Well, my music collection is rather small. If you count the legal side of things. But... I was wondering what I should I rip my music too and how to organize it. I currently have it like... Music Folder>Band Name>Album Name>Band - Song.mp3. Also, I use CDex to rip my music to .mp3 but i've also tried .flac as well. I rip at 320Kbps for my .mp3s. I just want to know if I can improve on what I have and use. Looking for opinions as well. Thanks!
I use iTunes (omg bring the hate), and I like it. As long as you use a program that edits the ID3 (I think that's what they're called) tags, then you're good. I keep everything in .mp3 so it's compatible with everything. You can also use iTunes to rip music as well and it'll automatically add it to your library.
Even though pretty much all music programs have this, I also like iTunes for the ability to "keep music folder organized". Any time you change something in the app, it'll change the file it's referencing as well, so that everything stays together. It organizes the music by Artist > Album > ## Song.mp3. Plus you can tell it to automatically add a file to your music folder if you drag and drop something into iTunes, as well as scan the music folder and update any time you throw something in there.
I've got about 90 GB of music and it's handled it all pretty well.
Plus if you want to re-rip a CD, you can tell it to replace the old files. When I first had my computer I ripped everything at 128 because I was a nub, but then I went back and re-ripped everything I could to 192. One day I'll re-rip again as 320 .wav files, but I'll need a much much bigger harddrive and a lot of time to do this. (Much of my music was downloaded legally [hooray free downloading for college students using a particular service!], and the rest is ripped from hundreds of CDs, which I either own or have access to [i.e. parents' or siblings' music]).
Even though pretty much all music programs have this, I also like iTunes for the ability to "keep music folder organized". Any time you change something in the app, it'll change the file it's referencing as well, so that everything stays together. It organizes the music by Artist > Album > ## Song.mp3. Plus you can tell it to automatically add a file to your music folder if you drag and drop something into iTunes, as well as scan the music folder and update any time you throw something in there.
I've got about 90 GB of music and it's handled it all pretty well.
Plus if you want to re-rip a CD, you can tell it to replace the old files. When I first had my computer I ripped everything at 128 because I was a nub, but then I went back and re-ripped everything I could to 192. One day I'll re-rip again as 320 .wav files, but I'll need a much much bigger harddrive and a lot of time to do this. (Much of my music was downloaded legally [hooray free downloading for college students using a particular service!], and the rest is ripped from hundreds of CDs, which I either own or have access to [i.e. parents' or siblings' music]).
.WAVs are uncompressed, no such thing as bitrate with them. Since you seem to want lossless encoding, I'd recommend .FLAC. It'll still take a good chunk of hard drive space, that 90 GB of music will probably get around 450GB depending on what it's encoded at now.mtb0minime wrote:
One day I'll re-rip again as 320 .wav files.
Personally, I use Winamp. My folder structure is Band > Album > Title.MP3 (I only encode triphop and jazz in FLAC, I'm fine with everything else at 320kbs MP3.
For playing, I use Winamp. For organizing, I used Media Monkey to do a complete overhaul renaming most files based on the folder rules above. Also pretty good for album covers.
What's the difference between uncompressed .wav and .flac? Since .flac is "lossless", I imagine it's the same as .wav... or is it just slightly compressed?
I'm going to say up front that if I don't own the CD/cassette/vinyl to music on my drives, I at least have the game or movie it's associated with, and that shall continue until I can buy soundtracks for a fraction of the cost of the original title production.Naturn wrote:
Well, my music collection is rather small. If you count the legal side of things. But... I was wondering what I should I rip my music too and how to organize it. I currently have it like... Music Folder>Band Name>Album Name>Band - Song.mp3. Also, I use CDex to rip my music to .mp3 but i've also tried .flac as well. I rip at 320Kbps for my .mp3s. I just want to know if I can improve on what I have and use. Looking for opinions as well. Thanks!
Honestly, organize it by what you listen to, and then archive the bulk of it elsewhere. I have multiple levels of music organization:
1) media/music/commons: stuff I play a lot idly while gaming, posting, sorting mail, browsing or working about the shop/house; subfolders for sufficiently large categories
2) media/music/category/author/album: stuff I care about enough to organize (duplicates stuff from commons, but I have 1TB to play with)
3) media/music/bin/archive1, 2, 3, etc.: what I don't care about enough to sort through
I've played with playlist software dozens of times, but I think just ctrl-clicking a selection out of windows explorer for winamp/wmp to play is more efficient.
Last edited by unnamednewbie13 (2009-01-27 23:10:34)
Its compressed. At least it should be. I was trying to compress it and ripped uncompressed wave files were just a bit smaller than .flac which is odd and I used the highest compression level.mtb0minime wrote:
What's the difference between uncompressed .wav and .flac? Since .flac is "lossless", I imagine it's the same as .wav... or is it just slightly compressed?
What do you guys use to rip/compress?
For ripping CDs I recommend EAC http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/with LAME as encoder http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php.
Settings should be variable bitrate, V2 or better, V0.
My folder structure is Artist -> [Year]Album -> titlenumber - title.
For organizing the id-tags I use foobar2000 http://www.foobar2000.org/ with a playlist plugin called foo_facetshttp://foobar2000.audiohq.de/foo_facets/. The advantage foobar has is that you have no loading times while browsing through your library. If your music contains some active torrents, I recommend not to use iTunes, because it alters the id-tags when only playing the file. Your torrent-program will no longer recognize that you have 100% of the file.
Settings should be variable bitrate, V2 or better, V0.
My folder structure is Artist -> [Year]Album -> titlenumber - title.
For organizing the id-tags I use foobar2000 http://www.foobar2000.org/ with a playlist plugin called foo_facetshttp://foobar2000.audiohq.de/foo_facets/. The advantage foobar has is that you have no loading times while browsing through your library. If your music contains some active torrents, I recommend not to use iTunes, because it alters the id-tags when only playing the file. Your torrent-program will no longer recognize that you have 100% of the file.
Last edited by mr.hrundi (2009-01-28 06:56:52)
easy cd/da extractor is what I used to rip cds
does anyone even buy cds anymore?
does anyone even buy cds anymore?
WMP does the ripping/organizing fine.
Finds track info, rips into music>artist>album.
Finds track info, rips into music>artist>album.
Small hourglass island
Always raining and foggy
Use an umbrella
Always raining and foggy
Use an umbrella
I rip my CDs using Windows Media Player - mp3's at 320kbps. I don't bother worrying about HD space - I can always buy more if I need it.
WMP also organises my music folder for me. It does it like so:
Artist --> Album --> "<Track number> <Artist> <Title>.mp3"
Or if it's a compilation CD:
Various Artists --> Album --> "<Track number> <Artist> <Title>.mp3"
---
Though I don't really see why it matters how your music folder is organised, especially if you're using a player that has a library that organises itself.
WMP also organises my music folder for me. It does it like so:
Artist --> Album --> "<Track number> <Artist> <Title>.mp3"
Or if it's a compilation CD:
Various Artists --> Album --> "<Track number> <Artist> <Title>.mp3"
---
Though I don't really see why it matters how your music folder is organised, especially if you're using a player that has a library that organises itself.
Yes I buy cd's and vinyl.prototype wrote:
easy cd/da extractor is what I used to rip cds
does anyone even buy cds anymore?
To stay on topic, I use Easy CD Ripper encoding at 320
Thanks guys for the insight! Greatly appreciated!
i can see why someone would buy vinyl but not cds
unless it something old school and impossible to find elsewhere
unless it something old school and impossible to find elsewhere
Music Folder > Artist > Album (with album artwork) > Songs
Thats what I use to ripmr.hrundi wrote:
For ripping CDs I recommend EAC
and thats what I use to compressprototype wrote:
easy cd/da extractor is what I used to rip cds
does anyone even buy cds anymore?
And yes, I still buy them otherwise Parker gets angry at me
Or $1.50.prototype wrote:
i can see why someone would buy vinyl but not cds
unless it something old school and impossible to find elsewhere