Ripping CDs to MP3

[Bixby]

Hey there:

Thought I would ask this group. I have a large CD Collection and I have managed to rip about 800 to MP3 (320bit). All of our computers blew up in the last few months and Kathy and I now have a couple of new HP Laptops. I thought I would check to see what ripping software others used before I went back and loaded Yahoo / MusicMatch for ripping.

Requirements:
-Solid CDDB with obscure titles.
-Option to name files Artist - Song such as "Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb"

Thanks in advance.
Matt

[Mr. Analog]

I'm super-lazy and just use either Windows Media Player or BitTorrent the albums I want to backup these days.

Generally I don't BitTorrent because I can't control the quality of the rips.

[Bixby]

Windows Media Player insists on creating artist and album folders

[Thorin]

I've used MediaMonkey in the past and liked it.  Not sure how solid the CDDB support is, but I don't remember having any songs misnamed at the time.

MediaMonkey also lets you define how you want to label songs, and can re-label and re-sort all your existing MP3s based on their tags (although the first time I did that, I had a lot of "Unknown - Unknown" files in the "Unknown" folder - luckily there was an undo of some sort).

[Melbosa]

I'm a MediaMonkey guy as well, great for CDDB lookups, ID3 tag mods, and Cover Art downloading.

I've also used Exact Audio Copy to rip near perfect Audio CDs and then used LAME MP3 Encoder to make MP3s of them.  I believe the two integrate together according to this in the EAC FAQ:

I want to compress audio tracks to MP3s, what do I need besides from EAC?

Remember that EAC does not supply a MP3 codec; you may use the LAME, Gogo or the BladeEnc DLL’s (or FAAC Dll for AAC compression) by copying them into the same directory where you copied EAC. Then you will be able to choose the installed DLLs in the compression option dialog box. Of course the quality of MP3 is based on the encoder and the bitrate you use. Beside the DLLs you could also specify external command line compressors that will be executed after an entire track was read (and not on-the-fly).

[Lazybones]

I use media monkey to correct the tags on my files. I have never used it to rip, but it can easily organize your songs into any structure you want.


Btw artist-album is the most common structure for all mediaplayers

[Bixby]

Thanks Gang. Media Monkey for the win.

Not to pick nits, but Windows media player rips Artist-Song and most of my music, (about 18,000 now), is Artist - Song. I like a space before and after the dash for readability.

Thanks again. Sounds like Media Monkey is the one I need.

[Lazybones]

Sorry i ment folder structure artist album and song is artist-title

Media monkey will let you change and move everything.

[Mr. Analog]

Windows Media Player insists on creating artist and album folders

I guess that's where we're different. I see that as a benefit

[Darren Dirt]

I'm super-lazy and just use either Windows Media Player

This. 192Kbps, filename format "TrackNumber SongTitle.mp3", and I let it just create the "artist" folder and then within it the "album name" folder, which I don't like but oh well, after the rip I just cut-and-paste move the contents from the "child" folder up one level to the "parent" folder, and rename it (the "parent" aka "artist" folder) to "Artist - AlbumName" (and delete the "child"). For example, after a quick moving of the folder-within-the-folder contents up, I would rename "Depeche Mode" to "Depeche Mode - Violator" and delete "Violator"

Sure it's a kinda manual process, but then again I only rip 2 or 3 CDs in one session every few months. I kinda like how the filename is like "06 Enjoy the Silence.mp3" so when I am mixing it up or using a playlist I can see the track # for reference in the filename.

Also I find over 192Kbps is not noticeably better, and the filesize (around 70-90 MB) per CD is not excessive.

PS: I admit, it's shameful that my laziness results in me not taking advantage of likely better and cleaner solutions, instead I'm relying on the Microsoft bloatware, but that's pretty much all that I use WMP for, lol.

[Thorin]

I like a space before and after the dash for readability.

Just so you know, you're not alone.  I am also a detail-oriented fella who likes readability tidbits like that.  No one else in my family is, though, so we end up with whatever filenames were picked by the ripper.

Darren: You can completely remove that manual process with MediaMonkey, because you can tell MediaMonkey what the template format is including folders and subfolders.  Seriously, give it a try, you'll like how well it handles audio files.  Just too bad it doesn't handle video files.