Digital music management

mdaudioguy

Ok, I'm through phase one of my digital music clean-up/reorganization. I copied everything from the computer that all my kids share for iTunes to another computer that doesn't have iTunes installed. I uninstalled Squeezebox Server from the original computer and installed it on my new location. I've deleted duplicate files and done some re-tagging. Whew!

I've realized that some of my music was ripped years ago at bit rates that I'm not too pleased with now - a lot is at 192 kbps VBR. Unfortunately, some is mp3 and some is m4a... yuck. My Amazon purchases are 256 kbps VBR with some (CBR). I know most of you don't like mp3, because it's lossy. Personally, I'm ok with 256 or higher, but considering that some time down the road I might acquire some nicer gear, should I begin re-ripping my favorite CDs to a lossless format? FLAC I guess?

Also, I'm tiring of EAC and Mp3tag, and thinking of going with the all-in-one solution a lot of you recommended - MediaMonkey - should I go free or drop $20 to get the full version?

Thanks!
Ed

intangible

I've got my collection in FLAC, because storage is so cheap there's really no reason not to, but I've never found a song for which I could successfully ABX v2 and FLAC rips. I'd say there's no hurry to rerip everything.

I recommend Foobar2000 for your media player. It's very light weight and does basically whatever you want it to. No need to spend money on one.

ben62670

I use WINamp for everything.

LessisNevermore

I really like MediaMonkey, it's not perfect though....
I had some errors on several cd's the first time through. Once disaster hit, and I found myself re-ripping, I used EAC for the error correction, and accuracy checks.

I still use MM for playback, organization, etc. (everything else, basically)
I find it well worth the $$. Though, if you opt for the paid version, I'd go for the $40 lifetime upgrade version. Either one is good for up to 3 computers.

There are other options too, JRiver, dB Poweramp, and others. I'm sure users of those will chime in here soon enough.

Once you get everything juuuuust the way you want it, and I cannot stress this enough, MAKE BACKUPS!!!! :biggrin:

mdaudioguy

LessisNevermore wrote: »

Once you get everything juuuuust the way you want it, and I cannot stress this enough, MAKE BACKUPS!!!! :biggrin:

No kidding! I'm going to run a backup tonight on the current state, just in case...

PrazVT

+1. I burn every 25GB of music to a blu-ray disc, and tuck them away in a CD case in my closet lol.

SCompRacer

I struggled at first with my digital files trying various software until I got some recommendations from a fellow that has been at this for many years (blakeh). I now use Media Monkey Gold for playback on the PC and organizing/tagging, and dBpoweramp for ripping.

If you don't need any of the features found in the Gold (pay version) of MM, just get the free version. Here is the compare link.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/download/?ClickID=asypkrnlwtonwo0srylnskaylz9k9lsy9rlo

A big YES on those backups!

audiobliss

MM for playback and dBpoweramp for ripping (.flac) here, too. Has proven to be a great combo imo.

I feel like there are still some features of MM I've yet to discover that will make it an ever better choice, but I've still been satisfied with it.

mdaudioguy

Thanks guys! But, why dBpoweramp for ripping? I'm going to download the free version of MediaMonkey tonight, and I see that it rips to FLAC, too. What's not to like about MM's ripping/FLAC-encoding capability?

I know that the EAC program I used for years also supports FLAC, but the interface isn't quite as user-friendly as I'd like. I know some people prefer EAC for ripping, due to its accuracy, though. Maybe I should continue to rip to WAV with EAC, and then encode with something else...

coolsax

I use Db poweramp, and like it alot.. It uses accurate rip so you'll know if you get a good rip for most of your CDs.. its free for the first 21 days if you want to get a feel for it.

I'm still trying to decide which player I like better, right now i'm switching between winamp and MM, but i want to try foobar as well.

mdaudioguy

Reported ddjond2 in another thread...

ben62670

PrazVT wrote: »

+1. I burn every 25GB of music to a blu-ray disc, and tuck them away in a CD case in my closet lol.

It's probably just as good to back up to another harddrive?

mdaudioguy

I'm not so concerned about using anything as a player, since I rarely listen to music on my pc.

So accuraterip is available with dBpoweramp too... I'm assuming that MediaMonkey's ripping function doesn't have accuracy checking?

mdaudioguy

ben62670 wrote: »

It's probably just as good to back up to another harddrive?

That's all I do. Of course, they're in the same room, so it's not 100% secure - fire... but if that happens, I have worse problems!

ben62670

I hear ya. I have been ripping alot lately and I have a second HD in my puter for backup. I really need to get on the ball and get an external HD that I can stash somewhere. Too much time involved to re rip them all.

coolsax

You aint kidding.. before this website opened my eyes, i had already ripped my entire CD collection to mp3, and that had taken long enough, now i'm reripping it all again into lossless for me and high bit rate mp3 for the wife, and its just so time cosuming. that's another reason I really like Dbpoweramp, you can do multiencoding at the same time so I have a folder for FLAC and a folder for mp3 and the rips go to both at the same time,this way my wife can use Itunes to put music on her ipod.