Ripping CD's onto computer.

[ProjectedBlack]

I've had it with every wmp cd ever made by me or for me. Maybe my ears are just past warranty

Maybe the new versions of WMP are of better quality or something. Perhaps it just varys on computer to computer as Microsoft has been known to release software that doesn't run entirely well.

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

Freerip is easy as hell.

 

[sumairetsu]

I've started putting my CD's onto my computer as backups (I have a little brother who tends to steal them from me, anyone else with this problem?) Plus it's good to have them in case you wear out the CD, which I've done before.

CDs don't wear out unless you're mishandling them, my dear.

Tell your brother that you'll make copies of the CDs for him if he'll stop stealing them. I'm sure that should keep your copies in tact.

Personally, I use Magix's Mp3 Maker software for my Mp3 conversion needs.

 

[Susperia]

Yeah, I did actually. I found that buying a stack full of cheap, non-branded CD-Rs did the trick, so I could copy the cds he liked, without comprimising my cd collection. That was a long time ago, but Im glad that he did like my cds, as they ripped him out of his rap/pop fixation.

I thought the cost of the blanks was worth it as it:
a) kept my original cds safe

and

b) helped edumacate him.

Haha, I know what you mean, at least he's listening to some decent music. However he never admits to stealing them---I have to go in his room and look for them, so I'll try telling him I'll burn them for him but I wouldn't be surprised if he kept stealing them. I still can't find one of my Life of Agony cd's .

It sucks, I ask him nicely if h'es seen it, and he says no. Then I look in his room and it's in there. Hah, sometimes I dont' even know I'm missing anything and I'll go in there and find a CD of mine.

^I guess it's just vinyl that wears down?? That's odd... I've had my Titanic soundtrack for close to a decade now and I've listened to it a billion times, I thought that's why it was skipping. I treat all my CD's like gold...

Oh yeah, and I meant to say .wma originally, not M3u... I dont' know why I said M3u.

 

[Carcassian]

Haha, I know what you mean, at least he's listening to some decent music. However he never admits to stealing them---I have to go in his room and look for them, so I'll try telling him I'll burn them for him but I wouldn't be surprised if he kept stealing them. I still can't find one of my Life of Agony cd's .

It sucks, I ask him nicely if h'es seen it, and he says no. Then I look in his room and it's in there. Hah, sometimes I dont' even know I'm missing anything and I'll go in there and find a CD of mine.

^I guess it's just vinyl that wears down?? That's odd... I've had my Titanic soundtrack for close to a decade now and I've listened to it a billion times, I thought that's why it was skipping. I treat all my CD's like gold...

At least he hasn't lost one of your good cds. Actually, impressing upon your brother the need for truthfulness is a must: if he confesses to taking a cd, go easy on him. However, should you find a cd he stole that he didnt ask for and he said he didnt touch, you may wish to beat the soles of his feet. It's the only way he'll learn.

 

[Erik]

cd's CAN wear out... or rather, get old. especially older cd's where the reflective layer gets oxidised or something like that... but newer cd's are generally made very well so you shouldn't have a problem with storing them for a few decades if you handle them correctly. there is no physical contact between the data part of the disc and any part of the player at any time.

 

[CAIRATH]

The main things that can wear down CDs are warmth (it can deform the plastic over time) and UV light (sunlight). If you avoid those things and don't scratch the hell out of them they should last for decades.

My brother takes terrible care of his own CDs but luckily I have maybe two CDs in my collection that he could stand so my collection is safe.

 

[Birkenau]

Susperia should rip her shirt off imo.

 

[Impure616]

What I do is put all my music on my computer, then put the original back in the case and burn all my cd's onto cd-r that way I dont have to worry about fucking up the cd.

 

[hibernal_dream]

Why bother ripping to mp3s? Make an image of the whole cd and whenever you want to listen to it, just mount it and play. Easy to do and no quality loss!

 

[sumairetsu]

Why bother ripping to mp3s? Make an image of the whole cd and whenever you want to listen to it, just mount it and play. Easy to do and no quality loss!

But, uses a shitload of memory. And, unless you're using a quality speaker system on your computer, it's really not worth all the space being used, for me.

 

[Fredy_Brown]

Why bother ripping to mp3s?

Becauste mp3 players don´t play CDs?

 

[CAIRATH]

There are plenty of other reasons. For me ease of use is a big reason why I love having all my music ripped to my HD. It just gives you flexibility that you can never have with a CD player. You can do things like shuffle through your entire collection when you are feeling particularly indecisive, or make up cross-album or cross-artist playlists. The closest you could get to that with a CD player is if you had one of those CD jukebox things but those are still pretty limited in number of discs they can contain.

There's always the debate about whether you can or can't hear the difference between CD quality and compressed music. I personally can't tell the difference between a CD and a high quality VBR encoded mp3. Maybe if I had several thousand dollars worth of audio equipment I could, but if that is ever the case I can always re-rip my CDs in a better quality audio format. But for the most part people who claim to be able to tell the difference are full of shit.

Also, if you really do care about not having any quality loss (regardless of whether you can actually tell or not) it'd still be a better idea to rip your CDs to a lossless format like FLAC than to just rip them to a CD image. That takes up tons of space and still means you have to mount and unmount CDs one by one which doesn't have the advantages mentioned earlier.

 

[Fredy_Brown]

Yes, FLAC is probably the best rip format.
Anyway I can easily find the differences between CD and mp3 (even if its in good VBR), not in metal most of time, but in some sound demanding rock....

Another good format is ogg.

 

[DE]

Why bother ripping to mp3s? Make an image of the whole cd and whenever you want to listen to it, just mount it and play. Easy to do and no quality loss!

Or you could not be a moron and use a lossless codec if you're desperate to avoid quality loss - identical quality at a third of the filesize of a disc image.

Or, you could be even less of a moron and realise that you can't tell the difference between the CD itself and ~192kbps VBR, and just rip MP3s.

 

[hibernal_dream]

Thanks for the advice, but I can tell the difference. Buy a decent system and speakers/headphones. Lossless codecs are a good idea but if you have the space on your computer why bother?

 

[DE]

Thanks for the advice, but I can tell the difference. Buy a decent system and speakers/headphones. Lossless codecs are a good idea but if you have the space on your computer why bother?

I would bet money that you couldn't tell the difference. Post results of an ABX test comparing a LAME -aps MP3 with the WAV source if you want to put your money where your mouth is

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

I rip all my shit to 128. there is no difference.

 

[VampyrRose]

I rip all my shit to 128. there is no difference.

128? uggh...I mean its not bad but thats what I would consider "decent", but I usually go for at least 192. There is a difference but its not anything huge.

 

[Birkenau]

At 128kbps there is an audible difference, even when compared to 192kbps.