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How to burn CD collection to FLAC


tigerwoodKhorns

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1 hour ago, Krispy Kirk said:

I typically abhor neo-tech solutions that deliver supposed "convenience" like wi-fi, blu-tooth, siri/alexa/hal, "smart"phones, and any gadget pushed by Apple as they always seem to take more than they give

That's why I built an FM transmitter. Sounds at least as good as, if not better, than and easy distribution anywhere in the house or grounds (or neighborhood, for that matter) where there is an FM tuner.

Dave

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EAC to FLAC if doing it yourself. After a hundred or so I gave up and used a digitizing service. They send you the shipping materials. You send them CDs they send you back CDs and a USB HDD with FLAC and any bit rate . MP3 you want. I put that on a NAS for access anywhere on the planet.

 

About a buck a CD. What is your time worth?

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I used EAC to rip about 1000 CDs to FLAC in '07.  Took a couple months to do it.

 

Because it is so time consuming for a large library, I highly recommend keeping a back-up of all FLAC rips in a separate location/building.

 

Used a Squeezebox Classic originally for playback, but now use a Sonos Connect (digital out to DAC).

 

 

 

  

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11 minutes ago, adam2434 said:

I used EAC to rip about 1000 CDs to FLAC in '07.  Took a couple months to do it.

 

Because it is so time consuming for a large library, I highly recommend keeping a back-up of all FLAC rips in a separate location/building.

 

Used a Squeezebox Classic originally for playback, but now use a Sonos Connect (digital out to DAC).

  

 

 

+ 1 on the backup in a remote location. Also on the Sonos Connect. I've got two Connects to physical systems and a few self powered speakers. No better UI out there for playing music than Sonos. Since 2002 or there about I've had systems based around Audiotron, WD, Popcorn hour, Squeezebox/Logitec, home grown PC, and probably a few others. Nothing even touches the Sonos.

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9 hours ago, Mallette said:

That's why I built an FM transmitter. Sounds at least as good as, if not better, than and easy distribution anywhere in the house or grounds (or neighborhood, for that matter) where there is an FM tuner.

Dave

 

Good luck on your FM transmitter. Expect a possible knock on your door after some tropo interference with another FM station.

JJK

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18 hours ago, Schu said:

No one uses jRiver?

 

I do.  I've used it for a few years now and don't even think about changing to someone else's software.  It rips the files the way I need to and is how I play all my 1300+ FLAC files that were ripped from CD's.  I also enjoy that my phone or tablets can run JRiver without me having to switch the TV over to computer input to use it.  I can see what is playing from my phone, change to something else, etc., and it show me all the art work.  It has probably gotten 95% of the artwork correct after a disc is ripped but there are always those obscure discs that you have to look up an image for but it's just a matter of pasting it to the file.  Easy.

 

I ripped the first initial 1200 or so CD's over the course of a couple of months on weekends and it went pretty quick.  It might've taken less than that.  I keep the rip speed on 24x or less to keep the errors down in case it's a sub-par CD.  

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14 hours ago, Krispy Kirk said:

" it's basically becomes back ground music. Like the music you get in a grocery store, or on the radio."

 

Yes, but in my home on my whole-house system, it becomes my background music...with ZERO commercials or DJ blather.  When one is entertaining, constantly moving from room to room doing chores, or just chilling out on the deck, there is no substitute for a customized playlist that can be heard anywhere you like (yes, even in the bathroom!)  I have stereo pairs of in-wall or in-ceiling speakers (Boston Acoustics, sorry KlipschCo!) in every bedroom, the master bathroom, the kitchen, the dining room, and on hanging under the eaves on the three sides of my deck that wraps around three-quarters of my house.  The whole thing is powered by NAD electronics controlled by an HP PC located in the center of the main floor (of three) and there is a volume control on the wall in every room that has speakers.  I can play CDs or a tuner through this system, and I sometimes do, but using server software like MediaMonkey is far more convenient.  When you're doing something away from your main rig but you still want musical accompaniment, dragging a turntable, amp, and giant speakers around the house is not the best option.  Trust me, I know.  I used to keep six separate systems in six separate rooms/areas of my house.  And then I moved to a new house that was already wired for sound and I was sold.  All that extra gear got sold off in a garage sale.  

 

 

 

Tell me more about how you have this set up.  I am running a lot of low voltage wire in my house right now and have several systems which is not ideal. 

 

 

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29 minutes ago, avguytx said:

 

I ripped the first initial 1200 or so CD's over the course of a couple of months on weekends and it went pretty quick.  It might've taken less than that.  I keep the rip speed on 24x or less to keep the errors down in case it's a sub-par CD.  

 

That is the beauty of EAC - Exact Audio Copy. It will tell you if you have errors. It will also compare rips to online data bases of know good rips. Nothing more annoying than ripping a bunch of CDs, putting the CDs in storage then listening to a song months or years later and hearing digital pops and clicks. If starting from scratch look into EAC. Not the easiest to use, but not difficult. If you are serious about quality music I suggest you look at EAC. Once properly ripped you have many options for playback.

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Agree fully with rplace. EAC is NOT a swiss Armny knife. It does ONE thing and does it as well as science will allow. It automatically varies rip speed to error correction. If EAC can't rip it, you need to talk to the NSA or somebody. 

 

Probably the best free deal for audio you will ever find. 

 

Dave

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EAC (Exact Audio Copy) has proven to me to be the most accurate CD ripper.  I've had CD's result with pops and clicks from other apps that were perfect from EAC.  Sometimes the CD is just too far gone and EAC can't recover it but I know from the results shown on screen not just later when I listen.  To compress to FLAC requires that you use the external compression program (FLAC encoder). There is a lot of instruction out there for EAC setup and use! 

 

In EAC or whatever you choose to use, save  "CD Artist" as the root folder name and "CD Title" as folder under the first.  Check the artist name before you start ripping so you don't wind up with multiple folders when doing other albums by the same artist like "Simon and Garfunkel" and "Simon & Garfunkel."  Also, it is helpful to have it number each track with 2 digits (01, 02...) so that they will always show up in the right order no matter how you are viewing the album.  Once I have ripped the CD I will use other methods to copy additional metadata (Additional artists, publisher info, album art, and notes) to the files.  You can do the whole album at once with MediaMonkey for example but there are better applications for that.   MediaMonkey doesn't work as well as it did in the past so I'm looking at alternatives.

 

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On 7/5/2018 at 8:15 AM, rplace said:

 

 

+ 1 on the backup in a remote location. Also on the Sonos Connect. I've got two Connects to physical systems and a few self powered speakers. No better UI out there for playing music than Sonos. Since 2002 or there about I've had systems based around Audiotron, WD, Popcorn hour, Squeezebox/Logitec, home grown PC, and probably a few others. Nothing even touches the Sonos.

 

Off topic a bit...

 

I agree that the Sonos UI and integration of personal library and streaming services is superior to anything else I've used.  

 

For 16/44.1 FLAC and Spotify Premium, I've been very happy with the Connect for the main system and Play5 in the Kitchen.  I am currently looking for a used Connect for a second system, but these things hold their value pretty well.

 

The one major flaw for Sonos, IMO, is the way it handles replaygain tags.  It is not as effective as Squeezebox and Foobar (on PC ) for leveling volume with track gain, which is a nice feature when listening to a playlist that is from multiple albums (often I will simply hit shuffle on the Blues genre in my library, so the playlist contains hundreds of albums). 

 

The way Sonos handles track gain is a mystery.  Supposedly, the amount of pos or neg gain becomes limited near the upper end of the volume control.  Also, it only works with viable volume, not fixed.  With the Squeezebox, you can select track gain or album gain, and use replaygain in variable and fixed output.

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