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Topic: archiving cds (Read 4370 times) previous topic - next topic
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archiving cds

once i get a new computer and a plextor drive, i plan on ripping all my cds and saving the wave files. i want to start encoding with mpc, but also save the wave files while i'm at it so that i wont have to re rip ever again. i will apply an albumgain on each album with wavegain, and use wavtrim to delete leading/trailing silence which eac often misses. i will be saving the files on cd-r, as wave files. i'm not going to bother using lossless encoding, just because i dont mind using two cd-rs for some long albums, and it's less hassel.
i have a few questions however: before i make a purchase, what would be the best drive to get? i assume a plextor, but which model? a dvd drive maybe?
also, what cd-r brand should i use? should the cds be written in any particular way?
any other concerns i should be aware of?
thanks for any replys.

archiving cds

Reply #1 –
Check out http://www.blindwrite.com and http://www.cdrinfo.com for more in-depth information on which drives to get.  Warning:  not all drives from a manufacturer are considtently good and newer doesn't mean better extraction.  Also check out the review on CDRW drives at Tom's Hardware:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/02q2/020617/index.html.

I just ordered a Lite-on drive because it seems that their more recent models are preferable to the Plextor drives for some features / performance reasons.  Good luck.
Was that a 1 or a 0?

archiving cds

Reply #2 –
@samskara

Don't take this personally but I think it's a stupid idea to burn them as wav-files and even more not to use lossless audio compression.

I've been thinking about the best way to keep my stuff too since a lot of my 600+ CDs have only 2-3 songs I really care about so I'm planning to sell them keeping only those songs.

I'm burning them as audio cds instead of wavs. Why? Because you won't notice any - ever so tiny - degradation in quality due to the error correction on audio cds. Actually, I'm quite certain you already have some degradation on your original audio cds from minor scratches (quite likely adding some more due to grabbing them, no matter how good your drive) but you simply won't notice.

I mean, we're talking about bits here and not the stuff that is cut off by a lossy codec. Even if you think you must archive them as wavs (so you can play them only on computers) you should use a lossless encoder cause it would save you time and especially space.

Saving time is achieved by ripping your original CDs with Exact Audio Copy using 'Monkey's Audio' (or whatever you prefer) as an external codec so that you directly rip to a lossless format.

Just my 2 cents, feel free to ignore
http://www.dvdshrink.info/chetwood/
Tools n' guides to automate/enhance the process of ripping DVDs with DVD Shrink
Home of MultiShrink: a small tool to enable DVD Shrink batch processing

archiving cds

Reply #3 –
Quote
I'm burning them as audio cds instead of wavs. Why? Because you won't notice any - ever so tiny - degradation in quality due to the error correction on audio cds. Actually, I'm quite certain you already have some degradation on your original audio cds from minor scratches (quite likely adding some more due to grabbing them, no matter how good your drive) but you simply won't notice.

This is not true for most CD users. Scratches are nearly inevitable for CDs in regular use.

Furthermore, a "few damaged bits" can produce a click sound, which is usually a lot more disturbing than codec artifacts.

archiving cds

Reply #4 –
@Continuum

I did not at all say that scratches were inevitable. Where did you read that? Certainly not in my post.

Apart from that I don't know what you guys are doing with your CDRs. In my 5+ years of burning I haven't had a single CDR that had clicks (even though they have some minor scratches) even when I've been using it in my player in the car.

High quality CDRs, and appropriate handling will do the trick...
http://www.dvdshrink.info/chetwood/
Tools n' guides to automate/enhance the process of ripping DVDs with DVD Shrink
Home of MultiShrink: a small tool to enable DVD Shrink batch processing

archiving cds

Reply #5 –
Quote
once i get a new computer and a plextor drive, i plan on ripping all my cds and saving the wave files. i want to start encoding with mpc, but also save the wave files while i'm at it so that i wont have to re rip ever again. i will apply an albumgain on each album with wavegain, and use wavtrim to delete leading/trailing silence which eac often misses. i will be saving the files on cd-r, as wave files. i'm not going to bother using lossless encoding, just because i dont mind using two cd-rs for some long albums, and it's less hassel.
i have a few questions however: before i make a purchase, what would be the best drive to get? i assume a plextor, but which model? a dvd drive maybe?
also, what cd-r brand should i use? should the cds be written in any particular way?
any other concerns i should be aware of?
thanks for any replys.

All plextor drives are excellent. You probably want to buy the latest and fastest model. Note that you will need high quality CD-R media in order to burn at 24X. Burning at that speed might make the CD not readable on non Plextor drives.

Anyway, your plan requires quite a sum of money and time. (Prices can vary)

Here's an estimate for 400 cds:

Plextor CD-R drive: $225
400 CD-R media: $225
Total: $450 ~ $1.13 per cd
Time needed: 4 minutes per cd ~ 27 hours
Bonus: You have to label your cd-rs.

A viable alternative is to purchase two 80 Gb harddrives -- or one 160 Gb. Put the drive in your computer until it is full and then take it out and store in a safe place. With this solution it is obvious to use lossless compression. Just let it run over night.

Two Seagate 80 Gb drives: $293  ~ $0.73 per cd
Time needed: A lot less.
Bonus: You won't have to label your cds.

The second solution gets even better if you have an old computer not used any more (not more than 6 years old). Put the new drives in it and run linux on the machine. Linux has no problems using large disks on old computers.