[GaryE]

I am interested in moving the music on my 250+ CD collection onto a NAS drive so that I can play it
via a squeezebox feeding a DAC on my stereo. As busy as I tend to be, I know that if it is up to me
to rip the CDs one at a time, I'll never come close to getting it done.

Given this I have come up with the following scheme: I have access to a Sony 300 disc changer which
has an optical digital output. I  plan to get a sound card for my computer with an optical digital
input. I then will (presumably) connect the changer to the sound card, load the changer with my CDs,
press 'play' and have the computer record everything out to the NAS. If all goes well, I could (in
theory) just come back in about a week and it would all be done.

Regarding this scheme, I have the following questions:

1. What software would be best to handle the recording on the computer? Ideally I would like to
encode everything as FLAC, although the encoding could also be a second step.

2. Any recommendations regarding the sound card? Should I spend extra to get one that can record at
192kHz?

3. How can I tag the tracks after they've been recorded? Can Media Monkey do this?

4. Does anyone know any reason that this scheme won't work, or, won't produce audiophile quality
tracks on the NAS?

5. The logitech web site indicates that the squeezebox works even with your computer off. I am
assuming that this is where the NAS comes in, but I don't really know. What exactly do I need to be
able to play music from the squeezebox with my computer off?

Thanks in advance for your attention and help.

[low.pfile]

Welcome to AudioCircle.

Just to give you some feedback on your question to get things kicked off. Though I am not an expert in computer audio, I have all my music on my computer as well.

The transfer method you are proposing will work but is a very complicated method. It is essentially the same technique used for digitizing vinyl albums. Yes you can use a high sampling rate to get optimal sound. But...

With your scheme of disc changer, continuous multi-CD computer recording, you would get a single (large) file which would need to be divided into individual songs and then identified with title, artist and song and then group songs. That is quite a bit of time in front of the computer. The amount of time that approach would take would likely surpass the time it takes the conventional computer ripping method. Also, recording and dividing the songs would require a sound editing application (same as vinyl). I suspect that with continuous CDs, because of the massive file size, the recording app might have problems dealing with cache, unless it is a professional application.

Using the computer to "rip" (copy/transfer/tag) is really automatic. After initial set up of setting format and storage location, all tagging is automatic. All you need to do is feed the discs into your computer CD tray. I bet you could do a minimum of 5 per day without even trying. 5 to 7 minutes is average for my CD rips.

I think the fact that you want to use a NAS instead of a tethered hard drive is insignificant in the transfer process. That only comes into play during playback.

Maybe a copy service would be something to consider if time is an issue?

Cheers, ed

[BradJudy]

I'll second the above.  Trying to automatically (or manually) cut the sound stream into song length files is daunting.  The lack of automated tagging alone will defeat any time benefit from using the disc changer. 

Use something like EAC or DBPowerAmp to rip your CDs one at a time in your computer with the destination of the NAS.  Let the program handle the tagging for you.  Since you're just starting out, I'd recommend DBPowerAmp since it's a bit more user friendly and can also grab album art. 

Are you buying a NAS that supports SqueezeBox?  A standard, inexpensive NAS usually does not and then you would not be able to access your music with your computer turned off. 

[Wayne1]

5. The logitech web site indicates that the squeezebox works even with your computer off. I am
assuming that this is where the NAS comes in, but I don't really know. What exactly do I need to be
able to play music from the squeezebox with my computer off?

The only way the SqueezeBox will work with the computer off is if some other device is running SqueezeCenter. The SqueezeBox IS a slim device. It does not have enough memory or computational power to play music by itself. It is possible that certain NAS will have enough onboard CPU to run SqueezeCenter. I have read that it is rather slow.

The SqueezeBox WILL play internet radio without your computer being on. In that case it is hooked to Slim Devices servers through the internet. They are running SqueezeCenter which tells the SqueezeBox what to do.

I agree with Brad and low.pfile. It may take you a little bit of time, but 250 CDs is not that big a collection. You should have no trouble ripping them, yourself. If you can put aside 30 minutes to an hour a day, you can rip 4-10 CDs everyday. It could take up to two months to get it done, but then you can transfer the information to any format.

Please do make sure you have a back-up drive. There is nothing worse than going through all the time and then have a drive crash.

[Spidey9534]

I am interested in moving the music on my 250+ CD collection onto a NAS drive so that I can play it
via a squeezebox feeding a DAC on my stereo. As busy as I tend to be, I know that if it is up to me
to rip the CDs one at a time, I'll never come close to getting it done.

I did exactly this recently with about 400 CD's. Since you can rip while doing other things on the computer I got DB Poweramp setup and then stuffed CD's while I browsed or shopped online. It took awhile but now it's complete and when i get new music adding it to the NAS is very easy.en

Given this I have come up with the following scheme: I have access to a Sony 300 disc changer which
has an optical digital output. I  plan to get a sound card for my computer with an optical digital
input. I then will (presumably) connect the changer to the sound card, load the changer with my CDs,
press 'play' and have the computer record everything out to the NAS. If all goes well, I could (in
theory) just come back in about a week and it would all be done.

See my experience above. IMHO this method sounds more complicated and fraught with possibilities for failure of large portions of the ripping process. Dirty CD's, unexpected windows updates, etc. You might try a ripping service as others have suggested if time is more valuable to you then the cost.

Regarding this scheme, I have the following questions:

1. What software would be best to handle the recording on the computer? Ideally I would like to
encode everything as FLAC, although the encoding could also be a second step.

I followed others suggestion to use DB Poweramp and I'm very satisfied with the results.

2. Any recommendations regarding the sound card? Should I spend extra to get one that can record at
192kHz?
If you do a rip then you don't need a sound card, it will only be bits pulled off the CD's.

3. How can I tag the tracks after they've been recorded? Can Media Monkey do this?

DB Poweramp does this through some internet services, free for a time. I'm not sure about Media Monkey

4. Does anyone know any reason that this scheme won't work, or, won't produce audiophile quality
tracks on the NAS?
It just seems needlessly complicated (excluding the possible time commitment to me anyway.

5. The logitech web site indicates that the squeezebox works even with your computer off. I am
assuming that this is where the NAS comes in, but I don't really know. What exactly do I need to be
able to play music from the squeezebox with my computer off?

I have a Netversant/Logitech NAS it runs it's own little operating system for managing the NAS and Squeeze Center can be run as a 'service' on it that you choose to enable from a very easy menuing system. So the NAS can talk (stream) directly to your Squeezebox without another computer involved. This is exactly how mine is setup. I have the NAS sitting in the same rack as my other stereo components with the Squeezebox connected to it via my internet router and then the Squeezebox is feeding a Benchmark DAC and from there into my stereo. I do administration and ripping from my desktop computer in another room that can access the NAS over my wireless network; but when I play music through the Squeezebox my desktop computer can be shut off and it doesn't matter because it's not involved in the playback. I've done several patches to the NAS and the SqueezeCenter software and so far (knocks on wood) the NAS has been very friendly to work with. Your mileage may vary....lol.

Thanks in advance for your attention and help.

I hope this helps you with your decision process. I had a lot of the same questions and concerns when I got started into the NAS world and this site was a tremendous source of help to me.

[poseidonsvoice]

Gary,

Instead of the scheme you have illustrated I suggest you e-mail: jakeclieb@bellsouth.net. Jake is a great fella and is the author of the Carolina audiophile newsletter. He has a pdf copy authored by Jim Saunders, titled "Ripping with EAC and REACT for the Non Computer Geek."

I am not a computer geek by any stretch of the imagination, however, this instructional manual has helped me tremendously and now with the touch of one button "F10", my CD's are ripped, tagged and saved automatically to my hard drive.

Good luck!

Anand.

[agillis]

I would recommend using VortexBox. VortexBox is a free open source linux distro you can download and load onto an old PC. It will turn the PC into a music server. VortexBox has SqueezeCenter installed and configured already. All you have to do is insert the CDs into the drive and VortexBox will rip them to FLAC and MP3, tag them, and load them onto the hard disk in your old PC.

You can access your music using your SqueezeBox or so other music player application.