CD importing/quality questions

For quite a while now, I have begun to worry about the quality of the music that I am importing into iTunes from the CDs I buy. I stumbled across this music forum in search of some questions to my problems, so I decided to ask here, in case any of you folks could help me

So, here are my questions/concerns:

First, as long as a CD is always handled with care, does it matter how many times you rip/import it into iTunes? I've found myself doing this at least a couple/several times for CDs, partly because I wanted to reimport them once I edited/updated large amounts of information about the songs and album on the disc itself.

Second, when importing/ripping a CD into iTunes, can I be pretty much assured that the quality of the files will be just fine as long as I don't hear any notable freezes in the importing process? I've become familiar with the tell-tale sounds of a disc "locking up" during import, or when it's "struggling"; but I've grown very suspicious (paranoid even, at times) of even the slightest "odd" sounds I may hear during an otherwise unhindered importing process.

Third, which is sort of just part II/B of my previous question, is it natural for the importing process of various CDs to sometimes sound slightly different from one another when each is being imported, hence not a sign that there is anything wrong with the files as they get put on to the computer/into iTunes?

Fourth, what are some signs that a disc is probably too scratched/scuffed to import and/or play properly? I've sometimes noticed that even brand new CDs might have the slightest scratch/scuff/knick in them, but I can never tell if this is a big deal or not. On the other hand, I own quite a few older CDs that have since developed a bit of wear, but I think still play and/or import just fine.

And lastly, is buying a new disc drive (I use external ones) a potential solution to the matter of the occasional discs having import issues, especially if the discs appear to be in perfectly okay condition and the same importing problems kept showing up when using the same discs + drive on different computers and different iTunes accounts (my mom's + brothers, as sort of a troubleshooting process)?

Any help would be very appreciated, and thank you so much for reading.

 

Look into EAC/accuraterip. If you want accurate rips there aren't many solutions but that's one of them, and it's a good one.

 

Don't know iTunes, but as long as you rip to a lossless format, and assuming iTunes has some sort of error checking, it is as good as you will get and you should be fine. Just check your settings.

The target disc drive shouldn't make any difference as long as it is working properly. If it isnt, you would be seeing write/read error messages.

I don't imagine ripping a CD multiple times is any different than playing it over and over in terms of wear. Not sure what you gain from re-ripping, though, if the first one is lossless and there were no errors detected.

If it plays OK it should rip OK. Even if it doesn't play OK, some minor problems can sometimes be auto-corrected by software such as EAC mentioned above.

 

Hm, okay. I think I follow what you guys are saying.

I know I got my first question answered now, so I thank River Rat for that, very much.

As for the files, I rip them to AAC. All in all that has generally worked just fine for me, I believe. iTunes does have an error correcting tool you can also select. I generally don't, but I could try it if I ever detect future problems with importing or the sound quality.

I will also look into other EAC software, if need be, in the future.

Lastly, if anyone else can answer my questions, I'll be here to see/read them. Thanks

 

You shouldn't have to rip it more than once, but yeah check your import setting in itunes and have error correction enabled. I also use external drives and the drive itself was fairly cheap samsung I think, it started to have issues with importing some discs that really had no damage to the surface what so ever it was just starting to crap out. Bought another drive with same interface for 20.00 bucks and swapped it out and it work fine now. If you've had the drive for a long time the laser eyeball could also get slightly dusty. Use a cleaner disc, some canned air or something to try and move/remove anything on the surface of eyeball, maybe that's all it needs.

 

Thanks I plan to pick up a new external drive today, hopefully, so that might fix my problem in regards to a few discs that don't seem to want to import properly.

 

Bdfin makes a good point. When I first converted to computer audio from CD, I ripped about 700 CDs pretty much continuously for several hours a day over several days (weeks?) while working at my desk. The CD drive in my desktop PC eventually failed, presumably from the prolonged stress.

As for the file format, AAC is a "lossy" format. Try ripping the same CD to both AAC and ALAC or FLAC lossless format and see if you hear any difference. If not, and you continue using AAC, you should consider setting it for the highest quality/bit depth. You might start hearing limitations if you ever upgrade your audio gear/speakers.

A good quality original recording is the main thing, though, so use one for testing if you pursue any testing of different formats.

 

Are you mac or pc?

 

EAC is one of the best for ripping. It can analyze your drives characteristics and optimize the rip process. Given your expressed concerns and emotional involvement I would recommend using it. Since the read of a cd does not involve and physical alteration of the disc, the data quality should not deteriorate over time. The material the cd is made of may if exposed to heat, intense cold, radiation, abrasion and other external factors. Also surface contamination such as finger oils, grape jam, inks and whatever other stuff people seem to get on the discs can degrade the sound. As to the format you are using (AAC) I offer this quote "Basically, if you want true CD quality from the files on your iPod or music server, you must use WAV or AIF encoding or FLAC, ALC, or WMA Lossless. Both MP3 and AAC introduce fairly large changes in the measured spectra, even at the highest rate of 320kbps. There seems little point in spending large sums of money on superbly specified audio equipment if you are going to play sonically compromised, lossy-compressed music on it" Read the entire article at http://www.stereophile.com/features/308mp3cd/#f5ooulo0iV8rmLMx.97. This gives a pretty good overview and technical comparison of the formats.
As to your questions : #2..no you can not assume anything by listening at the time of ripping. Only by using software like EAC that optimizes for your drives errors and other factors combined with a format that is "lossless" can you increase the surety of an exact high quality copy; 3..Without doing a spectrum analysis it is hard to say if the differences you hear are experiential or technical. With "lossy" codecs it is possible for the encoding process to create different versions of the same input. This is not the code's issue so much as they way it is implemented by the computing system under differing resource uses. Not to be expected but possible; 4-5..Visible alterations that can not be cleaned from the disc surface may degrade the disc. However since the data is stored below the surface you have to beat the disc up pretty god to damage it. Finally a new drive is not the solution to you getting great rips. All drives have errors so use software that corrects them and use a format codec that does not alter the music (ie. Flac). The big issue with itunes and apple is they do not support flac. Sorry for the length but you asked many questions.

 

Not sure I follow here; are you worried about damaging the disc each time you play or rip it? If so, then the answer is no -- CDs do not "wear" each time they are played. The laser does absolutely no damage to the disc whatsoever.

And you don't have to re-rip the tracks to update the information, just update the files already in iTunes.

Lastly, if you are ripping to AAC be sure to select the highest bitrate (320). But you'd be much better served ripping to Apple Lossless to preserve every bit of audio data. If you're transferring these tunes to an iPhone or iPod, iTunes can convert them to AAC256 on-the-fly.

 

Thanks for all your advice

Also, for all the people telling me about using something other than AAC, I appreciate the advice. I'm not too picky on the quality matching the CD though, just so long as I don't hear any interference such as skips or "blips", and a large majority of the time, I don't believe I do.

@BrewDrinkRepeat - Thank you for your advice, too. With the AAC files, I am pretty sure I do use the highest bitrate/quality for importing.

Thanks to everyone who has read and replied to my thread. I am getting a lot of good tips for future reference.

 

If you are mac you can use XLD a free ripper that will Rip AAC or Apple Lossless and give you an accuracy report at the end.

 

I use a PC, sorry. If I ever switch to a Mac though, I will keep that in mind ^^

 

I also recommend using error correction on any CD that has visible marks on the underside surface.

I am unsure if this has been mentioned, but a CD often has information added that is not part of the music that a regular CD player uses, such as videos and images. They are often called "enhanced CDs" or "ECD" and might affect how the drive reads the CD when importing. If you are importing CDs from homemade music "burned" CDs, this can also cause stutters in the importing process, so differences in how they import is common.

My suggestion is to make note of an import that concerns you and then listen to it at your convenience but without doing anything else on that computer. That way if there is errors created by the import, the reduction of variables will help in identifying any audible skips or studders.

Also, make sure you are importing at 320 kbps AAC... Even if you don't hear a difference now between 320 kbps and lower resolutions.

 

Update

I bought a new drive. It's a VERY nice one, as far as I can tell. However, with it, one particular disc STILL seems to lag once it gets to the last song, which results in the file becoming messed up

 

Try other free ripping software before giving up. I have to resort to other programs because XLD gets hung up on something.

 

Thanks for the tip. I'll think on that (think because it's just been a long day for me, but another time I may do it).

 

I know the feeling. Fingers crossed something else does it and you can move on!

 

I'm a paranoid person. CD's that I have ripped and eventually discarded, I ended up rebuying some of them so I can rip using a different computer (Mac) and stored on a Mac formatted SSD. Previously I ripped them on a Windows 7 comp with a good ole standard hard drive. I believe that the OS, software, and optical and hard drive impact the quality of the rip. Also I rip in several formats too. I don't like converting formats because there's loss of quality. So I FLAC, ALAC, 320 MP3, 256 AAC, and WAV so I can use the WAV file in making compilations.

 

Wow. That is some serious ripping.

 

My entire collection is ripped 256 AAC's or 320 MP3's. Early on I compared types and sizes, since I knew it was gonna be a lengthy process, and found I couldn't tell the difference in quality for anything ripped at a higher bitrate (or lossless) but could if I ripped to say, 192 or less. Anything larger is not an option for me as it would simply take up way too much space anyhow. I listen to my music on-the-go quite a lot and the last I checked they don't make portables that handle a terabyte or more.

 

Not neing an audiophile, my general rule of thumb is to rip CDs I own at a much lower rate than CDs I borrowed.

 

People that rip at lossy rates: what are you gaining? Why even buy the CD in the first place if you're going to rip it to an inferior copy and play that instead?

OP: dB Poweramp will optimise itself for your drive, give you accurate rip reports, use error correction during ripping, and rip to any format you want.
Rip to apple lossless and covert to aac on the fly for iPod (or keep it lossless for iPod!) Buy a 2 tb hard drive for ~£60 if you have space issues.

High quality CD ripping is really easy.

 

I have another, related question for you guys.

I've noticed for some CDs, there is a VERY quick bit of static every now and then on a song, even if it imported perfectly fine. I'll usually then play the song just on the CD, within a drive, and I hear that same point of static in the same spot of the song. The catch however is that I will then look the song up on YouTube or buy a copy of it off say Amazon MP3, and in both instances I don't detect the static bit.

Can anyone explain this to me? Thanks.

 

How do you listen to the music? What is you playback system? It is possible that at some point in the playback your system is not able to handle the demands of the music. What you download is often clipped in dynamic range and frequency envelope. This is done to insure everyone who "buys it" can play it. Downloads from most mass merchandisers are geared to the lowest common denominator of playback. Can you take the cd and play it on a hifi system? Check to see if the disc is the source. I suspect your playback system is being pushed to distortion by some combination of frequency and dynamic range.