Is a ripped music CD's metadata stored in the file it's saved to?

[smaier69]

Hello, all.

To frame the question, I am looking to get my father set up to be able to rip his very large CD collection to an external USB storage device. He's an old-school audiophile in his '80s who is losing mobility and wants to be able to listen to music without getting up every time he wants to load a different CD. So, I was thinking something along the lines of perhaps a Nimbie USB Plus with dBpoweramp on the front end when it comes to the ripping part of it. His Hi-fi setup is ungodly, but from what I can tell his input source would be some high end DAC with amongst others, a USB input for a storage device.

Audio editing/etc.,. is not my strong suit so I have a couple questions:
- If he were to rip CDs to file, would the artist, album info, track names, etc.,. be saved to the file for the DAC or pre-amp be able to read? Or is that metadata (I hope I'm using that term correctly) only available via WAN every time a file or CD is opened on a PC?
- Can dBpoweramp save a CD completely uncompressed (I'm assuming this is *wav)? This is a lazy add-on question, I know, RTFM, right :p



Like I said, digital audio isn't my strong suit so if my approach is flawed please make suggestions. Thank you!

[Dat Ei]

Hey smaier69,

the metadata is stored witihin the file. Modern digital audio players can read those metadata, display those or can organize and access the audio files by metadata.

If you are in a windows enviroment I would suggest to use flac as audio codec. flac is lossless, has a checksum within the files to check if the files are corrupted, has well defined metadata, and is a very common standard. On the other side wav is lossless, but the use of metadata with wav files is problematic. Not all audio players can handle metadata in wav files.


Dat Ei

[smaier69]

Hello, Dat Ei!

Thank you very much for your answers. Seems my approach may be doable.

One more question if you don't mind: With the setup we're talking about, how straightforward a process would setting up a batch rip be (assuming he's loaded the Nimbie with multiple CDs) from the dBpoweramp end of it? He's a really smart man and has been using PCs since PCs were a thing, but the nuts and bolts of the digital world are not his jam. It may be challenging for me to verbally walk him through possibly lengthy configuration processes.

Thanks in advance

[Dat Ei]

Hey smaier69,

I can only talk about my own experiences that I've made when I've initially ripped my collection of more than 3k CDs, and the problems that I've read about ripping and setting up Nimbies. I would suggest two use two different standard CD drives for simplicity reasons. With such a setup I was able to rip my collection in the after work hours within 3 months. And I have used only a single instance of CD Ripper. Usually it needs more time to check, correct or enter the metadata than the ripping itself. So from my point of view the extra money for the Nimbie and the metadata license and the more complex setup isn't worth it. Once the job is done I wouldn't have had any need for a Nimbie too. Just my 2 cents...


Dat Ei