Music Ripping & CD Creating

[impala454]

So I'm about to go on a long trip and the CDs in my truck have gotten old and I decided to mix some new ones. I figure it's been a year or longer since I made any, and that my old "rip lossless WMA + burn with windows media player" technique could use some brushing up (because sometimes it wouldn't burn properly and cut off part of the song :M ). So with that said, what methods does everyone use to rip their CDs and then to burn a music CD from those rips?

[impala454]

Also, not a requirement but would be an added bonus, for the ripped files to be supported by Spotify. They claim to support .mp3, .mp4, .m4a, and .m4r. Understood though that that is a huge constraint. But to that end I wouldn't mind a separate piece of advice simply on getting the best .mp3 possible.

[mjb]

At the risk of ridicule, I do almost everything in iTunes. Perhaps its not the best solution, but its pretty simple to operate. I can easily burn CD's (for the wife) just by creating a playlist, dragging the desired tracks to it, and hitting burn when I'm done. I've no idea about Spotify, I imagine its not an option with iTunes.

[impala454]

Oh no ridicule at all. Whatever works best for you is great. iTunes wouldn't work for me simply because I don't use it on any of my devices (even my iPad lol).

In doing some searching around, this software seems to be coming up a lot as a nice one:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

[wkhanna]

I like EAC (free), and dBpoweramp (<$30).
I currently run everything thru Foobar2000.
Also, I do not use portable devises.

[impala454]

I went ahead and grabbed the trial version of dBpoweramp and really like it! Thanks on the foobar suggestion, looks good and I was just about to ask about players. Thanks!

[JeremyG]

Chuck,

XLD for ripping.

Max for encoding from one format to another.

Fidelia is a great player.

iTunes for burning. Never had an issue using it to make CDs.

I use Mac, so I don't know if any of these are cross platform, but they've worked for me.

[wkhanna]

Chuck,


...Fidelia is a great player.....

I have read that Fidelia is highly regarded, but have not yet tired it.

[wkhanna]

...... Thanks on the foobar suggestion, looks good and I was just about to ask about players

I (actually Dan, aka PewterTA) set my system up with Foobar utilizing ASIO4ALLv2.
It is all bit-perfect.

[impala454]

I'm not a mac user but my brand new laptop for work is a macbook pro (I run windows 7 on it but occasionally boot into OSX). I may have to give this Fidelia a shot as well.

Thanks for the bit perfect setup idea too Bill!

[Chris D]

Sorry, Chuck, but I use iTunes also. I rarely burn discs, but if I do, I'll make a playlist, then select "burn playlist to disc". I then choose the kind of disc that can play in any CD player. I've been surprised how incredibly easy it is.

[impala454]

I rarely burn discs, but if I do,

lol Chris when I read this sentence I did it with this voice inflection


I appreciate all the advice folks, will probably go with dbPoweramp, seems the nicest for all the ones I tried so far. Appreciate the iTunes responses, it's just not for me. Maybe some day if I get completely mac converted I'll have to give it a go but for now (except my iPad) I'm all Windows & Android.

[PewterTA]

dbpoweramp is awesome... the customizations are great and you can make it basically do anything you want it to!

Definitely my favorite program and once set up right (like customizing the way various artists discs are formatted once as a file) it works flawlessly and you know if you're getting an accurate rip or not! Definitely worth the price!

[impala454]

Really neat thing I figured out with Spotify, that I had no idea it would do. It lets you actually sync your offline playlists even with your own ripped music! So for music that spotify might not have (such as some obscure jazz stuff I've got), I can rip the CD, add it to my local spotify playlist, then sync the playlist as an offline playlist to any device, so long as it's on my local network. Once it's synced as offline then I can play it from that device any time! Pretty cool idea and keeps the "DRM" issues at bay and still lets me keep all my playlists mobile.

[impala454]

Wow, ripping a bunch of CDs and I really like how "programmable" the meta data settings are on dBpoweramp! Very nice!

[wkhanna]

V happy to hear you like it!

[impala454]

So I'm having to spend a little more time on the Mac side of my dual boot, and recall the Fidelia suggestion, just don't feel like spending $20 at the moment. Is there another good recommended FLAC player for Mac?

[wkhanna]

No help with MAC from me.

A link to some articles that may interest you, however.link

[madmac]

I use "Nero" to burn my discs and I usually burn the entire disc bit for bit and the slowest burn rate possible for maximum accuracy. Usually this is done for the car or if I happen to rent one from the library and like it. More often than not though I buy my CD's from Amazon and therefore am largely above the board and 'legal'. Dvd's and soon to be BD's are another matter!!.

[audioqueso]

I like dbpoweramp because it's fast. I mostly use dbpoweramp unless the CD is really scratched. In that case I then use EAC because it is more powerful than dbpoweramp, and will always read any disc, even if it's scratched badly.

[Hank]

I don't burn discs, but I've got a new PMP and a new tablet. What's the easiest/fastest way to copy my CD's and a few DVD's to portable devices? I want to have music and movies for trips (especially for long China flights). Thanks

[wkhanna]

I can offer no specific advice other than this link that has some info which has proven helpful to me.

I especially like the C.A.S.H. List

[PewterTA]

Here's a good thread and too much info on FLAC for MACs...

http://www.head-fi.org/t/331539/good...player-for-mac.

Hank:
dbpoweramp is probably the best for music...simple to use and does things very well.

For video I would recommend Anydvd HD to allow discs to be ripped and then try this for compressing it to whatever format you want...

http://www.avsmedia.com/avs-video-converter.aspx

[mjb]

You might just as well convert FLAC to ALAC, using dBpoweramp Music Converter (or similar) and play them in iTunes. Lossless is lossless, there is absolutely NO difference in quality between file formats. iTunes is bit perfect, has great search and tagging options, and you can remote control it with an iPad/iPhone.