Which software to use for collection?

[Hicham]

Hi all,

I have decided to put my music collection on my computer. I want to use a lossless format and had chosen Flacc.

I need to rip about 500 cd's for now. I bought a 750GB hard disk, planning on getting a backup one soon. I don't want to lose weeks of hard work because of a hard disk failure!

I am looking for a program to rip the music. It needs to be good at getting titles and all that. I use EAC now and really like the quality work it can do.

Then I also need collection program so I can browse my collection easily. (Needs to have a good design and functionality. No iTunes). Preferably free if at all possible (If not I can look in the darker corners of the internet )


Next step will be to "audiophile" my hardware set up ( better soundcard, wireless throughout the house, decent Dax (thing that analogs your music?) but I have no money for that right now


Any comments, advice or links are appreciated!

[noddin0ff]

Not really advice, just comments...

750G is overkill for 500CDs. I've got around 800CD in under 300GB (lossless). The sweetspot for $$ vs GB in hard drives is in the 250 to 320GB range I think. So, you could save some money... Backup HD's are a very very good idea.

I haven't tried it yet, but for free flac support I'm betting the best bet is SlimServer. It's open source, supports a lot of formats and is constantly improving. I think it's browser-based? Plus, the Squeezebox is a nice thing to plan for.

I started a budget DAC thread here for future planning.

iTunes doesn't support flac but other than that its a nice program. I wouldn't dismiss it, unless you're set on flac.

[Feanor]

Hi all,

I have decided to put my music collection on my computer. I want to use a lossless format and had chosen Flacc.

I need to rip about 500 cd's for now. I bought a 750GB hard disk, planning on getting a backup one soon. I don't want to lose weeks of hard work because of a hard disk failure!

I am looking for a program to rip the music. It needs to be good at getting titles and all that. I use EAC now and really like the quality work it can do.

Then I also need collection program so I can browse my collection easily. (Needs to have a good design and functionality. No iTunes). Preferably free if at all possible (If not I can look in the darker corners of the internet )


Next step will be to "audiophile" my hardware set up ( better soundcard, wireless throughout the house, decent Dax (thing that analogs your music?) but I have no money for that right now


Any comments, advice or links are appreciated!

Again, not really advice, just comments ...

I use iTunes and it is not so bad, however I would like an alternative. It would be great if the alternative supports Apple Lossless format. There is the famous and powerful Foobar program but it is complex and the interface is ugly compared with iTunes.

As far as I'm concerned the biggest problem with iTunes is that it is a severe resource hog on your computer. Then too it supports only a few formats natively, (although those do include MP3). But if you have large collection in, say, FLAC format, you might be out of luck. iTunes does offers to convert certain not-natively-supported formats to an Apple format, or you could convert using dBPowerAmp, but either way it will be a slow process if you have a large collection.

[noddin0ff]

I believe the SlimServer will support Apples Lossless. You may have to have iTunes installed for this.

[recoveryone]

For what he's looking for in the complete setup I would direct him toward the Slim server setup along with the transporter if he wants to spend that kind of cash or go with the Squeezebox, which I feel is still at the audiophile level, and if he still wants higher quality he can still add a DAC. Just one hint/recommendation, Get a separate computer to be your server, don't have to be a barn burnner (800mhz) will do just have a 1gig of ram to help with the file searching.

[Mike Anderson]

I don't really like the SlimServer software; it's slow, buggy, and clunky. I only use it because I have a Squeezebox.

If you're not going to get a Squeezebox, then go with dbPowerAmp, it is superior by far:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

By the way, iTunes isn't even an option if you're ripping your CDs in FLAC.

[recoveryone]

I agree 100% Mike about the server software, but if he goes that direction might as well get the whole thing.

[pixelthis]

I try to keep it simple, just use the flac stuff off of their website and winamp to play it, also like APE files as well.
But I must disagree with the other poster, you cant get a big enough HD, I have downloaded a lot of complete albums in both flac AND ape
from newsgroups and am constantly running outta space.
BUT lossless in general is the way to go, MP3S had their place in the days of 56k modems, I feel their day is passing.
SO when do we get a compatible portable player that supports flac OR ape files?

[Feanor]

Hi all,

I have decided to put my music collection on my computer. I want to use a lossless format and had chosen Flacc.

I need to rip about 500 cd's for now. I bought a 750GB hard disk, planning on getting a backup one soon. I don't want to lose weeks of hard work because of a hard disk failure!

I am looking for a program to rip the music. It needs to be good at getting titles and all that. I use EAC now and really like the quality work it can do.

Then I also need collection program so I can browse my collection easily. (Needs to have a good design and functionality. No iTunes). Preferably free if at all possible (If not I can look in the darker corners of the internet )
...
Any comments, advice or links are appreciated!

I am, of course, assuming you use a Windows OS. If so, Foobar 2000 is worth consideration. It plays FLAC and APE files and pretty much everything else too.

The issue with Foobar is that it is user-hostile for configuration. Once you've got pass that hurdle it is no more difficult to use than anything else. And the beauty of it is that it's much more configurable than anything else available; also it's not hog of computer resources (as is iTunes for example). I really love the Album List that let's me sort by genre, album, performer, composer (-- important for us classical-loving dudes), or combinations

There are plugins you will need for Foobar, since the basic program is limited in some areas. Every one will want 'Column UI'; most will want the kernel streaming plugin to improve the sound and computer performance. I had to get a the pluging to play Apple Lossless, (ALAC), files. The good news is installing plugins is very easy.

Two links to check out are Foobar's own and the Wikipedia article ...

• http://www.foobar2000.org/
• http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index....tle=Foobar2000

[NuMystic]

IBUT lossless in general is the way to go, MP3S had their place in the days of 56k modems, I feel their day is passing.
SO when do we get a compatible portable player that supports flac OR ape files?

Already here... the iAudio X5supports FLAC, OGG and more with up to 60GB drive space.

And of course you can always RockBox your iPod to trade out the slick GUI for much greater feature support including FLAC and greater EQ control.

[royphil345]

I see a die-hard I-Tunes guy checking out Foobar... LOL

Were you able to get ASIO output? (may also require a plugin) If so, did it help with the performance of the Audiophile USB at all? Have one sitting here that I'd like to sell... Don't even feel comfortable selling it if I can't tell the buyer how to get it to work reliably. The system I had it on was pretty fast, although the wireless USB mouse / keyboard may have been hogging USB resources. I worry about someone who buys it having problems and being pissed...

I managed to get it working reasonably well. There was still a click or two during some difficult passages I was using as a test. Sometimes there would be a one second dropout towards the beginning of recordings that bothered me enough to make me try the internal card which is working out well.

[Feanor]

I see a die-hard I-Tunes guy checking out Foobar... LOL

Were you able to get ASIO output? (may also require a plugin) If so, did it help with the performance of the Audiophile USB at all? Have one sitting here that I'd like to sell... Don't even feel comfortable selling it if I can't tell the buyer how to get it to work reliably. The system I had it on was pretty fast, although the wireless USB mouse / keyboard may have been hogging USB resources. I worry about someone who buys it having problems and being pissed...

I managed to get it working reasonably well. There was still a click or two during some difficult passages I was using as a test. Sometimes there would be a one second dropout towards the beginning of recordings that bothered me enough to make me try the internal card which is working out well.

Roy, yes, I was able to use the Audiophile USB's ASIO drivers; I simply selected that driver in the Foobar 'Preferences' area.

The playback is a little different with Foobar vs. iTunes. The basic sound is the same as far as I can decern but there are fewer drop-outs, clicks, etc. The exception is when the screen saver kicks in; with Foobar, there is a pronounced drop-out, say 1/2 second, whereas there is none with iTunes.

Right now I use both Foobar and iTunes. Foobar I tend to use when doing other things on the computer; iTunes when jus listening to music.

[royphil345]

Hmmm... Sounds like a reasonable improvement... except for the longer dropout when the screensaver kicks in...

I don't use a screensaver. Did notice a slight dropout when firing up full-screen visualizations on media players, even with the internal card. I just try not to do anything drastic with the computer while recording. No problems at all under normal conditions with the internal card. No occasional dropouts at the beginning of recordings... Really I could have made do with the Audiophile USB. The dropout at the beginning of some recordings scared me. Didn't want to be making a bunch of CDs with dropouts on them and not finding out until I spent considerable time on them.

Thanks Feanor!!!

[recoveryone]

I see that this post is heading into the computer playback only mode. I think we need to ask Hicham how is he going to playback the music once he converts it. That way we can help him more. I was getting a bit lost on last few post, due that I was always thinking playing back on AV system. a D D Dee moment lol

[beaver]

what about the windows media centre? any comment about it?