Ripping classical music from CD's - recommendations?

[pwabrahams]

I have a large collection of classical CD's and I'd like to rip them to my hard drive. I actually did this once, but I wasn't happy with the results. First, my playback was in alphabetical order of the tracks (that's why it's relevant that it's classical music), but it's essential to play the music back in the original order of the tracks. Second, I transcribed them to MP3s and was not happy with the sound quality.

i'm sure there are a host of Linux programs around for doing this, but I'm looking for recommendations, both for the transcription and the playback. One relevant consideration is that sometimes a composition such as an opera will span several CD's, but other times there will be several multi-track compositions on a CD. I would like to be able to select a single composition whichever is the case. Also, some CD's have a collection of pieces played by a particular artist or group, and the pieces are by various composers. I would like to be able to retrieve the group as a whole or the individual selections -- or perhaps even groups of selections.

Most of the player programs I've seen have the song and album as primary organizational units, but that's ill-suited to classical music. Songs are usually independent of each other and can be played in any order, but that's not the case for movements of a concerto.

[vinnywright]

Re: Ripping classical music from CD's - recommendations?

K3b dose the copying (same as original ) or riping (copy and convert ) just fine for me and I believe keeps the current disks structure of file placement.

VINNY

[dibl]

Re: Ripping classical music from CD's - recommendations?

For quality, you want to rip to ogg or (for portability to Windows environment) .wav format. .wav requires non-free codecs, of course.

Vinny is right -- it should number the tracks in sequence, like

1 - First Movement
2 - Second Movement
3 - Finale

etc.

For playing, you are right about the standard player expectations of independent tracks/sequences. But if you don't like Amarok, you can install good ole alsaplayer, and set the sequence yourself, and it will never change until you choose to change it.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Ripping classical music from CD's - recommendations?

K3B nuff said
woodsmoke

[pwabrahams]

k3b? flac?

Does k3b capture the descriptive information attached to each track (on most digital CDs)? I definitely want to utilize it so that I don't have to input that stuff more than I would need to.

I'm wondering about the usability of flac (free lossless audio compression, I believe). I have seen some programs that support it.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Ripping classical music from CD's - recommendations?

I would recommend flac for sound quality. You can always convert to another format later for more portability, but if you rip to a "lossy" format, you're stuck with it.

[rfakhrai]

Re: k3b? flac?

Does k3b capture the descriptive information attached to each track (on most digital CDs)? I definitely want to utilize it so that I don't have to input that stuff more than I would need to.

I'm wondering about the usability of flac (free lossless audio compression, I believe). I have seen some programs that support it.

As far as I know, K3b queries the online sources for correct track listings. I've ripped 200+ classical CDs and 99% of them had online data that saved me the trouble of filling it all in manually.

I stand behind FLAC. It's becoming more and more respected, especially by audiophiles of course. And, as oshunlover mentioned, you can always convert to a lossy format if you feel it's necessary. One concern is that a FLAC album is typically at least 150MB so it's a lot of space to dedicate to your ripped library. But, I have over 5000 albums, 200+ of which are FLAC classical CDs. I comfortably dedicate my 500GB harddrive to this endeavor.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Ripping classical music from CD's - recommendations?

A 500gb hard drive is one heck of a lot cheaper than 5000 albums!

[pwabrahams]

k3b for recording -- but what for playing?

I have a terabyte drive just sitting around unused at the moment -- it cost me just $79 -- so storage space isn't an issue. And it seems that k3b is just the ticket for recording.

The playing side is murky, though. Alsaplayer might preserve the order, but will it enable me to organize the music appropriately so that I can, for instance, schedule a symphony that's one of three on a CD followed by a sonata from a different CD? Ideally, I'd be able to select music from a hierarchy or, even better, from any of several hierarchies. It's because of this issue that classical music is such a challenge, one that even hackers who don't particularly like classical music can appreciate.

[dibl]

Re: Ripping classical music from CD's - recommendations?

No, alsaplayer is an unsophisticated serial "player of the list" -- it has no scheduling capabilities or any other fancy features. It just plays the list as you have sequenced it.

[rfakhrai]

Re: Ripping classical music from CD's - recommendations?

If I understand your issue correctly, it seems that the hierarchy should be established by you. For instance, I keep my classical albums (symphonies, sonatas, concertos, etc.) organized according to composer. I use the Audacious playlist to play, say, Schubert's No.2 followed by Sibelius's No. 7.

Have you used Amarok much? With enough tinkering, you can maybe get close to the hierarchy you desire. Or maybe I'm not understanding your desire ....

[pwabrahams]

Playlists of playlists?

This conversation has been very enlightening and has led me to understand what it is that I'm really looking for: a player that allows for playlists that include both individual "songs" and other playlists, nested to any level. It should also be possible for a song to be on any number of playlists, although I suppose most players allow that.

Nested playlists cover very nicely the situation like this: I have a set of CDs of all the Beethoven string quartets. Each quartet has several movements. In addition, the quartets themselves are civided into early, middle, and late periods. So the lowest level playlist would be a quartet, with several movements within it. Above that would be the period, containing the playlists of several quartets.

Are there any players that allow nesting of playlists?