I've been gradually ripping and tagging my collection for about 18 months now. At first I had the idea that a 'big bang' approach was best, and I just steamed ahead as fast as I could. And then I looked at what I'd got - at that stage about 200 albums with inconsistent tags and no album art. So I changed my approach. All my ripping and tagging is done on a laptop with a USB attached drive. This is what I do, taking it fairly slow and steady:
1. Rip to FLAC using EAC. At this stage, the data is on the laptop 2. Use mp3tag to edit and clean up the tags as necessary. This ensures that I have the same standard tags in all files and that these are consistent across all albums. 3. Add a folder.jpg file for the album art. I can usually find this online, or when this is not available I scan the album cover. I have standardised on 500x500x72 images. 4. Copy the album to the USB disk. This holds the master copy of the music library and has the same folder structure as on the NAS 5. After about 5 albums have been ripped and tagged, use SyncBack to copy the data from the USB drive to the NAS. 6. There are now three copies - on the laptop, on the USB disk, and on the NAS. Delete the 'working' copy on the laptop. Always keep a minimum of two copies - you will have a lot of data, and will have expended much time and effort in this. At intervals of about a week, take a further copy of the USB disk to a second USB disk, again using SyncBack. Store this copy off site. The NAS is for availability, the other copies are for backup. I have the NAS connected to one of the switch ports on the router. Apart from a wireless connection. I also use HomePlug devices (at a nominal 200 Mbit/s speed) to provide a wired network connection. This is what I use to transfer data to the NAS, with the laptop's wireless connection switched off while I do this work. I have SqueezeCenter configured to do an overnight scan for 'new and changed music'. I have tried a number of approaches, and this is what works for me. There are of course many ways of capturing your music collection - some use automated devices (AVA RS3, VortexBox, others) or particular software products (dBpoweramp is well respected). My suggestion would be that before ripping too many albums that you experiment a little with the available tools and find what works best for you. In my own experience, it pays to get it right rather than ending up with inconsistent and inaccurate tags. I can also recommend ACC (Album Catalog Creator) as a tool to print a list of your music collection - this can be a great revealer of inaccurate tags! Note: you don't necessarily have to commit it to paper - just examine it very carefully. More recently I have tried using dBpoweramp to rip to FLAC rather than EAC. It's certainly faster, but I ripped the majority of my collection using EAC. Do not underestimate the effort required - but there's plenty of help in the wiki and in these forums. Hope this helps - if you need more info, shout out. -- rperkin ------------------------------------------------------------------------ rperkin's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=15079 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63287 _______________________________________________ ripping mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/ripping
