Putting my CDs on my computer.
swegyptian
Posts: 316
Hey guys, I need a little bit of help.
I just bought myself and nice little 500G hard disk, with the intention of putting all of my CDs on it. I want to put them on there as WAV files, so I can have exact copies for backups, and then also play them from my PC through my system. I got one of those snazzy new Pioneer Elite jobbies that can connect to the home network and find music files.
Anyhow I am having a bit of trouble getting this done. I started off using Windows Media to copy the CDs to the new drive, in lossless WAV format. This worked like a champ, until I tried to access them with Winamp for grins. Winamp found the files and played them just fine, but somehow lost the album name. When I tried it with iTunes, the artist and album name was missing. So I tried importing with iTunes instead. This led to missing information in Winamp again, and another smaller problem in iTunes. I happened to import a CD with multiple artists, although it is not a compliation, and it put in "Compilation" instead of the groups name. No biggie, I just fixed the name of the folder. Or so I thought. I then tried to play these files, and iTunes couldn't even find them, which I assume has something to do with renaming the folders they were in.
In the end I want all of my CDs on this new hard drive in WAV format, so I can rip them, copy them, play them, indefinitely without any worries about sound quality or future compatibility. How have you guys done this? I realize that I will probably have to rename files here and there, and fix artist names every once in a while to keep albums intact in playlists, but at this rate it will take WAY to ling to finish this project.
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Alex.
I just bought myself and nice little 500G hard disk, with the intention of putting all of my CDs on it. I want to put them on there as WAV files, so I can have exact copies for backups, and then also play them from my PC through my system. I got one of those snazzy new Pioneer Elite jobbies that can connect to the home network and find music files.
Anyhow I am having a bit of trouble getting this done. I started off using Windows Media to copy the CDs to the new drive, in lossless WAV format. This worked like a champ, until I tried to access them with Winamp for grins. Winamp found the files and played them just fine, but somehow lost the album name. When I tried it with iTunes, the artist and album name was missing. So I tried importing with iTunes instead. This led to missing information in Winamp again, and another smaller problem in iTunes. I happened to import a CD with multiple artists, although it is not a compliation, and it put in "Compilation" instead of the groups name. No biggie, I just fixed the name of the folder. Or so I thought. I then tried to play these files, and iTunes couldn't even find them, which I assume has something to do with renaming the folders they were in.
In the end I want all of my CDs on this new hard drive in WAV format, so I can rip them, copy them, play them, indefinitely without any worries about sound quality or future compatibility. How have you guys done this? I realize that I will probably have to rename files here and there, and fix artist names every once in a while to keep albums intact in playlists, but at this rate it will take WAY to ling to finish this project.
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Alex.
Post edited by swegyptian on
Comments
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play them, indefinitely without any worries about sound quality or future compatibility.
CD's already do that.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Oh such a helper. I don't want to rifle anymore.
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.Wav files do not store tags like all other file formats.
The BAD news - you have to tag them yourself
The Good News - You can use a batch program like mp3tag to do it for you. Although this requires effort as well.
I recommend .FLAC files using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) Then you will have your tags created for you. -
Is there any free or cheap software that can do this stuff for me? Also will iTunes and Winamp recognize .FLAC? What about if I want to make a WAV of it later for normal playback, say if the original disc gest damaged?
Thanks again,
Alex
EDIT: I am doing my homework, and getting somewhere. Thanks for the info. -
swegyptian wrote: »Is there any free or cheap software that can do this stuff for me? Also will iTunes and Winamp recognize .FLAC? What about if I want to make a WAV of it later for normal playback, say if the original disc gest damaged?
Thanks again,
Alex
Winamp can with a plug-in and as for iTunes, I think they may have plug-ins for the MAC OS to make the format work but there are none for PC users that I know of. -
Media Monkey is free.
I love Tag & Rename but it's not free.
As moonpie said, .wav files will not store tags. The playback software that you use to tag the wav file is actually just storing the tag information within its own database/metafile. That's why if you tag a wav file and then switch to another player, the new player has no tag information unless it can import the info.
I don't think iTunes will play back .flac.
I'm not at home to check but I believe poweramp converter will convert flac back into wav. I may be wrong but I think it's free. I think only the mp3 conversion is not free.
Oh, yeah, check out Exact Audio Copy (EAC). It's free and it's an excellent program. -
Thanks again guys, now I just need to see what fomats my new Elite will play.
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Download Foobar 2000. It's not as fancy as the rest, but you shouldn't have any problems."He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." Friedrich Nietzsche
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swegyptian wrote: »Thanks again guys, now I just need to see what fomats my new Elite will play.
The Elite uses DLNA - DIGITAL LIVING NETWORK ALLIANCE for its music server.
These are your formats... AAC, AC-3, ATRAC 3plus, MP3, WMA9 -
.Wav files do not store tags like all other file formats.
The BAD news - you have to tag them yourself
The Good News - You can use a batch program like mp3tag to do it for you. Although this requires effort as well.
I recommend .FLAC files using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) Then you will have your tags created for you.
Ya, I started burning CDs as wave because they DO sound a hell of a lot better then mp3 (Even high rate). But oh God, those tags are a pain in the butt if you move the files and have to set them up again in say media player.Testing
Testing
Testing -
Remember, FLAC files are exact copies of the wav files, but shrunk sort of the same way a zip file shrinks data. You do NOT lose any audio information AT ALL, and it's roughly half to a quarter of the size of the original wav file. When you play it, you're playing the exact same information you hear from a CD.Lovin that music year after year.
Main 2 Channel System
Polk SDA-1B,
Promitheus Audio TVC SE,
Rotel RB-980BX,
OPPO DV-970HD,
Lite Audio DAC AH,
IXOS XHA305 Interconnects
Computer Rig
Polk SDA CRS+,
Creek Audio 5350 SE,
Morrow Audio MA1 Interconnect,
HRT Music Streamer II -
Well it looks like the Elite will decode the FLAC format, but of course iTunes won't, so there goes the iPod.
Why can't there be a format that just works for all of my needs? -
Remember, FLAC files are exact copies of the wav files, but shrunk sort of the same way a zip file shrinks data. You do NOT lose any audio information AT ALL, and it's roughly half to a quarter of the size of the original wav file. When you play it, you're playing the exact same information you hear from a CD.
IMO, that's BS. Any time you compress sound and bring it back again, something is going to change, period.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
IMO, that's BS. Any time you compress sound and bring it back again, something is going to change, period.
100% not BS at all. It isn't a lossy compression technique such as mp3, aac, ogg, etc.
Edit:
Here ya go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Lossless_Audio_CodecLovin that music year after year.
Main 2 Channel System
Polk SDA-1B,
Promitheus Audio TVC SE,
Rotel RB-980BX,
OPPO DV-970HD,
Lite Audio DAC AH,
IXOS XHA305 Interconnects
Computer Rig
Polk SDA CRS+,
Creek Audio 5350 SE,
Morrow Audio MA1 Interconnect,
HRT Music Streamer II -
swegyptian wrote: »Well it looks like the Elite will decode the FLAC format, but of course iTunes won't, so there goes the iPod.
Why can't there be a format that just works for all of my needs?
Vender lock in?Lovin that music year after year.
Main 2 Channel System
Polk SDA-1B,
Promitheus Audio TVC SE,
Rotel RB-980BX,
OPPO DV-970HD,
Lite Audio DAC AH,
IXOS XHA305 Interconnects
Computer Rig
Polk SDA CRS+,
Creek Audio 5350 SE,
Morrow Audio MA1 Interconnect,
HRT Music Streamer II -
but shrunk sort of the same way a zip file shrinks data.
Key word, shrunk.
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but in the quest for audio nirvana that seems to be a step backwards.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Key word, shrunk.
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but in the quest for audio nirvana that seems to be a step backwards.
Not if all the information is there. Zip files do not lose any of their information, if they did they'd be useless. Just that some data can be compressed more than others (ASCII compresses very nicely just because of the nature of the data).
For the conversion job I would recommend CDex paired with FLAC. Then download FLAC plugins for WMP (which after all these years has matured pretty nicely in Vista). -
Key word, shrunk.
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but in the quest for audio nirvana that seems to be a step backwards.
Data on CDs is just a sequence of bits. Technically to be digitized there's some loss there to begin with, but if you assume the starting point of a CD is the pure source for this argument, a lossless method just groups the bits (essentially) in a way that makes the file smaller, and then REASSEMBLES them when you play the file so that it's the exact same sequence of bits. This isn't like other things like transmission methods where you introduce jitter and all of that kind of thing; this is the source and the bits are the exact same thing.If you will it, dude, it is no dream. -
.Wav files do not store tags like all other file formats.
The BAD news - you have to tag them yourself
The Good News - You can use a batch program like mp3tag to do it for you. Although this requires effort as well.
I recommend .FLAC files using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) Then you will have your tags created for you.
FLAC and EAC are the best tools to use if you are archiving and using a music server. Period!!!!
H9"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul! -
Ya, I started burning CDs as wave because they DO sound a hell of a lot better then mp3 (Even high rate). But oh God, those tags are a pain in the butt if you move the files and have to set them up again in say media player.
MP3's suck and they always will. Of course a .WAV will sound better it's not compressed using a lossy scheme.
FLAC and EAC........how many times does it have to be said here on CP
"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul! -
FLAC and EAC........how many times does it have to be said here on CP
Perhaps we could put it in the FAQ section. Ahh, that won't work, no one seems to read it.
I got it! we make the search link in 64 font so it stands out from all other links..:D -
I got it! We can drive Justin nuts by asking him to create a separate forum for "mp3 vs flac" and another for "Ripping Music: EAC a must have".
