So I was looking over my cds last night, and I realized that I have way too many. I used to always want more, but now I’m thinking that was a dumb move. I mean, how important is it to have a physical copy of Back In Black, or Appetite For Destruction. (no comments jizzy).
So I was thinking of making them all into FLAC files and making it alot neater. So…
#1 - Where do I start? What software is good to rip or encode or whatever?
#2 - What size drive would I need? It’s around 1000 cds.
#3 - Are there any good players out there? No point in doing all this if I can only listen to them from my computer.
#4 - Is it relatively simple? I’m in no mood for difficulty at this point.
#1 - EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and FLAC (encoder, plugin and frontend)
#2 - Results of encoding vary, so let’s say average 70min CD is 500mb. 1000CDs x 500mb = 500 000mb. So it’s a 500gb drive. I’d suggest getting a bit more, 750mb maybe… there are many FLAC rips on the internet you’ll might wanna grab to add to your collection.
#3 - foobar2000 supports FLAC right away (along with many other formats) and it’s free, but really, right now even WMP and Winamp support FLAC.
#4 - I’d say no. There’s a guide somewhere which tells how to configure EAC for proper and quality cd-rips. Once you set it up (it’s like 20 minutes most), the rest is a breeze, you’ll just have to wait for the ripping/encoding to be done, pop another CD, press the freedb button, so EAC will fetch the track/artist info and continue on with the ripping.
I used cdparanoia which is probably the best CD ripping software tool out there. It takes a bit longer but you know you get a very good rip. Even a smudge or fingerprint is picked up through this. This is for linux/OS X. I got a good but cheap external CD drive for the ripping - I wouldn’t really trust the default drives that come with systems. I got this drive and it’s done a very good job:
As far as FLAC players - I didn’t want to play off it. I simply ripped all my CDs to FLAC and then from there converted them to MP3s on a smaller hard drive to carry around. When I want to burn a CD it takes no time at all (converting from FLAC -> WAV takes a few seconds a file).
FLAC is a good option because if there is another format that comes out which is way better you can always convert all the FLACs over without any pain (ie. ripping them all over again).
To do the actual ripping and encoding to FLAC (it even downloads the Tag information and automatically tags it):