Physical Music Collections

[rowdyhillrambler]

Alright, what is lossless.?.? I speak no jargon, and am equal to a monkey.

[Kentf14]

Lossless (as I understand it) generates a bit-for-bit copy of your CD. If needed, you could take the compressed digital file and use it to burn a perfect copy of the original CD.
Per the Wikipedia "A lossless compressed format stores data in less space without losing any information. The original, uncompressed data can be recreated from the compressed version."
There are a lot of formats out there, but a lot of people recommend FLAC since it's open source and is unlikely to go away based on some corporate decision (i.e. apple etc).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format

I've recently undertaken the SLOW process of ripping about 1,000 CDs and did a little research before selecting a format. I always swore that I'd never box up my CDs until a decent music server came around that could handle lossless. My wife is pretty happy to get rid of the massive CD storage furniture. The only downside... I've started stocking up on vinyl LPs ;-)

[pdmtong]

the time sink is ripping them...my choice is lossless and later if you want to shrink the file size convert the lossless file to something smaller. its not a big deal to go with a small file until you play the file back on a real stereo - not your car, not your headphones, not a boom box. a real stereo. anything less than lossless sounds like garbage.

Lossless (as I understand it) generates a bit-for-bit copy of your CD. If needed, you could take the compressed digital file and use it to burn a perfect copy of the original CD.
Per the Wikipedia "A lossless compressed format stores data in less space without losing any information. The original, uncompressed data can be recreated from the compressed version."
There are a lot of formats out there, but a lot of people recommend FLAC since it's open source and is unlikely to go away based on some corporate decision (i.e. apple etc).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format

I've recently undertaken the SLOW process of ripping about 1,000 CDs and did a little research before selecting a format. I always swore that I'd never box up my CDs until a decent music server came around that could handle lossless. My wife is pretty happy to get rid of the massive CD storage furniture. The only downside... I've started stocking up on vinyl LPs ;-)

there is no speedy way to burn discs; thats why I wanted to be sure I burned the best copy possible to my hard drive, and then convert them to 320kps for iphone/ipod. yes, that means I have two file sizes for each song.

I added a column in the file descriptor so i could see the bit rates, in order to keep the versions organized.

its a huge PITA but life at 128kps to me sounds like a 1965 GE clock radio set to full volume so its 4" speaker with about a 5k hz range is screaming to be free.

in itunes/preferences/general/import settings select import using apple loss less encoder

[davids]

Alright, what is lossless.?.? I speak no jargon, and am equal to a monkey.

The term is so transparent that, the first time I heard its antonym, I wondered what "lossy" stood for.

[rowdyhillrambler]

well, I stopped reading after, "as I understand it," because I knew I would not understand it. Not joking, if you don't understand, no way I can/will. CD Luddites of the world unite!!!!!!!!!

Lossless (as I understand it) generates a bit-for-bit copy of your CD. If needed, you could take the compressed digital file and use it to burn a perfect copy of the original CD.
Per the Wikipedia "A lossless compressed format stores data in less space without losing any information. The original, uncompressed data can be recreated from the compressed version."
There are a lot of formats out there, but a lot of people recommend FLAC since it's open source and is unlikely to go away based on some corporate decision (i.e. apple etc).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format

I've recently undertaken the SLOW process of ripping about 1,000 CDs and did a little research before selecting a format. I always swore that I'd never box up my CDs until a decent music server came around that could handle lossless. My wife is pretty happy to get rid of the massive CD storage furniture. The only downside... I've started stocking up on vinyl LPs ;-)

[twowheels]

I'm keeping my physical media, which is comprised of thousands of CDs and even more vinyl records. Records sound the best and CDs beat computers in my experience although I have not explored the world of hi res or a state of the art (if there is such a thing) computer based source.

I did just disassemble the main system and pack it away and I am still in the midst of packing CDs and records so I can market my home but it is all worth the trouble when I sit in front of warm tubes at night and spin a disc like mccoy Tyner new york reunion (chesky, worth seeking out), maria muldaur richland woman blues, punch brothers ahoy, patt smith horses, etc.

[rec head]

OK -

Lossless= you get everything

Lossy= information is thrown away

The main lossless formats are FLAC, ALAC and WAV (WAV is not compressed at all. It also doesn't allow advanced tagging. Basically there isn't much reason to use it.) FLAC is open source and most new receivers can play it. ALAC is Apple's proprietary format and therefore stupid. Another lossless form of compression is ZIP. It isn't for audio but most people have used them before. The files are smaller but all the info is there.

The most well known lossy format is MP3. When a lossy compression scheme is doing it's thing it basically says "you won't miss this frequency" and just doesn't include it in the file. You are loosing information. It won't be the same as what is on the CD.

If anyone is considering ripping there CDS I think FLAC is the way to go. You can convert the FLAC files to anything else for different devices. Smart software will do the conversions as you copy the songs from the computer to the device so that you don't need to keep copies in different formats. This is for PCs. I'm not sure about using FLAC on Apples.

I use JRiver Media Center software on my HTPC and it is pretty awesome.

[Kentf14]

Nice simple explanation. I guess I went wrong by using the term "bit" in mine
I just finished ripping 930 CDs to FLAC on my apple using DBPoweramp. Good software that supports multiple formats and does a few verification methods to ensure perfect files.
No hiccups and the music is now playing on my new Sony HAP-Z1ES

[Bob Ross]

WAV is not compressed at all. It also doesn't allow advanced tagging. Basically there isn't much reason to use it.

...unless you're in the professional audio industry (content creation/production), in which case "not [being] compressed at all" is the reason to use it.

[Mabouya]

And then there's this guy:

(yes, those are boxes full of LP's)

NY Times story: http://nyti.ms/1vlfSPU

[Matthew Strongin]

I made it through the bulk of my collection this weekend. I ended up taking a pretty streamlined approach. I filled a big bin with stuff I don't really care about one way or the other. I didn't realize how many CDs I had that were promotional handouts of stuff I'll never listen to from my days working at a music store. Those will probably go to a used record store or goodwill or something. Then I cross referenced everything else against my digitized collection and only found about 15 CDs I still need to rip. I pulled those aside. Everything else got stashed in a reasonably organized fashion in some giant Case Logic binders and tucked away on the top shelf of a closet. Empty jewel cases went into the recycling and we cleaned up a stack of boxes that had been tucked into multiple closets. The whole process was downright therapeutic.

[Mabouya]

Interesting that this thread should come back up - just yesterday the NYT had a story about the booming demand for vinyl from lots of the young kids, so much so that folks are restoring and putting old record-making machines back to work. I bet at least part of it is in reaction to the hi-tech iGeneration.

(Is this like the hipsters who ride steel bikes? ;) )

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/bu...life.html?_r=0

[11.4]

Definitely read up on lossless and on high definition audio needs. There's no reason to rip a CD at any less than full lossless, and there are dozens of codecs out there, including some intriguing ones that support super-high-definition which is where music is going anyway. Lots of HD Audio websites as well for downloading the music directly. Definitely read these, because FLAC and Apple Lossless are good enough for CD but there's better music out there and they aren't the codecs of the future.

If you are ripping, it's painful but worth it to get to know Gracenote well. Gracenote applies digital labels to a CD and to its individual tracks -- gives you the song name for example on each track of a Leonard Cohen CD. Usually with popular music it's pretty decent, though one CD will be coded as Leonard Cohen, the next as Cohen, Leonard and the next as Cohen L. When you get a lot of digital music together, this becomes a real pain. You can edit the names on your digital listings, but that isn't fun.

Where Gracenote is really ugly is with classical music, and with opera above all. The kids they hire to input the data have no idea, so performers and composers are mixed up, they don't know the difference between a conductor and a soloist performer, they have no idea what three movements of a sonata are about, or have the slightest idea what to do with an opera. I have operas where Gracenote just named the individual arias 1, 2, 3, and so on. When I rip an opera or any classical music, I go through the little pamphlet or go to the label's online site and painfully enter all the data properly. It's worth it in the end, but it's still ridiculous. With an Alpine Carplay unit in my truck, it's embarrassing to see 1, 2, 3 show up instead of the names of arias, plus when I'm editing or putting together playlists for my phone or iPad (I have about 800 GB of lossless music, growing rapidly) it's critical to finding anything and to being sure I'm not duplicating a rip or not grabbing an entire album.

[golivar]

I kept one 7" - Desiderata / Dischord 61.5

Wow, I have this 7". I like it. That's kind of a random/interesting choice to keep. Were you in this band or something? I sort of knew Amanda years ago, when a friend of mine was in a later band with her.

I have several milk crates of punk and HC vinyl. I don't think I want to get rid of it, though. Music was such a huge part of my youth, it would be hard for me to sell or give away those records.