O/T: How do you listen to your collection
Printed From: Top 40 Music on CD
Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
Forum Name: Chat Board
Forum Description: Chat away but please observe the chat board rules
URL: https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9560
Printed Date: 29 May 2025 at 3:39am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.07 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: O/T: How do you listen to your collection
Posted By: EdisonLite
Subject: O/T: How do you listen to your collection
Date Posted: 27 February 2021 at 7:26pm
|
This is a 2-part question. We're all so into music that I'm curious to hear people's answers.
1) "Physical" format - Do you primarily listen to music by playing: your CD collection, CD-Rs you've made, vinyl, mp3s on your phone or iTunes, streaming sites like Spotify/SiriusXM/Pandora, letting song files play off your computer/laptop...? 2) Also, do you do anything creatively for your listening experience, i.e. do you make a CD-R for each of your favorite artists? do you make playlists for your phone based on some criteria (i.e. a specific genre, a specific year or decade, a specific theme, etc.?) I primarily listen to CD-Rs I made (each has its own theme or something that ties the songs all together), though lately I've also been listening to mp3s on my phone quite a bit. For my phone, I've compiled all sorts of playlists on iTunes. So I'll play something based on my mood. For example, I have playlists for different genres like classic rock, modern rock, country, AC, dance, disco, instrumentals (I even have enough songs for a ragtime genre :); playlists for each year and decade; playlists based on one artist or a favorite songwriter - and a variety of other topics. Most recently, I've been creating playlists based on Joel Whitburn books. I've put together ones for the rock book, the AC/hot AC book, the disco/dance book; and I'll be doing one for the country book soon. My AC/hot AC playlist is one based on 2000 until now. (I'll do the older AC charters later). And it kind of reminds me of the SiriusXM stations The Pulse and The Blend (but more expansive, as those 2 stations tend to focus more on recent stuff.) I find it quite fun to listen to music grouped in so many different ways, because all I could do as a kid was listen to one 45 after the next, or play an LP. So chime in, everyone. I'd love to hear your thoughts on all this! |
Replies:
Posted By: AdvprosD
Date Posted: 27 February 2021 at 7:54pm
|
When you come right down to the "Enjoyment" part of listening, I'd have to say I play files off the PC. I also have a few folders of favorites loaded into the
phone, so that I can listen to my favorites over the nearest Bluetooth device. That's answer part 1... The other answer involves things that I am still working on. That includes a huge number of remixes and 12" singles dating back to the late 70's. There is the "Perfect Mix" yet to be made and I will be working on that eternally to try and mix together stuff that I know and stuff I am still discovering. I usually cap a mix at CD length. which is all I have patience for anymore. Gone are the days of hours upon hours of mixing. ------------- <Dave> Someone please tell I-Heart Radio that St. Louis is not known as The Loo! |
Posted By: AutumnAarilyn
Date Posted: 27 February 2021 at 8:29pm
|
I do full length play of a disc and other times run a
clock where I put music tracks into groups based on style and era. The clock or sequence calls for max diversity and is reflective in percentage of the collection. I sometimes do one major hit and one unearthed or discovery song and go through the rotation that way. It's really the way radio should be as there's always a focus in surveys asking how familiar you are with the song. Who cares as long as it sounds good! I categorize using my head but I think software could be utilized to help people listen through their online collection or streaming service. The streaming service would either have to code the music or it could be left up to the listener. I find it rather odd that someone would just want to hear highly rated smash hits. When I first used Pandora many moons ago, you'd get in a rut. If you requested a channel with a song in 12/8 time signature, you'd end up with all songs with that characteristic. |
Posted By: edtop40
Date Posted: 27 February 2021 at 8:43pm
|
'the perfect mix' changes over time.... ------------- edtop40 |
Posted By: NightAire
Date Posted: 27 February 2021 at 8:47pm
|
When listening for pleasure, I'm almost 100% using streaming services: TuneIn, Spotify, SiriusXM, Pandora, Accuradio, Amazon Music, and YouTube.
Favorite sources are (of course) my own station BlackLight Radio for 80s pop & rock, Electro Swing Revolution Radio, and SiriusXM Chill (Channel #53). I'll use Spotify for obscure albums from my childhood: The Limeliters, Sons Of The Pioneers, Mick Fleetwood, Henry Mancini, Esquivel, Martin Denny, and others. I listen on my phone, via bluetooth in my car, on my Amazon Echo Dot in the bedroom and in the kitchen, and on my home stereo through apps loaded onto my Roku. It's funny how I insist that my collection be bit-for-bit perfect... yet am perfectly happy with streaming services who seriously data-compress what they're sending me! :) (If I'm getting serious about my listening I'll sit down with my blu-ray of Yes's "Close To The Edge" in my home theater, close my eyes, and enjoy the 5.1 mix... but that doesn't happen very often.) ------------- Gene Savage http://www.BlackLightRadio.com - http://www.BlackLightRadio.com http://www.facebook.com/TulsaSavage - http://www.facebook.com/TulsaSavage Tulsa, Oklahoma USA |
Posted By: AutumnAarilyn
Date Posted: 27 February 2021 at 9:56pm
|
I use youtube when I'm working on other things. It's
really the only site that has most of what I like. |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 28 February 2021 at 4:40am
|
I do most of my listening at the office.
My hard drive has most of the hits from 1950-present. I'll pretty much just pick a year and hit shuffle. For songs I don't have on my hard drive, I'll usually go to YouTube. This came in especially handy for the 1950s Cash Box regional research. When not listening to my collection, I'll listen to either a podcast or a radio show such as an old AT40 or Ron's current Crap From The Past. An ongoing personal project is the Top 20 from the R&R CHR charts each week on homemade CDs. I have 1973-1992 done and hope to eventually finish up thru the last R&R chart in 2009. I picked R&R over Billboard, because it more closely resembles what I remember hearing on the radio at the time. I put one of those in when I'm feeling nostalgic for a particular week in my past. I also did homemade CDs for the Top 4000 that I posted on this site last year. I'm currently listening to those in my car. Part of my job is to download every new entry on the Hot 100 and Bubbling Under charts each week. I listen to every single one, but I'm finding less and less to like these days. Not a fan of most of the rap stuff, although some of it is tolerable. Were it not for this part of my job, I doubt I would keep up with new music much at all. |
Posted By: rnell
Date Posted: 28 February 2021 at 7:09am
|
I do my listening everywhere (office, home, travelling).
using different devices (ipad is the #1 at the moment) .I have uploaded about 40,000 songs to my hard drive (most of them from my own cds, or eventually from vinyl and I tunes). Basic playlists are related to the US charts using RR books (top 40, 41-100, #1 and bubbling under, all per year starting in the late 50s and including current charts). Since 2000 playlists are only for Top 40 and #1 and in the playlists for late 50s and early 60s only include Top 40 songs. I follow the BB charts every week to track highest position of a particular song that enters the Top 40. For the US chart playlists I have additional ones such as Cashbox (Songs that made Top 40 in Cashbox, not BB), Cashbox and Record World #1s and A/C charts year by year. I have done the same for UK charts (top 40 and #1 playlists) also for charts starting in 1960 including the current ones (huge work for the UK because there is nothing like Pop Annual book with highest position of each song year by year). I have worked to recreate the same format of the Pop Anual book using weekly charts information that are now readily available through the webpage of the "UK chart company" who owns the rights to chart information for the UK. I also have playlists with my personal favorites year by year (which may have charted or not) and even a personal chart of best songs of the year (Singles and Album tracks). As I have worked for radio stations during many years I have purchased different radio-only services of new music since 1990, so I listen to a lot of songs (US and European) that never enter any chart. Another interesting note, I have scanned thousands of covers from my 7"s to use as the image of all songs that have been released as singles (with PS or just a plain company sleeve). The internet (and pages such as Discogs) is a good source for those I do not have. Needless to say it has involved a lot of work but it looks really nice in my ipads. |
Posted By: vanmeter
Date Posted: 28 February 2021 at 10:55am
| Lately I'm using a combination of Logitech Media Server bridged to Foobar2k in order to use SqrSoft's brilliant crossfade plug-in, then run through actual AM processing software, fed to a stream I listen to anywhere. I love it...I love the compressed, low-fi sound of AM and this is about perfect to me. |
Posted By: BSharp
Date Posted: 28 February 2021 at 11:13am
|
I'm fortunate to be working for a station that plays
what I like (and adds music from my personal collection as we grow). When I'm in the car, it's alll I listen to: https://www.big1013.com/ At home, and as part of another project, I recently hauled my collection of 45s out of storage. As much as I love the convenience of streaming through my Sonos system, there's something about handling the physical media and dropping the needle on some of these songs that brings new life into them for me. It's almost therapeutic! |
Posted By: 995wlol
Date Posted: 28 February 2021 at 3:01pm
|
Great topic idea!
To answer the first part, my entire collection is digitized, so I listen to all of my CDs, LPs, 45s, and digital downloads on Media Monkey which is connected to my TV and stereo via a PC. Creatively, I like to simulate the radio stations I grew up listening to using an app I've had for more than a decade called Mix Meister. It gives me an easy way to simulate the sound of song transitions on the radio. I then drop in vintage jingles and liners I have collected every 4 or 5 songs. It can be pretty convincing and has actually fooled people into thinking they were listening to old airchecks. |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 28 February 2021 at 3:06pm
|
I listen using Foobar2000 on my PC on a high end wireless headphone set. My entire top 40 collection is digitized in ALAC for easy transfer to my iphone 512GB.
I agree with Paul Haney though, I collect every top 40 hit, but there is a lot less to like these days from the new stuff thats coming out. These album bombs make every track a hit and accessible to charting, which IMHO deludes the value of the top 40. Not to mention these one off one week availability downloads which come and go (similar to those itunes only downloads from American Idol). I also collect remixes, which I generally play on CD-R's that I burned. Not all are lossless quality, but many are hard to find and I do get tired of hearing the same played out versions on the radio over and over throughout the years. Most here would probably conclude that digitizing is the way to go. I do miss playing a 45 here and there, I dont miss the snap crack and pop from that 45 though :) ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: 995wlol
Date Posted: 28 February 2021 at 3:14pm
|
Great topic idea!
To answer the first part, my entire collection is digitized, so I listen to all of my CDs, LPs, 45s, and digital downloads on Media Monkey which is connected to my TV and stereo via a PC. Creatively, I like to simulate the radio stations I grew up listening to using an app I've had for more than a decade called Mix Meister. It gives me an easy way to simulate the sound of song transitions on the radio. I then drop in vintage jingles and liners I have collected every 4 or 5 songs. It can be pretty convincing and has actually fooled people into thinking they were listening to old airchecks. |
Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 28 February 2021 at 5:36pm
|
I put my music on a flash drive and listen in the car
while I'm driving. 95% of my listening I do in the car. I love driving, especially long drives, and my car is where I'm alone and no one can bother me. In a sense, my car is my "man cave." I would put lossless music on my flash drive, but my Hyundai Elantra will only play MP3s or lossy WMV files. I encode with LAME at the V0 setting. You certainly can't tell the difference in the car (or probably with headphones, for most of us). Which makes it kind of hilarious that I always insist on having lossless copies of everything. |
Posted By: torcan
Date Posted: 28 February 2021 at 9:19pm
|
I'm more of a vinyl guy - I especially love 45s and
picture sleeves. I also have hundreds of CDs - mainly for where there was no vinyl available (some of those have come out on vinyl LPs in recent years). Since in 2018, I've been digitizing my collection. It's now all stored as .wav files and I usually play them from a laptop. Although most of my collection is near mint, there are some that have scratches/pops on them (I guess it's unavoidable). I was able to clean up most of those thru Audacity, but not quite all of them. My wife and I belong to a ballroom dance club (don't laugh...it's a great way to get exercise as we all get older). I've also been collecting ballroom music (cha-cha, tango, rumba, etc.) and have been the DJ at several of the club's parties in the past couple of years, using my laptop. (Every once in a while I'll throw in an old top 40 song you can jive or waltz to!) I hope to be doing more of this in the future. Whenever I get the urge, I'll play the vinyl and CDs instead of the computer. Although I prefer physical product, I have been getting into downloading in the past year or so. I guess this is the way things are going - and if you can't beat 'em, I guess you have to join them! |
Posted By: crapfromthepast
Date Posted: 28 February 2021 at 10:18pm
|
When I'm in my home office, I have all my digitized files on an external hard drive that's always on. I can use the search functions in Winamp to call up whatever songs I want to hear. Yes, Winamp, the greatest media player that's ever driven on the information superhighway. (VLC and foobar2000 are both fantastic, but I still resort back to Winamp to handle the gigantic library - about 200,000 tracks in the local library at any given time.) I run the audio through a USB sound card to an old Optimus SA-155 amp, to a set of giant Advent speakers from the early '80s. For A/B comparison stuff, I plug my Sony V6 headphones into the amp.
In our main living room, where our son plays in evenings and weekends, we run audio through a Kindle Fire tablet (1/8-inch audio jack output), through another Optimus SA-155 amp to slightly smaller Advent speakers. The Kindle is really amazing for audio. You can manage the files through a USB port, as if the Fire were an external hard drive. No iTunes for me. And it boots up in seconds. On the Kindle, we listen to Gene's station and a few others through the TuneIn app, NPR talk shows through a Minnesota Public Radio app, and old American Top 40 shows through iHeartMedia's app and appropriately-named Classic American Top 40 channel. VLC is my media player of choice on the Kindle. We have a little directory of songs that my son likes on the Kindle, saved in 320 kbps mp3s, with meticulous tags. Elsewhere in the house, I listen to radio through my iPhone with the same apps as on the Kindle. I hate iTunes with all my heart, so I don't have a lot of audio content saved locally on the iPhone. In the car, we do listen to actual radio for short drives around town. Since I play DJ seemingly all the time, when I'm not on the air myself, I like to hear what other people play. For longer drives, I load up a USB drive with mp3s, and the car sound system can play them. I do like that feature a lot. I haven't played a CD in a CD player in years, probably a decade. For new acquisitions, I'll rip it losslessly to the hard drive and add the tags, then play it through Winamp. Yay, Winamp! Then I'll list the CD for sale on Discogs. (I'm only half-joking about that; I'm in severe downsizing mode. I want to own less stuff as I get older.) I haven't even set up my Technics 1200 turntable since I moved into my current house in 2012. When I DJ live or on-the-air, I run my music off a laptop (a lite version of Virtual DJ), with a USB soundcard and a little DJ2GO controller to start/stop and find cue points. Music is saved as 320 kbps mp3 files, with meticulous tags. My station automatically archives its shows at 256 kbps, so there's no point in going lossless for the music. I have my IDs/sweepers on CD-R discs, and I run those from a CD player in the studio. I never use the CD player for music, just the IDs. I also have a third set of Advents hooked up to the TV as left/right (also with another Optimus SA-155 amp), and a fourth set of Advents that are just waiting for something to do. All four sets of Advents are different sizes. I have some astounding '90s-era DJ-quality amp (LinearTech) and speakers (Ramsa), but I don't get to use those very often. They're BIG, and too big to be part of a permanent setup in the house. ------------- There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one http://www.crapfromthepast.com" rel="nofollow - Crap From The Past . |
Posted By: Jody Thornton
Date Posted: 01 March 2021 at 7:11am
|
So for physical format, or (1)
While my collection is mostly vinyl originated, I play most of it from files on a second PC devoted to being a music playback source. I transmit the sound card over an FM transmitter, and tune in my radio(s) to 87.7 MHz. I also mix it in with podcasts and such. It's nice to listen to a "radio" on the balcony on a day off. And for creative listening, or (2) I create separate rotations by decade, and then mix those rotations on radio automation software. Sometimes, I'll sneak in a vintage jingle to give a "radio" feel. I even use mild multi-band processing to give a fuller FM sound. I don't play music on a phone at all, and while I have older MP3 players, they've fallen into disuse. Sometimes I rotate mostly 70s and 80s, but usually it's the entire library mixed together. ------------- Cheers, Jody Thornton (Richmond Hill, Ontario) |
Posted By: Jody Thornton
Date Posted: 01 March 2021 at 7:14am
Laugh? That sounds really cool. It's a great way to enjoy each other. I tip my hat to both of you. ------------- Cheers, Jody Thornton (Richmond Hill, Ontario) |
torcan wrote:Posted By: LunarLaugh
Date Posted: 01 March 2021 at 10:55am
|
At home, I have a very extensive collection of vinyl (LP
and 45 rpm), CDs and cassettes which I have amassed over the past 2 decades or so. I tend to listen to CDs more at home or on the go. However, I've ripped a lot of my CDs to high bit rate mp3 and put them on a micro SD card which I've inserted into my smart phone. This allows me to have all my favorite songs from my music collection in my pocket at all times when I'm not at home and I don't have to rely on wifi or streaming platforms to listen to them. In my years of collecting as well as being a professional musician myself, I have a big passion for creating homemade compilations. I started with cassettes and progressed through MiniDisc and eventually CD-R. For me, the cassettes are the most satisfying because it really took some creativity and careful planning to sequence the tracks and patience was required to get each song on to tape. Coupled with the nostalgia of getting a fresh brick of tapes to record upon and writing on those tiny labels and j-cards, each homemade tape is like a little time machine. Of course, I had a lot of fun with the other formats as well. I have "remastered" a lot of my favorite music that I felt wasn't properly presented in the digital format onto CD-R. I made a lot of great comps for friends using this method, complete with artwork. Someday, I'd really like to buckle down and start up a little radio station from home. Since the market I'm in no longer has an actual oldies format, I'd probably program it with the kind of oldies music I grew up listening to... it's strange to think you can now turn on the radio and go hours, and sometime an entire day, without hearing The Beatles. Sad, really. ------------- https://thelunarlaugh.bandcamp.com/ - Listen to The Lunar Laugh! |
Posted By: ChicagoBill
Date Posted: 01 March 2021 at 11:03am
|
About 20 years ago, I filled up one of those Case Logic CD holders with about a hundred CD-R's of my 2000 favorite songs which I take on trips
of over an hour or so. At home, I am so involved in my 'Project' (restoration and digitization of vinyl recordings that will NEVER see the light of day on CD), that I don't casually listen to music. Observation: I was just at a car dealer, and was shocked to see that manufacturers don't normally install CD players in the new cars anymore. Sad. I've had external Hard Drives crash and burn to the point that I only burn music to CD-R's. I don't listen to Spotify or Sirius because the playlists are not imaginative enough for me. I know, I sound like an old guy who lives in the past...Wait! I am! -Bill. |
Posted By: Kevin711
Date Posted: 01 March 2021 at 11:14am
|
I'm another person who still uses Winamp. It's easy to
use and supports plugins that I've been using for a long time. Most of my listening is done using my laptop computer. I also have a pair of MP3 players for when I'm on the go. The music on those is arranged in playlists covering various years. I also have a SONY stereo from the early 1970s that's in good condition. I use that for listening to a local oldies radio station. I, too, digitize vinyl records. Some of those old 45s are in bad shape, but I have a program that cleans them up fairly well. Some of my needle drops are really good, ones that are done using records that are in very good or mint condition. |
Posted By: jono
Date Posted: 01 March 2021 at 6:29pm
|
It’s nice to have music in any room nowadays you can play at the touch
of a button. I have a stereo in my basement “cave” that I play cd’s on from time to time, but I primarily listen to MP3’s off my iPad (plugged into a portable speaker) because I can take it from room to room or bring it in the car on longer trips. I have about 25,000 songs from my cd and vinyl collection that I’ve loaded over the years and I usually just hit “shuffle” and see where it takes me. Just like 1970’s radio. I have a few Playlists I created for fun, but I find I don’t really use them because I think I enjoy it more when a random song I haven’t heard for awhile comes on. On shorter trips in the car, I may just listen to the radio. Or, more frequently, since I have my phone with me most of the time, I have my favorite 1500-2000 songs on there that I plug into the car for driving around town. I only listen to Spotify if there’s a band or album I want to check out. There are a couple of Podcasts I enjoy, and I’ll listen to those while doing chores. Jon O. |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 02 March 2021 at 11:26am
|
Listen in my home office with various hard drives attached
to my office laptop. I use VLC Media Player. For my business, I have a Promo Only subscription where I pay for their POOL. I have several hard drives. Active library on one, Promo Only/PrimeCuts on another and a 3rd drive for archived music. In my vehicles, SiriusXM. And, if I wonder what Sirius is playing, I check their playlists at xmplaylist.com. ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |
Posted By: davidclark
Date Posted: 03 March 2021 at 5:42pm
|
Ahhhh! A question many of us love answering!
Briefly, my collecting hobby began with my fist 45 in 1968 at 7 years old: Leapy Lee - Little Arrows. 45s, "Hits" LPs and K-tel LPs was what I could afford until finishing university in 1984. Working in IT, I soon was able to afford more LPs, 45s and on 1987-06-19 bought my first CD! I made my own cassette compilations for years, had a DAT deck for a while, then in the late 90s, I moved to CD-R, finally moving to mp3 in the early 2000s, listening on a portable CD player, then moving to MP3 players, then iPods. Since I moved to Thailand in 2010, I essentially have abandoned physical media. I'd amassed quite the 45/LP/CD collection while in Canada - the LPs sold as a lot a few years ago, the 45s I left with a friend, and the CDs are in boxes at the same friend's home. Summer 2019 in Canada I began to sell the CDs, and parted with about 30% of them. Before moving here, I managed to rip to VBR mp3 as much of my collection as I could - first focussing on the biggest hits, then moving down the charts. I also love other types of music, e.g., movie soundtracks, Classical, etc., so I ripped these as well. Space was an issue on my laptop back then. After moving here, I realized I didn't even come close to having enough of my music with me, so I've been adding to the library ever since. I now make Apple m4a files, and whatever WAVs I get, I keep them on hard drives and all music is backed up in the "cloud". I use iTunes exclusively for managing my library. Since I bought my first K- tel LP back in 1969 (I was 8 years old at the time), I've been a fan of playlists. I've created 100s - certainly over 1000 - ranging from genres to chart-based (I have playlists of Pop Annual and Billboard Year-end charts, #1s, etc.). I even made playlists of all my K-tel LPs (using better sources, of course...)! It's amazing that to this day, when I hear a certain song, my mind is ready for the next song from that K-tel LP! Also, "My 45s in MP3", inspired by, you guessed it, those Mercury "45s on CD" CDs from the late 80s. I normally listen to these playlists on my iPhone, and do so at the gym (club remixes for the aerobic machine!). At home (in my small studio apartment by the sea) I'll listen on the MacBook or the iPad. Always with headphones - my high-end audio system I left with a friend back in 2010. I cannot listen to streaming services, Youtube (although I use this as a reference, especially when an original 45 is featured), and the like as I can't handle it when they make "errors" lol, e.g., cheesy remakes, poor quality, etc. I know from belonging to this group that I can get the best quality available for my music. As an aside, I also have managed to include artwork for my files. And I don't mean just whatever I can find, but the "original" issue of a song. I mean, say for 45s, I use a (cleaned up) 45 or picture sleeve, for LP/CD tracks, the LP sleeve/CD insert. I try to use the first time a song was issued on a media in its particular "version", i.e., a first time stereo issue of an always mono song would get the original LP or CD it was issued on. So for example, The Beatles - This Boy gets the 1976 Capitol (Canada) 72144 45, not Past Masters. It's fun - and a challenge - to try to determine when a song was first issued in stereo, or in a particular version! ------------- dc1 |
Posted By: davidlg1971
Date Posted: 09 March 2021 at 6:02pm
|
Similar story to others: Approx. 15 years ago my prior spouse and I had about 5000 CDs. We'd regularly visit Amoeba Records in San Francisco and buy 20-30 CDs, compilations, CD-Singles, etc. These I'd transfer to MP3s for our iPods. I also created custom edits, and mixes. As a rule I tag the music according to its original release - year, LP, track # and artwork. So very quickly I realized I had to get organized.
These days I'm at the stage where I track down compilations for unique mixes / versions. So my strategy from about 2010-onward has been to have a 'Master' drive and a 'Listening' drive. The Master is split into sections: FLAC - original rips + custom edits MP3 - by decade or genre for artists with less than 4 tracks MP3 - by artist where I have 4+ tracks Album Artwork folders within the MP3 folders - containing different sizes - 300 DPI, 600 (default), 1000, 1500, and higher for future-proofing. For some artists, this is a lot of work - separate folders for singles, compilations, bootlegs, live recordings, etc.[Over the past 6+ years I've been slowly learning Photoshop to enable restoration of scans and downloaded images to make them look presentable.] If I buy a compilation - as I just did with Elton John's 1990 Very Best 2-CD set, the Master drive gets FLACs and MP3s. After ripping FLAC I rip WAV files, and use Sound Forge to edit them - removing silence, creating custom edits / single recreations, etc. I rarely EQ, but sometimes needs must. In this Elton example, the whole comp sounded great - no adjustments. Then I generate VBR MP3s, using the MP3 'Comment' field to denote where they were sourced from. I A/B the new MP3s against the existing version(s) on my Listening drive. If the individual tracks sound better, or are in some way unique - I create copies of them to the Listening drive and update the artwork and tags to reflect when it was originally released. For Elton, of the 30 MP3s archived on the Master drive, 8 were also copied to the Listening Drive, 3 of which replaced existing rips. I have an 80GB iPod Classic hooked up to my sound system in the car. It's old and needs the battery replaced. I also have a 32GB flash drive, so I often create another copy for that, and update the artwork to the 300-dpi version because otherwise my dashboard screen won't display it. (First world problems, I know.) It's always full, so I regularly have to figure out something to pull off to make room, temporarily relocating the displaced folders to the Master drive. All this is a lot of work, but it's mostly maintenance at this point. Someday I'll go FLAC-only, but that's probably a decade or so away at this point. I got remarried two years ago to a wonderful woman (like me, a former musician), and she is adamant I archive both drives regularly, given all the work that went into building it. More work:) |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 09 March 2021 at 9:20pm
Reading your story I wondered during the divorce who got all the CD's you or her? Also these days a 256GB Ipod Touch (2019) is a great solution compared to the 80GB Ipod (hell even a 160GB Ipod is better!) Also storage is cheaper than ever. They make 256GB USB's as well I used them all the time. Plus the USB drives are up to 5TB. Just a few suggestions! ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: eric_a
Date Posted: 10 March 2021 at 2:30am
|
Like many of us, I've digitized my CD library -- 3 TB and
counting -- onto external hard drives at home. I have a full backup here but until recently hadn't made offsite backups, so everything could have been lost in an earthquake/fire/robbery. Cloud storage in the terabytes had always seemed cost- prohibitive but this winter I spotted a great deal with iDrive: 5 TB for only $70/yr, and only $7 for the first year, so I took the plunge! The initial sync over the public internet has been slow -- after a couple weeks uploading 24/7, I still have a couple months left, but it feels like inexpensive insurance. |
Posted By: davidlg1971
Date Posted: 12 March 2021 at 11:30am
Thank you for the ideas! I'm thinking either a 6TB or 8TB external drive as a failsafe back-up. As for who got what, it was pretty easy - we kept our discs in separate places anyway. My physical percentage of the overall number was always small - like 15%, because I routinely traded in what I didn't see a need to keep. And I have FLAC back-ups of everything I thought was worthwhile. Since then my CD total has been rising steadily. I'm trying to cool it off now, though. |