Best Settings for Ripping 400 CD's to NAS for streaming using Bluesound Node?

[GVCCbob]

I have decided to rip 20 CD's a day rather then send them to a service for archiving to NAS and for Music Streaming Playback.

Will buy either Bluesound Node, AudioEngine B-Wifi,or Cambridge Audio CXN (V2), recommendations?

Since this is a labor intensive task asking for advise on best setting doing the Ripping.

Attached are the setting I am currently using, about 4 minutes to rip a CD.

For some reason, I can not attach a screen shot, does not work.

I am using .flac, Encoding Lossless Level 5.

Comments, suggestions appreciated.

Thank you,

[garym]

Re: Best Settings for Ripping 400 CD's to NAS for streaming using Bluesound Node?

1. Make upfront decisions about which tag fields you want used and untick the ones you don't. For example, I don't want RATINGS.
2. Think about how you want to handle COMPILATIONS. I tick the compilation item in the ripper, and have the compilation albums all put in my library under a "compilations" folder via my naming string.
3. Think about how you want to handle multidisk (separate Disc folders under ALBUM or track numbering (e.g., 1.01, 1.02, 2.01, 2.02, etc.
4. Think about how you want to use ALBUM ARTIST. I only use this when at least one track artist is different (e.g., one song on an album being perhaps two artists, entered as "multiple artists" *or* if I want all albums by an artist to show up in a single listing (e.g., all under ALBUM ARTIST Miles Davis, even though track artists may be Miles Davis Quintet, etc.
5. think about whether you want artwork written to tag (and its max size), or to a single file within the ALUBM folder (and then whether you want folder.jpg or cover.jpg name, and max size). Or you can have both. I use a single 'cover.jpg' in each ALBUM folder.
5. in terms of ripping, I rip to FLAC, level 5, and have only a single DSP: ReplayGain. With ReplayGain DSP I have it add both Track and Album values in the RG tag, using --18 LUFS and I do NOT tick the 'disable clip prevention'
6. I use the following naming string to automatically handle naming of regular albums, compilation albums, and multidisc albums: (if using Mac, use forward slashes instead of back slashes)

[MAXLENGTH]240,[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album][IFMULTI]\Disc [disc][]\[track] - [title] - [artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI]\Disc [disc][]\[track] - [title][][]

7. I rip a batch of files to my computer harddrive, and then a bit later will transfer all these to my final location (equivalent to your NAS). I do this rather than ripping directly to the NAS, as this sometimes creates issues. And it also gives me a chance to review my work on a ripping session before committing the files to my main server.
8. And when all done....back up, back up, backup. RAID on a NAS is NOT a backup. Best to have at least one backup in a different physical location. (if you house burns or floods, and all you backups are in the same house, then you have no backup).
9. the most important thing is to test and experiment. That is, rip several of your CDs of different sorts (compliation, multidisk, regular, etc.) and then use your server/player to see how they are handled. You will definitely learn things. And if you wait until you've ripped your entire collection, those things you learn will be either too late, or require redoing tags, etc.

Good luck.

[GVCCbob]

Re: Best Settings for Ripping 400 CD's to NAS for streaming using Bluesound Node?

Thank you,

[GVCCbob]

Re: Best Settings for Ripping 400 CD's to NAS for streaming using Bluesound Node?

Just noticed after burning a bunch of CD's that my DSP bit Depth has two setting checked.

The first is Fixed 24 Bit, no dither.

and The second is Fixed 16 Bit, no dither.

I am not sure this is right?????

Should I delete the 24 bit setting?

What happened to the CD's I ripped.

Comments?

[GVCCbob]

Re: Best Settings for Ripping 400 CD's to NAS for streaming using Bluesound Node?

I am playing one of the Ripped Cuts from of the Albums using Audacity.

App shows music playing at Stereo, 44100Hz,32-bit float.

Not sure why? Sounds good.

[Spoon]

Re: Best Settings for Ripping 400 CD's to NAS for streaming using Bluesound Node?

You should rip without any bitdepth DSPs, the best you can rip at is 16 bit as the cd is.

[GVCCbob]

Re: Best Settings for Ripping 400 CD's to NAS for streaming using Bluesound Node?

So I deleted both of those bit depth setting so the only setting for DSP is replay gain.

Re-ripped a CD.

Loaded it into VLC and it still is displaying Bits Per Sample 32 bits.

How come it is not showing 16 bits?

How do I rip a CD to get a 16 Bits per Sample.

I must have something enabled that I am not aware of.

Thanks

[garym]

Re: Best Settings for Ripping 400 CD's to NAS for streaming using Bluesound Node?

you definitely don't want to rip CDs with bit depth changes turned on. They should be ripped to 16/44.1 (as that is what they are). If you've removed all the DSPs except for ReplayGain, you should be fine. Some players upconvert the bit depth when playing. Maybe VLC does this (upconverts to 32?). Best to look directly at some ripped files to see the properties. For example, in Windows, navigate to a file with windows explorer, right click on a file, then click properties. When the properties popup appears, there is a tab for audio properties. in this listing, you'll see bitrate and bitdepth.

[Dat Ei]

Re: Best Settings for Ripping 400 CD's to NAS for streaming using Bluesound Node?

32 bits per channel or in sum for both channels?

Dat Ei

[garym]

Re: Best Settings for Ripping 400 CD's to NAS for streaming using Bluesound Node?

32 bits per channel or in sum for both channels?

Dat Ei

exactly, which is why he needs to look at the properties reported in the files themselves, and not what is reported by a player that is using/streaming the files.