One of my daily routines is listening to The Adam Carolla Show podcast while reading and responding to email each morning. Last Friday Adam interviewed well known recording engineer of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and artist Alan Parsons. Alan discussed his work for EMI during The Beatles recording sessions at Abbey Road and his disdain for the original release of Let It Be. The whole podcast is pretty interesting but the gem mentioned by Alan Parsons is his new video series called The Art & Science Of Sound Recording. At first blush this may appear irrelevant to audiophiles but upon further investigation most Computer Audiophile readers will find many nuggets of information that enhance the listening experience. From Edison to iPod to file formats, sample rates, and training oneself to how to listen. This video series has value for those in the music industry and those of us who consume the products of the industry. After the introduction a twenty-six minute Digital Audio & Computers video is recommended. Alan and very respected engineers discuss using the best Analog to Digital (ADC) and Digital to Analog Converters (DAC) when the budget allows and how acute Sheryl Crow's hearing is while recording.
June 7, 2009 I published an article about ripping audio from Blu-ray discs. That was the last time I ripped audio from a Blu-ray. The whole process is nothing like ripping a CD and is not worth the effort for the most part. Even with new software programs that make it a bit easier to rip these discs, for the average Joe ripping Blu-ray audio is a disaster. Fortunately there is a technology that solves this whole Blu-ray ripping issue. It's called mShuttle and it puts an end to ripping Blu-ray audio discs. I saw mShuttle in action at the AES convention last year, but had not actuated used this technology until very recently. Now that I have personal experience with mShuttle I can honestly say that every Blu-ray audio disc should include mShuttle technology.
At most computer audio seminars I conduct Windows users ask about wireless audio. Mac users usually sit back with a comfortable grin when such questions are asked. Wireless audio using iTunes and an Airport Express is old-hat to Mac users. Windows users are typically familiar with wireless products from Logitech and Sonos, but they are looking for something integrated within their playback application and not tied to iTunes. In other words a $100 Airport Express for programs other than iTunes. Fortunately Windows users are in luck. Even more luck than Mac users. Using J river Media Center 15, an Apple Airport Express, and Illustrate's Air UPnP Windows users can send wireless audio around the house with no additional configuration necessary. J river Media Center is also capable of sending different songs to several different Airport Express units simultaneously. iTunes currently supports broadcasting only one song to all local and wireless devices. As a bonus J River Media Center, in combination with PlugPlayer running on an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad, can send audio via wireless straight to the Touch, Phone, or Pad. This works great for users with an iPod dock connected to their HiFi system. Simply connect the iPod to the dock, set J River on Random, and let the music fly while house guests wonder how much storage Apple has managed to cram into a device so small.
The current selection of high resolution downloads is growing weekly, but is still inadequate for most music aficionados. The most frequently voiced displeasure relates to the lack of "popular" music available at resolutions equal to or greater than rebook CD (16 bit / 44.1 kHz). Most audiophiles don't realize a great source of "popular" high resolution material is already sitting on their shelves, and can still be purchased new/used and be ripped to their music server. Although seasoned computer audiophiles have been ripping DVDs for years most audiophiles making the move to a computer based system have no idea these discs can be ripped and certainly have no idea how it's done. That's 100% normal and not a slight on newbies here on Computer Audiophile. Nobody is born with this knowledge. Readers must learn at some point how to rip this great music to their music servers. What follows is a step by step guide to ripping DVD-Audio discs, ripping the audio from DVD-Video concerts, and ripping HDAD discs.
Computer audiophiles using Windows 7 based music servers have a plethora of configuration and application choices for music management and playback. A quick look at Wikipedia's list of applications, Windows, OS X and otherwise, can overwhelm anyone. Over the years I've tried more operating systems and applications than I can remember. Many of these have show stopping flaws that rule them out as contenders immediately. Applications that can't play certain file formats or all required sample rates don't receive much attention from me. That was the case over one year ago with J river Media Center 13. I tried to play some of the Reference Recordings HRx 24/176.4 material and had nothing but problems. No doubt the problems could have been worked out, but with so many options available elsewhere I didn't see any reason to spend time with the application. Since this initial underwhelming experience J River has released Media Center version 14. In addition many colleagues in the industry have encouraged me to give it another serious look. One colleague even backed up his suggestion with measurements showing JRMC's playback bit transparency. I started to see the light at CES this year and realized it was finally time take another look at J River Media Center as well as time to get serious about Windows 7.
At first blush ripping a Compact Disc with a computer seems like such a simple task. So simple that it can nonchalantly be done by someone from eight to eighty years old. Putting a CD into a Macintosh computer automatically launches iTunes. By default iTunes can automatically start ripping the CD to the hard drive and eject the disc when it's finished. Listeners seeking the ultimate in convenience and immediate results should select this method of ripping. Note the two words "in" and "convenience" next to each other in the previous sentence. That choice of words was not by accident. Using the aforementioned ripping method will lead to major inconvenience, lost music, and hours of precious time wasted. Ripping CDs, like everything in life, involves many choices and well thought out decisions if one wants to do it right the first time. There are simple ways, there are hard ways, and there are many ways in between the two extremes to rip a CD collection. What follows is the Computer Audiophile CD Ripping Strategy and Methodology. This manual details the Computer Audiophile strategy and method of ripping a CD collection and explains why this method is recommended.
Categories
