[jax]

i think this may have come up before, but why not.
just wondering what y'all import your music as and the rational behind it?
i'm set at 160kbps AAC encoding. initially, i chose this because i wanted to keep the quality of the songs i imported from CD close to what the iTunes store uses so there wasn't a big disparity when playing the songs from the different sources.
i've got a little under 3000 songs in my collection, about 660 from the itunes store.
i'm thinking about ripping my entire collection (not sure what format, probably the same) and storing all the hard copies, but i'd have to put on an external due to it's size.
anyone else?
cheers
-jack

[tybowen]

I import my music with AAC because its the highest I can get. I've had enough trouble with crappy imported music using other software and want to keep mine as crisp as possible. The only real reason to not use AAC is if you don't use an iPod (but another mp3 player instead) but you use iTunes for some reason.

[jpp_zoso]

18866 songs, 1490 albums all ripped at 128kpbs mp3 from original cds. 99% ripped prior to being a mac owner or itunes user. at the time i started the mp3 collection, 128kbps was considered the "standard" for cd quality sound...and as time progressed, i just never increased the bit rate simply to keep the collection at the same quality level. seems like the new "standard" is 160-192k, depending on the source.
i don't use the mp3s as "replacements" for the original cds, nor do i own an ipod or any other portable music player, all are stored (and backed up) on external drives.
when i created the collection, my only goal was to get a reasonable replica of the original cd for audio trivia questions given each year in a trivia contest i participate in...so i was aiming for reasonable sound quality and low file size. i doubt i'll ever get an ipod or any other digital music player, but i'm am seriously considering re-ripping my entire cd collection again for other reasons...in the process of experimenting w/ different lossy file formats (aac, ogg vorbis, mp3) and different bit rates (64-256kpbs) to see if i can really tell the difference and what the space tradeoffs would be should i be able to distunguish lower bit rates vs. higher bit rates.
so i would suggest trying a few different bit rates and file formats and listening for yourself on your typical equipment...whatever the variants and ranges may include. i've read through all sorts of recommendations from self-proclaimed audiophiles...and the only ones that ever made any sense to me were...try it for myself on my equipment.

[Rcovell]

I recently completed ripping all of my 'owned' CD's to my HD. I used AAC to preserve quality. Since I was able to select my favorite tunes, I didn't rip the entire CD, just my favs. Now, I can create (and have) compilation CD's based on my criteria, eg. instrumentals, story songs, love songs, etc. These play on all regular CD players.
Since my truck has MP3 capability, I did convert some of my songs to MP3 format and burned a CD for the truck. Got lots more music on it compared to regular CD's and in the truck, I can't tell any difference in song quality. But, I'm limited due to the lack of other MP3 players in the house. No iPod in my future. Bob.

[mdawson]

Right now I have a little over 2500 songs ripped from my CD collection on my computer at work at the iTunes standard 128 Kbps AAC. I would never use the archaic MP3 format which is based on the MPEG-1 protocol; AAC is based on MPEG-4. My iPod is currently synced to the computer at work as I have a PowerMac G4 Cube running Mac OS 9 at home which I cannot run iTunes on.
Once I get a new Mac, hopefully in the next few months, I plan to digitize my entire (physical) music collection which currently consists of just over 2000 CDs and records which comes to about 16,500+ songs according to my MusiCatalog database. (Its a shame that this excellent music cataloging tool has not been made OS X-native or upgraded in the past six years; its simple to use but very comprehensive in terms of the information it stores.) When I rip my collection at home I plan to do so at a bit rate of at least 256 Kbps AAC. Based on what I ripped from my CDs onto my work computer I figure that I would be ripping about 7500 songs which would fit comfortably within 60GB, and thus also fit on my iPod, and still provide me with decent playback quality through my audio system. I am an audiophile so quality matters.
I also find it best to have a physical collection of all of my music. While I have been fortunate enough to not have a hard drive crash on me as of yet knock on wood the fact of the matter is that it does happen. If all else fails, barring a disaster involving my home, I still have my tangible music collection that can be ripped again. I am glad that iTMS is successful, but until an option to buy full resolution music is offered most audiophiles will avoid the music download route.

[jpp_zoso]

In reply to:

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...according to my MusiCatalog database. (Its a shame that this excellent music cataloging tool has not been made OS X-native or upgraded in the past six years; its simple to use but very comprehensive in terms of the information it stores.)

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mdawson...if you haven't come across the MyMusic Personal Librarian Version 3.1 application yet, thought you might find it interesting. pricier than the app you are using, but looks similar in scope.

[mdawson]

I actually had not yet started researching replacements for MusiCatalog as I do not yet have a new Mac, plus I could run MusiCatalog in Classic in the interim. Thanks for the link, though. For what it should do, laying down $50.00 is not bad.
Realistically, it would be nice if this type of functionality were built into music managers like iTunes. iTunes cataloging functionality is rather rudimentary and clearly geared toward the MP3 downloading crowd. I find that rather ironic considering that iTunes hit the scene when the idea was to rip legitimate copies of music from ones CD collection onto their computer. Of course not everyone would need this type of functionality in iTunes which is where the QuickTime model would come in: the standard iTunes would remain the free basic digital music manager/jukebox and a reasonably priced iTunes Pro which includes extensive cataloging features for genuine music collectors.