Best Method for Automated CD Ripping? 133
OzPeter asks: "I have a need to rip about 200-300 CDs in the near future, and I am not looking forward to being a slave to the computer every 4 minutes in order to change the CD in the drive. I have been looking around for automated ripping systems but in general have not been impressed by what I found. This question was asked, 4 years ago, and the best advice to come out of it seemed to be to hire a local teenager to be that slave. Have things improved, or does the advice given in that article still stand? What is currently the best way of automatically ripping a significant number of CDs?"
Software or hardware? (Score:1)
"I have a need to rip about 200-300 CDs in the near future, and I am not looking forward to being a slave to the computer every 4 minutes in order to change the CD in the drive."
makes me think you're looking for something hardware based? No 300 CD drives out there, sorry.
Re:Software or hardware? (Score:5, Informative)
MF Baxter
http://www.mfdigital.com/baxter.html [mfdigital.com]
StarMatix PowerFile
http://search.ebay.com/powerfile [ebay.com]
Re:Software or hardware? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Software or hardware? (Score:2)
Some suggestions:
Well (Score:3, Informative)
There isn't one. If you were mearly duplicating, there's plenty of robotic/automated (albiet expensive) solutions, but since you're wanting to rip, you can either hire that teenager, or send it off to these people [ripdigital.com].
Slim Devices (of squeezebox fame) also offers (Score:2)
Check their offering out [slimdevices.com] which comes to just under $400 for 300 CDs.
Re:Well (Score:3, Insightful)
Keep in mind the hidden cost of not investing in automated ripping hardware: you need to invest in a more robust storage system or pay the ripping fee again when drives fail.
However, if you spend a few hundred dollars on a 200 disc changer, like a Starmatix Powerfile, you don't really need to bother with a RAID. This factor needs to be considered when pricing the whole deal.
Re:Well (Score:5, Informative)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/16/01122
Really, that was a good discussion, and this is basically a dupe of that.
Re:Well (Score:2)
I looked into those services and couldn't find anything cheaper than ~$1/disc. For the 1500 or so discs my friends and I have, that is way too expensive to be worthwhile. The submitter has the right idea with loading up a 200+ jukebox/changer a couple of times and I'm researching that now.
Re:Well (Score:2)
I have an 8 drive ripping RAIC setup and if you are close enough to drop them by, my system averages less than 1 minute per CD. Granted that's still a full day of ripping, but
Re:Well (Score:2)
Or you could just do it a few CDs at a time. I've been ripping my CD collection onto my laptop over the last few months - you don't need to do it over a weekend, you know, and it's no great trouble to occasionally pop a CD in and rip it
Good time for doing other stuff too (Score:2)
No need to be a slave to your computer. It's maybe a 30-second process each time the CD needs to be changed out. When I have a bunch to process (usually after a birthday or one of my clearance-rack sprees), I just grab a good book or movie and settle down with it. Pop a
Re:Good time for doing other stuff too (Score:2)
Seriously, I just hit my normal list of geek news sites whenever I have a batch process running that needs occasional attention. Most of the time, it's a CD/DVD backup, a hard disk copy, or some audio processing. During whatever process I run, I fire up the browser and hit
The basic point is that the CD ripping isn't a task that requires a constant monitor, nor is it one that needs to be Ronco si
Impossible (Score:1)
Isn't that too quick? (Score:1)
ripping vs encoding (Score:2)
400 gig drives (to store the uncompressed wavs) are relatively inexpensive these days.
Re:ripping vs encoding (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:ripping vs encoding (Score:1)
I use EAC/LAME in Secure Mode and it takes ~10 mins to rip and encode an au
Re:ripping vs encoding (Score:2)
And then just have your script slice the filenames and set the id3 based on this.
Re:ripping vs encoding (Score:2)
I use the filenames to carry the information that I will later use MP3Collector to make into ID3 tags.
Here's an example
All of the information that I use (artist, album, track index, song title) are all contained in the name of the file. It's easy to extract automatically.
I encode my music as 256kbps MP3s. Personally,
RIFF tags (Score:2)
WAV does not store ID3 tags.
RIFF files such as .wav files and .avi files certainly can store the information of ID3 tags and more. If your ripper or encoder doesn't support RIFF tags [queensu.ca] in .wav files, bug the developer.
Re:Isn't that too quick? (Score:2)
AllOfMP3 (Score:3, Insightful)
Probably end up being cheaper then a teenager.
Seriously though, for such a specialized situation, there isn't going to exist any reasonably priced automated solution.
Re:AllOfMP3 (Score:2)
Re:AllOfMP3 (Score:2)
Seriously. (Score:3, Insightful)
The day is saved! Huzzah!
Better Than a Teenager (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, why go for an expensive, complicated solution when a simple solution is already at hand.
5 minutes per CD gives about 12 CSs per hour.
That's 25 hours to rip 300 CDs.
$5 per hour comes in at $125. Buy a pizza for lunch over 3 days brings it to just under $200.
If you borrow a laptop or two, there is no reason one guy can't swap out CDs in 3 computers; it's be done in a day. Offer a local teen $150 + pizza for a day's work, and they'll jump at the chance.
So, unless you can come up with something less than $200, you are just shooting yourself in the foot.
Re:Better Than a Teenager (Score:2)
Just presenting options....
Re:Better Than a Teenager (Score:1)
Re:Better Than a Teenager (Score:2)
Re:Better Than a Teenager (Score:5, Funny)
Or you could offer a local graduate student just the pizza, and save yourself $150.
Re:Better Than a Teenager (Score:3, Funny)
Was a wimp! (was Better than a teenager) (Score:1)
I just ripped ~300 CDs to my computer. I offer the following observations.
(1) Use multiple computers. I set up 4 computers, and cycled myself between them as fast as I could load/unload CDs. I ripped everything to a network share on my server, and it went extremely smoothly.
(2) Use DVD drives if you can. My 2 computers with DVD drives ripped 4-5X as fast as the 2 with CD drives only, and I found some CDs that the CD drives couldn't re
Re:Better Than a Teenager (Score:2)
Or get a video camera and two teenagers. Sell the movies on the internet, and you can afford one of those professional ripping services.
Outsource It (Score:4, Informative)
(I'm in know way affiliated with any cd ripping services - I've just heard good things about them.)
Re:Outsource It (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Outsource It (Score:2)
When they can actually have the physical CD in their hands, that's slightly stronger evidence that you actually own the CD than your home PC beaming a few bits over the net claiming that the disc is in your drive.
Re:Outsource It (Score:2)
Do you actually have any evidence that they keep a library of ripped files and the original CDs? That seems very stupid, and very exp
Re:Outsource It (Score:2)
Which would be illegal.
And if people want to nitpick over a slightly different version of 'thriller' by Michael Jackson, then they can burn in hell and deserve to get ripped off.
Again, the RIAA would complain, because giving away a different version of the song would also be illegal.
Plus if the customers CD is scratched, they still own the music, so they deserve a backup and a way to get to it. Getting a backup from an alt
Re:Outsource It (Score:2)
They're infringing copyright, period. It makes absolutely no difference what method they're using to copy the CDs. It doesn't matter if they're using a really fast burner, or a CDDB rip, or are using an advanced tachyon positronic laser to duplicate all music you've ever listened to from a strand of your hair.
The AHRA made duplication of music for personal use on home recording equipment legal. They're not doing anything of the sort.
Re:Outsource It (Score:2)
Automated Solutions (Score:2)
How Many of These CD Ripping Services... (Score:2)
Or is it "Even if CDs do become damaged, replacements are readily available at affordable prices." [slashdot.org].
I mean, the RIAA might sue them for not damaging your CD's! I see a way to make a lot of money here. ;-)
Re:Outsource It (Score:2)
How do they handle unique albums (Score:2)
They won't have any of these in their inventory, and it's unlikely anyone else will ever ask for them again.
Will they just eat the loss/lack-of-profit or will they turn down the business?
Re:Outsource It (Score:2, Interesting)
If you push that logic further, you'll realize that it's exactly the same thing as downloading your 300 CD's off P2P : there's a very good chance that 300 or so are already shared in the network resulting in a relatively free and fast service.
So don't use some cd ripping service, get em from P2P networks. What's the difference between the two? They both give you the rips of the CD's you have
Re:Outsource It (Score:1)
Re:Outsource It (Score:2)
What are the odds that they'll "Cache" all of the CDs that they don't have pre-ripped?
LK
One of the Best CD Replicators Out There (Score:1)
Pay someone (Score:2)
robots (Score:1)
Re:robots (Score:3, Informative)
CD-changing Lego® robot [redfrontdoor.org]
What's the rush? (Score:3, Insightful)
Didn't take *that* long, I spent no cahs, and I was not a slave to the PC, either.
YMMV.
Anomaly
Re:Use bananas.. (Score:2)
If you want to make a game of it, put a jar of quarters/tokens/dollars near the system and tell people to take one for every cd they swap.
Use iTunes with the auto-CDDB-lookup, auto-rip, auto-eject for the rest. Remember to set your file naming and other options first.
Re:Use bananas.. (Score:2)
Re:What's the rush? (Score:3, Informative)
I must second this statement. I, too, decided to put my CD collection (~500 CDs) on my computer in a lossless format (flac), with little difficulty.
Your four minute estimate is incorrect if you want to make sure you're actually copying the right data. Using (in Linux) grip and cdparanoia, it was pretty easy. I just queued up a new disc each time one popped out, whenever I was in my dorm room.
Took me a few months to finish it, and for some reason I had two albums that refused to rip in Linux. (Not DR
Re:What's the rush? (Score:2, Informative)
Try one of these (Score:1)
http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/tech/changer.html [sentex.net]
or one of these:
http://www.redfrontdoor.org/cd-changer.html [redfrontdoor.org]
Software would be some bash scripting, and a few short programs.
On the other hand, it will probably take more time to make one of these than it would take to do the cd changing by hand.
Sony VAIO (Score:1)
I don't have $2000 floating around, so I can't exactly test it out for ya, but there are mixed reviews out on the net [google.com]...
It's an interesting system, actually. In theory, it's a capable media center pc with a 200 disc CD/DVD changer. The specs aren't too bad, although for a PVR, 200 GB seems low. And at that price... seems a whee expensive, but VAIOs usually are...
Anyway, this is probably yo
Re:Sony VAIO (Score:2)
I realy don't know but I would suspect they will start making firmware that will stop ripping...
(yes I'm paranoid. I also dont like VAIO comps for a few other reasons...)
Automated CD ripper from Sony... (Score:2)
I googled it and apparently it's the "Sony XL 1" media center [gearlive.com], runs Windows Media Center (and is pretty expensive). I guess if you were in the market for a high end media center system then this would be a good route.
Re:Automated CD ripper from Sony... (Score:2)
It's $1800 for the whole thing (you can't get the CD changer/ripper separately it seems).
Re:Automated CD ripper from Sony... (Score:2)
The geeky way... (Score:2)
Of course it's an ugly hack and uber-geeky but hey, this is
Trade them for an iPod? (Score:2)
Re:Trade them for an iPod? (Score:2)
That's not legal.
To summerize what they claim to be doing: You give them the CDs to digitize, they do that, put it on an IPOD that they will give you and also burn you a DVD "back-up" of the songs. You sell them the CDs and then get your new IPOD and DVD "back-up" copy of the CDs...
At the point you sell the CDs, you no longer have the right to keep the songs on the IPOD or to keep the DVD "back-up". You may as well just try to download the MP3 of the CDs you have, I would think that you have a better chan
Re:Trade them for an iPod? (Score:2)
Most of it seems structured in such a way to avoid any problems, so if by "not legal" you're referring to the act of keeping the digitised copies on your shiny new iPod, yeah, possibly.
Then again, is "posession" really a crime? And is it worth pursuing? Seems to me the RIAA et al. are more interested prosecuting indviduals for distribution.
Re:Trade them for an iPod? (Score:2)
Why not? Ripping a CD, selling the CD, and keeping the rip is 100% legal. Copyright isn't a license.
However, any company that "professionally" rips CDs for a fee is violating copyright. Consumers have the right to copy music for personal use. There is no way in hell that any company can copy CDs for a fee.
Re:Trade them for an iPod? (Score:2)
Where on earth do you get the idea that you can rip-and-sell? In the U.S, that's clearly a violation of S. 106(1) of the Copyright Act. You can claim fair use in space-shifting, but when you sell the original, you've gone well beyond that.
The best I can come up with is S 1008 of the Audio Home Recording Act, but (1) your computer isn't a "Digital Audio Recording Device" and (2) when you sell the CD, that's commercial.
Re:Trade them for an iPod? (Score:2)
You can claim it, but probably lose. Ripping a CD is probably not fair use, no matter who owns the CD, who rips the CD (with the exception of a library), or what happens to the CD after it's ripped.
your computer isn't a "Digital Audio Recording Device" and
Hmm... this is an interesting argument. If this is true, then any ripping CDs is a violation of copyright. Period. Because there's no way any sane person can claim that creating a digital music collection is fai
Re:Trade them for an iPod? (Score:2)
You are allowed to rip the CD (AHRA & Fair Use) and you're allowed to sell the CD (First sale doctrine). Once you've sold the CD, though, you no longer have an original work. So, any copying that you do of it -- including the copying from your disk drive into the memory of the computer -- is an infringement. You can't claim that this copying
The old fashioned way (Score:1)
Challenge to /. - it's time for some hacking. (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, open ANY cd-jukebox (I've got a 60-slot model; I couldn't afford the 250-slot model). Mechanically, it shouldn't be too difficult to fit the CD/DVD drive mechanism in place of the existing CD; it's a fairly simple mechanism (although hacking the cupholder will certainly be required,.
Fix up the data cabling to support the drive (piece of cake) and hack the front panel controls to allow for inputs from some form of computer interface (serial perhaps - gotta do something with it) (that looks like the hard part, BTW, but I also know that there are /.'ers out there who will read this and say "no, that's easy!").
I thought about building something like this for profit once, but I'll never raise the VC for it. Can Slashdot produce a hack (with free-as-in-beer instructions) to accomplish this? Or has it been done already?
Re:Challenge to /. - it's time for some hacking. (Score:2)
Want to give it another shot?
abcde (Score:4, Informative)
My blog [chairthrower.org] talks about how I used it. It can run as a daemon so I had it down to insert CD, and change it 15-20 minutes later when it ejected again (cdparanoia and flac took longer than 52x would make you think).
Re:abcde (Score:2)
Just do it at work (Score:2)
Assuming you have a desk-job and a machine not locked down tighter than a cat's ass...
Take a dozen CDs per day to work. Set your preferred ripping software to automatically look your CDs up, rip, and eject. Pop one in, start your program, minimize it, and just replace discs whenever the tray pops open. Then just dump them all to a keychain drive (DON'T use it as the intermediate path, copy them at the end of the d
Re:Just do it at work (Score:2)
Wimp! (Score:1, Interesting)
I just ripped - according to my database statistics - 2116 albums when I combined my wife's (she was a dj) and my collection. She had probably twice the number of CDs that I had and I spent those four minutes reviewing artists and albums I didn't know in her collection using AllMusic. I learned a lot - both about my wife and the music she likes. I'd approach it as an opportunity to figure out if you should catch-up on any artists you previously liked or maybe find some similar ones that you never heard of.
Best Method for Automated CD Ripping? (Score:1, Interesting)
lots of boxes! (Score:5, Interesting)
Have at it. This can be done for much, much cheaper than you might think. I managed to get 12 PCs of this type for $50 at a surplus auction and I could have had about 10 more at around $2 a piece. You could be up and running in an afternoon ripping many cd's at once. Go down the line every 10 minutes or so while you hang out/read a book/watch tv and you'll be done in no time. Plus, when you're done you'll have all sorts of goodies to play with for other projects.
Just be nice to your circuit breaker.
Re:lots of boxes! (Score:1)
Re:lots of boxes! (Score:2)
Forget that! (Score:2)
1) Buy as many external USB2.0 5.25" enclosures that you possibly afford. They run anywhere from $20-$40. The main thing you're getting out of this is POWER ADAPTERS.
2) Buy an equal number of IDE CDROM drives. If you paid more than $20 for any of them, you paid too much.
I wouldn't spend more than $50 with tax and shipping for each pair of CD-ROM + enclosure. You can do it for $40 if you buy refurbed/OEM/surplus stuff.
If you managed to get more than 12 drives, then also buy a cheap, bus-powered 4-way U
Re:Forget that! (Score:2)
WTF? (Score:1)
I ask merely for information.
Moot (Score:1)
Try a disc library (Score:1)
Being a multitasking slave isn't so bad (Score:1)
Being a slave isn't so bad, if you're just going to be sitting at the computer anyway. Play a game, read Slashdot, get addicted to MUDs, get a job, stare at porn, etc -- whatever it is that you do with your computer. Every few minutes, change the CD. It's no big deal, as long as your CDs aren't too obscure (i.e. not in freedb, so you have to actually spend your time typing in track names). T
Hard part is not ripping in bulk (Score:2, Flamebait)
The hard part is getting perfect rips with correct tags so you NEVER have to rip those CDs again.
Perfect means EAC (Exact Audio Copy), with Secure, no C2, no buffering, and using TEST/COPY. Using FLAC (or other lossless) format. Who wants to ever do this much work again? Rip to lossless and never rip again.
You can run multiple copies of EAC at once, it works with external USB drives. I've seen people rip 12 CDs at the same time
Build one (Score:3, Informative)
Do you have a day job? (Score:2)
iTunes or some other automated program (Score:1)
What I did to rip my collection (Score:1)
Then, I gathered each and every PC in my home that still run, booted it into linux (even the windoze boxes have a minimum of linux on them just in case win f***ks up again), installed the scri
Spend any time in front of the computer? (Score:2)
No teenagers.
While he was surfing his favorite websites, he put in discs. If he walked past the computer room on his way to the garage, he'd put in another disc.
It took about a week.
Simple.
Fast.
Problem solved.
Robotics. (Score:3, Informative)
For low-volume ripping, there is a device called the Baxter [mfdigital.com] that goes for about $800 from various resellers. It will hold 25 disks at a time in its hopper and comes with the excellent Riptastic [riptastic.com] software bundled. Go in with a friend to get one of these and it makes the cost cheaper. Sell it on eBay afterwards and make most of your money back.
The biggest problem with small-capacity units is that they run out of disks too soon -- you can't load enough to let them run overnight.
The larger capacity (250 to 600 disks at a time) robotic units come with PCs built into them (they were designed for duplicating and the software is only beginning to catch up with them). They run from $3300 up to $5500 depending on capacity and number of CD drives used. Even with the higher cost, it can make sense if you get together a bunch of buddies to chip in. Say you charge your friends $0.50/disk simply to cover the cost of the machine (you're not doing it as a business). Pooling the money of 6-8 friends and then selling it on eBay afterwards might cover the cost.
The vendors I spoke to said that they get questions about these boxes every day. The biggest problem is making the Riptastic software (or other similar software) work with multiple simultaneously ripping drives. So we should see some announcements on this in the next several months.
Any of the robotic devices used for ripping also have the advantage of being duplicators of course. They also help make excellent DVD backup devices, since you can start the backup and walk away, letting the robot flop the disks for you.
Disclaimer: I don't represent any of these vendors -- I'm just doing the research necessary to purchase some to offer a ripping service. You could of course ask me to rip them for you... 8-).
What to do flac rips with? (Score:2)
Re:buy a cd duplicator (Score:1)
http://www.amtren.com/ [amtren.com]
http://www.discmakers.com/ [discmakers.com]
Oh really! (Score:1)
Grip is fine, but watch out for CDDB! (Score:2)
1. Some CDs I have aren't in CDDB, so you have to stop the rip, type the track names, artist and album name in manually and restart the rip again, deleting any "NoArtist/NoTitle" files created by the "empty rip".
2. Some CDs (particularly CD singles) are recognised as entirely different CDs - I suspect this is where the CD ID isn't in CDDB, so it falls back to using track lengths to match a CD. This espe