Seeking recommendations for initial ripping of CD library

[Jan_Wem (Janna)]

I’m curious… What software do you use to do bit rot detection?
TIA!

[Marian (I stand with Ukraine)]

I wrote a simple PowerShell script that maintains a map of file time stamps and SHA512 hashes, indexed by path. If a file hasn’t changed but the computed hash is not the same as in the database, it flags bit rot. I wrapped it a task that runs every 4 months and emails me the results. I can share if interested.

[Jan_Wem (Janna)]

Yes please! Thanks muchly

[killdozer (Brutalise me with music)]

@Marian

I do ‘external’ bit rot detection, using a basic SHA512 database

This is far from paranoid and should be employed by anybody concerned about data integrity. There are plenty of straight forward solutions. My version’s based around little more than the sha256sum utility. SHA512 means less chance of collisions, but that’s pretty remote and even MD5 is fine in practice.

[Harry_Jones]

I used dbpoweramp for my CD ripping - worked great. With the purchased version you can hook up multiple CD drives to your computer and load CDs in each. It will rip them sequentially so you can load the CD drives and walk away for a while.

[Suedkiez (Just a fellow user like you)]

@Simon_Worrall

I’m not into Austrian punk (although if you have recommendations, I’d be happy to listen). But it’s the same story with a lot of classical music (especially early stuff and things like Gregorian chant).

Sure, it was just one example. I am sure the Italian tarantella scene is also not completely documented on Tidal (Because you asked, one example, Target of Demand 1989 (not the Californian ToD but the Austrian Band of the same name) https://youtu.be/3b3OKPlaWQU)

[Simon_Worrall (Simon W)]

The problem with bit rot and RAID 0 as I undertand it is that you can detect bit rot but you can’t fix it because there is only one copy of the data, so you can’t tell which bit has flipped. You need something a redundant RAID option like RAID 5 to actually pinpoint the flipped bit and fix it. Actually, I don’t see why RAID 1 wouldn’t also work, but I’ve never tried it (RAID 1 is such a waste of disks).

Of course, disks already have built in protection for bit errors, so you would probably need multiple bit errors before you actually saw a problem.

[killdozer (Brutalise me with music)]

@Simon_Worrall

The problem with bit rot and RAID 0 as I undertand it is that you can detect bit rot but you can’t fix it because there is only one copy of the data

That’s where keeping multiple copies comes in, just select one with the right checksum and you’re good.

[Bill_Janssen (Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)]

@Marian

If dbPoweramp can do accurate rips, can anyone else achieve better quality?

Perfect is as far up as you can get, of course. I don’t use Windows or macOS much, so I use Python Audio Tools (the cdda2track script, which also checks with AccurateRip), instead of dbPoweramp.

[Marian (I stand with Ukraine)]

Exactly. If a file is flagged, I just copy another good version on top. I persist the hash database in plain text so I can verify any hash manually.

[killdozer (Brutalise me with music)]

If feeling paranoid hash your file of hashes as well

[Marian (I stand with Ukraine)]

Well, the database changes every time as I add, modify and remove files between runs. And, since it contains hashes, cross-referencing also works as self-validation.

[S_Page]

dBpoweramp is not available for Linux. FWIW I used whipper to rip a CD. It’s got a great set of features, but I stumbled into an obscure offset bug in another program it uses. (Then I went back to listening to streamed music with YouTube Music, since avoiding the %$#@! ads on YouTube videos is worth more to me than the higher quality and Roon integration of Qobuz).

Thanks y’all for the tips about checksums and multiple backups.

[Marcus_Guerrero]

I’m a Mac user and have used XLD since forever. It’s easy to use once you have it set up and best of all, it’s free. It’s worth checking out.

[dbtom2 (Tom T)]

+1 to @Marcus_Guerrero

Long time MacOs XLD user (it’s free). FWIW, I rip CDs (AIFF & FLAC) and tidy up tags using Tag Editor or iTunes outside of Roon on a separate computer/server. For my purposes iTunes is still a great way to edit tags and work with multi CD albums. (If I get it right in iTunes, Roon will recognize it 95% of the time.)

It’s only after I am satisfied the album is correctly ripped and tagged that I move it to the watched Roon folder.

I have enjoyed the ripping process. It has moments of tedium but often I have (re)discovered gems in my collection. Less often I have found ‘What was I thinking when I bought this?’ that I hesitate to add to the Roon library.

Based on no scientific evidence whatsoever, I think my rips sound better than the same album streamed. Cuz it’s mine.

Good luck.

[mikeb]

@S_Page

Then I went back to listening to streamed music with YouTube Music, since avoiding the %$#@! ads on YouTube videos is worth more to me than the higher quality and Roon integration of Qobuz

My experience too, and good enough for music discovery and kitchen listening, with that added bonus!

[mikeb]

@Marcus_Guerrero

I’m a Mac user and have used XLD since forever. It’s easy to use once you have it set up and best of all, it’s free. It’s worth checking out.

I used XLD for most of my rips, agree it’s a great product for Mac users. There are also some setup guides, eg Ripping-CD-by-XLD.

[musicjunkie917]

@Simon_Worrall

Just as a suggestion, if $20/month isnt an issue for you, sign up for Tidal or Qobuz, search for the albums you have on CD and add them to your Roon library Then rip the ones that aren’t available on streaming and store these locally.

That would be great if I always had Internet access and Qobuz and Tidal had the best masterings available. That is not the case more often than not.

[Suedkiez (Just a fellow user like you)]

@S_Page

dBpoweramp is not available for Linux.

True but works flawlessly with Wine

[HeavyMetalDrummer]

I started with Roon in 2018, and I ripped approx. 4000 CDs over the course of four months. I used dBpoweramp on my Mac to do the ripping. I chose dBp because of its accurate rip capability as well as its metadata features.

I took my time during the ripping to make sure that the metadata (including album art) was exactly what I wanted. Obviously Roon handles metadata extremely well on its own, I wanted to make sure that my files had a base-level of embedded metadata because I also use these files on my Mac/iPhone with Apple Music and on USB sticks for the car. And also to give me flexibility if I ever decide to leave Roon or if Roon goes down the tubes.

I ripped to ALAC rather than FLAC to give me maximum compatibility in the Mac environment.

I am using a Synology NAS as the core repository for the files, to ensure data integrity, hardware redundancy, and backups via separate attached storage. I then mirror the audio file library from the NAS to my Nucleus+ which has an internal 4TB drive so that Roon used the files locally. I can also sync the files from my NAS to my Mac, iPhone and USB sticks.