CD Archiving 3: The Write Tools
Posted on | September 13, 2009 at 9:29 am | 5 Comments
This series could go on forever, so I figure I should list up front the process and tools I’m using. That way, if anyone wants to jump in and emulate what I’m doing, this can be used as the go-to guide. I’ll go into the details in subsequent entries. And boy, there are a lot of details. Note that unless otherwise specified, the tools mentioned are freeware. One of my goals was to not spend money on this endeavor.
So in a semi-nutshell (emphasis on the nut), here’s what I go through to archive a CD:
- Update the CD in my music catalog (Music Collector, $29.95 or free). This includes getting the track info, release year, and label/catalog number, scanning the cover art, and even inputting the producer and musician credits. Actually, I do some of this during the next step, since the ripping takes some time and multitasking is possible during this process. But I at least have to scan the cover before doing the ripping, because I copy the cover art file to the ripping working area directory so it can be embedded in the archive. I utilize the allmusic guide to acquire or recheck data (especially release dates and musician credits) that may not exist or may not be accurate from the sources that MuC uses for its automatic updating.
- Rip the CD as both a single FLAC image and multiple MP3 files (one per track) using Exact Audio Copy 0.99 with REACT2 (and Akkurat’s mod). (The MP3 ripping uses the LAME encoder, included with REACT2.) I use a FLAC compression level of 5 and a LAME VBR compression setting of 1. Sometimes I will have to adjust the name of the FLAC file to match my sorting scheme. (I could write thousands of blog entries on sorting issues alone.) I usually also copy off the .jpg and .cue files to a different directory than the one where I keep the FLAC archives.
- Re-rip the CD using my second drive if the EAC log reports errors or the AccurateRip data does not match for one or more tracks. So far, I’ve never had a case where neither drive could accurately rip a CD, though I’m sure I’ll encounter some.
- Play parts of the FLAC file to see if it’s okay using foobar2000 player, which can also be used to play the MP3 files. This is also good for verifying that the FLAC metadata is correctly embedded (cuesheet, cover art).
- If the CD has a long track at the end, I play the MP3 of it to see if there is a hidden song or two in the single track (i.e. the main song followed by a long silence, followed by another song). I don’t like having long tracks with lots of silence in my iTunes library – it’s wasteful and messes up playlists. If the CD has one, then I use Direct WAV MP3 Splitter ($19.95) to split the track into multiple tracks and discard the silent bits. I like this particular tool because it has a decent, simple user interface (including showing the waveform), a good silence detector, and it splits the track without recompressing it. (It’s important to me to preserve the encoding and gain applied during the original ripping process.) There are some free tools that work almost as well, but I liked the way this one worked well enough to actually pay for it.
- After splitting the MP3 track, the VBR header is destroyed. This is the bad thing about the splitter not recompressing the track. You can tell because the track duration and bit rate are listed wrong in players – usually the track time is listed as being a lot longer than the actual duration. I use the VBR Header Repair utility in foobar2000 to fix it, though there are many other free utilities that will do the same thing.
- Use Mp3tag to copy the tags from the original track to the two (or more) extracted tracks. I also use it to change the track names, track numbers, and filenames on the extracted tracks. I usually give the hidden songs titles like “[Untitled Track 14]“, though sometimes the lyrics of the song will suggest a better title. Note: Mp3tag is also very useful for viewing and changing the metadeta in the FLAC archives if necessary. Good free tool.
- Run Mixmeister BPM Analyzer to set the Beats Per Minute on all MP3 tracks. This is necessary for making my “fast tempo” smart playlist in iTunes that I use for my workout iPod.
- Import the MP3 files into iTunes.
- Sometimes I will use EvilLyrics to scour the Internet for the song lyrics and embed them into the track in iTunes.
- If I have problems with any of the above, I check out what the good folks at the HydrogenAudio Forums have to say.
That’s it! Simple, eh? As I said, I’ll be going into greater detail about the individual steps in future entries. Assuming I don’t drop off the face of the blogosphere again.
Now everyone go forth and archive! Become obsessed, like me, and then report back! Thanks!
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: A new Maxïmo Park album has been out for months and I didn’t even know about it!
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “love like a battlefield stupid”.
Comments
5 Responses to “CD Archiving 3: The Write Tools”
September 13th, 2009 @ 9:15 pm
Why would you scan cover art when in all but the case of rare-ish CDs it’s available via import in MuC from Amazon.com?
September 13th, 2009 @ 9:21 pm
Because I like my scans better.
September 13th, 2009 @ 11:12 pm
Yikes, that is a lot of work. I thought I was anal because I ripped at 192k and insist on a specific file name format. I have nothing on you.
September 14th, 2009 @ 2:24 am
Yeah it sounds like a lot of work, but he only has to do it 4,000 times, so it’s…. um…
(I’ve tried to respond to a few previous posts but no worky!)
September 15th, 2009 @ 5:21 pm
InfK, this was another of your comments that got stuck in the spam filter. Askimet doesn’t like you.
Anyway, archiving 4000+ CDs is not a lot of work compared to writing a health care reform bill that everyone is happy with.