Computer for music storage?

[greenmachine]

see poll

[Rumz]

see poll

I know this doesn't jibe with Atrac or MD, but I have a Mac Mini w/ external 320gb hard drive that is currently dedicated purely to storing digital videos and digital audio. So far I've ripped about 130 film scores or other classical-type cds to the unit in Apple Lossless for playback as well as streaming over the home network using an Airport Express and perhaps eventually for loading onto an iPod (this type of music I demand a little higher quality with-- anything else that's more pop / rock I'm fine just storing in mp3 format). In any case, once I have everything I want ripped, I plan to take the library and convert it for use on portables-- which means either AAC or configuring LAME for iTunes and converting them to MP3s (more likely since I can use mp3 on pretty much everything player I have save my old MD players).

For me, MD may remain a custom compilation / single album auditioning format.

Edited June 23, 2006 by Rumz

[greenmachine]

I'm currently in the process of ripping my CDs to lame -v2 mp3 (not enough space to go lossless yet) and the collection (which is not only consisting of ripped CDs) is growing quite large. I wonder if i will ever have the time to listen to all this music. Nevertheless, it is gorgeous to be able to do this. Who would've thought of it 15 years ago?

[raintheory]

Been using a 500gb external firewire drive for music storage myself.

[KJ_Palmer]

Sonicstage does me fine for occasional music playback on the laptop, as well as for downloading to Hi-MD etc. Currently about 5000 tracks stored in ATRAC3+ @352k. I'm also using a couple of 80GB USB harddrives for storing the raw music files in wav format...

[Rumz]

I'm currently in the process of ripping my CDs to lame -v2 mp3 (not enough space to go lossless yet) and the collection (which is not only consisting of ripped CDs) is growing quite large. I wonder if i will ever have the time to listen to all this music. Nevertheless, it is gorgeous to be able to do this. Who would've thought of it 15 years ago?

What's the average bitrate of v2? I think that might be what I use. I don't remember because I haven't been using the newer version of Lame for too long. I find lame totally satisfying, though-- if it were gapless I'd never use anything else.

[greenmachine]

I'm currently using 3.97 beta2. "V2" is the same as "(alt)preset standard" in previous versions. Average bitrate is approx. 190kbps. The resulting quality fully satisfies my needs. "vbr new" speeds up the encoding process quite a bit without noticably sacrificing quality. I don't care much about gaplessness, so it is the ideal choice for me.

[danielbb90]

-frequently

-primarily lossily compressed (VBR MP3 - the default one with EAC I feels the best, with the latest alpha version of lame)

-500 - 2000 (Well just over 600) - not that big - just over 2GB

[Bananatree]

I need to get an external to get some of the weight off of my laptop. It's so small, but packed with so much stuff.

[greenmachine]

-frequently

-primarily lossily compressed (VBR MP3 - the default one with EAC I feels the best, with the latest alpha version of lame)

-500 - 2000 (Well just over 600) - not that big - just over 2GB

You know that alphas are experimental versions for testing purposes, often unstable and not recommended for general use, don't you?

[danielbb90]

You know that alphas are experimental versions for testing purposes, often unstable and not recommended for general use, don't you?

Yeh, I haven't had a problem with it yet!

[pata2001]

-I use PC for temporary storage and transfer, but I rarely use my PC for actua listening. I don't have a good PC speaker.

-Primarily Lame 3.97b2 --preset fast standard, Atrac HiSP+LP2, and currently experimenting with OGG -q 3.

Edited June 24, 2006 by pata2001

[The Low Volta]

I really work with two separate systems:

1) my PC = HP Pavillion laptop:

- gets little use these days, mostly used to upload recordings (SS) and to make discs for my HiMD (only through SB)

- no 'listening library' as I hardly ever use this computer for listening to music other than for editing purposes

- my own recordings library is in wav or flac and backed up on two HD's and DVD-R

2) my mac = 12"G4 powerbook:

- my 'main computer' right now, travels with me everywhere I go and is used on a daily basis at/for work as well

- quite large (in my opinion 3000+) music library in MP3 (lame 3.97b2 --alt-preset standard) and a little bit in aac (only music I 'borrow' from collegues) for daily listening at work (through lousy in-(flat)-screen speakers or with the PX100) and sometimes even for portable listening (on the train when the mac's being used anyway 'cause I'm working)

- with my RH1, the mac's been used more and more for uploading my own recordings as well and if/when the mac->HiMD software arrives (this summer?) I could see myself abandoning the PC almost completely (still, as only atrac delivers gapless playback and for a bunch of albums that is crucial IMHO it will always be there for creating discs with SB)

[danielbb90]

-frequently

-primarily lossily compressed (VBR MP3 - the default one with EAC I feels the best, with the latest alpha version of lame)

-500 - 2000 (Well just over 600) - not that big - just over 2GB

I thought I would update this...

Now I'm useing OGG q4 lol,

Since I formated my harddrive and I have to re-rip all my CD's I thourght for storage I would use ogg, a format I actually am comefortable with...

[The Rule]

I use my PC to listen to my Music about 70% of the time. The rest of the time, I have one of my CD's blasting in my Car.

A quick look at iTunes reveals that I have (a pretty pedestrian) 2,982 tracks.