iPod Archiving my CD Collection

[ironjaw]

A quick question: I'm archiving all my cd collection on the External Hard Drive. Any ideas what the best way is? I have alot of CD's and its easier for me to have access of them digitally so that I can store the cd's safe and sound.

Another question an Apple Lossless file is it advisable to re-encode the file at a lower bitrate e.g. 192 AAC?

 

[rtdgoldfish]

I've used iTunes to do this to my CD collection. I used 256kb/s AAC and I've got all the music on my server now.

What questions do you have about the process?? Its pretty easy, just pop in a CD and tell iTunes to import the tracks. Make sure its accessing the CDDB first though otherwise you will get a bunch of files named Track 1, Track 2, Track 3, etc.

 

[killmoms]

Well, if you want to truly archive your CDs, use Apple Lossless. If you just want a lossy music collection that's "good enough" for computer/iPod listening, use a lossy codec like AAC at 192 or 256kbit/s.

Personally, I consider the CDs themselves the backups, since I listen from my lossy collection most often. Perhaps one day if I invest in high-end stereo equipment that reveals the flaws of 192kbit AAC I'll move to an Apple Lossless archive for serious listening.

 

[ironjaw]

So I can actually rip all my Cd's in Apple Lossless and store the cd's away and if in the furture when i get a bigger hard drive i need to reencode to say 192 AAC (all my collection is in 128 AAC) I can do that by using the apple lossless file?

 

[Super Macho Man]

So I can actually rip all my Cd's in Apple Lossless and store the cd's away and if in the furture when i get a bigger hard drive i need to reencode to say 192 AAC (all my collection is in 128 AAC) I can do that by using the apple lossless file?

Yes exactly... or just forget about converting to AAC and listen to the Apple Lossless files themselves.

 

[j26]

So I can actually rip all my Cd's in Apple Lossless and store the cd's away and if in the furture when i get a bigger hard drive i need to reencode to say 192 AAC (all my collection is in 128 AAC) I can do that by using the apple lossless file?

Yep, but I just ripped to 128 AAC and kept the cd's. If I want to re-encode at a higher bitrate I'll just pop the cd's through again. I don't see the point in keeping the cd's on a hard drive in lossless format - it seems like a waste of space to me (but someone may be able to point out a very valid reason, other than the fact that they only listen to lossless )
I have my music on my macbooks hd and backed up on an external and on the iPod, so if the cd's got destroyed in a fire or something, I still have the ripped version on one or t'other, so the loss to me wouldn't be huge.

 

[jeremy.king]

I don't see the point in keeping the cd's on a hard drive in lossless format

If I want to re-encode at a higher bitrate I'll just pop the cd's through again....
the cd's got destroyed in a fire or something

I think you addressed your own concern. Why would you rather re-rip, if you start with lossless - you can compress/convert as needed without having to fetch the CDs. If you lose your CDs, do you really want to be stuck with 128Kb AAC?

 

[dllavaneras]

So I can actually rip all my Cd's in Apple Lossless and store the cd's away and if in the furture when i get a bigger hard drive i need to reencode to say 192 AAC (all my collection is in 128 AAC) I can do that by using the apple lossless file?

You can encode any song into a smaller file with a smaller bitrate. But if you have an 128 AAC file and wnat to convert it to lossless, the file will only get bigger, not sound better

 

[j26]

I think you addressed your own concern. Why would you rather re-rip, if you start with lossless - you can compress/convert as needed without having to fetch the CDs. If you lose your CDs, do you really want to be stuck with 128Kb AAC?

128 AAC's fine by me really - I'm not a purist, I just like a nice tune**.
And if they got destroyed in a fire, I'm sure the insurance would set me up nicely to buy back the few that I might want to repurchase, and I could expand my collection by buying more with whatever's left over, so it'd be no biggie.

On top of that I don't fancy buying an external hd just for my collection. It's 7 gigs compressed - I'd hate to think what it would be like uncompressed.











** I sound like my Ma!!

 

[netdog]

Keep two libraries...

1) Archive library using Apple Lossless. This way you will always have archives of your CDs with every bit of information on them. Ideally, archives should always be made at the finest data resolution supported by the original source, and Apple Lossless achieves this goal while cutting data space required almost in half.

2) Make a second library using AAC with a resolution of 192-VBR for your iPod.

It takes a little organization to keep things synced once you have created your initial base library, but it is worth the effort if you need your iPod loaded to the gills. If not, just drag and drop Apple Lossless files onto the iPod as needed (if you have a modern iPod) and forgo the 2nd library.

 

[netdog]

So I can actually rip all my Cd's in Apple Lossless and store the cd's away and if in the furture when i get a bigger hard drive i need to reencode to say 192 AAC (all my collection is in 128 AAC) I can do that by using the apple lossless file?

Make sure you have two drives for your music, one to be used as a backup. If your primary drive fails, it will be little consolation that you have the original CDs as backup. Ripping a large CD collection takes a lot of time. You won't want to have to do it again. I actually keep a 3rd copy of my library off-site.

 

[balamw]

Personally, I archive all my CDs as a single FLAC+CUE from EAC, I've burned the source code for FLAC and a copy of EAC on each archive DVD too.

I am also in the process of creating an Apple Lossless version of the archive from the FLAC files, for better tagging and track-by-track access...

Unfortunately all of this is Windows based, since there's nothing that really compares with EAC for the Mac, and I don't have Toast so I can't mount the FLAC+CUE to rip with iTunes on the Macs.

B

 

[ironjaw]

Make sure you have two drives for your music, one to be used as a backup. If your primary drive fails, it will be little consolation that you have the original CDs as backup. Ripping a large CD collection takes a lot of time. You won't want to have to do it again. I actually keep a 3rd copy of my library off-site.

Hmm, having a third drive for off-site reason is a good idea - i better look into it. What I was considering was to store my small collection of cd's in binders up in the loft to make more room and make a lossless copy of them on the big hard drive for archive reasons.

And then in the future if i decide to go from AAC 128 to AAC 192 I can use the lossless files instead of fetching the cd

 

[wowser]

The only time I use lossless is when I borrow, and then accidently rip, a CD from my local library.

I'm currently importing in a lot of CDs at 160kbps for use on an iPod Mini with Shure E2Cs. Will that be enough?