Gotta backup, rip, encode mp3, tag ~ 1,000 cds

[randypj]

Been a VERY long time for me. Using W2K Pro.

Plan on encoding to hard drive all my cds to 320CBR (mp3 v1 tag) AND backing them up to cd-r (clone) AND maybe library them. Be nice if I could do this sort of all in one fell swoop, or as close as possible. Can dedicate one box to it.

Software? EAC and CDex? I've googled for a couple days and that appears to do part of it. Free software would be nice, but not imperative.

I can hook up half a dozen or so dvd/cd burners. May need to get 2 or 3 more cd-r burners. Prefer newegg of course. Suggestions?

Media suggestions? Haven't bought good cd-r media for a couple years. Used to go with TY made in Japan Fuji, but realize they aren't made in Japan now. Also can buy from newegg.

What else have I forgotten? Thanks for any suggestions.

--Randy

 

[secretanchitman]

backing them up...? wow, thats gonna take you a while. why not just duplicate a HD to another just storing all your music on it and nothing else?

but...on the other hand, i havent heard of any software that will allow you to do it "all in one swoop". well, there are mp3 taggers i know, but i dont know how they work.

media wise, taiyo cd-rs are excellent.

cd burner, lite on is good. i have a 52x24x52x and has never failed me at all. flashed it to 52x32x52 and no problems either.

dvd burner, NEC 3540 is a great choice. ive read all the reviews on it and it seems like its one of the best drives out there. it also supports dvd-r/rw DL, and its less than 50 bucks on the egg.

hope this helps! good luck and hopefully none of the media is irreadable!

 

[thesurge]

Assuming that all the songs are in MP3 format...

1000CD's x 700MB each.

700,000MB / 4MB Each song

You have 175,000 SONGS?!?!?

 

[DaveSimmons]

I used EAC, but ripped to lossless FLAC format instead of MP3. Total space needed for 1,000 was about 300 GB (real GBs not the 27x GB of a "300 GB" hard drive).

With FLAC it's 100% CD quality, like zip files for audio, it decompresses to the exact WAV file that EAC ripped. With FLAC you have a true backup not a "pretty close" one.

Once you have your collection in FLAC you can use a program like dbPowerAmp ($14 after 30 days) to batch up conversion to MP3 or WMA to use with a portable, I transcoded about 300 of my CDs to fill up a Zen Xtra portable.

I have a music server set up with 2 x 250 GB drives (room to grow) and have 2 x 200 GB drives in a closet as backup that I attach to the server to sync new CDs now and then.

 

[Concillian]

Some people like CDex, but I use EAC for the exclusive reason that it seems to produce clean rips for even fairly scratched CDs that skip in my player. If there are ANY small issues with the rip it will let you know and you can listen to that part to verify whether or not the rip was clean enough.

CDex, when I used it, would occasionally produce rips that I would consider unusable (skips, pops, etc...)

Sometimes EAC will slow down, but only when it's encountering an area where it has difficulty reading because of a scratch or other flaw with the CD. I can't imagine having done backups of my CDs having to listen carefully to each song first to verify it was flaw-free.

 

[mryellow2]

EAC is great for ripping. Never tried ripping from multiple drives at the same time. Not sure how well that would go.

 

[randypj]

Good suggestions all. Thank you all.

secretanchitman--see comments below about duplicating to another hard drive. Good point about just going ahead and buying another DVD burner, rather than cd burner, while I am at it. Is there any place you buy your taiyo yudens? I haven't looked to see what newegg has yet.

thesurge--The way I figure it, is ~15 songs per cd. 15 x 1,000 = 15,000 songs. Wish I had 175,000 tunes. Of course, this doesn't include my ~400 LPs and ~100 open reel tapes, but I won't get to them until my next lifetime. I've actually got enough tunes on cd's so that I really would never have to buy another tune again, and I'd still be happy. I've got ALOT of boxed sets.

DaveSimmons--my first thought when I saw your comments about FLAC was, no, I want them just like they are on my originals. But......that is a heck of a good idea, and much less fuss and muss. The more I think on it, the more I like it. I've got plenty of hard drives, and will keep a set off site. The originals will probably be stored at my parents'. Actually, the only reason I would still need cd format would be if I want to continue to use my cd jukebox, play a cd other than at home. Hmm.....that may be the way to go for me. I can always decode from FLAC to cd-r if necessary.

One question, if I encode to FLAC, am I able to insert info from a net db, such as .v1 tagging, for later use to include in mp3s? Hmmm.....seems like I could just pop a cd in the player in my box, FLAC to one hard drive and mp3 to another, and replace drives as needed (since FLAC would fill up first). You really got me thinking on this one.

Concillian--Good point about EAC. You are right....no way I am going to listen to each rip/encode to certify it is correct. And, I've used EAC back in the day, since ~98? As I recall it was "postcardware", or maybe I'm thinking of BladeEnc as postcardware. Yes, I did send my Texas postcard in.

mryellow2--Yes, I believe I agree with you about not ripping from multiple drives. Not worth the risk, especially if I can get the process down so it becomes almost automatic for me. It is not like I've gotta do them all in one weekend.

--Randy

 

[myusername]

Originally posted by: randypj

One question, if I encode to FLAC, am I able to insert info from a net db, such as .v1 tagging, for later use to include in mp3s?

FLAC supports tags, but It would take a 3rd party app to bulk import that information - and I don't know that one actually exists.

What I do is rip to wav using EAC and a set directory structure. (\artist\type\album\track number - song title - year) syntax is: \%A\%I\%C\%N - %T - %Y

Then in FLAC frontend, I set the tags using A\G\L\N - T - Y

Once the tags are set, you could batch rename the files if needed, though I personally leave the directory structure and names intact.