I just have a DVD-R drive plugged directly into my Nucleus and an SSD drive also attached. And just rip without any PC.
Works perfect for most albums but double disc albums get messed up. Every now and again I will run a tag cleaning app over the SSD to fix things up.
Google „Sacd ripping“, you will find several sources of information. Rarely a slick process but it is doable
I rip to iso file
Then rip the iso to either stereo or multichannel, or both.
Down the Rabbit Hole of SACD Ripping and DSD Extraction – PS Audio.
I have ripped thousands of CDs using dbPoweramp and I strongly recommend it. As other people here say, tweak the settings and test import in Roon with a small batch before you go large. You will not want to discover you have missed an essential setting at a later stage.
I am using SongKong to validate and enrich the metadata after ripping. SongKong was a gamechanger for me for making the metadata as good as possible. It has saved med countless hours. And it has a special Roon config ready.
Good luck with the ripping.
I have ripped and tagged all of my CDs, and since I’ve accumulated them over some decades, that’s a few thousand.
I have used a number of different rippers, and dBpoweramp is altogether the fastest, and along with EAC the most reliable I’ve used. I’m on Windows but have all my CDs ripped to ALAC (for legacy reasons, I started with iTunes).
You will need some tagging software. Yes, you can tag in dBpoweramp (especially when ripping) and also in Roon (though Roon will not really tag the files). If you want to have your collection consistently tagged, something like MP3tag (which can tag just about any music format, not just “MP3s”) on Windows; not sure what the best equivalent would be on the MAC.
Whatever you do, I would recommend to tag your files consistently, as the Metatags “in the wild” tend to be anything but, and not in Roon (as Roon basically brings its own “tagging” on board, which you can then use or prefer your own). I have over 100,000 music files, and the idea that the tagging would be tied to a certain database instead of directly in the files is not something that appeals to me.
As far as covers are concerned, I rarely ever had to do my own scans, I just looked for the appropriate cover on the Internet and added it to the files.
This is certainly true when dealing only with the cover art, however if one would like to place all of one’s ripped CDs into storage then one might want complete copies of the entire CD booklets and other images, like the back jewel case cover. One can access image files directly in Roon and being that the metadata provided by Roon can often be less than complete, having the complete booklet available on Roon can be very useful.
of course scanning in and adding the images to Roon can be done on a case by case basis once one sees what metadata is being provided by Roon.
To save time, I usually check Discogs’ database before taking the time and effort to scan these images myself.
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Another vote for dbPowerAmp / MP3tag for ripping and curating your collection. MP3tag has links to discogs and other services that make it very handy for finding the metadata. I especially like the album art aspect.
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From my perspective, doing any kind of metadata editing directly in roon is some sort of a trap. Because this data then is only available in roon, not in any other music environment using the same music files. Why is that? roon does not write back this directly edited metadata into the music files. Therefore, it’s not accessible through any other system but roon.
So, best option is to edit the metadata on file base, IMHO.
If you really care about proper and correct metadata, it will very likely end up in fiddly manual editing, more often than you wish. A dedicated tag editor with batch editing is a great friend.
Actually, NO tag database available delivers metadata of really great quality. The curation is just too… subpar. Not even talking about cover art or SACD rips.
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Oh, yes, of course. Wow, that’s of course quite a bit of work, but sure,you can do that. I do have lots of CDs with highly informative booklets, but I never bothered to scan them all in.
High praise for DBpowersmp CD ripper. Buy a Reference version s you get free upgrades until next major vertical. It uses Accurate Rip to confirm accuracy of each track rip.
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There are very few websites hat provide Booklets , Hyperion used to , Decca have a limited few I think Chandos
Often it requires proof of purchase as it should but as you say downloading is a lot less work than scanning 20 little pages especially if you are in the midst of ripping a thousand discs !!
I strongly recommend Album Art Downloader. Gets hight quality artwork from Qobuz and iTunes
Album Art Downloader download | SourceForge.net
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Im a bit late here and you have probably already jumped in with all the dbPoweramp recommendations. But on the off chance you are still mulling over your options, I humbly recommend this;
I have used this for many years and it does it all. CD rip, CD burn, audio conversion, metadata editing, album art download. Its hugely customisable and I have never been asked to buy a new license in all the years I have used it despite several significant overhauls.
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Hi All
Thank you all for your excellent advice. I have now ripped a proportion of my CD collection but when I try and transfer to the Nucleus, the file come across with a strange title. See attached photo - (sorry but youre talking to a technological Luddite!)
The folders with the “Imported at…” titles are created by Roon Server when you drag and drop music folders into the Roon Window (Method 2 on this page)
You should use Method 1 - that will preserve the folder names of your ripped folders and Roon Server will import them into Roon.
And personally, I don’t bother with using the Folder browser in Roon - I just use the other browsers; Roon’s database and the Focus function does all the slicing and dicing of my collection that I need.
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