# Ripping Recommendations?



## Roger (May 17, 2003)

After much thought, I have decided to to store my fairly large collection of Cds and Vinyl in MP3 format mostly to free up some shelf space.

I intend to rip and catalogue the lot which is gonna take me ages.

I have tried various ripping software and have noticed quite a difference in the speed of ripping. This is gonna be an important factor given the amount of ripping that I am facing.

Has anyone any recommendations for ripping software that is quick?

PC is an oldish AMD Athlon XP 3.2gHz.

Roger


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## Running_man (Dec 2, 2005)

I've just converted all of my CD collection to data using iTunes. It looks to the internet to download all the track names and in most cases can get the album artwork too. I ripped mine using Apple's default compression but you can set it to rip to MP3 if you want. Apparently, ripping at 128kb using Apples takes up less filespace than MP3 and it's supposed to be better quality.

You can get a USB turntable that converts your vinyl to data and then drag it into your playlist.

The organisation of your music can be randomised or you can create your own playlists. I now have my laptop connected to the amplifier and can select the track I want at the click of a mouse. I've used loads of different music player software over the years and IMO, none compare to iTunes.

Andrew.


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## limey (Aug 24, 2006)

Roger,

I quite agree with Andrew, although others WILL be along to say nay.

I have used Musicmatch, Windows Media Player, etc. and IMO iTunes just makes the whole experience easier. Of course I have an iPod, so that is a big part of it. The playlist feature is great, for example, play 25 random songs from a specific genre.

I did make a conscious decision to use MP3 as my format of choice. This is so that I can move the files if need be, or if I ever decide to switch to a different player.

We talked about this before Christmas, hooking up a turntable to a pre-amp then to the PC, or a USB turntable. I am going to try and get someone I know to do it for me







Save me a lot of time, and I'll give him the vinyl when it's done. He has a CD recorder he hooks up to his DJ mixer, so he can just play the track or 12" and we have it on CD, unknown format, though, probably WAV.

My entire CD collection is in storage. As is my vinyl, but that's 80% crap, and 0% on my iPod.









What I need to do is get my DVD collection on the PC.... and I have tried but didn't want to fork out $100 for software and not have it work. Ideally I want to watch my DVD's on the iPod. Anybody done this? [sorry, Roger, don't want to hijack your thread]


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## nursegladys (Aug 4, 2006)

There is one turntable to USB device on the market now going for under Â£110, I'm not up to speed on other methods of ripping external sources, good luck with all that tho


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## Running_man (Dec 2, 2005)

You can get the USB turntable at Maplin:

It's PC and Mac compatible and it comes with all the software to rip your vinyl.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...ES&doy=17m1

Andrew.


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## limey (Aug 24, 2006)

OOhh, that's pretty trick. Play 78's at 33 and then convert them using software.

The bundled software, Audacity, is pretty good too. I had to use this last year to try and bring out the audio on a recorded conversation. Worked out OK, took some playing around with the software, but the problems were mine.


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

I'll have to try itunes. I want to do the same yet have used Media Player up to now.


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## murph (Aug 14, 2006)

I just use lame for mp3s, I don't know if it's the fastest around now but the speed/quality always seemed to be well up there. Plenty of frontends now if you need something easy to use and free. EAC, cd xtractor, cdex, blade encoder ...


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## Who. Me? (Jan 12, 2007)

Hi

If you're going to rip vinyl, you'll probably have to rip to WAV first, then convert the files to MP3. I did when I did my parents' vinyl a couple of years ago (not sure if there are any fast encoders that can rip straight to MP3 from a souncard input).

The bit that takes the most amount of time though is chopping the album file up into tracks. I downloaded an automatic MP3 splitter (google it) that also split WAV files. It worked fine with louder albums, but got a bit confused over quiet stuff. Even so, it was quicker than chopping up WAV files 'by hand' with an editor.

Either way, you'll need lots of hard-disk space and shed loads of RAM to manipulate WAV files.

Also, I found 128kb to be a bit weak for archiving music. It's OK for iPods etc, but on a proper stereo, treble goes all 'slushy' (best description I heard was 'sounded like it was recorded inside a radiator').

I rip everything at 320kb now, which is good enough for listening to in the car. 320kb would rule out iTunes and probably mean Real Player instead though.

Hope that doesn't sound 'preachy'. I've been there and learnt a few lessons.


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## murph (Aug 14, 2006)

Who. Me? said:


> I rip everything at 320kb now, which is good enough for listening to in the car. 320kb would rule out iTunes and probably mean Real Player instead though.
> 
> Hope that doesn't sound 'preachy'. I've been there and learnt a few lessons.


Lame handles higher bitrates, in fact it's better at higher than 128 or vbr. If you're keeping the files I wouldn't go below 192kbs either but I do use 192 for my daughter's and father's archos players. I vary the bitrate for my own use depending on the source.


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## Roger (May 17, 2003)

Thanks for the ideas everyone.

I was hoping that ITunes wouldnt be mentioned...I suffered this awful software when I had an Ipod...it was the the pits as far as I am concerned. I have tried about six or seven different programs all of which were better than ITunes.

I will try Lame..thanks for that.

I have been ripping vinyl for a couple of years on and off and have the kit to do it as I prefer to use an arm and pickup which I like.....its just a dauntingly big job!

Thanks for the thoughts

Roger


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

i use foobar to convert cd to mp3 (using lame) ,its easy free and quick ,it also depends on what audio quality you want, if higher quality (tho bigger files than mp3) i would use either flac or monkey audio which are both lossless.


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