What's your strategy in ripping your CDs into your digital library?

Rip to flac, now on my second run of ripping after 5 years (damn you Olive ecosystem!) keep all my cd's as the u breakable backup.

 

Other: I rip the CD out of the jewel case, toss it onto the little drawer that pops out, and listen to the native AIFF files via my server, otherwise known as a CD player.

 

So I started ripping my multiple versions of each CD. I got my laptop next to the collection as I go through it comparing what's been ripped or not. I'm amazed at how many single titles I missed during my initial high Rez ripping spree. Granted I did it piecemeal generally ripping favorite artists first and then going back to do the rest. Oddly, I missed a lot of greatest hits collections. Glad I'm going back through it.

 

Just because you rip your CDs doesn't mean you don't play CDs. I play mine all the time, especially when I first I buy them.

 

At first I thought I was going to rip a minimum of five CDs a day until my way big collection was transferred for that day I go digital, however a year later I am still ripping and not digital. Once I realized I might never go completely digital I relaxed on my approach. I ripp CDs as I buy them, when in the mood I choose favorites and rip a couple or a stack depending on my mood but there is no longer a deadline or a daily quota. I rip both FLAC and 320 MP3. My I-Pad plays the MP3s as well as my car so the need for MP3. I rip FLAC because one day in the future I really might have a network set up to play digital files so I see this as planning for the future and since I no longer am on any schedule a double rip doesn't bother me.

 

I use EAC to rip my CDs as WAV files, then move then into MediaMonkey where I tag them and convert them into FLAC. When I load them on my player I do on-the-fly conversion to V0 VBR LAME encoded MP3s.

 

It's too overwhelming so I never bothered.

 

I rip into FLAC as I buy CDs. Every single CD. Toss the jewel cases and use Jazz Loft sleeves instead. Use the digital files via PC to listen or transfer to other devices in V0 mp3 or 425 VBR AAC.

 

I rip to ALAC using dbPoweramp with cover art from AlbumArtExchange.com, and then use iTunes to manage all the files and playlists. I rip full CDs, no partials. I use iTunes' one-five star ratings system to build dozens of smart playlists and love my little library.

 

I rip all my CDs.

First to ALAC, and get all the tagging right.
Convert the ALAC to 256 VBR AAC
Move the ALAC files to an external drive for back up purposes
AAC files stay in iTunes.

Everything is then backed up to at least 3 different hard drives (3 for lossless, 4 for lossy, due to available storage space at the moment), stored on and off site.

 

One backup is never enough. If you have sufficient backups in more than one location then there's no problem in keeping a lossless archive.

 

Kind of hard to value "time" vs. "enjoyment & convenience" so no, I doubt many people do a serious cost benefit analysis. But, I can guarantee you in my case the "enjoyment & convenience" has far exceeded the admittedly large investment in time over the last 10 years.

 

Unless you have a reason for first ripping to wav, this seems a step too many - you can rip directly to flac using EAC, just choose the "compressed" option.

 

I rip mostly FLAC and sometimes MP3 320. FLAC has been the longtime standard of the live music trading community so I picked up on that for albums as well back in 2008 or so. We have a Sonos Play 5 and two Play 1's scattered throughout our condo and both sound great on that system. I also use a Cowon D2 and Fiio X3 for portable players.

 

By the way, I also rip everything and keep duplicates in my iTunes library, cos if I want to play a greatest hits, I'd rather hear it as is and not delete tracks just cos they exist elsewhere in my library and I can't be bothered making playlists for the purpose.

I kinda wish iTunes could detect exact duplicates and therefore get rid of all but one and reference link that track to the albums it came from.

 

FLAC for archives, AAC for my various portable devices.

I also have Google re-encode my FLAC's to MP3, just for Google Play. Wish they would take AAC's like MS and Apple do.

 

Google would have to pay Apple to license AAC.

 

Buy, Clean, Rip to Wav, Listen.

 

I think you meant Fraunhofer IIS. Apple doesn't own the AAC format.

 

320 MP3- I really can't hear the difference in the car or anywhere I would play them mobile - and I truthfully can't really hear the difference on my bigger system between CD and 320 MP3.

 

I rip to Aiff using dBpoweramp in secure mode and always make two back ups. I use Cue tools to try and repair any bad rips. I rip each version of an album I own.

 

I believe they do. MusicScope doesn't support AAC and they claim that the licensing fees are prohibitive. Apple Lossless is open and free, but the AAC I don't believe is. Maybe the developer of MusicScope is wrong, but I doubt it...

http://www.vialicensing.com/licensing/aac-faq.aspx

 

I have my entire CD collection ripped to FLAC. New CDs get ripped as they arrive. I have also "ripped" my favourite records to FLAC and lately have started to buy more and more hirez files when the mastering seems ahead of what's available on CD.

 

I'm probably alone on this, but I rip to Windows Lossless format, because I have a Ford Sync system in the car and that seems to work best with their system. For some reason the few 320 mp3s I have seem to not get recognized by the interface, which stinks, because those are typically converted from FLAC files that I have bought off hi-res sites.

Last fall, I went through and ripped everything I have (except my jazz collection) to a portable hard drive that I desperately need to back up on another drive. And new discs I get are ripped as I get them, usually after I've listened to them on CD though.

 

Did about 2500 CDs at 128 AAC 10 years ago. I switched to doing new ones at 256 about five years back and started using XLD a year ago. I'm going back and redoing select artists at the higher rate, mostly because artwork and tagging has improved. I really can't hear the difference higher than 256 but I do keep needle drops in Apple Lossless and have everything backed up offsite.