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Ha! Coincides with me starting to buy CDs again, so I guess I'm not the rebel I thought I was. I was buying albums as FLAC, when I realised; "wait a minute, wh

by ghusto 5y ago

Ha! Coincides with me starting to buy CDs again, so I guess I'm not the rebel I thought I was. I was buying albums as FLAC, when I realised; "wait a minute, what the heck am I doing?! This is more expensive than buying a CD which I can rip myself to FLAC anyway". So I did _a lot_ of research on the best medium to buy music in for sound quality (surprise; it's not vinyl), and I'm rebuilding my collection. Listening to albums is fun again :)

eej71 5y ago
What tools do you find helpful in managing tags and missing album art work?
- djrogers 5y ago
  When ripping CDs myself with iTunes, I never found either to be a problem... Yeah, iTunes had other issues, but it's original functionality was 'Rip, Mix, Burn'.
- tehnub 5y ago
  I haven’t done a ton of ripping, but a fair amount, and I’ve found Music on macOS to be pretty decent.
- benoliver999 5y ago
  I use beets https://beets.io/ https://beets.io/ It's a bit nerdy but for large collections it's a godsend
  - ghusto 5y ago
    This is great, I don't know how I missed it! Is there any configuration I can use to tag only, and do no conversion or copying. In other words, I'm more interested in correcting tags than actually managing the library. Can't seem to find the correct configuration options :/
    - benoliver999 5y ago
      https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/v1.6.0/guides/main.html https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/v1.6.0/guides/main.html Under the 'configuring' section there is a paragraph or two on this.
- apocalyptic0n3 5y ago
  Not OP but I've been using MusicBrainz Picard[1] to manage tags on my collection (much of it was ripped 20 years ago and has traveled with me; I now use Plex and Plexamp for all music listening). Picard does sonic analysis and compares it against its database to find matches and then allows you to preview, change, and approve new tags and album art. 1: https://picard.musicbrainz.org/ https://picard.musicbrainz.org/
- ghusto 5y ago
  I wrote a simple script that asks some questions and uses the information to write the tags after ripping and encoding. I looked into looking it up automatically with CDDB, but typing out a few song names by hand seems to be more reliable. EDIT: This is it, in case it helps. It's not great, but it gets the job done for me. I also use MusicBrainz to add cover art. https://pastebin.com/8mDcr178 https://pastebin.com/8mDcr178
- nichos 5y ago
  I highly recommend Quod Libet, open source and under active development. It's specialty is in large libraries: https://quodlibet.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://quodlibet.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
cyberpunk 5y ago
Are you buying hidef audio in flac tho or flac where the source is the cd after whatever compression and normalisation has been applied? Personally, I think hi def audio is nonsense, but I know some audiophiles who swear they can tell a difference. Should you be one of those maybe the extra price is worth it ;)
- ghusto 5y ago
  Yeah, I concluded the same during my research into which physical medium to buy. Save your money. Turns out standard 16bit music CDs are all you're capable of hearing anyway. Get one of those audiophiles and repeat a blind test 10 times ;)
- gruez 5y ago
  > Are you buying hidef audio in flac tho or flac where the source is the cd after whatever compression and normalisation has been applied? That would only be applicable if the two versions are mastered differently. Is there any reason/empirical evidence that's the case? I think the reasonable default assumption is that the recording studio just exports the same master for flac and cds, because it saves work. If they're going off the same master, then the only difference is 16 bit 44.1khz PCM audio for CDs, vs 16/24/32 bit 44.1/48/96/192khz audio for "hidef audio in flac" which is imperceptible.

by ghusto 5y ago

eej71 5y ago

What tools do you find helpful in managing tags and missing album art work?

djrogers 5y ago
When ripping CDs myself with iTunes, I never found either to be a problem... Yeah, iTunes had other issues, but it's original functionality was 'Rip, Mix, Burn'.
tehnub 5y ago
I haven’t done a ton of ripping, but a fair amount, and I’ve found Music on macOS to be pretty decent.
benoliver999 5y ago
I use beets https://beets.io/ https://beets.io/ It's a bit nerdy but for large collections it's a godsend
- ghusto 5y ago
  This is great, I don't know how I missed it! Is there any configuration I can use to tag only, and do no conversion or copying. In other words, I'm more interested in correcting tags than actually managing the library. Can't seem to find the correct configuration options :/
  - benoliver999 5y ago
    https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/v1.6.0/guides/main.html https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/v1.6.0/guides/main.html Under the 'configuring' section there is a paragraph or two on this.
apocalyptic0n3 5y ago
Not OP but I've been using MusicBrainz Picard[1] to manage tags on my collection (much of it was ripped 20 years ago and has traveled with me; I now use Plex and Plexamp for all music listening). Picard does sonic analysis and compares it against its database to find matches and then allows you to preview, change, and approve new tags and album art. 1: https://picard.musicbrainz.org/ https://picard.musicbrainz.org/
ghusto 5y ago
I wrote a simple script that asks some questions and uses the information to write the tags after ripping and encoding. I looked into looking it up automatically with CDDB, but typing out a few song names by hand seems to be more reliable. EDIT: This is it, in case it helps. It's not great, but it gets the job done for me. I also use MusicBrainz to add cover art. https://pastebin.com/8mDcr178 https://pastebin.com/8mDcr178
nichos 5y ago
I highly recommend Quod Libet, open source and under active development. It's specialty is in large libraries: https://quodlibet.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://quodlibet.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

cyberpunk 5y ago

Are you buying hidef audio in flac tho or flac where the source is the cd after whatever compression and normalisation has been applied? Personally, I think hi def audio is nonsense, but I know some audiophiles who swear they can tell a difference. Should you be one of those maybe the extra price is worth it ;)

ghusto 5y ago
Yeah, I concluded the same during my research into which physical medium to buy. Save your money. Turns out standard 16bit music CDs are all you're capable of hearing anyway. Get one of those audiophiles and repeat a blind test 10 times ;)
gruez 5y ago
> Are you buying hidef audio in flac tho or flac where the source is the cd after whatever compression and normalisation has been applied? That would only be applicable if the two versions are mastered differently. Is there any reason/empirical evidence that's the case? I think the reasonable default assumption is that the recording studio just exports the same master for flac and cds, because it saves work. If they're going off the same master, then the only difference is 16 bit 44.1khz PCM audio for CDs, vs 16/24/32 bit 44.1/48/96/192khz audio for "hidef audio in flac" which is imperceptible.