Howdy, I have near 1000 music CD's. In the past with my older Lenovo PC that bought the farm a couple years ago, I would use the built in CD R/W to copy an entire CD and then pull single songs from many CD's I had downloaded. In essence making a mixtape. Pretty slow process with a magneto hard drive. I now have a MAC desktop and still have an old HP laptop. I want to be able to quickly transfer whole CD's onto the computers SSD/HD and burn with no data loss onto a CD, individual songs from a playlist I will populate. I am thinking of buying a stand alone, possibly all in one, PC to do this task. Pretty much dedicated mostly for this task. I really detest the MAC but it is probably because I have used windows/MS since the turn of the century and am more comfortable with it. Intuitive if you will. I like the Lenovo brand and Intel processors but am not stuck on them. No Apple stuff. Wife/daughter can use the MAC. I don't need any advanced graphics as I don't game. I realize i will probably have to buy an external reader/burner. What is the best setup to accomplish this goal for less than a grand? I will also probably integrate Amazon music eventually to fill in some tunes I am missing from my catalog. I will also want to eventually transfer songs to my smartphone for blue tooth in my vehicle. I don't presently use this tech but my daughter pummels me with her tunes every time she is a passenger. Just looking for some education on this. Thanks.
Best option for CD transferring and burning....
- Thread starter sloinker
- Start date
Why not use your old HP laptop? If it doesn't have an optical drive, get one that plugs in via USB. Plenty of free apps can rip the CD to whatever format you want: FLAC (lossless), MP3, or whatever. Then you can store them on a hard disk, each CD in its own folder. And you can copy the files to phones or tablets to play them without needing a network for streaming.
No need to buy a new computer.
No need to buy a new computer.
The slow point will be the read/ write speeds of your optical drive, and it's regarded as having higher sound fidelity (arguably 
) if you run a sane speed like 16x read/ 8x write.
As others said, you don't need to buy hardware for this, some freeware will do you fine. Get the plugin for CDDB/ Gracenote and your files will get automatically named.
) if you run a sane speed like 16x read/ 8x write.As others said, you don't need to buy hardware for this, some freeware will do you fine. Get the plugin for CDDB/ Gracenote and your files will get automatically named.
The laptop is a windows 7 and I can't remember the last time I used it. Sloooow. I have used it to copy and burn in the past. Sloooow. I have the Ross-Tech VagCom on it but utilize a couple bi-directional scanners for 99% of my VW stuff. Just as soon spend some money and use less time. I guess i need to find the best quality optical drive with the best speed for FLAC transfers. Any suggestion?
I bought my first CD player in 1982 and divested myself of my LP's as fast as I could replace them . I gave away my expensive turntable, MC cartridge and all the cleaning/anti-static stuff to my brother. Worth a few grand on todays audiophile market. I don't miss the inherent noise , warmth, that Vinyl media creates and what many users want. I like the sterility of the actual recording. Some people point out that vinyl has a higher dynamic range than CD's but once you subtract the rumble that advantage disappears.
I used a dvd burner once in the last 7 years and it was to burn a recovery cd for an old computer that didnt like my usb drive.
you can get a 30$ usb dvd-burner if needed.
Edit: they are now less than $20
The slow point will be the read/ write speeds of your optical drive, and it's regarded as having higher sound fidelity (arguably
As others said, you don't need to buy hardware for this, some freeware will do you fine. Get the plugin for CDDB/ Gracenote and your files will get automatically named.
Not sound fidelity, but the chances of other devices being able to read the disc are better at the slower recording speeds
Usually the limiting factor for CD rip rate is the optical drive, not the computer. Even a slow computer should give you decent rates with a fast optical drive. I burn CDs and DVDs at the max rate the drive supports, typically 48x for CDs and 16x for DVDs. Never had any problem with any normal CD player playing them, whether cars, clock radios, or whatever.
Some CDs can only be read at slow speeds like 1x or 2x and it's not the drive/reader's fault.
FLAC is lossless compression, about 1/2 the size of uncompressed WAV files with bit perfect playback. MP3 is lossy compressed, making smaller files 1/10 to 1/4 the size and varying sound quality depending on the bit rate.
1) buy the fastest reader you can hooked up to proper usb c or usb 3.0 blue port, don’t skimp on speed as 1000 disc is a lot. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...ng--Wt3a8UKea_ESZZulTSNzaK0H7UxRoCckIQAvD_BwE
2) purchase an external hard drive to backup your hard work. Don’t depend on laptop/desktop
3) find good music software you like working with to mix it up and organize collections . No idea what works for you.
I wish I could help you more but I just pay Spotify instead of moving a 500 cd collection as I could not afford the time in my work /life balance.
2) purchase an external hard drive to backup your hard work. Don’t depend on laptop/desktop
3) find good music software you like working with to mix it up and organize collections . No idea what works for you.
I wish I could help you more but I just pay Spotify instead of moving a 500 cd collection as I could not afford the time in my work /life balance.
I burn music to CD, videos and data to M-Disc and MABL BR DVDs. My PC has an inbuilt DVD/CD RW and I have an external BR RE for BR media.
With USB sticks available far beyond the capacity of a CD or DVD, it is unnecessary for most people. What people really want is thinner and lighter, and removing the optical drive is one thing that helps get them there. People also want cheaper, which is another thing the removal of the optical drive helps with.
Not to mention, most people under 20 have probably never even seen a CD, maybe not even a DVD. Optical technology is pretty much dead at this point with the increase in Internet speeds, everything is streamed.
Buy a USB optical drive if you need one.
You’re barking the wrong tree here. Burning CD speed is all dependent on the burner itself. But even the fastest ones are still slower than an HDD.
Also, the faster the write speed, the lower the quality of the CD and many devices may have trouble reading them. But the cen at the fastest speeds it will still be pretty slow by today’s standards.
What is the purpose though? To use the CDs in your car or you home audio system?
Also, the faster the write speed, the lower the quality of the CD and many devices may have trouble reading them. But the cen at the fastest speeds it will still be pretty slow by today’s standards.
What is the purpose though? To use the CDs in your car or you home audio system?
I burn and share CD's with a few folks that still marvel at their Jitterbug flip-phone. If I sent them a USB or SD they would not fathom its use. I am also wondering the easiest way to transfer my existing cd's to my smartphone and that complete process. From copying to transferring as I have never done it. I prefer to utilize a method that gives the best fidelity as I have heard many atrocious MP3's over the years. I still utilize CD's in my vehicles and my garage and my home. As vinyl has made a comeback, CD's are just now making a comeback.
I like hard copies of my music. I’ve had Amazon music disappear due to licensing rights and I’ve got dozens of old unusable Apple Music files locked to an exgf’s account. I ripped 70GB or so of my CD collection to an external drive years ago. That’s been copied to a thumb drive once or twice. I use that as my iTunes library and I keep about a thousand songs on my iPhone. I’ve burned mix CDs off of this in the past but not lately. This collection is now a hodgepodge mix of music file types that iTunes will convert willy-nilly if you’re not careful. Honestly I’ve given up trying to keep an organized library of the best quality music files but I learned my lesson to keep the original CDs.
Interesting fact, I used to make CD masters in the old days when it required a specially modified 3/4” BVU and a Sony 1610 AD converter. Better watch your PQs!
Interesting fact, I used to make CD masters in the old days when it required a specially modified 3/4” BVU and a Sony 1610 AD converter. Better watch your PQs!
I still have an old external Western digital 1 terabyte hard drive from 07 Iraq deployment, that has a massive collection of MP3. There was something called the "Traveling Terabyte" that was available for soldiers to download for free, litterally tens of thousands of songs from every genre. rock rap, country, jazz. I have not used it for years I normally just use Spotify Free or Pandara free version and stream music. I like classic country , blues and smooth jazz music mainly. Wife took all of our CDs and DVDs to a thrift shop probably a decade ago. We got a new HP laptop and a PC Tower and they no longer come with a CD/DVD player. If one really wants a CD player on a modern computer you pretty much have have to buy an external CD drive. Because of so many streaming sites, ery few new PCs are going to have a CD/DVD anymore. I have seen external CD drives for about $25 in stores.
