Article: Computer Audiophile CD Ripping Strategy and Methodology

[tompry_58]

I am slowly re-ripping my cd's to AIFF using XLD and am very happy with the product. But when I look at a XLD rip vs a Max rip the bit rate is different XLD is 1411 kbps, Max 2116 kbps - both are being ripped at 44.1 kHz.<br />

<br />

I am aiming to achieve the exact cd replica so was expecting all rips to be 1411 but do not know whether I should be concerned.<br />

<br />

Any insights are greatly appreciated.<br />

<br />

Tom<br />

[bdiament]

Hi Tom,<br />

<br />

<i>"...I am slowly re-ripping my cd's to AIFF using XLD and am very happy with the product. But when I look at a XLD rip vs a Max rip the bit rate is different XLD is 1411 kbps, Max 2116 kbps - both are being ripped at 44.1 kHz."</i><br />

<br />

<i>"I am aiming to achieve the exact cd replica so was expecting all rips to be 1411 but do not know whether I should be concerned."</i><br />

<br />

<i>"Any insights are greatly appreciated..."</i><br />

<br />

Check your settings in Max. It sounds like Max is ripping to 24-bits.<br />

<br />

Hope this helps.<br />

<br />

Best regards,<br />

Barry<br />

www.soundkeeperrecordings.com<br />

www.barrydiamentaudio.com<br />

[csd455]

I'm pretty dissapointed as I just completed ripping about 300 cd's prior to reading Chris's article. I ripped everything to ALAC via Max. Until now, I was confident that I had at least done a good job in ensuring bit:bit ripping. Now I'm not so sure, especially after reading the last post. Can someone help with the following questions:<br />

<br />

--My freshly ripped ALAC files have varying bit rates (typically 800-1100 kbps) listed in iTunes and are slightly different by song. Is that normal? Sample rate on all are 44.1. I did convert a few 24/96 files (downloaded FLAC's, not CD's) to AIFF, and they all read 2116kbps identically.<br />

--Can I convert the ALAC files to AIFF (working) and FLAC (archived files), or does this present any basic problems since the "original" file is now ALAC?<br />

<br />

[MusicTrax]

CSD455 commented: <em>My freshly ripped ALAC files have varying bit rates (typically 800-1100 kbps) listed in iTunes and are slightly different by song. Is that normal?</em><br />

Yes, it's normal. The musical content, EQ, and level of the songs are different, so naturally in a variable-bitrate situation, the bit rate will be different. I've seen old mono WAV files get compressed down to below 700kbps, but they're still exact representations of the original WAVs.<br />

<br />

You can convert the ALACs back to AIFF or FLACs, but they shouldn't sound any better or different than the ALACs. As they often say on the Hydrogen Audio Forums, "lossless <strong> is</strong> lossless." All the various lossless formats sound identical, assuming a perfect bit-accurate rip.

[csd455]

Whew! Sounds like my ripping was done correctly, despite being in ALAC, so thanks for the feedback MusicTrax. <br />

<br />

Just curious though, why does an AIFF file will have identical bit rates identified, but ALAC is variable?

[MusicTrax]

ALAC is variable because it's inherently a variable-bitrate system. It automatically adjusts based on the complexity of the file. As long as what comes out is still bit-accurate with the original WAV file, it doesn't matter. <br />

<br />

By the same token: if you take a print document or photograph, and compress it with lossless Zip or Stuffit, the file sizes will be different. But uncompressed, they come out the exact same way. I can compress a 600,000 word novel as a Word file, then decompress it, and not a single punctuation mark or typeface has changed.<br />

<br />

You can always take the Apple Lossless file, decompress it back to WAV, then pull it into an audio editing program and see if it precisely nulls out with the original file when you invert the phase. If everything cancels out, then for my money, it's identical. <br />

<br />

I don't think there are any mysteries with lossless encoding or decoding. The only real variables are a) how long does it take to compress the file, b) how large all the files, and c) what equipment can play back the file. From a sound quality point of view, I believe all lossless formats are the same.

[Affejunge]

for making me realize what a nerd I am! <br />

<br />

I am a long time reader of this site (heck I have even shared your articles on G+). Yet, I began reading this article with a bit of bemusement.<br />

<br />

I mean really? A "working" copy? An "archival" copy. Wow, that <b>is</b> a bit over the top!<br />

<br />

Then a sinking feeling set in...I realized that while I have all my music on my server on a large RAID5 array, either played directly to my audio system or shared to other computers via DLNA UPnP, I do have them backed up to an external drive. But that is just common sense, right? It is not like that is an extreme.<br />

<br />

Then the memory of having also backed all music up to Amazon's S3 service came flooding back. Oh, and never mind the other copy of my music with volume leveling and encoded at super lossy ogg 196 (for running).<br />

<br />

So, I must know admit you guide is absolutely correct and nothing you mention is <i>extreme</i>! <br />

<br />

<small>p.s. I don't even want to get into the md5 checking I did during my original rips!</small>

[tmornini]

Hey Daniel!<br />

<br />

I have a 13 year old son. I've paid he and his friends to do a number of boring jobs for me, such as cataloging my book collection via Delicious Library.<br />

<br />

I'm pretty OCD and expect work to be done right. I've been happily surprised by the quality of work they have done for me! And, it's easy to find a rate that makes both parties really happy!<br />

<br />

I think they learned a lot about what will be expected of them later in life. In my case, I used it to teach them to avoid working for others if they can possibly avoid it. :-)<br />

<br />

I've already ripped my music, but if I hadn't, I'd *absolutely* let them do it.<br />

<br />

Just give them clear instructions, and a simple plan to follow to make certain everything gets done correctly, and I think you'll be very pleased with the quality of work they'll do!<br />

<br />

Young kids feel the economy through their folks. Put some cash in their pockets and let them listen to your system while they work. It's the kind of thing they'll remember for a long time. Might even create some new audiophiles!<br />

<br />

I've also been considering having them sort my CDs by artist and year on the off chance I ever need to go physical again. :-)<br />

<br />

In fact, after writing this, I may even have them re-rip everything into a better archival format...

[tmornini]

...and couldn't have said it better either. :-)<br />

<br />

+1<br />

[wymusic]

Very interesting article. <br />

I have an IMAC with a dual core processor. I run VMWare Fusion so I can have access to some legacy MS XP programs. Could I implement your archive and ripping methodology with this hardware? I would like to avoid having a separate MS based hardware platform. Do you have any experience with dbPoweramp running in VMWare? Are there any other sw/hw dependency that might not work with my setup? <br />

<br />

<br />

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Wymusic - I have one Windows machine that runs exclusively on Parallels. I use dBpoweramp on it all the time without any issues. <br />

<br />

[machinehead]

Chris was there something special you had to do, to get Parallels to recognize<br />

the DVD drive you were using? I have tried the same with Win 7 and VirtualBox,<br />

but it doesn't see the external drive.

[The Computer Audiophile]

If OS X can see the drive Paralells should see it as well (except FW drives). Simply selecting the drive under the devices menu connects it to Win 7 virtual machine. <br />

<br />

[David W]

Hey Chris, I’ve been re-ripping my CD collection following the methodology. I thought long and hard about doing this, but I made the commitment and have been doing so on and off for the last two months. However, I’ve seen that some of the rips following the methodology using dBpoweramp wind up with a lower overall bit rate in iTunes than the original rip done using iTunes. Any speculation why that might happen? Seems that the bit rate should be the same, not lower:<br />

<br />

Misery Is The River Of The World Tom Waits 4:25 1 of 1 818 kbps 1 of 13 Blood Money<br />

<br />

Misery Is the River of the World Tom Waits 4:25 1 of 1 476 kbps 1 of 13 Blood Money_dbP<br />

<br />

<br />

Thanks!<br />

<br />

-David<br />

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi David - What file format(s) are you using in both applications? Can you attach screenshots?<br />

<br />

[David W]

Chris, in dBPoweramp, I’m using FLAC and ALAC with no DSP effects. Using old and new from the Tom Waits rip, the audio properties are:<br />

<br />

Original (ripped in iTunes):<br />

<br />

Artist Tom Waits<br />

Title Misery Is The River Of The World<br />

Album Blood Money<br />

Track 1/13<br />

Disc 1/1<br />

Genre Alternative<br />

Year 2002<br />

Rating <br />

Composer Tom Waits - Kathleen Brennan<br />

Size 25.9 MB (42% Compressed)<br />

Original Size 44.6 MB<br />

Length 4 minutes 25 seconds<br />

Channels 2 (stereo)<br />

Sample Rate 44.1 KHz{CR}<br />

Sample Size 16 bit<br />

Bit Rate 1,411 kbps<br />

Encoder Apple Lossless (ALAC)<br />

Encoder Settings <br />

Audio Quality Perfect (Lossless)<br />

Contains ID Tag [Apple iTunes]<br />

Channel Mapping <br />

File 01 Misery Is The River Of The World<br />

Type MPEG-4 Audio File [.m4a]<br />

<br />

New (ripped in dBpoweramp):<br />

<br />

Artist Tom Waits<br />

Title Misery Is the River of the World<br />

Album Blood Money_dbP<br />

Track 1/13<br />

Disc 1/1<br />

Genre PopRock<br />

Year 2002 05 07<br />

Rating 9<br />

Composer Tom Waits; Kathleen Brennan<br />

Size 15.29 MB (32% Compressed)<br />

Original Size 22.27 MB<br />

Length 4 minutes 24 seconds<br />

Channels 2 (stereo)<br />

Sample Rate 22 KHz{CR}<br />

Sample Size 16 bit<br />

Bit Rate 705 kbps<br />

Encoder Apple Lossless (ALAC)<br />

Encoder Settings <br />

Audio Quality Perfect (Lossless)<br />

Contains Album Art, ID Tag [Apple iTunes]<br />

Channel Mapping <br />

File 01 Misery Is the River of the World 1<br />

Type MPEG-4 Audio File [.m4a]<br />

<br />

Upon further review, I see the difference is the sample rate going from 44.1 Khz to 22Khz (and this is to many of my re-rips (yikes!!)).<br />

<br />

The screen shots from dBPoweramp and iTunes are below:<br />

[David W]

I posted a similar question on the dBPoweramp support page. After a few back and forths, I asked about a complete removal of CD Ripper as I tried to remove and reinstall from my computer, but it must have some fingerprints as it came back with similar configurations. I was directed to http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthre...rom-the-System which did the trick.<br />

<br />

All is well.<br />

[machinehead]

The link is broken.

[Paul R]

Hey Chris - <br />

<br />

I'm reworking my ripping workflow, as I did find some missing music and stuff in the old library, probably where I got lazy. Okay, most certainly where I got lazy. <br />

<br />

What would you suggest as a good methodology to integrating new rips into an existing library? <br />

<br />

In my particular case I defined a rather strict format on the disk storage, and embedded every bit of Metadata, pictures, titles, artists, and especially album artist. <br />

<br />

I use the "artist" field to define a top level folder, and the Album artist field to enable nice display, sorting, and quick. Below artists there is a folder for the album, and then the individual tracks. All this is under a top level "Music" folder.<br />

<br />

Now that works great ripping from say, XLD. And iTunes where pointed to the folder level just above music, usually "iTunes Media", finds everything, imports it, and everything is great. <br />

<br />

So I wind up with a hierarchy that looks like this: <br />

<br />

/Users/Paul/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Beethoven/Beethoven Symphonie Nos.5 & 6 "Pastorale"/01 Beethoven Symphonie No.5 c-moll op.67 - I. Allegro con brio.aiff<br />

<br />

That seems like a ridiculously long filename until you look at it and realize I could reconstruct most of the album information from it. Just a CYA type of thing I suppose. <br />

<br />

However, if I RIP another album by Beethoven, and it goes under the "/Users/Paul/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Beethoven/" folder, is there an easy way to get iTunes to just import that one folder? Usually I add 10 to 15 albums in a session, and they can be scattered all over the place, in different artists folders. <br />

<br />

My current less than elegant solution is to drop the iTunes database and reimport everything , but of course, that looses some interesting information, like play counts. I could keep a list I suppose, and import each folder individually into iTunes. But that seems so clumsy and prone to error... <br />

<br />

Any ideas? <br />

<br />

-Paul<br />

[machinehead]

Paul,<br />

<br />

Not sure if this is what you are asking, but here goes.<br />

<br />

I rip using dbPoweramp. I can create a second rip output to<br />

a folder I label "Import to iTunes". dbPoweramp does it automatically so it doesn't take any extra time. After my rip session, I then ask iTunes to import all files in that folder. The original file in my scheme resides in a folder called "Music Aiff" as I don't ask iTunes to move the files into the iTunes folder.

[Paul R]

This is quite at the core of what I am asking. <br />

<br />

If iTunes imports everything in the "Import to iTunes" folder, where do the physical files reside? Are all of your files always in the 'Import to iTunes' folder?<br />

<br />

How do you avoid iTunes wanting to re-import existing files each time you add new material, producing duplicates in the database? <br />

<br />

If you do allow iTunes to copy the files somewhere, how do you control the file system hierarchy that iTunes stores it in? <br />

<br />

-Paul<br />

[machinehead]

Hi Paul,<br />

<br />

There is a check box in iTunes preferences that asks if you want iTunes to move the file from its current location when you import the file.<br />

<br />

In my system I un-check this box, so that I can keep my files in a separate partition, and control the folders etc. I think it is in the advanced "tab" of iTunes preferences.

[Brian A]

I'm using dBpoweramp and iTunes too. (Although seriously thinking about JRiver.)<br />

<br />

Drag and drop works with iTunes:<br />

- Open the folder containing the newly ripped tracks.<br />

- Highlight the tracks you wish to import into iTunes.<br />

- Click and hold the left mouse button.<br />

- Drag the selection to the iTunes "Music" folder at the upper left corner of the iTunes window.<br />

- Files will be imported. <br />

<br />

I find this proces a lot easier than and better than usings "Files, Add Folder" etc.<br />

<br />

Do you know how to write "Rating" (i.e. 0 to 5 stars) into the track's metadata using iTunes?

[Paul R]

By the way, here is the simplified workflow I am using. It's in text and clumsy, apologies. -Paul <br />

<br />

<img src="http://www.computeraudiophile.com/files/CDWorkFlow-Text20111102.pdf">

[orgel]

As many others have noted, this article is an invaluable reference. Thanks, Chris, for your Herculean effort.<br />

<br />

I hadn't seen anyone else point this out, though, so I thought I would: As of last week, Apple has open-sourced the Apple Lossless codec. See here:<br />

<br />

http://alac.macosforge.org/post/welcome-to-the-apple-lossless-audio-codec-project/<br />

<br />

Myself, I've already settled on FLAC as both my archival and working format for rips, but it seems to me that this move by Apple will go a long way toward putting ALAC on a par with FLAC as a good all-round choice for lossless audio format.<br />

<br />

--David