Music and computers

[Guest]

Back in the '70's, I kept an ongoing subscription to Stereo Review magazine, and several similar publications.  Money kept me from ever being a true audiophile, but I've always enjoyed good music reproduced on quality equipment.

Fast forward to now...I'm a bit of a wannabe PC geek, but have spent so much time on cleaning virii and spyware, troubleshooting network connectivity, that I have totally missed the mp3, iTunes, Napster and CDRW revolution.

I'm ready.

Those of you who are proficient with all things musical on the PC, where do I start?
I've probably got $2000 or more worth of CD's, and would like to convert to things I can play on PC and my home theater/stereo system.

What's the best PC-based player/recorder software?
What's the easiest to use?
What else should I know?

Thanks,
Fig

[Guest]

My uncle was in almost the same predicament. I helped him get a 60 gig iPod, iTunes, and he was good to go. Simply plugged it into his existing system via an 8th inch jack and an iPod dock. Simple, easy, effective. Some people don't like iTunes - I do. I especially enjoy the encoding options. It's a simple fact, however, that it's going to take a long time to convert all of your CDs to digital format no matter what you use. (Unless there's some type of multi-CD reader to digital setup out there that I don't know of.)

[Harold Tuttle]

but have spent so much time on cleaning virii and spyware, troubleshooting network connectivity,

get a mac

[jefnvk]

I like Windows Media for the way it organizes things.

Some like iTunes, I find it to be confusing.

There is also WinAmp, never really tried it.

Real Player absolutely sucks IMHO.

Any of those players should have an option to rip CD's to MP3 or whatever other format you want to store them in.  Just pop in the CD, and the program will take care of the rest.

[Phantom Warrior]

I've been very, very happy with the free version of winamp (check out winamp.com).  It's simple, but has a lot of features.  I like it better than Windows Media because it's less cluttered.  And it just fits me a little better than Itunes.  Personal taste...

[Norton]

iTunes was great up until the current release (6.0.1).  We've been using it in our studio at school because it's easy to use and better yet, FREE!

The latest version has been buggy with regards to playlists.....meaning that in many cases you can't burn them.  Not a good thing when the software won't fullfill one of it's primary missions.

[TMM]

RealPlayer= tEhSuXXor ( it randomly deletes music)

winamp - it WAS ok, now it's FUBAR. (overwrites half my other music i've ripped when i'm ripping a new cd)

currently using WMP.

~TMM

[HForrest]

I'm finding that Itunes works pretty well- I prefer it to Windows Media Player by far.

[zahc]

Itunes is evil.

Foobar2000 is the superior music player, though it is not easy to use, free, it has awesome format support, GAPLESS PLAYBACK (which that abomination of a program Itunes, for no good reason, does not have) built in encoders and taggers, and more plugins than you can shake a stick at. Winamp is also an acceptable program IMO.

Itunes, mp3s and Napster are not a revolution, but a step backwards in most audiophile's opinions. I would highly suggest you use a (free) program called EAC to rip truly bit-perfect copies of your CDs. Ripping CDs takes a long time to do, and you don't want to do it more than once. You can set up EAC to automatically encode your music files to the compressed format of your choice. Again I highly suggest you store your music as lossless compressed files such as FLAC or ALAC files. If you store your music lossless you can transcode to whatever format or bitrate your heart desires later. And you won't have to rerip you CDs.

Regardless of what you hear from anyone, mp3s and other lossy formats are NOT CD QUALITY.  I have an ABX double blind comparator plug in for Foobar that allows me to blindly compare two tracks. I can distinguish 128kbps itunes mp3s from the CD 100% of the time. At higher bitrates such as 256kbps LAME (variable bit rate)encoded mp3s it gets much harder. However there are passages of music that refuse to be transparently encoded even at 320kbps (the beginning of the album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips comes to mind). With such, admittedly minor, but nevertheless present artifacting, and HDD storage space being so cheap, I would reccommend eshewing lossy compression altogether for home listening. Don't throw the music away.

Then there is the hardware aspect. Many people choose a nice sound card with a line out, then hook that up to their home audio amps. Others don't think the inside of a PC is a suitable environment for a DAC and run USB or optical line out to an external DAC. This the way I do it. I don't think the PC should be responsible  for actually processing the analog signal at all.

more questions just ask.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Itunes is evil.

Foobar2000 is the superior music player, though it is not easy to use, free, it has awesome format support, GAPLESS PLAYBACK (which that abomination of a program Itunes, for no good reason, does not have) built in encoders and taggers, and more plugins than you can shake a stick at. Winamp is also an acceptable program IMO.

Itunes, mp3s and Napster are not a revolution, but a step backwards in most audiophile's opinions. I would highly suggest you use a (free) program called EAC to rip truly bit-perfect copies of your CDs. Ripping CDs takes a long time to do, and you don't want to do it more than once. You can set up EAC to automatically encode your music files to the compressed format of your choice. Again I highly suggest you store your music as lossless compressed files such as FLAC or ALAC files. If you store your music lossless you can transcode to whatever format or bitrate your heart desires later. And you won't have to rerip you CDs.

Regardless of what you hear from anyone, mp3s and other lossy formats are NOT CD QUALITY.  I have an ABX double blind comparator plug in for Foobar that allows me to blindly compare two tracks. I can distinguish 128kbps itunes mp3s from the CD 100% of the time. At higher bitrates such as 256kbps LAME (variable bit rate)encoded mp3s it gets much harder. However there are passages of music that refuse to be transparently encoded even at 320kbps (the beginning of the album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips comes to mind). With such, admittedly minor, but nevertheless present artifacting, and HDD storage space being so cheap, I would reccommend eshewing lossy compression altogether for home listening. Don't throw the music away.

Then there is the hardware aspect. Many people choose a nice sound card with a line out, then hook that up to their home audio amps. Others don't think the inside of a PC is a suitable environment for a DAC and run USB or optical line out to an external DAC. This the way I do it. I don't think the PC should be responsible  for actually processing the analog signal at all.

more questions just ask.

This is what I'm looking for.  
Playback can probably be achieved well with iTunes, WMP, Winamp, RealPlayer, or any of the readily available players. (BIG thanks for the suggestions, guys!)

I want to rip these CD's ONCE.  Even if it takes 2 weeks to finish, at that point, we can do file management/manipulation to put together mix CD's or genre folders or whatever, then at that point if we need to burn a copy to RealPlayer format or whatever is expedient.

As you mention, zahc, I don't want to lose sound quality, since the CD's themselves will become archives at best, or sold on eBay once I'm confident in the stability of the platform to which I've saved them.

I'll do a search for EAC and give it a test drive.
Thanks!
Fig

[zahc]

hydrogenaudio.com is a good computer audio site.

[Guest]

I wouldn't want to rush into this newfangled stuff to quick or 'nuttin'....

Currently as I type this, Pink Floyd is playing via my most often listened to FM station, on My Sony Walkman.  I just put in fresh AA batteries...Oh, I can play a CASSETTE tape If'n I want to.
Of course that would mean going out to my truck where some CASSETTE tapes are.

I sometimes remove my headphones off the Sony, and plug into IBM laptop to listen to stuff.

Somewhere in Storage is Thinga-ma-jig I can play the Radio (Am and FM) Cassettes, and CDs. I can use AC power, or DC...

I used to have Cerwin-Vegas, Klipsch Speakers ,Receivers,  turntables, Tape decks ( 8 track and Cassette).  I got older, got busy, different Priorities.  Does not take long to dust my Walkman. *grin*.

Me...I am trying to find another portable Cassette player like my Walkman...all I can find are CD ones...

Something  I need to find out more about are those little USB Flashdrive  [looks like my PNYs] that record and have a radio in them....a wittle headphone are used with them.

I dunno, I guess when I get less busy my Priorities and interest will change - maybe. This music stuff changes so fast, so proprietary and all, hate to invest in something that will die out fast.

With all the hassles with downloading things , including music...add matters such as pulled by Sony....I dont' want any hassles and my 'puter goofed with.

Cassettes for me are more Robust than CDs. My '93 truck came with Cassette player.

Then again I tend to use Floppy's still. More Robust than CDs for me for some things  when not needing  much disc space, cheap, eraseable.  I mean turn in a Floppy for an assignment...simple Word .doc. I use my USB Flasdrives a LOT.  

I Must be getting old - huh?

Maybe I'll peruse www.newegg.com and check again.

[Smoke]

Musicmatch is what I use to listen, organize, rip and burn music on my PC.

Altec Lansing speakers hooked up, and a line running to the stereo in the living room.

Kazaa for stealing music if your in to that.

Smoke

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Just found it, but it's www.hydrogenaudio.ORG

[crt360]

Of course that would mean going out to my truck where some CASSETTE tapes are.

Cassettes for me are more Robust than CDs. My '93 truck came with Cassette player.

Man, I thought I was the only one who still had a cassette player in their car.  They may be robust in other parts of the country, but I have many cassettes that were turned into globs of molten plastic, courtesy of the Texas sun and my old 'yota.  Hell, the relic Alpine system I had in there kicked it over a year ago and I still have melted cassettes floating around the car.  I never played a CD in that vehicle, but it melted a few just transporting them.  I like the idea of a non-melty music format.  Maybe I'll have to spend a little on some cheap in-dash mp3 player/receiver.  Or maybe I'll just mount a little handheld transistor radio to my dashboard.

[garrettwc]

You know, I thought I was pretty up to date on the computer audio thing. zach, you have taken it to a whole new level. Thanks for the suggestions.