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ripping music: anything better than WMP/iTunes?

N

nageov3t

Lifer
so, my big project this summer is organizing my music.

my plan is to:


  • delete all existing album rips (ripped over the years, all in varying bit rates and file name schemes... some as low as 56 kbps from back in the days when I used a portable cd player to play MP3 cd's and tried to cram as much as possible on each disk.)

  • re-rip all CD's at 256 kbps, with the same name scheme (my music\albums\artist\album name\track number - track name.mp3)

  • throw out the jewel cases, put the physical disk into sleeves, organize them alphabetically in a box, and throw the box into storage as backup copies

  • upload them onto some cloud service (wtb google music invite?)

my question is, is there any reason to look at software outside of WPM or iTunes for this? my main concerns are automatic ID3 tagging and automatically finding the album art.

one of the most miserable experiences of my life was burning a dozen CD's or so a few months ago on iTunes and, for each disk, having to google the album cover, save it to my hard drive, and manually apply it to the tracks. but I use my iPod in my car and my car receiver shows the album art of whatever song it's playing, so it's nice to have for looks.
 
I always used WMP. There may be better dedicated rippers out there, but I never bothered seeking them out. Give some consideration to a higher bitrate, but VBR. That may give you better sound without too much of a size penalty.
 
I used CDex back in the day; it's been awhile since I've bought any CDs though.

I seem to recall that it does tagging with CDDB lookup, and is very versatile. I used LAME for the MP3s, and I still actually have the command string saved in a text file.

This one's set up for stereo encoding, best quality encoding setting, 160kbps, and a whole lot of other fun options. 🙂

Following the encoding, I use MP3Gain to losslessly even out the average playback volume of everything.


Code: 
-m s --replaygain-accurate -q 0 -b 160 -p --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%b" --ty "%y" --tn "%tn" --tg "%g" --id3v2-only --pad-id3v2 %1 %2

        %1 = input filename
        %2 = output filename
        %3 = bit rate in bits/sec
        %4 = bit rate in Kbits/sec
        %a = Artist name
        %b = Album name
        %t = Track name
        %g = Genre string
        %y = Year
        %tn = Track Number (with leading zero)
        %tt = Total number of tracks (with leading zero)


CDex Commands for FLAC:
Code: 
-8 -m -e -p %1 -V -f --replay-gain -T Artist="%a" -T Album="%b" -T Title="%t" -T Date="%y" -T Genre="%g" -T Tracknumber="%tn" -o "%2"
 
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For a combination of speed and ease, Media Monkey is probably your best option.

Also, let me throw in a vote for Mp3Gain after all of your mp3s are ripped. For me, there's few things more annoying than having to adjust my volume up and down during playback (especially when it's set to shuffle) because of volume variances. Change the default from 89.0db to 96.0db; 89 is just too quiet for some louder listening environments.
 
seems like Media Monkey is my best option.

I've burned a few cd's with it so far and it works pretty well... only complaint is that it doesn't automatically add the CD art, but it's easy enough to do afterward (much easier than on iTunes)
 
loki8481 said:
so, my big project this summer is organizing my music.

my plan is to:


  • delete all existing album rips (ripped over the years, all in varying bit rates and file name schemes... some as low as 56 kbps from back in the days when I used a portable cd player to play MP3 cd's and tried to cram as much as possible on each disk.)

  • re-rip all CD's at 256 kbps, with the same name scheme (my music\albums\artist\album name\track number - track name.mp3)
Click to expand...
HDDs are cheap. Go lossless. You can always go from an archive quality rip to any lesser quality level you want , without digging out a disc.

my question is, is there any reason to look at software outside of WPM or iTunes for this? my main concerns are automatic ID3 tagging and automatically finding the album art.
Click to expand...
FB2K can find 99% of my album art, even if it's sometimes wrong (but iTunes seems to be, as well).

one of the most miserable experiences of my life was burning a dozen CD's or so a few months ago on iTunes and, for each disk, having to google the album cover, save it to my hard drive, and manually apply it to the tracks. but I use my iPod in my car and my car receiver shows the album art of whatever song it's playing, so it's nice to have for looks.
Click to expand...
Do you also use itunes on your PC to play back music? If so, you can use iTunes and rip to ALAC, can't you?

For quality ripping of old discs, EAC is still where it's at, but you want to be sure to have a decent drive (preferably not an NEC chipset--Samsung and LG are still good bets, Lite-On is iffy, not sure about others, today), and there is some work in getting it set up properly.

Don't use Audiograbber or similar. Just don't. They will give you bad rips, and one day, you'll listen on something decent, and hear the short skips and pops. iTunes does software-level ECC, that seems to be similar to paranoid mode ripping in its efficacy, making it one of the best to use of you want to just pop the CD in and go.
 
Might want to consider something better than MP3 now that there are a few superior alternatives that have gained support.
 
loki8481 said:
seems like Media Monkey is my best option.

I've burned a few cd's with it so far and it works pretty well... only complaint is that it doesn't automatically add the CD art, but it's easy enough to do afterward (much easier than on iTunes)
Click to expand...

Huh? It automatically adds the CD art for me.
 
I've thought a lot lately about dumping mp3 for 256kb .aac. I just can't seem to cut the cord, though. Mp3 is just so universal and versatile at this point and there is so much software out there to use on .mp3 tracks and I don't want to overhaul my "system" for the sake of saving a MB or two on every track. So easy to tag, so easy to embed album art, so easy to increase or decrease the gain, etc., etc., etc. And there are software solutions for .mp3 work everywhere.

Just speaking from an mp3er's point of view:

Why 256kb? Just take it to 320kb. A couple of MB per track could be worth it. If an audio track needed anymore than that, then you might as well go lossless.

Rip, tag and then run everything through MP3Gain. I hate having my playback device set on random and then having to adjust volume up or down every time a new track comes on. The default .db setting is 89, but like someone else said, it's just too low. I try for 97, but if I get consistent clipping throughout the album, then I might notch it back to 95.
 
I Rip to FLAC using EAC and store it on my home file server. Then re-encode everything to -V0 LAME for local storage. If you plan on storing in a HDD go with storing as lossless only for the ability to re-encode in the future. If you're just going to hang on the CD's going straight to mp3 is not a bad thing. I don't use any other software than EAC for rips but I'm sure other things will work fine.

Definitely go VBR on the mp3s if possible theres really no reason to go for a CBR setting and -V0 is a similar file size to 256 and more likely then not, smaller than 320. Do you really need 256 kbps silence?
 
totally forgot to update this thread... the project was completed using MediaMonkey and VBR.

even took before/after pics:

before --

IMAG0197.jpg


after --

IMAG0203.jpg
 
I just bought an Apple iPod classic 160 GB Black. It cranks and I put 25,000 songs on it. I can actually listen to things I haven't heard in years.

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-classic-.../dp/B001F7AHOG

I also bought an 80 gig ZEN from Creative, it sucks! Sound limiter and such.

I'm saying this because the IPOD will not play VBR MP3s. So I won't be making them. Just a note about it. You may wish to avoid VBR.
 
Hope you replaced the default lame_enc.dll in the MediaMonkey folder.
Did you have to use MP3Tag (or some such) to straighten out the tags after MM?
 
loki8481 said:
are you sure? the tech specs say that VBR is supported.

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/specs.html


  • Audio formats supported: AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), HE-AAC, MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Click to expand...

I can only tell you what I experienced. I loaded a bunch of music on the IPOD. You have to use Itunes or an alternative to do this.

When I update, it always comes back with a message that says this song or songs will not be loaded on the IPOD because it will not play them. They are VBR. I've seen this a couple times. I'll take notes the next time I see this message and post to clarify.
 
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