so it's simply a matter of telling the new player to go and scan your files, read in the information, and build up a new index.

You can see where I'm going with this.

USE A TAGGED FILE FORMAT. DO NOT USE WAV.

Software choices

I'm going to get this out of the way up front. You're desperate to start ripping, you've got a PC, Windows Media Player is already installed, so you're going to use it. DO NOT USE WMP - at least until you've understood the alternatives. For a start, WMP only supports WAV, WMA and mp3, and you will be sent to the naughty step if you rip to any of these.

The most commonly suggested ripping programs are

MediaMonkey

EAC

dbPoweramp

iTunes

The first three support FLAC, iTunes does ALAC.

My personal preference is for dbPoweramp - its lookup of metadata when you insert a new CD to rip is very good, and it effectively uses "crowdsourcing", comparing your rips with those of other users to ensure they're accurate. I'm sure others will chime in with details of their favourites.

Portable Devices

Let's face it; iPods.

iPods don't support FLAC. If you're in a homogeneous Apple world then you've ripped to ALAC, this will play in iTunes and on your iPod and all is cool.

If you have non-Apple kit, you've ripped to FLAC, which won't (without serious intervention) play on your iPod.

You'll need to transcode from FLAC to (usually) mp3. You can either maintain two libraries, one lossless, one in mp3, or some software such as MediaMonkey can transcode on the fly to synch with an iPod.

Conclusions

Use a lossless format.

Use a tagged format.

This leaves you with FLAC or ALAC.

Transcode to mp3 for your iPod if you're using FLAC

Personal Preferences

I rip with dbPoweramp, for reasons mentioned above.

I manage music with MediaMonkey - it makes bulk tag editing very easy, and has good transcoding abilities.

Flame on ...
Well, here I am asking a question from a post that is 10 years old!

Vinyl, CD and now steaming are my sources.

I’m using a pimped Bluesound Node 2i into a Mutec mc-3 USB going into a Topping D70 for streaming duties. On the whole, I’m very happy with sound this produces. I’ve come to the point whereby I’m thinking that I should rip my CDs (600?) and start streaming them off a Hard drive of some sort. This is for convenience, sound quality but mainly due to being aware how vulnerable one is renting music. IE Loss of internet connection, software update calamity in the device or even the longevity of the streaming Sites themselves.

I have a iMac desktop which is fairly clean(not much on it) and has an internal cd drive, which shows its age. This in a different part of the house, quite a way from the HiFi  

I understand the idea and what software to use to rip the disks and what format to do this in.

My question is, what is the best path from here to play through my Bluesound node 2i?

Is it a Nas drive, a simple Hard drive plugged directly into the Node or should it go into the router? 
The router is in the same rack as my HiFi.

Apologies if it sounds rather dim witted and has been answered before, but some advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

 
Last edited by a moderator:

bencat

Amplifier Destroyer
Wammer Plus
Feb 6, 2010
10,309
8,115
208
Liverpool
AKA
Andrew
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Hello here is my thoughts but please i am not anything like an expert . For me the sensible thing would be to use a USB HD of say 1 / 2 TB . Then rip your CD's to this and once completed plug that directly in to your Node and play from there . Two further suggestions which are not of themselves essential but are sensible . Buy two USB HD units when one is complete copy the files over to the other USB HD and then put that away somewhere not connected to your system . This means you have a full copy of your music just in case something goes wrong with your working HD .

Secondly if you are going to do lots of ripping the essential thing you need is a very fast CD Drive . I use an old Iomega 52 x 32 x 52 unit . Noisy built like a tank and really fast . Average CD is ripped in under two minutes most drives on your PC/MAC will take 4 plus . If you can find a cheap usb CD drive with fast speeds on eBay then buy it and save yourself lots of time . Or I have a spare Iomega drive that i have lent to two other Wammers who both realised i was telling the truth and it helped them. You are more than welcome to borrow it if you want and keep it for as long as you need it , as I said I have one connected to my laptop so do not need the back up . Drop me a PM if you are interested.

 
  • Upvote
  • Like
Reactions: tuga and TheFlash

K100T

Wammer
Wammer
Dec 27, 2020
256
344
83
Cloud Cuckoo Land
AKA
B O A B
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Many years ago I ripped all my CDs to FLAC, on a number of Windows machines that lived under my desk at work. I used EAC, with the settings that were recommended on the Hydrogen Audio forum. When I ditched Windows and moved to Linux, I switched to using abcde - A Better CD Encoder, which uses cdparanoia under the hood. It hasn't been updated in getting on for two years, but still seems to work, except for the CDDB lookup. I had to enter all the track details manually when I ripped a few CDs last month.

I also use EasyTag for tag management, I've been using it for years, so have got used to its interface and find everything else lacking. It's not been updated since 2016, but still seems to work.

 What are Linux users using for ripping and tagging...? If, for some bizarre reason, I end up buying more CDs, it might be worth trying something slightly more up to date.

 

TheFlash

Also available in pink
Wammer
Jun 22, 2013
12,479
8,343
208
Rural Leics [system 1] & Kendal [systems 2 & 3]
AKA
Nigel
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
@Lord J I use a Synology NAS plugged into my BT router via CAT6 (any CAT5+ is fine) and the equally pimped Node 2i plugs into same router by CATn cable. I use my iMac just to rip the CD into ALAC via iTunes.

I guess you could go direct (ish) from iMac to Node by plugging iMac via USB into router (my BT router has one USB port) but I’ve never tried this.

 

TheFlash

Also available in pink
Wammer
Jun 22, 2013
12,479
8,343
208
Rural Leics [system 1] & Kendal [systems 2 & 3]
AKA
Nigel
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Hello here is my thoughts but please i am not anything like an expert . For me the sensible thing would be to use a USB HD of say 1 / 2 TB . Then rip your CD's to this and once completed plug that directly in to your Node and play from there . Two further suggestions which are not of themselves essential but are sensible . Buy two USB HD units when one is complete copy the files over to the other USB HD and then put that away somewhere not connected to your system . This means you have a full copy of your music just in case something goes wrong with your working HD .

Secondly if you are going to do lots of ripping the essential thing you need is a very fast CD Drive . I use an old Iomega 52 x 32 x 52 unit . Noisy built like a tank and really fast . Average CD is ripped in under two minutes most drives on your PC/MAC will take 4 plus . If you can find a cheap usb CD drive with fast speeds on eBay then buy it and save yourself lots of time . Or I have a spare Iomega drive that i have lent to two other Wammers who both realised i was telling the truth and it helped them. You are more than welcome to borrow it if you want and keep it for as long as you need it , as I said I have one connected to my laptop so do not need the back up . Drop me a PM if you are interested.
None of us are experts, Andrew!

Not sure about the functionality of the Node’s USB port but this might work. Your approach means unplugging/plugging an HD drive either side of the rip; if this is once a week or so it’s fair enough but a bit of a faff; using this approach with a static collection is doable.

 

tuga

. . .
Wammer
Aug 17, 2007
14,341
7,001
173
Oxen's ford, UK
AKA
Ricardo
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I guess you could go direct (ish) from iMac to Node by plugging iMac via USB into router (my BT router has one USB port) but I’ve never tried this.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know you cannot plug a computer into the router's USB port, only an external storage device like a memory stick or SSD/HDD.

 

tuga

. . .
Wammer
Aug 17, 2007
14,341
7,001
173
Oxen's ford, UK
AKA
Ricardo
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
P.S. I've just remembered that I tried once to use the USB of my BT Home Hub 4 and it requires that the disk be formated as NTFS.

But I wouldn't recommend turning a USB SSD/HDD + the BT router into a NAS, get a real NAS instead.

 
  • Upvote
Reactions: TheFlash

TheFlash

Also available in pink
Wammer
Jun 22, 2013
12,479
8,343
208
Rural Leics [system 1] & Kendal [systems 2 & 3]
AKA
Nigel
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
P.S. I've just remembered that I tried once to use the USB of my BT Home Hub 4 and it requires that the disk be formated as NTFS.

But I wouldn't recommend turning a USB SSD/HDD + the BT router into a NAS, get a real NAS instead.
We have lost the ability to edit our posts, hence repeat.

Agreed, get a proper NAS. I do though plug my proper NAS into my router as this is IMHO the best way of adding a NAS to a network and thereby making it available to be ripped to, read from etc.

 
  • Upvote
Reactions: tuga

razor115

Newbie
Wammer
Jul 12, 2019
49
14
13
liverpool
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I know it's presumptious of me to post a how-to guide, but I'm getting bored of the same questions being asked, and the same mistakes being made.

Starting point: you've got a huge pile of CDs

Desired end point: some kind of digital streaming system, playing your tunes

I'm not going to go into playback hardware; PC, Mac, Squeezebox, Sonos, Linn DS, whatevs. In my opinion the only real way they differ is in their user interfaces and expansion capability. They're all digital systems, so the only thing that's going to make a significant difference to the sound is your choice of DAC.

What I'm actually after is your approach and choices regarding ripping your CDs to files, so you can play them on your new system. The overall aim is for you to rip once, and never again, rather than getting half-way through, discovering a problem, and starting over.

This is not an unbiased, equitable guide. I have opinions, and I'm going to spell them out.

Finally, I don't want this to go on for pages and pages - stop me if I get boring. So without further ado:

Lossless versus Lossy

Lossless music file formats are just that, lossless representations of the original CD. Exactly the same digital data as the original CD. Lossy formats sacrifice some data for smaller file size.

The most common lossy format is mp3. mp3 comes with different settings, measured in kilobits per second, the higher the kilobits, the more data, the closer to the original, but the larger the file.

You probably call yourself an audiophile, or at least you're interested in good sounds and music, that's why you're here. Do not use a lossy format. Use a lossless format. If you rip to a lossy format then information is gone for good; you can always transcode down from lossless to lossy for a given application, you can't go back up the way. I'll say that again: USE A LOSSLESS FORMAT.

Compressed versus uncompressed

On the assumption that we're using a lossless format, the three biggies in this arena are FLAC, ALAC and WAV. ALAC is owned by Apple, and is really only useful for Apple kit; namely Macs and iPods. There is also the Microsoft Proprietary WMA lossless, but support for this is severely limited so I'm going to discount it right now.

Lossy formats effectively compress the original data. BUT this does not mean that all compression is lossy. FLAC and ALAC are lossless, and compressed. WAV is lossless, and uncompressed full fat. The usual comparison made is to a Word document (the WAV file), and a zipped copy of that Word document (FLAC or ALAC). If you unzip the file all your words are still there. Compressed is different to lossy.

As we're all aware, disc space is very cheap. Resilient, managed space is less cheap, but still not going to break the bank. iPod space is limited and more expensive, so for your core system (assuming it's not an iPod) the compressed versus uncompressed debate is a red herring.

Tags / Metadata

Tags are chunks of information, embedded in your music files, that describe the file. Artist name, track name, track number, album art, all that good stuff.

FLAC and ALAC support tags.

WAV does not.

Nearly all music management programs maintain their own database of what is in files. So for instance Windows Media Player and MediaMonkey will be able to tell you what is in a particular untagged WAV file because you've told them. If your untagged WAV files become detached from the life-support-system of the player, say through a software malfunction, or you simply decide to change player software or hardware, then you've lost all context of what is in them. Tagged files carry data about themselves around with them, so it's simply a matter of telling the new player to go and scan your files, read in the information, and build up a new index.

You can see where I'm going with this.

USE A TAGGED FILE FORMAT. DO NOT USE WAV.

Software choices

I'm going to get this out of the way up front. You're desperate to start ripping, you've got a PC, Windows Media Player is already installed, so you're going to use it. DO NOT USE WMP - at least until you've understood the alternatives. For a start, WMP only supports WAV, WMA and mp3, and you will be sent to the naughty step if you rip to any of these.

The most commonly suggested ripping programs are

MediaMonkey

EAC

dbPoweramp

iTunes

The first three support FLAC, iTunes does ALAC.

My personal preference is for dbPoweramp - its lookup of metadata when you insert a new CD to rip is very good, and it effectively uses "crowdsourcing", comparing your rips with those of other users to ensure they're accurate. I'm sure others will chime in with details of their favourites.

Portable Devices

Let's face it; iPods.

iPods don't support FLAC. If you're in a homogeneous Apple world then you've ripped to ALAC, this will play in iTunes and on your iPod and all is cool.

If you have non-Apple kit, you've ripped to FLAC, which won't (without serious intervention) play on your iPod.

You'll need to transcode from FLAC to (usually) mp3. You can either maintain two libraries, one lossless, one in mp3, or some software such as MediaMonkey can transcode on the fly to synch with an iPod.

Conclusions

Use a lossless format.

Use a tagged format.

This leaves you with FLAC or ALAC.

Transcode to mp3 for your iPod if you're using FLAC

Personal Preferences

I rip with dbPoweramp, for reasons mentioned above.

I manage music with MediaMonkey - it makes bulk tag editing very easy, and has good transcoding abilities.

Flame on ...
I find Music Bee to be all I need.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
113,444
Messages
2,451,263
Members
70,783
Latest member
reg66

Latest Articles