Fast ripping of CDs (and storage)

[Werner Berghofer]

Simon,

Album artwork added automatically by iTunes is stored in a cache file and not embedded into the file.

this is quite true, thank you for pointing this out. Since I usually prefer to add the tags myself, I forgot to mention that I also disabled the iTunes option for automatic download of cover art files. These images are always added manually by myself, becaue I prefer larger dimensions than the usual 300 × 300 pixels added by iTunes.

Werner.

[dave2010]

Werner

Thanks for a very helpful reply

compared to the average overall size of a lossless audio file, the additional size of tags and cover art with dimensions of 1000 × 1000 pixels is peanuts :-)

Probably, and for a one off it is OK, where the metadata is filtered out by the server. I thought that sometimes the metadata is used for streaming purposes, and that might not be so good if this gets mixed in with the communications stream. There are many posts on these boards extolling the virtues of more precise timing in the communications, and the benefits of shaving away a few pico-seconds of jitter.

Of course it would, but on the other hand I fear this would tremendously complicate the process of moving audio files between different computers and audio devices.

It would not be unreasonable to have some data stored externally. For example:

tag: CD-Notes = "http://www.recordcompany.com/Sibelius/RC5044.pdf"
would be a short tag indicating that the record company notes in pdf form are available at the specificed URL.

tags: Composer-Note-1 = "http://www.wikipedia.com/Beethoven"
Composer-Note-2 = "http://www.wikipedia.com/Brahms"

etc.

I don't know enough about tags - I assume that they can't be parameterised - which "might" be even more flexible, eg.

tags: Composer-Note ("Beethoven") = "http://www.wikipedia.com/Beethoven"
Composer-Note ("Brahms") = "http://www.wikipedia.com/Brahms"
Personal-note("Proms") = "http://www.myblog.com/Proms2011"

Some pattern matching systems can work with that kind of data.

Doesn't actually seem too complicated to me.

Well yes, WAV files can be tagged, but the metadata is not embedded in the audio file itself, but stored in various supplemental library files which reside locally on the computer. Therefore metadata usually is lost if copying the WAV file to another computer or device. Please check Computer Audiophile’s thread WAV file tagging and artwork in iTunes for detailled information.

Thanks for the clarification re WAV files and external data.

[webby]

I don't really see the point in having a composer note link to a wiki page for the composer. I can access the wiki pages for a given album, artist or composer with a few clicks. You're not browsing whilst playing back music are you?

The tags that are probably most incorrect from database lookups are genre and composer info, but I don't really use either for browsing.

For correcting tag case and other minor tag errors there are a number of helpful scripts at dougs applescripts.

Again, I recommend XLD for ripping. Have you looked it up Dave? I've mentioned it a number of times now. I don't have too many problems with tagging. Nothing that a title case script can't fix.

As per Werner, I also add album art manually. This is usually sourced from album art exchange. Plenty of high quality art there. Do it as you go and it takes about 30 secs.

[webby]

You could download something like Alfred and use search templates. For example, activate Alfred, type wiki, space, type Beethoven, enter, will open up the wiki page for Beethoven. All without touching the browser.

I do the same to get artwork: aae, bob dylan, opens up the album art exchange page for bob Dylan.

Personally, I use launchbar but I'm just looking at switching to Alfred which is free, or you can use it with an addon which costs £12.

Werner, do you use any utilities like this?

Note: there are actually some scripts at dougs applescripts that will search wiki, and others, based on the artist now playing, or selected.

[Werner Berghofer]

Lee,

Personally, I use launchbar […] Werner, do you use any utilities like this?

I used to be a launchbar user, but that was back in the days of Mac OS 9. Nowadays I think launchbar isn’t needed anymore, because Spotlight offers very similar features – it even cloned the launchbar keyboard shortcut cmd+spacebar.

There a tons of useful and smart utilities available for Mac OS X, but I’m an old fashioned guy with roots back in Assembler programming, so I’m used to do many things manually. I use Macs just because they are beautiful and the ladies think I must be rich ;-)

Werner.

[Werner Berghofer]

Dave,

I thought that sometimes the metadata is used for streaming purposes, and that might not be so good if this gets mixed in with the communications stream.

I’m pretty sure the metadata section is clearly separated from the audio section in the audio file, and this separation also will be honoured by the file transper protocol used for streaming.

There are many posts on these boards extolling the virtues of more precise timing in the communications, and the benefits of shaving away a few pico-seconds of jitter.

I know, but there are also many posts dealing with equipment burn-in and folks claiming to hear differences between 44.1 KHz/16 bit and 192 KHz/24 bit audio files. One must not believe everything which can be found on the Internet ;-)

Werner.

[dave2010]

Lee

The tags that are probably most incorrect from database lookups are genre and composer info, but I don't really use either for browsing.

So how do you get to your music? Do you do it via folders?

I'm already at the point where navigating to the right files is becoming a problem, particularly via the iPad Squeezepad interface. Maybe iPeng would be easier - though I suspect there's not much in it.

It might actually be easier to do the navigation via folders and using aliases - not sure though. I'd probably need a real machine (e.g Mac mini, or Macbook Air) to do that.

Still - live music tonight - must go - Prom 33, Sibelius, Grieg, Nielsen.

[webby]

Lee

So how do you get to your music? Do you do it via folders?

I'm already at the point where navigating to the right files is becoming a problem, particularly via the iPad Squeezepad interface. Maybe iPeng would be easier - though I suspect there's not much in it.

It might actually be easier to do the navigation via folders and using aliases - not sure though. I'd probably need a real machine (e.g Mac mini, or Macbook Air) to do that.

Still - live music tonight - must go - Prom 33, Sibelius, Grieg, Nielsen.

I use iTunes if I'm at my mac, or the apple remote app on the iPad. This accesses my itunes library and displays album art and playlists etc. Other remote apps are available.

People can slate iTunes for whatever reason and yes, I feel it's a little bloated now (I'd prefer it if it was just a music player) but I like the user interface and the visual aspect of the album art.

So yeah, I let iTunes handle my music files and the playback of them. I can't be bothered, and haven't got the time, to faff about with a folder structure and separate playback software.

Enjoy the concert!

[webby]

There's a good run down on using XLD here: http://www.digitalvertigo.co.uk/foru...howtopic=26740

[dave2010]

Lee

I actually downloaded and ran xLD yesterday. I really wanted to find a way of splitting a music file into manageable chunks. I need to figure out whether I can make up suitable cue sheets, or whether i need another (yet another!) editing tool.