Archiving CD's...Using A Hard Drive

[Already In Use]

I'm considering putting my music CD's onto a hard drive saved as windows media files. I would need to buy a drive to do this. Will the quality remain OK? Or will I waste a bunch of time and money. It would be handy for me to have the music on a HD for portability.



Thanks...old dog contemplating some more new tricks.

[mmbongo]

Saving them as windows media files would be a waste of time, yes. You'll want to make them MP3's, as everything in the world plays them.

You can make them lossless files as well, but they will take up more space.

The only problem with putting all your files on a portable drive is how to back it up for when the drive dies...and it will. What kind of setup do you have now? How much drive space do you have? How many CD's do you want to archive?

[Already In Use]

Between the folks in our group we have about 1200 cd's. I can play them as windows media files off of any lap top. I can covert them to mp3's as needed for my personal Ipod device I guess. Hadnt thought about that. The laptops will play thru my home audio system too. The guy I'm working on this with said a 300 gig HD will hold the music..I have no clue. I was looking at a 500 gig portable on newegg for 50 bucks on sale. He has started doing a drive for 2 people already maybe I should sample the tunes and see how they sound first.

For back up I can load my computer with the files before I do back ups...but I back up to a click free backup device...Ugggggg!

[PhiDeck]

If you don't want to lose fidelity, rip the CDs in FLAC format (~2:1 lossless compression). Then make lossy files (eg. MP3) as needed.

[Babaghanoush]

Originally Posted by Already In Use

I'm considering putting my music CD's onto a hard drive saved as windows media files. I would need to buy a drive to do this. Will the quality remain OK? Or will I waste a bunch of time and money. It would be handy for me to have the music on a HD for portability.

If you want to archive your CD's without ANY loss in quality, check out exact audio copy (EAC). I've been using it for years. It will make an exact CD image on your drive which you can then burn to replace your CD if ever needed. I usually make my image then rip the tunes to media player from the image since EAC has many error checking capabilities that media player, etc. doesn't. The images can then be compressed (winzip/winrar/etc.) to save some space if that's a problem.

You will lose quality if you archive with mp3, wma or any other lossy format.

[Already In Use]

Ok Thanks for the info.

[mmbongo]

A 300 gig drive ain't gonna come close to cutting it. You should go at least 1.5tb minimum...2tb even better.

[elgecko]

If you don't already own an external hard drive, definitely get one and backup the files on your computer/laptop.

[longfinger]

What's your goal here? Are you going to listen to music now via your CD's or are you going to listen to music via a computer and music files on a computer? Are you copying CD's to have a backup while you continue to use the CD's, or are you copying the CD's to have computer files for daily use, while the original CD's are archived on a shelf?

The reason why I ask is that it seems to me, that the CD is the archive, and the computer files will be the active use files. As such, if you plan on keeping your CD's and not selling them, the copies can be lower quality compressed files like AAC, Mp3 or if you want WMV. Once you import and convert all your 1200 CD's you'll have easy access to all the songs, some 12 000 - 20 000 individual titles. You can back up the compressed files onto another hard drive. You'll always have the original CD's archived on a shelf somewhere to go back to if needed.

[Stilettoprefer]

I have an external hard drive. One terabyte. It comes in handy. And I just burn my cd's to Mp3's and store them on my computer then backup to the hard drive. The quality loss isn't noticeable with my setup (decent digital stereo or headphones).

[jondog]

The thing that slows me down with this process is titling the files.

[odin70]

What is a cd? I have all my music on itunes now..Never going back.

[12bass]

I second the recommendation of using EAC to rip CDs to FLAC. This gives you lossless (exactly the same as CD) copies of all of your music which can be converted to lossy formats as necessary. Level 8 is the maximum compression setting.

[Babaghanoush]

Originally Posted by 12bass

I second the recommendation of using EAC to rip CDs to FLAC. This gives you lossless (exactly the same as CD) copies of all of your music which can be converted to lossy formats as necessary. Level 8 is the maximum compression setting.

The OP should know that EAC can create images in a number of different formats. FLAC, WAV, etc. There are options here and some formats are not supported by some players.

Also, someone said the CD is the archive? That might not be the best approach unless you don't use the CD ever. As far as space goes. You can backup numerous CD images onto a DVD and many, many more can be burned onto blu-ray (50 gb).

In your scenario, options are a good thing and you've got a bunch of them. When you decide what exactly it is that you want to do, you'll find the ripping/backup process easy. Keeping a large music library in order with style, year, composers, performers, etc., that's where the pain comes. I've yet to find software that I can enthusiastically endorse for that.

[Febs]

Originally Posted by jondog

The thing that slows me down with this process is titling the files.

Why? Just about any decent ripping program like EAC or dbPowerAmp can populate ID3 information automatically.

[12bass]

EAC can easily create file names like "01 - artist - album - song.flac" by using freedb.

Lots of info below.... though it might seem complicated at first, it is actually fairly straightforward.

EAC Guides

[Already In Use]

Originally Posted by longfinger

What's your goal here? Are you going to listen to music now via your CD's or are you going to listen to music via a computer and music files on a computer? Are you copying CD's to have a backup while you continue to use the CD's, or are you copying the CD's to have computer files for daily use, while the original CD's are archived on a shelf?

The reason why I ask is that it seems to me, that the CD is the archive, and the computer files will be the active use files. As such, if you plan on keeping your CD's and not selling them, the copies can be lower quality compressed files like AAC, Mp3 or if you want WMV. Once you import and convert all your 1200 CD's you'll have easy access to all the songs, some 12 000 - 20 000 individual titles. You can back up the compressed files onto another hard drive. You'll always have the original CD's archived on a shelf somewhere to go back to if needed.

The goal is the ease of use and having all the music saved in one place. Perhaps archive was used a bit broad. Just about all my music playback is done thru a device. The cd's just sit around despite the fact that I have a pretty decent home audio system.

The Cd's would remain sitting around.

Our DVD movies just sit around too. We have been streaming movies from the net to the TV's in the home. Another friend out all his movies on a device that lets them watch on TV as they cue their DVD's up like a movie jukebox.

[longfinger]

Originally Posted by Already In Use

The goal is the ease of use and having all the music saved in one place. Perhaps archive was used a bit broad. Just about all my music playback is done thru a device. The cd's just sit around despite the fact that I have a pretty decent home audio system.

The Cd's would remain sitting around.

Our DVD movies just sit around too. We have been streaming movies from the net to the TV's in the home. Another friend out all his movies on a device that lets them watch on TV as they cue their DVD's up like a movie jukebox.

In that case, just get an external portable hard disk, hook it up to your computer, make sure it has an Internet connection (to automatically get CD names and track info) and start importing the CD's one by one into iTunes. (If you have an iPod, you'll need to use iTunes). I think AAC at anywhere from 128 to 256kbps stereo should be ok, depending on the CD original. (ie. if you have CD's of old blues and jazz recordings of the 1920's to 1950's, you can import them in MONO at 80 kbps to save space.) Newer recordings from the 70's till now may benefit from a 256kbps import setting. Get a setting that you like and import away. If certain CD are especially important, you could use a lossless import setting for those CD's only.

1200 CDs would convert to about 50GB to 150GB depending on how long in minutes each CD is, and what import settings of compression you choose to use. (Currently, pocket sized hard drives can be bought for less than $100 in capacities of 500GB and more)

What you're doing is making working copies of the CD's to use, while the CD become stored and protected items on a shelf. As such, making and storing CD disk images for re-mounting/writing latter on, seems to not be the effective approach to take.

[Already In Use]

Thanks a bunch for taking the time to explain everybody. I never thought to use I Tunes.

[jondog]

Originally Posted by Febs

Why? Just about any decent ripping program like EAC or dbPowerAmp can populate ID3 information automatically.

I'm just using iTunes, but the mac in my rehearsal space isn't hooked up to the net, is that preventing automatic song naming?