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Going to rip 2000 cds. Which software?

At 63 years old I've decided it's finally time to make the move to a digital library.  I've spent hours and hours on this forum reading about servers, streamers, music servers, nas systems and modded Mac Minis.  I'm more than confused.  I'm pretty much ready to just buy a new transport and be done with it. 

But.... I play "cuts."  I hardly ever play an entire record or cd and would like the ability to choose what's playing from the couch.

I know that the first step is ripping cds.  I have a couple of questions;

1.  Which software should I use?  I am concerned about speed and indexing.  I'm a jazzhead and have quite a few recordings by the same artists that have recorded multiple versions of the same tune.  I want to make sure they are indexed properly.  I would also like a program that doesn't take all day to make a copy.

2.  I can use either Mac or PC.  I would prefer Mac but would use a PC if it is more future proof.  I have a Macbook Air and a PC laptop and both have dual 2 terrabyte external drives.

3. I would also consider a Music Server with a nas rig.

If I do a music server with nas I'd like to keep the price around $2000.

Thanks to all of you.

--Bob


jzzmusician
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hharless99
6 posts
 
Bob,

I purchased a Mac Mini in the fall of 2015 with the intention of building a dedicated music server.  In the process of researching my options, I found there were a few folks out there that will modify the Mini with an external power supply.  I read some good things about Ben Zwickel and Mo-Jo Audio, so after numerous email and phone conversations I sent my Mini to Ben for the upgrade.  It took only about a week and I couldn't be happier with it.  I have begun the arduous task of re-ripping my CD collection to AIFF, so I feel you pain.  I use dbpoweramp to rip with and have been very pleased with it. I also purchased Mo-Jo's asynchronous DAC, Mystique 2.0 and have been very pleased with that, as well.  Lastly, I store the files on a Synology NAS and use JRiver Media Center as the front end for the whole thing and it all sounds terrific.

Good luck and enjoy the music.

Skip
ben2300's avatar
ben2300
6 posts
 
Hi All.
For Mac i'm using the XLD on my MBP free and simple. However, my rip server was always vertexbox it is free and always up and running. I had it for the last 5 years with only 2 power outage that i can remember. beside CDs on FLAC i also use it to rip Bluray and DVD back than. 

the only Mod i did was to feed it with linear power supply with that all the rips will sound so much better.
mribob
229 posts
 

I'd like to jump onto this thread and ask several additional questions of viewers.

I am using Jriver MC 21 on a PC laptop running Windows 10, and using a SSD HD. I have two 3 TB WD portable HD's, and a third used as backup. Since my laptop only has a SSD, it has no internal CD tray. I am purchasing a usb external CD R/W drive coming shortly. I plan on installing dbPoweramp to use as my ripping/burning software, and use FLAC as my preferred file format.

Questions:

How do I direct the new ripped CD flac file into my library on JRiver on drive D? Before I used the internal ripping software from JRiver when my laptop had an internal drive. I was not happy with its capability. Not sure how to synch the dbpoweramp software into JRiver MC library. Don't want it on my internal SSD drive, do I? Its only 250 GB.

Is there any software than can help recover my wav. files transferred
 from another hard drive. I experienced the frustration of lack of transfer/inclusion of meta data on the wav. files. They appear only as a series of numbers/letters, without allowing me to know artist or album, or song. Would Roon work for this function, and if so, how?

Thanks in advance for any assistance to this older computer illiterate geek, who enjoys the convenience
 and quality of computer audio.

mribob
229 posts
 
I should have opened more of the above posts before I wrote in..I read Chris's well researched link on how to install and configure dbPoweramp, which I purchased today...Thanks for that...my bad for not taking advantage of info already covered.
learsfool
1,215 posts
 
I have ripped almost 1000 CDs using iTunes on my MacBook Pro.  It has worked great, however, now I need to transfer the files to an external hard drive.  Does anyone have any advice about doing this?  I think I need to reformat the drive so that it keeps the backups in a separate place from my music files, yes??  I copied a couple of articles about it, but I am a little confused over how to proceed.  I also have no idea about how to find the files on that drive afterwards - or is this not an issue??  
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