Just starting with "Digitization"

Random thoughts and comments:

I've used both CDex and AG for ripping my CD's.

I've used both VBR and CBR MP3's, and preferred VBR for a long time because of the smaller file size. I moved on to 320kbps CBR files a short time back for all my cd rips. My online purchases vary in bitrate but the lowest is 192kbps vbr.

Why the various bitrates?
There was a double blind studying whose results showed that 192kbps vbr MP3's were indistinguishable from the original source material. That being said, I consider that the MINIMUM acceptable bit rate for MUSICAL material (spoken word tracks, like audio books is a completely different concept altogether). With the elevated noise floor at most events coupled with the distractions, I doubt most people could even tell the difference between 128kbps cbr and source material, but there is a point of diminishing returns in regards to size vs. sound quality. If you want to do your own 'double blind' study - try using an ABX comparator with various bitrates. You might just be surprised with the results.

Most playback devices don't have a problem with VBR, but on battery powered devices it will eat your battery marginally faster because of the additional processing overhead. The same is true of DRM enabled tracks.

Given the size of modern storage devices, it's best to use the highest bitrate possible. If you are using the tracks during working out, etc - you can use a lower bitrate because it's more 'distraction' than 'sound quality' you're concerned with. That's why products like the Shuffle are popular with people working out despite their smaller capacity.

As for using wavs, there are better alternatives with smaller files that support tagging. FLAC, lossless AAC, and a few others are supported by 'most' playback devices in one form or another. As always, double check before ripping everything and then realizing it doesn't work.

If you have the room, keep the wavs so you can move to another format later if you need to.

As was already mentioned, use the LAME encoder over Blade and the original Fraunhoffer algorithms. It produces a better sounding file at comparable bitrates than the others.


That's the key items I've remembered off the top of my head... some was already covered, some might not have been. But I hope it helps someone.

Sounds To Go said:

And I know Tag & Rename was mentioned above, but I have tried it and the results (specifically for GENRE) were really hokey and inconsistent.

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Genre is really up to you -- there's no real way for a program to figure that out, since it is so subjective, and there is no definitive standard.

I do it in AG when I rip, which appends it to the WAV file for future use encoding.

The consistency I get, is only relative to my interpretation -- in my library, you may not find what you're looking for under genre, because I may have tagged it differently...


You'd be surprised, I get calls from customers who say they can't find their files under such and such genre in my software. So I ask them what they tagged them as when they ripped them. The usual answer -- I got them off Limewire, or my friend copied his drive for me... :sqerr:



Anyway, I know it's time consuming, but I listen to each and every track I encode, all the way through. While doing that, I check all tag attributes, and make any adjustments as necessary. It's a lot of work, but if done properly, and backed up a lot, it will last you a lifetime

@Sounds,

Not so much for searching, but for sorting, I use genre mostly.


For example, I've got the crowd captivated with a song, but not sure where to go with the mix, but I know the song falls into a particular genre I've established and tagged.

Rather than scroll through endless songs, if I did my genre homework up front, I can quickly scroll through a small list of songs that might match up well with what they're digging at the moment.


I don't look at BPM or many other factors -- I try to take the song in play into context, using the genre, lyrics, and the way the crowd reacts to certain things within the song. I equate genre with the "feeling" of the song. For example... Margaritaville == beach party. What else fits in that genre -- maybe Kokomo and other songs from the Cocktail soundtrack, La Isla Bonita, Uncle John From Jamaica, etc.


I try my best, to put myself into the crowds head at the moment, and genre works best for me

SoftJock Rick said:

@Sounds,

Not so much for searching, but for sorting, I use genre mostly.


For example, I've got the crowd captivated with a song, but not sure where to go with the mix, but I know the song falls into a particular genre I've established and tagged.

Rather than scroll through endless songs, if I did my genre homework up front, I can quickly scroll through a small list of songs that might match up well with what they're digging at the moment.


I don't look at BPM or many other factors -- I try to take the song in play into context, using the genre, lyrics, and the way the crowd reacts to certain things within the song. I equate genre with the "feeling" of the song. For example... Margaritaville == beach party. What else fits in that genre -- maybe Kokomo and other songs from the Cocktail soundtrack, La Isla Bonita, Uncle John From Jamaica, etc.


I try my best, to put myself into the crowds head at the moment, and genre works best for me

Click to expand...

I remember reading somewhere that a good DJ has to have 'one foot on the dancefloor'.

The problem is how many genre's do you have, and how do you tag songs that fall into multiple categories/genre's?

SoftJock Rick said:

@Sounds,

Not so much for searching, but for sorting, I use genre mostly.


For example, I've got the crowd captivated with a song, but not sure where to go with the mix, but I know the song falls into a particular genre I've established and tagged.

Rather than scroll through endless songs, if I did my genre homework up front, I can quickly scroll through a small list of songs that might match up well with what they're digging at the moment.


I don't look at BPM or many other factors -- I try to take the song in play into context, using the genre, lyrics, and the way the crowd reacts to certain things within the song. I equate genre with the "feeling" of the song. For example... Margaritaville == beach party. What else fits in that genre -- maybe Kokomo and other songs from the Cocktail soundtrack, La Isla Bonita, Uncle John From Jamaica, etc.


I try my best, to put myself into the crowds head at the moment, and genre works best for me

Click to expand...

Even if you do have your songs tagged to a genre, it could easily be much more of list than you want to look thru. Beach party is a good example for Rick here because it's not going to be a large list, but take a second and think about your classic rock collection. How large of a list would that be if you had it all tagged as classic rock and pulled those songs up, then you have to filter thru all the stuff that was just filler music on an album.

That's why I like creating 'Best of Series'....so, I've went thru my library of beach party music and scaled it down to the best of the best within beach party music. I can go directly to that folder and quickly pull a song from that genre.

Sounds To Go said:

My genres internally are pretty straight-forward:

Rock/Pop
Country
Soul/R&B
Hip-Hop/Rap
Disco
Funk/Old Skool
Big Band
Popular Stds

Then:

Novelty
Ethnic (with subfolders)
Hawaiian/Caribbean (with specified subfolders)
Etc.

Click to expand...

So, if someone wants Herpes, you go to the "popular stds"?!

Not that it's right or wrong, another way to do "beach party" or any kind of theme is simply playlisting. That way you can have any song in multiple lists, to use whenever and however you choose.

Steve Sharp said:

So, if someone wants Herpes, you go to the "popular stds"?!

Not that it's right or wrong, another way to do "beach party" or any kind of theme is simply playlisting. That way you can have any song in multiple lists, to use whenever and however you choose.

Click to expand...

:yoOMG::yoDur:yorofl:yorofl:

This thread just keeps gettin' better. Great info

see attached pics for easy cd-da extractor

love it when its simple and all done for you

pic 1 and pic 2 shows crc errors if it happens and does it on the fly

I am new at this to annd ant to know how you rip to a wav file or MP3. How can you tell the difference? Sorry, this going digital is a little greek. I don't want to spend a lot of time doing it wrong. I have itunes now. I saw on one thread that you can use it. DO you file by all songs together and then sort by artist. Do you make folers for each artist?

DJBIGRICK said:

I am new at this to annd ant to know how you rip to a wav file or MP3. How can you tell the difference? Sorry, this going digital is a little greek. I don't want to spend a lot of time doing it wrong. I have itunes now. I saw on one thread that you can use it. DO you file by all songs together and then sort by artist. Do you make folers for each artist?

Click to expand...

You've been asking the same questions all over this board and several people myself included has pointed you in the right direction over and over again... All you need to know is on this page... download both Audiograbber and the Lame mp3 Encoder and follow this tutorial:

http://www.softjock.com/mp3ripping.htm

Sounds To Go said:

So does anyone here gig using a lappy alone - keys and mouse - without the aid of an external controller device/unit?

Pros? Cons?

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Nope can't stand doing it with just a mouse and keyboard... I was forever stopping my music everytime I wanted to search for anything with an "S" in it.... very agravating... not to mention having to do mental gymnastics to remember what F'n key did what.... nope a controller works best for me and best of all it's labled as to what button does what... no guess work and best of all no need to do mental arobics...

I on the other hand utilize and love using my mouse & keyboard.

Rob - sounds like you had 'S' set up as a hotkey....can't really do that.

No mental gymnastics for me. It just take some practice, just like using any other piece of equipment in your arsenal.