Advice On Moving to Digital Music

[drzaius]

Hello,

I am about to buy a squeezebox and had a few questions and wanted to see if I could get some feedback on my planned set-up?

Recently I decided it was time to convert my entire music collection (roughly 1400 CD's) to a digital format. From reading these boards and other posts on the subject it seems that ripping to FLAC is the best approach for keeping the music quality intact.

Before getting started I was wondering:

- What is the approximate file size of CD ripped to FLAC?

- If I am starting out with a new computer/clean hard drive are there any tips on how I should store my music files or set-up my directories?

- From reading these boards it seems that exact audio copy is the program to use to rip to FLAC. What is the best way to move FLAC to MP3? I would like to be able to move FLAC files to MP3 for my car stereo and portable MP3 player.

- As I rip new CD's is there a way to add a date ripped ID3 tag so I can create play list based on the newest additions?

- Any suggestions for software that will create a master list of my music collection that I can print out?

- Can I manage (organize, TAG, create play list) all of my music (after ripping) with the Slim Server software?

- My computer is running Windows media center, I found a few post saying that people had some problems but couldn't figure out if they were resolved. Any known issues?

- I have quite a few cd's that are DJ sets/electronic. The CD's have multiple tracks but when listening all the tracks are connected into one continuous set. If I rip one of these CD's how do I avoid there being gaps when I play them through the squeezebox?

Sorry for all the questions.

Any help would be appreciated.


Cheers,
drzaius

[Patrick Dixon]

- What is the approximate file size of CD ripped to FLAC?300-350MB


- If I am starting out with a new computer/clean hard drive are there any tips on how I should store my music files or set-up my directories?There are many ways. I use /AlbumArtist/Album/TrackNo-TrackName-TrackArtist


- From reading these boards it seems that exact audio copy is the program to use to rip to FLAC. What is the best way to move FLAC to MP3? I would like to be able to move FLAC files to MP3 for my car stereo and portable MP3 player.I use foobar2000. It's a pain to set up, but works well. There are other ways involving perl scripts which other people can tell you more about!


- As I rip new CD's is there a way to add a date ripped ID3 tag so I can create play list based on the newest additions?Slimserver has a 'new music' category which might well do what you want.


- Any suggestions for software that will create a master list of my music collection that I can print out?I use Tag&Rename. Other tag editors will also do it for you.


- Can I manage (organize, TAG, create play list) all of my music (after ripping) with the Slim Server software?Yes - except for editing tags.


- My computer is running Windows media center, I found a few post saying that people had some problems but couldn't figure out if they were resolved. Any known issues?

- I have quite a few cd's that are DJ sets/electronic. The CD's have multiple tracks but when listening all the tracks are connected into one continuous set. If I rip one of these CD's how do I avoid there being gaps when I play them through the squeezebox?Ripping to tracks using EAC/FLAC will work just fine. If there is no 'gap', SS won't add one in.

[radish]

What is the approximate file size of CD ripped to FLAC?
If you're working with dance music you'll find the file sizes are bigger than usually quoted. The albums are longer for one thing (usually the full 74 mins) and, as far as I can tell, the higher dynamic content seems to lead to poorer compression (at least that's the only reason I can come up with). I see more like 500mb per disc for DJ mixes.


As I rip new CD's is there a way to add a date ripped ID3 tag so I can create play list based on the newest additions?
I would think the file timestamp should work for that. I think that's what SlimServer uses for it's (very cool) New Music list.


I have quite a few cd's that are DJ sets/electronic. The CD's have multiple tracks but when listening all the tracks are connected into one continuous set. If I rip one of these CD's how do I avoid there being gaps when I play them through the squeezebox?

In my experience there are issues playing gapless FLAC albums on the SB2 (see http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1434), but setting it to transcode on the server and stream as PCM results in perfect playback. I listen to probably 75% DJ sets and am very happy - the SB2 is a perfect device for gapless playback. Will be even happier when I can stream as FLAC ;)