CD Audio to WAV then to MP3 or AAC or WMA - software

[soundPCMguy]

CD Audio to WAV then to MP3 or WMA - software

 

 

I starting to rip about 400 CDs into uncompressed WAV files to archive for long term and get rid of all the physical audio CDs.

 

I am going to purchase a Windows Phone 7 phone in the next 6 months.

I plan on using the Zune software as a digital music library.

 

I will also need to convert files from WAV to MP3 I thought the best compromise bitrate would be 192kbps MP3. Opinions on that bitrate for portable use in 32,64,128 GB portable units in the next 2-5 years?

I will always be keeping my WAV files on a RAID 1 harddrive for the computer and to have just-in-case.

The MP3s would be for a Windows Phone 7/ZuneHD type of portable player.

 

now for those who already want to hit reply and tell me I should be using FLAC or WMA Lossless codecs:

[i don't want a no-loss-of-quality-audio-waveform which decodes in realtime. I am keeping an archival copy of my music "just-in-case".

uncompressed WAV files are built upon the foundation of LPCM audio. they will be around for decades. You also can play them through any physical professional hardware AES/EBU or S/PDIF interface directly to any phyiscal DAC hardware.

Now that you know I am a professional in the film & TV business hopefully you'll understand. ]

 

I didn't really want to invest the time to convert many songs to WMA or AAC file formats as they are not as widely accepted by many players.

Would you guys suggest me using the Zune software to rip to WAV and then convert from WAV to MP3?

 

Why would you suggest to me to convert to WMA instead?

or AAC for that matter. Is AAC really going to last 10-15 years or will MP3 still be around as a mainstream digital audio format?

 

[CharlyD]

I strongly recommend that you do not rip to the WAV format as storage of the tag metadata in the file is not supported. Since you seem to be on a strong Microsoft path, WMA lossless will provide you the quality you're seeking, full metadata support and compatibility with Zune/Windows Mobile 7 (check http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc907938.aspx). Windows Media Player will rip to WMA lossless very well.

 

[soundPCMguy]

Thanks CharlyD.

After my initial research it would seem that ripping to FLAC and then to MP3 is the best option to have an archive as well as MP3s with metadata & ID3v2 tags.

 

At the moment I'm wondering if starting the whole process of 400 audio CDs with a circa 2006 AMD Athlon 64X2 2-Core 2.21GHz CPU with 1GB RAM is worth it for the initial rip & FLAC conversion or if I should wait to start the library until I get a new Windows 7 computer with a AMD Phenom II 6-core 3.2 GHz CPU and 4 GB RAM sometime in the next 6 months?

 

Is it truly night and day speed with ripping & converting?

Quick question- Does RAM matter in doing conversions to FLAC & MP3?

 

Obviously the thing I cannot automate is the actual putting in the audio CD into the DVD-ROM drive and closing the drawer.

 

As far as a batch conversions from FLAC to MP3 I'm guessing I could set it up to work overnight?

 

 

 

[ted_b]

software tool you need to own. First, it is one of 2 best rippers on the planet, IMO (and others; EAC being the other). Second, it has a great batch converter that will allow for large-scale FLAC-to-MP3 conversion, and is simple to use.

 

I'd choose 256kMP3 but that's just me. On most average redbook (cd) recordings I'd have a hard time telling 320k AAC vs wav (on great recordings it's easy), so 256 MP3 ain't that far off..and not hugely larger file sizes than 192k..but the slight differences in sound quality may be made moot by your output devices, headphones, etc.

 

[CharlyD]

The reason I was recommending WMA LL is that Zune and Win7 Mobile do not support FLAC. Your plan for ripping to FLAC and transcoding to MP3 will work well (especially in dBPowerAmp), but you'll need a different player (e.g. JMC) to play those FLAC files on your host PC. There is a FLAC codec available for WMP, but my experience is that it only adds the ability to play the content; WMP does not read the tags with that codec installed.

 

[ted_b]

but using it as an archiving format (with good metadata support). Anyway, there are many Windows-based players that will play FLAC (Foobar, JMC, etc) so it's not a big deal.