Ripping CD Collection

I bought a new computer with a 3 terabyte hard drive and started a project to rip a 5000+/25+ year CD collection (lossless). This could take a while. Started with the "A's" -- a somewhat easy start (48 titles/57 CDs).

So far -- Ryan Adams (8/10); Aerosmith (8/11) and The Allman Brothers/Gregg Allman are in front (8/9).

Of note, two copies of the same Gregg Allman "Laid Back"; a weird copy of Eric Burdon and The Animals "Greatest Hits" (made in Korea) which includes re-recordings of the Animals' 60s hits (seemingly from the early 1970s).

Up next, the "B's" -- ugh -- The Band, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, David Bowie, Jackson Browne, The Byrds etc. Could be tough.

Has anyone attempted this and made it all the way?

 

I didn't have quite so many but spent about 3 months doing that. I set my goals at 10 a day so it wouldn't be such a crushing chore. I scanned the front covers while the software was ripping. It was worth the effort.
You can go back later and fix up the tags. The ripping is the tedious part. You might want to check out VortexBox. It's not foolproof but it's a little more automated.

 

What is the primary objective of this project? Save space? Transfer music to iphone or ipod? Prefer to listen from hard drive?

I am curious because of your reaction to the "B" titles. If you don't like 'em, why include them? Just wondering...

 

I have been considering something similar, I have everything on iTunes, but I want better quality and want to make it all lossless, so wondering if I have to rip everything again. It was hard enough the first time when I first got an ipod years ago. I don't envy you the work but you will feel satisfied when it is done. Good Luck!!

 

I've got all of my rock and jazz stuff digitized to flac files (1000+ discs, not sure of the exact number). I'm about to embark on my classical collection which is at least the same amount, maybe more. I've got them on two external drives and may buy a 3rd just in case.

 

Sounds like you're on the right track. Just acknowledge from the beginning that this is going to take a long time, then systematically chip away at it. Seriously consider adding another backup drive to greatly reduce the chances of needing to rip everything again. Make sure your software and optical drive are configured to rip as accurately as possible. Visually inspect each disc and clean the ones with fingerprints on the playing surface. Plan on investing some extra time when you're done to make metadata corrections. It's a very rewarding feeling once you're finished. Just keep chipping away. Best of luck.

 

I had to put my CDs in storage in the basement to make room when my wife was expecting a year ago (worth it). The vinyl stayed out, since it's what I usually listen to when at home anyway. It's pretty cool having my entire CD collection at my fingertips in my computer.

 

I have about 5000 CDs and I've been ripping lossless for about six years I'm about 2/3rds into it. And be sure to get a second drive and back up occasionally I have about 1.5 t which in my case is over 70,000 songs so far.

 

As long as your file type isn't wav then I'd say you're good to go. Some people will disagree but oh well.

 

When I started ripping my CDs a few years back I had about 1200 and though it was a chore I worked at it hard and heavy. I don't remember how long it took me but it had to be a few months. I have added another 500 CDs since the beginning.

A 5000 CD collection is, well, a daunting task. The one piece of advise I would give is to do it right the first time. Don't be in too much of a hurry. Take your time. Make sure your metadata is correct and think about how you want these tagged. Even if it slows the process down it is easier than going back and making corrections. Take the time to find good artwork and embed them with the files.

Back it up, back it up, back it up now. Get a large external drive and back up your work after each ripping session.

 

You should do a search for the many, many threads we have of this very thing. Try looking for "Ripping CDs".

I ripped my CD collection seven years ago and never looked back. best thing I ever did. Now my problem is that I have to get bigger backup drives because of all the needledrops and hi-rez downloads I now have. I try to get just about everything. The drives serve as my complete record collection backup and archive. The idea is to not ever have to pull out a record, tape, or CD again.

 

It took me 6 months to rip my 3000 CDs.

 

Yep, many. Lots of good advice above.

My tip is: do not use iTunes for ripping. It's plagued with errors. Use an AccurateRip-based CD ripping engine like EAC, dBPowerAmp, or XLD. Also, use AlbumArtExchange for obtaining very high-quality scans of album covers.

 

Are you on Windows or Mac? In either case you might want to consider a third party software for ripping instead of iTunes that uses AccurateRip. I think many Windows users use db poweramp. I am on Mac and use XLD. Along with a greater potential to catch errors in CDs that are ripped I think it is easier to edit the basic metadata up front and at least with XLD it also embeds the artwork.

Funny, Vidiot beat me by a few seconds with the same basic recommendation.

 

Beat me to it.....do not waste your time scanning in your covers, odds are that albumartexchange.com has what you are looking for.

And personally, I love CDEx for ripping my CDs.

Sounds like you are going about it the right way ripping to lossless. The process has taken me 7 years, because I originally ripped to 160kbps MP3s.....then started over with 320kbps MP3s....then went FLAC in 2010. I am now at the point where I have 200 CDs left to scan in the artwork (all rare promos and singles that 600x600 artwork can't be found anywhere). Then I have some DVDs to rip the audio off of, convert some VHS tapes to digital, and I'm done! Maybe by the end of this year....most like sometime in 2014.

 

Yeah, I originally started ripping to WAVs from 2002-2003, then scuttled all of that, realizing that Lossless was the way to go. I went with Apple Lossless only because I bought into the Apple "walled garden" with the iPod thing, but to me, all lossless is equal in terms of sound quality. The only difference are the numbers of compatible players.

I generally keep lossless and 320kbps AAC copies of the albums I listen to the most, and put all the AAC's on various iPods. I could convince myself I hear little things wrong with the compressed copies, but 99% of the time, they sound OK to me, especially for portable listening and in the car.

 

I am just curious as to why you keep two sets of files since iTunes will convert your lossless files on the fly to AAC when synching to iPods

 

I started off on XLD but ended up ripping in iTunes (on mac) in the end. Never had a problem with errors and couldn't hear the difference between XLD and iTunes rips. iTunes —> lossless. Simple and quick.

 

For album scans, I just do a web search for images and pick the best one. This way, I get whatever isn't in the database of AlbumArtExchange.

I rip to FLAC, then make 320 mp3 copies from those. So, I have copies in both formats. If I have hi-rez, I keep that in FLAC too. I did not bother with artwork when i did the initial ripping because then the project would have taken much longer than the year it took. With everything ripped now, I can go back in with Media Monkey and add artwork and correct tags.

 

I use Album Artwork Assistant to get artwork in iTunes.

 

It took me about three weeks to rip 900 CDs. I was able to do about 50 a day while working from home.

dBpoweramp is a great investment. Accuraterip, autotagging and album art fetching in one application. It definitely streamlined the process significantly.

 

I have over 2,000 CDs that I've ripped to hard drives. I have some miscellaneous CDs that I haven't ripped, but those are mainly sampler comps and some releases that aren't in the online databases, so I'd have to manually enter everything, and I'm too lazy to do that at this point. But overall, for all practical purposes, I have everything I own ripped.

Now I'm going through the process of backing up everything (rips, downloads, etc.) onto backup drives. I'm using PureSync to do it.

 

WAV is lossless too! You can just convert.

Tim

 

I'll wait for the labels to provide universal streaming before I start ripping 12,000 (?) CDs.

 

I really should get round to doing this too. All my stuff is on itunes (MP3 only).

What format should I rip to though: FLAC, WAV or Apple Lossless.

Any advice?