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Going to rip 2000 cds. Which software?

At 63 years old I've decided it's finally time to make the move to a digital library.  I've spent hours and hours on this forum reading about servers, streamers, music servers, nas systems and modded Mac Minis.  I'm more than confused.  I'm pretty much ready to just buy a new transport and be done with it. 

But.... I play "cuts."  I hardly ever play an entire record or cd and would like the ability to choose what's playing from the couch.

I know that the first step is ripping cds.  I have a couple of questions;

1.  Which software should I use?  I am concerned about speed and indexing.  I'm a jazzhead and have quite a few recordings by the same artists that have recorded multiple versions of the same tune.  I want to make sure they are indexed properly.  I would also like a program that doesn't take all day to make a copy.

2.  I can use either Mac or PC.  I would prefer Mac but would use a PC if it is more future proof.  I have a Macbook Air and a PC laptop and both have dual 2 terrabyte external drives.

3. I would also consider a Music Server with a nas rig.

If I do a music server with nas I'd like to keep the price around $2000.

Thanks to all of you.

--Bob


jzzmusician
ben2300's avatar
ben2300
6 posts
 
Hi All.
For Mac i'm using the XLD on my MBP free and simple. However, my rip server was always vertexbox it is free and always up and running. I had it for the last 5 years with only 2 power outage that i can remember. beside CDs on FLAC i also use it to rip Bluray and DVD back than. 

the only Mod i did was to feed it with linear power supply with that all the rips will sound so much better.
mribob
200 posts
 

I'd like to jump onto this thread and ask several additional questions of viewers.

I am using Jriver MC 21 on a PC laptop running Windows 10, and using a SSD HD. I have two 3 TB WD portable HD's, and a third used as backup. Since my laptop only has a SSD, it has no internal CD tray. I am purchasing a usb external CD R/W drive coming shortly. I plan on installing dbPoweramp to use as my ripping/burning software, and use FLAC as my preferred file format.

Questions:

How do I direct the new ripped CD flac file into my library on JRiver on drive D? Before I used the internal ripping software from JRiver when my laptop had an internal drive. I was not happy with its capability. Not sure how to synch the dbpoweramp software into JRiver MC library. Don't want it on my internal SSD drive, do I? Its only 250 GB.

Is there any software than can help recover my wav. files transferred
 from another hard drive. I experienced the frustration of lack of transfer/inclusion of meta data on the wav. files. They appear only as a series of numbers/letters, without allowing me to know artist or album, or song. Would Roon work for this function, and if so, how?

Thanks in advance for any assistance to this older computer illiterate geek, who enjoys the convenience
 and quality of computer audio.

mribob
200 posts
 
I should have opened more of the above posts before I wrote in..I read Chris's well researched link on how to install and configure dbPoweramp, which I purchased today...Thanks for that...my bad for not taking advantage of info already covered.
learsfool
1,206 posts
 
I have ripped almost 1000 CDs using iTunes on my MacBook Pro.  It has worked great, however, now I need to transfer the files to an external hard drive.  Does anyone have any advice about doing this?  I think I need to reformat the drive so that it keeps the backups in a separate place from my music files, yes??  I copied a couple of articles about it, but I am a little confused over how to proceed.  I also have no idea about how to find the files on that drive afterwards - or is this not an issue??  
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
3,718 posts
 
Lear - I have fumbled around learning how to do this myself (changing the location of my iTunes ripped CDs from computer to external hard drive). Search the internet and Apple support and see what the experts advise. It might be no harder than dragging the ENTIRE iTunes folder over to your ext. hard drive (I still have iTunes on my computer but do not use it...day to day). Given the number of files you will be moving, this might take some time to complete. Once iTunes is on your hard drive, when you open iTunes to play music, you will have to tell iTunes the new location of the library. You will want to direct it to a file on your hard drive in iTunes that has the .itl extension...That’s dot-eye-tea-el (just in case characters are not completely legible). I direct iTunes to the appropriate library by holding down the Option key while clicking the iTunes icon. This should open a pop up that says, "Choose Library". Select the highlighted choose library button. This will open Finder. In Finder locate and click on your hard drive which should be listed. In the iTunes folder on your hard drive you should be able to find a file called, "iTunes Library.itl". Click on it and then click on "Open" in the bottom right of the screen to complete this selection. iTunes should now access the music files on your hard drive. I use BitPerfect rather than Audirvana or JRiver and I have to tell that where the music is located. When I start BitPerfect it will ask two things. First step is to direct it to the .xml file in the iTunes folder on your hard drive (find and click on this then click Select or Open bottom right). Second is to direct it to the actual music library on the hard drive. I do this by clicking on "Music" in the iTunes media folder. Hope that works for you. It is what I use on a MacBook Air. By the way, when ripping CDs you will have to identify the external hard drive as the new destination otherwise files will be saved on your computer. When iTunes is open, go to (Preferences?) and set the external hard drive as the new destination folder. Going from memory on this. Haven’t had to do this part in a while so you might have to hunt a bit in iTunes for setting the library location for ripped files...could be under an "Advanced" button. Good luck. Don’t hesitate sending me email if you think that will help.
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