Ripping CDs for the last time...Please Read and Suggest

[bob4432]

Hello,
Need some advice and here is the situation.

After looking at new cars and new car stereos, there seems to be universal support for MP3 just from a memory stick, no Ipod, no anything in between.

I have ripped my CD collection a couple of times - 1x to mp3pro - format did not take off, then ripped them all to 160KB/s, but now that the cost of storage is so low, including flash drives, I would like to go back and do one last rip of them all @ 320KB/s with the best setting w/ the LAME encoder that is listed in another part of the site. What I would also like to do is find software that will rip all the CDs to either WAV files or the entire CD as an ISO and then allow me to set up the naming convention and have the software convert to MP3 after I have everything queued up. I will be using multiple quad core computers along with a couple dual cores and do not care how much time or space it takes up.

Please recommend the ripping software of ripping software that will create folders/subfolders for Artists/Disc and also please recommend the standard format for the ID3 tag. I would like this to be as standard as possible so it will be the last time I do it.

I will also need a guide that does the same thing for files I have bought off of iTunes.

Is there anything I can do about the iTunes files that I bought back in the day that are protected?

Last, I need 1 more dvd-rom, so could you recommend what is currently the best ripping dvd-rom? I have no use atm for a blu-ray drive, so please keep it to a dvd-rom/dvd writer only. I think my newest one is an ASUS unit and it works fine and I will be using it, just need another SATA unit for a system that does not have a PATA port and see no reason to buy a PATA card.

Thanks in advance,
Bob

Update 05/03/2016: Decided to go the EAC/FLAC route and then encode to whatever whenever needed and not to re-rip again as that is where the bulk of time goes. I ordered 2 new dvd-roms - an Asus unit and a Samsung unit. Will make sure to update the firmware on those when I get them if needed. Will be able to run 2 instances of EAC on at least 1 machine and I have 2 laptops that will help out too. I think I have between 300-400 cds, so the 320GB HDD should hold as I am also in the process of rebuilding the home server which I will put 2-3TB for storage only in a RAID1 setup. Should hold me over for quite some time.

Thanks for the suggestions,
Bob

 

[sweenish]

Basic forum search would have brought up multiple threads discussing rippers. I recommend Exact Audio Copy. It is hands down the best tool for the job. If you want to rip everything and then transcode it all, you should rip to FLAC, so you never have to rip again, and save a bit of storage in doing so. Ideally, you would rip to FLAC anyway, so that you only ever have to re-transcode in the future, and never re-rip. But you can rip and transcode directly to mp3 as well.

Actually, your description of how you want to rip and all that is a mess. You set EVERYTHING up before it actually rips. EAC automatically rips to *.wav, transcodes, tags according to what you've set up, and deletes the *.wav. You can just rip directly to *.wav if you want, but the tagging and transcoding will be much more of a hassle than if you just do it all at once. I only rip straight to *.wav if I'm separating a hidden track from the final track. Just for some completeness, I use Audacity for that, and only with *.wav files.

Although, if you use EAC to rip FLAC, you can use use something like foobar2000 (my recommendation) or dbpoweramp ($ but simpler to set up) to convert to mp3. I will not post any links to guides, they are easy enough to find if you try.

I do not recommend transcoding iTunes files at all. Lossy to lossy transcoding will lose quality. With protected, 128 kbps tracks, you have two options. One is not really legal, and it involves stripping the DRM. You'll still be left with a low-bitrate track. The legal option is to pay for the iTunes Plus upgrade. $3 per album, or $0.30 per single track. There is also the ability to burn protected tracks to an audio CD (they allow you to do this a limited number of times) and then ripping, but that's even worse for the quality of the track. If you at least burn audio CD's, you won't have lost any quality, you just lose some storage efficiency. It's also highly possible that newer stereos support *.m4a out of the box.

DVD-ROM drives are turnkey. Buy whatever is highly rated. You don't need anything special unless you're doing something like ripping console games.

 

[tcsenter]

How much music do you have? 2TB hard drives going for $50 ~ $55 (sale price). Get two, rip to WAV/PCM and clone/copy to the 2nd disk so you'll have a full backup. Or rip to lossless WMA, FLAC, AAC, etc.

Most any in-vehicle factory stereo with USB and aux. input since 2009 or 2010 will support WMA, WAV/PCM, AAC in addition to MP3.

 

[bob4432]

Is there a "standard" for the tagging nomenclature or is it personal preference?

Ripping to flac sounds like a good idea for anything that may come up in the future, I found I have an extra 320GB 2.5HDD sitting on my desk (what else is on that desk??), will get a usb enclosure coming in from newegg, that should hold most if not all of my CDs in the flac format.

Thanks for the info re: iTunes Plus for the swap out of the protected files to non-protected.

 

[tcsenter]

Ripping to flac sounds like a good idea for anything that may come up in the future, I found I have an extra 320GB 2.5HDD sitting on my desk (what else is on that desk??), will get a usb enclosure coming in from newegg, that should hold most if not all of my CDs in the flac format.

Pick up two of these while you're at it, $40 each (free shipping today only Shell Shocker deal): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=1Z4-0002-001C2

 

[Mike64]

I didn't read your whole OP or the rest of the thread carefully, but the fact that you've ripped/re-ripped a few times by now prompts me to suggest that you consider ripping to FLAC this time around, and then compress to something else either en masse, or as needed, to save yourself further effort/hassle should you decide to go with Yet Another Format at some future date. Storage is so cheap these days that for practical purposes the difference in file size between FLAC and 320 kbps MP3 isn't enormous... And fwiw, I'll second the suggestion of using EAC, though I don't think it'll do all the auto-sorting and tagging you mentioned.

 

[sweenish]

[...] I don't think it'll do all the auto-sorting and tagging you mentioned.

It does. Dig around the settings. It's all there.

 

[Mike64]

It does. Dig around the settings. It's all there.

Better yet! I've never needed any of those features myself, so never bothered to really search for them...

ETA: And I also hadn't noticed you'd already suggested FLAC. I did say I hadn't read the whole thread carefully though...