Reducing my CD Library

I think if you rip to uncompressed WAV, you leave options for yourself to later convert them to other formats. I think once you go with an Apple codec you are beholden to the ghost of Steve Jobs. Like Ken said, storage is cheap; you can get a multi-TB drive for < $200.
 
Right, but it leaves you the option of converting to MP3(hi res or otherwise) and I think to FLAC as well. If you rip to one of the Apple codecs I don't think you can then later back it out and convert to something else.
 
AAC blows sheep. AIFF and WAV are lossless and sonically identical. ALAC is proprietary to Apple. It is lossless (a good thing) but does compress the files so they don't take up so much space on your drive. Itunes uncompresses them on playback. Basically its Apple's answer to a FLAC file (which iTunes will not play).

If all you are going to do is use iTunes for playback than ALAC should be just fine. Personally I rip lossless to AIFF because storage is really cheap now so I don't see the point in using any form of compression. Plus I don't use iTunes for playback in my he-man system.

Hope this helps.
 
Yeah, that helps a lot. My understanding has been expanded. :cool:

ALAC wasn't one of the choices I could see, and yes all I do is playback, so in that case I guess I can choose either AIFF or Apple Lossless, it sounds like.
 
So yeah, everyone's talk of audio quality led me to delete my previous efforts last night and start over today. Damn you all! *shakes fist*

I just hope one day I'll finally be done with CD ripping...
 
So yeah, everyone's talk of audio quality led me to delete my previous efforts last night and start over today. Damn you all! *shakes fist*

I just hope one day I'll finally be done with CD ripping...

LOL- been there! When mp3 players first came out in the late 90's, I bought a Diamond Rio that had some ridiculously small capacity so I ripped my CD collection at 128kbps. Fast forward a few years later, and bigger players were available, so I decided to re-rip my entire collection.

In writing this- I search and find it had 32 MB (yeah, mega, with an M) capacity. LOL!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_PMP300
 
Would be interested in a list to see if I can get some of your cds off from you.

It'll take me a little while but I'll work on that for you.

If anyone else would like the list too, let me know. It'll be easier to send it in a message than post it in here, probably. It'll be a long list.
 
I wont mind A copy of that cd List.....:):D

Sure thing. :)

Just as a heads-up, some CDs may have damaged cases. I would often cannibalize undamaged cases of discarded CDs to fix up anything that was delivered or purchased with damage.
 
Doesnt matter ,I have tons of cd cases..........When Borders went out of Business, My Friend Gave me a box of them over 200..........
 
Excellent. Just wanted to let people know in case they had any issues with that. Like for shipping purposes, potential damage, etc.
 
OK, so now I have a problem with ripping my CDs. I've tried to find what format suits me best. While everyone here hated on AAC, it worked for me just for getting music onto a small MP3 player. But I deleted my progress and tried other formats. Lossless does have good sound, but the file size made it so I couldn't add as much to the player, and transfer took forever. I even tried mp3 and hated it. I'vbe now gone back to AAC, but now it sounds much worse than before. A very muddy sound that wasn't there before.

I'm just wondering what's happening this time. Have I ripped CDs so many times it's damaging them? Or is it a problem in iTunes? Should I completely remove my current program and download/install it fresh?

I'm very confused and frustrated.
 
Sounds like that you can hear how much worse lossy files are compared to lossless and you don't like it. Me either.

I hope that's all it is. But honestly, they never sounded this muddy before. But then again, at least some CDs I've ripped this time around are first-time and they don't sound all that great either.

I guess I will start fresh yet again and give the lossless another go, but just a couple of discs at first to guage the quality. I'm still unhappy with the file size and the space it takes up on the player and how long it takes to transfer.

I'm just worn out at this point. I'd love to able to have all my music ripped again, once and for all, and it feels like I'll never get there. Next month I'm purchasing a good quality CD player for the home, so at least I can listen to stuff here without the need for the computer.

And I guess I'm just paranoid about the constant ripping messing up the CDs? I have OCD/hypocondria about these things.
 
I'm confused....

Originally (I think) you said that your objective was to archive your collection onto a computer. Based on that everyone has suggested ripping lossless for full fidelity.

Now an mp3 player has entered into the equation and you are concerned about file size.

Csn you restate your ultimate goal because it seems to have changed.

(You will not damage your CDs by ripping them)
 
I'm confused....

Originally (I think) you said that your objective was to archive your collection onto a computer. Based on that everyone has suggested ripping lossless for full fidelity.

Now an mp3 player has entered into the equation and you are concerned about file size.

Csn you restate your ultimate goal because it seems to have changed.

(You will not damage your CDs by ripping them)


Sorry about the confusion, Ken. I think I misunderstood everyone's meaning of "archive". What I want to do by ripping my CDs to the computer is to make them portable via the mp3 player. So what I need is a format that can give me decent sound quality but will also work on my iPod. I had thought I mentioned the player before but I guess it just got lost in the conversation.

(And thanks)