Topic: Music Server Software Options / Suggestions

[SonicSound]

I am setting up a music server and the hardware is all hooked-up and good-to-go [Operating System: Windows XP professional, Audio Card: Nuendo 96/52 - Stienberg, DAC: Nuendo 8I/O96k 24bit AD/DA].

Could use some help in selecting some software that will make this baby sing.

What software would you recommend to do the following?

- Rip CD’s to a hard drive

- Automatically retrieve and save album information [cover art, album title, release date, genre, song titles, band members, etc.] from the internet.

- Interface shows cover art and can query on artist, song title, year, genre, and other aspects.

I have a copy of Nero 7 but not sure if this is the best solution.   

[dgodwin]

Exact audio copy will rip cds to the hard drive.  You can set up up to flac/mp3/etc as well as download album information from the cddb.  I'm unaware of it being able to grab album art though...

[SonicSound]

+Thanks

Really want the album art capability.

Also want to select the best software for the job...I will be loading over 900 CD's

[Jammin72]

Audio CD-DA Extractor is the ticket for extracting with all of the Extras and excellent sound quality.

Check into MediaMonkey as a playback solution.  Supports Kernel Streaming Extraction and advanced tagging as well as Auto-Tagging from Amazon including album art.

[SonicSound]

I will have to check into this option +

The software package that comes w/ the Axonix music server looks very interesting.  I believe it is only available for use with their server.

Check out the screen shots http://axonix.com/Mediamax/ScreenShots.aspx

This gives the general idea of what I am looking for.

Can I do this with Nero?

Audio CD-DA Extractor is the ticket for extracting with all of the Extras and excellent sound quality.

Check into MediaMonkey as a playback solution.  Supports Kernel Streaming Extraction and advanced tagging as well as Auto-Tagging from Amazon including album art.

[spott]

I'd tell you to use iTunes, just make sure that you select lossless compression (AAC), especially since it auto-downloads the album art... in terms of ease of use, it's by far the best.  But I know the Slim Devices / Slim Server is popular as well.  I know you can associate album art with a FLAC file set, but it's not automatic. 

[pfife]

I'd tell you to use iTunes, just make sure that you select lossless compression (AAC), especially since it auto-downloads the album art... in terms of ease of use, it's by far the best.  But I know the Slim Devices / Slim Server is popular as well.  I know you can associate album art with a FLAC file set, but it's not automatic. 

I love slim server, but I don't see it as fitting his needs.  The querying isn't that good (can't search for a particular artist), and afaik, it doesn't have the ability to play tunes right there.  The real strength of SlimServer, imo, is that it can stream remotely.  There are a lot of other sweet plugins too.  Its nice for cataloging, but not as good as Itunes. Slim server doesn't rip either.   ITunes was the first thing that came to my mind, but he'd have to go AAC instead of flac.   

I don't get a lot of the itunes hate, I think its pretty nice overall.

[SonicSound]

Bump

Any other options?

[SonicSound]

Jammin72 - Thanks again for the suggestions +
I have downloaded both MediaMonkey and Audio CD-DA.

Any thought on just using MediaMonkey to rip cd’s to my hard drive?
Am I risking a degraded or lower sound quality?
It would make it a lot easier if I could just use MM, however I do not want to sacrifice audio quality. 

Edit:

I have noticed that during play back track transitions are not audibly smooth [skipping sound].  Is this a limitation of MM playback?  If so I need another solution.

Audio CD-DA Extractor is the ticket for extracting with all of the Extras and excellent sound quality.

Check into MediaMonkey as a playback solution.  Supports Kernel Streaming Extraction and advanced tagging as well as Auto-Tagging from Amazon including album art.

[kskreider]

I think that Foobar will play, extract, FLAC/MP3, download CDDB, and download album art.

[SonicSound]

I fixed the issue with gapless playback by adjusting the "buffer-ahead on track change" to 4000ms [tools/options/player/output plug-ins]

But I am still concerned about the audio quality results in using MediaMonkey to rip.
As you can imagine, I only want to have to do this once [1000+ CD collection]
 

Jammin72 - Thanks again for the suggestions +
I have downloaded both MediaMonkey and Audio CD-DA.

Any thought on just using MediaMonkey to rip cd’s to my hard drive?
Am I risking a degraded or lower sound quality?
It would make it a lot easier if I could just use MM, however I do not want to sacrifice audio quality. 

Edit:

I have noticed that during play back track transitions are not audibly smooth [skipping sound].  Is this a limitation of MM playback?  If so I need another solution.

Audio CD-DA Extractor is the ticket for extracting with all of the Extras and excellent sound quality.

Check into MediaMonkey as a playback solution.  Supports Kernel Streaming Extraction and advanced tagging as well as Auto-Tagging from Amazon including album art.

[Tim]

I don't get a lot of the itunes hate, I think its pretty nice overall.

I thought I was the only one who didn't get that

[SonicSound]

I have riped approx 250 Cd's...

I f'n hope that MediaMonkey is the ticket!

I must say that it is pretty awesome having the ability to access your music at a keystroke.

[Chris K]

are you making flacs of those cd's? if not what format?

[spott]

Does anyone know (or heard the rumor) that FLAC will be supported in OSX Leopard.  If that's the case, I'm guessing that the new version of iTunes will support FLAC as well (OS independent, XP, Vista, etc)?

If this is the case, this will provide all the "purty" extras (artwork, etc) without the CD-DA extractor.

FWIW, I love iTunes and would probably adore it if they started supporting FLAC

[F0CKER]

FWIW, I love iTunes and would probably adore it if they started supporting FLAC

My only beef as well Spott.  I refuse to buy another ipod until they support flac...but then again, it is possible to access your entire music collection using server software like slim server and a data connection for an ipod touch, right?

[Frank in JC]

I think that Foobar will play, extract, FLAC/MP3, download CDDB, and download album art.

Foobar 2000 is great, but it requires serious tinkering if you're trying to take full advantage of its potential for a music server.  It looks like you can do some really cool stuff with it, cataloging and playback-wise, but only if you spend a lot of time with it.  The really nice thing about it is that it has a very small footprint (i.e. it doesn't hog system resources).  I've had iTunes bog down during playback and start dropping samples, but never Foobar.

AFAIK, Exact Audio Copy produces the most accurate rip, at least that's what it's been well known for.  You can also have it invoke FLAC after it creates the WAV files and batch-process everything to FLAC format. 

Good luck with the project!

[SonicSound]

I just started to use the option with MediaMonkey that allows you to rip directly to FLAC. Will this [using MediaMonkey to rip / or FLAC] impact the play back quality?

AM I HEADING DOWN THE WRONG PATH…PLEASE HELP!

I only want to have to go through this process once.  I have been at it over six days and have several weeks to go.

[Startstop]

My music server was setup before home NAS drives started to fall in price so i would recommend a NAS as opposed to my setup. Having said that, I am very happy with my networked music collection.

I have the Linksys NSLU2 (the SLUG) with an external 750gb hooked to that thru USB. The Slug will work with any format drive (fat32, NTFS, Ext2 and 3) which is handy for turning any thumb/external USB drive into a network drive. The NSLU is then plugged into my wireless router. At the stereo I have a Apple Airport Express router which i actually just use a repeater. The Airport Express has digi-out and acts as a Itunes server. The itunes folder is re-located to the network drive and anyone on the network can now load that library. So my wifes Macbook, my laptop running XP, and my desktop XP, can all connect and control Itunes. My comp running linux also can take advantage of the network drive. The only failing of this system is the need to convert FLAC to Apple Lossless. But DbPoweramp does this with all tags intact. Itunes for XP could certainly be improved but it couldnt have been easier to do the above network. Itunes also does tagging/album covers/lyrics.

When i started this i made the concession for space and converted my studio CD's to 320kbps MP3. Concerts are all Apple lossless (originals all in flac and backed up offsite) and any new CD's are now Apple lossless also. I certainly wish itunes would do flac but...oh well. I generally do all my work on my desktop which also has the identical 750gb harddrive which then gets copied to the network drive overnight. I can also make changes from any other computer to the network drive and the desktop HD will be updated at night. The networked drive and backup is so handy.

For software I use EAC to rip, convert, and tag. Itunes or Iart to apply album covers and lyrics. DBPoweramp with various codecs to do my shn, flac, ogg, apple lossless, converting. I use Synchback for backing everything up. For video i have been using DVDFab Decrypter, Nero, and Super for converting anything to anything. Incidentally, Super is one of the best video conversion programs i have found...anyone else tried this?

[Chris K]

nice startstop, the network drive is the key. but what about 24bit media? itunes wont play 24 bit will it? i guess when converting you could resample/dither too, but i would think you would somehow want to keep the 24bit intact. sorry if i am missing something here. i am researching the media player also so please dont flame.

maybe a 2nd audio player on the network drive that will handle 24bit?

[edtyre]

but what about 24bit media? itunes wont play 24 bit will it? i guess when converting you could resample/dither too, but i would think you would somehow want to keep the 24bit intact.

Itunes plays 24 bit files in Apple Lossless. On my Imac i use MAX to convert 24 bit flac
to 24 bit Apple Lossless. http://sbooth.org/Max/
I use MAX to tag the files i am converting.

Itunes as a music server has been great for me so far (1 year and 1000+ cd's and 1000+ live shows)
my set-up....
Imac > Empirical Audio Offramp Turbo > Grace 902 > PSA HCA-2 > Von Schweikert 2100's

I have an Apple Airport Express in my bedroom attached to cheap DAC AH going into a Mini
Headroom Headphone amp > Senn 580's . Not bad for a modest headphone setup.
Bought an older Ibook with an airport card, i use to control Itunes remotely...from my bedroom
or from my sofa with the big rig.

[Chris K]

wow...this is great info. obviously i had no idea itunes could play 24bit files. +T 

Itunes plays 24 bit files in Apple Lossless. On my Imac i use MAX to convert 24 bit flac
to 24 bit Apple Lossless. http://sbooth.org/Max/
I use MAX to tag the files i am converting.

Itunes as a music server has been great for me so far (1 year and 1000+ cd's and 1000+ live shows)
my set-up....
Imac > Empirical Audio Offramp Turbo > Grace 902 > PSA HCA-2 > Von Schweikert 2100's

I have an Apple Airport Express in my bedroom attached to cheap DAC AH going into a Mini
Headroom Headphone amp > Senn 580's . Not bad for a modest headphone setup.
Bought an older Ibook with an airport card, i use to control Itunes remotely...from my bedroom
or from my sofa with the big rig.

[Tim]

thought this was interesting

http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=29176.msg259949#msg259949

[thegreatgumbino]

thought this was interesting

http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=29176.msg259949#msg259949

Great deal for that guy.  He gets paid & gets copies of everyone's discs.  Legal?  Probably not, but I'm sure he can find ways around that.  It would be nice to hand everything off to someone and get it back completely done, though.  Nice that he does the cover art & tagging as well.

[Tim]

yeah the whole thing is interesting, seems like he's getting a really sweet deal but if I had cash to burn it would be a nice way to go

[SonicSound]

I tell you this is real work ripping CD's.

I have ripped over 600 and it has taken several weeks.

But it's worth it...having my whole collection at a key stroke

[Tim]

I tell you this is real work ripping CD's.

I have ripped over 600 and it has taken several weeks.

But it's worth it...having my whole collection at a key stroke

I'm sure it is!

[spott]

Thought some folks might find this interesting: media player "show and tell"

http://lifehacker.com/software/screenshot-tour/media-player-show-and-tell-314809.php

[db]

I tell you this is real work ripping CD's.

I have ripped over 600 and it has taken several weeks.

But it's worth it...having my whole collection at a key stroke

sounds like it was easier than lifting your rig.

[Jammin72]

Damn.... sorry I didn't pop back in here sooner. 

I don't have experience with using MediaMonkey for ripping files.  I haven't done any real research as to "bit perfectness" or anything of it's rips as I've been using the Easy CD-DA Extractor for that purpose.

I can tell you that as long as you're getting things ripped onto the drive with appropriate tagging into the format you prefer then you're golden.  If the library data is good than your can always import it into any other Manager of your choice.

The bottom line is that if you're finding the format pleasing and it's helping you get your data on the drive the way that you want it, it's a good method!
Lletting a program like this recognize the disc and auto-tag is a blessing. Once it's done sychch the library then all of your data will actually be written in the tags so any program will read it appropriately you're not limited to the player that created the library.