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All new albums I download as lossless if available though I do use 320kbps if necessary. If a download option isn't available then I'll buy the CD and convert to lossless. I store on onedrive and backup in the cloud. I use groove music as a player which plays mp3 and flac without conversion. Older CDs I'm converting to lossless.
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Posted: |
Feb 2, 2018 - 8:23 AM
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By: |
Yen Fai
(Member)
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I rip my CDs to an external drive in Windows using iTunes, and organize the metadata/album art there. I also use iTunes to create playlists and copy music onto my old iPhone to use in the car or on the train. (I use an older version of iTunes because I don't care for the new interface.) I maintain a backup of my music files with Beyond Compare.
I like to play my music to my TV setup using Chromecast, so I use the free Windows version of Plex Media Server, which can import my iTunes playlists, and can access multiple drives (including my wife's Mac Time Machine over wifi.)
Plex is nice because I can control it from my laptop or phone, and my wife can jump on her phone and queue up her own tracks or rearrange my queue. The interface looks really snazzy and automatically downloads composer images and bios. (It does similar with video files, but I can't be bothered with ripping my movie collection.)
Unfortunately the developers don't seem to care about fixing problems (which is why I've never upgraded to the paid version) but it works fine most of the time. Another downside is that it's a hard drive hog, and will grab a sizable chunk with tons of downloaded images and data. It also requires a lot of memory on my little laptop, but if memory gets short Plex is the first thing to shut down, and it doesn't seem to interfere with other apps.
Michael
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Posted: |
Feb 3, 2018 - 3:06 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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I've been streaming for a few years and have built a library from ripped CDs ... only one download (a version of John Barry's Mood Three which I've not found on CD ... yet). Having read the postings to date I can see there are numerous ways of storing and playing such libraries and I often think of ways I should adapt mine but, as yet, can't see if such changes would bring benefit.
I rip straight into Windows 10 Player, lossless - I sometimes think that I might achieve better results using dBpoweramp or other proprietary software but since this process is a transfer of digital, not analogue, information I need convincing.
I use a directory structure in Windows - File Explorer based on Genre / Artist / Album and seek to do all the tagging, etc. here and in WMP before converting the WMA files to FLAC (lossless, using foobar2000), storing these new files on a NAS.
I stream the music from the NAS to a hi-fi streamer (ethernet), convert to analogue with a standalone DAC, and then onto the hi-fi pre-amp, etc.
Apart from the ripping issue I sometimes wonder if my directory structure and tagging system are the best. Like others, I find Classical music presents a problem ... and Soundtrack music has similar issues. Both WMA and the streamer require the performing artist to be the Album Artist - e.g. if I load a Beethoven symphony conducted by Karajan into WMP it will show Karajan as the Artist (this data then populates the Album artist field). But for me, Beethoven is the Album artist ... and Karajan is the Track artist. This is the same with Soundtrack music where the score has been conducted by someone other than the composer.
My solution: I don't allow any internet tagging ... tiresome, I know, but at least I get the tags I want. I also split albums up over individual works (or, in the case of box sets, recreate original albums where odd tracks have been placed on various CDs within the collection).
For tagging (in FLAC) the NAS files I use Tag&Rename which is very user-friendly - again, I think about trying Mp3Tag ... its name puts me off as I don't use Mp3 !  ... but why change?
As a server I use Asset-NAS which has some flexibility and this allows gapless playback (essential!) and the ability to convert, on the fly, the FLAC files to WAV which are easier to handle by the streamer. I know that Minimserver is highly regarded by others and I have installed and tried it ... I find its UI a little daunting.
As for hardware, I enjoy viewing others' choices and as I know nothing about such kit as T+A r1000e or Denon DNP-F109 had a quick browse. I know the latter brand has a good reputation; the former looks all-encompassing although its style is a little too modern for my tastes.
I've considered the software library Collectorz.com and thought about buying but TerraEpon's comment about future-proofing caught my attention ... and, again, I wondered what such a program could add to my library which is held in Excel and constantly updated ... I'd probably just be duplicating the library (WMP allows for most/all searches I ever undertake). Similarly, the software program Beyond Compare looks perfect for me ... until I decided it would simply duplicate what I already do when checking my WMA and FLAC backups.
And to think: I could simply take a CD from its case and put it on to play ...
Mitch
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Posted: |
Feb 3, 2018 - 3:15 AM
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By: |
sinus
(Member)
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I have the same challenges.
For me, the composer is album artist and with very few exceptions track artist. All those perfomers, may it be the Hollywood Studio Symphony or the NPO are always stored in the performer field, alongside its conductor, soloist and the recording date if it differs to the work. Regardless if soundtrack or classical.
For example, an excerpt of the tags of my Terezín rip:
Artist Name : Franz Waxman
Album Title : Das Lied von Terezín
Date : 1965
Composer : Franz Waxman
Performer : Della Jones (mezzo), Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester, -Chor und -Kinderchor Berlin, Lawrence Foster (1998)
Album Artist : Franz Waxman
Seems to be an older rip, nowadays I tend to name the orchestra first and then the soloists, conductor last.
So the infos are there but not necessarily shown in most players. I can live with that.
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Posted: |
Feb 3, 2018 - 3:49 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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I have the same challenges.
For me, the composer is album artist and with very few exceptions track artist. All those perfomers, may it be the Hollywood Studio Symphony or the NPO are always stored in the performer field, alongside its conductor, soloist and the recording date if it differs to the work. Regardless if soundtrack or classical.
For example, an excerpt of the tags of my Terezín rip:
Artist Name : Franz Waxman
Album Title : Das Lied von Terezín
Date : 1965
Composer : Franz Waxman
Performer : Della Jones (mezzo), Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester, -Chor und -Kinderchor Berlin, Lawrence Foster (1998)
Album Artist : Franz Waxman
Seems to be an older rip, nowadays I tend to name the orchestra first and then the soloists, conductor last.
So the infos are there but not necessarily shown in most players. I can live with that.
I don't have (know) that album but if I did then for me it would be:
Album artist: Waxman,Franz
Album: Lied von Terezín, Das
Date: 1998
Composer: Waxman,Franz
Track artist: Foster,Lawrence; Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester; Jones,Della; Chor und -Kinderchor Berlin
Conductor: Foster,Lawrence
Note that I reverse all proper names and move the indefinite article to the end - I know that software will sort based on surnames and ignore "a" and "the", etc. but these are problematical with non-English languages and I find viewing lists of names which are not reversed but sorted as if they are very confusing (e.g. the contact directory on my iPhone).
I use only the recording date, leaving composition date and other details to research as and when. The lack of info re: a performer (e.g. "mezzo") is a problem but I've found keeping the album and track information concise pays dividends.
Asset-NAS allows selection of any one of the four names separated by ";" which means that work can be found from the control point (iPhone, iPad; android phone; streamer display) by searching any of those track artist names or by album artist or composer.
If you limit the search to Composer this creates problems for albums where the composer is not responsible for all tracks. I'm told elsewhere that control point software is intuitive enough to allow selection of the whole album from which the selected track is taken but I've not got to grips with this yet
Mitch
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Album artist: Waxman,Franz
Album: Lied von Terezín, Das
Date: 1998
Composer: Waxman,Franz
Track artist: Foster,Lawrence; Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester; Jones,Della; Chor und -Kinderchor Berlin
Conductor: Foster,Lawrence
If I tagged the same album in iTunes it would be:
Album artist: Franz Waxman
Sort Album Artist: Waxman, Franz
Album: Das Lied von Terezín
Date: 1998 (it's alway the recording date for me, never the date of composition, nor the date of recording release)
Composer: Franz Waxman
Sort Composer: Waxman, Franz
Artist: Lawrence Foster: Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester / Della Jones: Chor und -Kinderchor Berlin
Sort Artits: Artist: Foster, Lawrence: Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester / Jones, Della: Chor und -Kinderchor Berlin
Sad truth is, with all the technology theoretically available, music tagging for anything but mere rock/pop/hip-hop/etc. music remains woefully inadequate. And it's not just slightly annoying, it's really just shambles as soon as you have classical recordings and would like to tag them so that you may group different conductors, soloists, orchestras, composers, performers, etc.. it's just a mess.
The above shows that the mere fact that there are no separate fields for "first" and "last" name creates numerous problems, since some people prefer to enter last name first, and some (I included) prefer to see the name in the order of given name, last name, but sort in the order of last name, given name. At least in iTunes, there are sorting tags, but it's still a far cry from any useful tagging system.
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Also, to anybody who ever uploads CD information to any online dB, STOP PUTTING THE TRACK TITLES IN ALL CAPS.
Seconded.
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Crikey!,..I must be an old dinasor! Despite owning a desktop PC, I can still never bring myself to listen to my music via lossless rips on the computer. I Rip purely for backup
Well, there is a huge difference between listening to streamed music from YouTube on your desktop PC, or listening to lossless music files via a high-end media streamer.
Until not too long ago, I primarily listened to music CDs via my Technics setup (also from the 1990s), but these days I've setup my own media sever and listen to lossless music files at home. It is considerably more convenient, you've got your music collection available at your fingertips. No switching discs in between, totally silent stereo setup (as there is no disc drive rotating)... I use CDs today mostly as my source for lossless files, and of course I like the booklets. I still prefer buying CDs to directly buying digital files, but I listen to the files nowadays.
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If we were on the issue of tagging though, I generally use album artist to be the composer. As long as the composer wrote most of the music on the album then it works well enough. Rule of thumb for me is always use the name that is more familiar as the album artist if in doubt. Mine is all Genre > Artist > Album as well.
Yes, in case of classical music and film music, I use "Album Artist" for composer (so it's "Johannes Brahms" or "Maurice Jarre") in case of rock/pop/jazz music the performer. That's basically how my physical CDs are sorted, too.
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