Music Software for PC

[Holowlegs]

Hello there


Not been in these parts for a while, but I do browse now and again.


Have gone out and brought a new 2 TB hard dive to store music on and a pair of Sennheisher RS 180 to listen too music on.

I also have an Ipod Classic and the wife and daughter have Ipods.

I have decided to digitize all my CD in the house.

Idea is to use Itunes to convert to Apple Lossless, and use these for the Ipods and my daughters laptop, which she can access the whole library and her playlist via wireless.

Also too convert a lot off my own CD's and a few of my daughters, and not many off the wives into Flac so I can listen at home via another software. Have also kidnapped some off my sisters CD's, but I have too return the favour as she is getting a portable hard drive for her laptop, and I have to convert her CD's and others on to this new Hard drive.

At the moment I am using dbPoweramp too rip the CD's, and find it very easy too use.

For play back of the Flac files. have tried a few so far.

Songbird was ok and was very similar to iTunes, and easy to use. But it just kept on crashes every so often.

foobar2000 don't think I really gave this a chance, but I just didn't like the look off it.


At the moment am using a 30 day trail of J River Media centre. Out of all the software, this seems to produce the best sound, the bass seems a bit tighter, and also a wider sound stage, if you know what I mean. This is even against Itunes playing Apple loss less.

Any way, is there any other software out there worth giving a try and any tips on converting all these CD's.

Cheers Frank

 

[larkone]

It is worth trying Jriver with either the ASIO or WASAPI drivers as this improves the sound considerably. If you have any problems ripping the Exact Audio Copy (EAC) is a good program for ripping difficult CDs

 

[Steven]

See the forum sticky!

If you have any problems ripping the Exact Audio Copy (EAC) is a good program for ripping difficult CDs

Yes and no. EAC's accuracy can work against it. Sometimes the condition of a disc is such that EAC could take a lifetime copying it, being stuck at a problem section for donkeys. You either persevere or end up giving up on usual secure ripping and using burst mode

 

[larkone]

At least you have the option with EAC, poor rippers just allow errors through. I have found that *********'s CDparanoia's implementation is excellent as well.

 

[formbypc]

Rip CDs to FLAC with EAC
Convert FLACs to mp3 with Trader's Little Helper or similar

Your description suggests you're doing two separate rips at present - one to Apple lossless, and one to FLAC. The above method has one master rip, and derives files for lesser use from the master FLAC files.

Import the mp3 folders to iTunes. Keep the iTunes music in folders (and a backup folder) outwith iTunes, so that if you have to change computer, if your HDD gets corrupted, you can reload the iTunes library from the external source.

Foobar looks cheap but works. You'll influence the sound more with how you connect the PC to the HiFi than by choice of file player, I'd suggest - unless you're plugging headphones straight into the PC?

 

[Berties]

EAC for ripping
FLAC encoder
foobar with wsaspi plugin

 

[nwgarratt]

I use the free version of Mediamonkey for playback. I prefer the look of version of old 2.5 instead of the later v3 and v4.