I have been using Windows Media Player (groans) for a while now. Version 10 on an XP Pro PC. I have ripped a couple hundred CDs into MP3s at 320 k (rather than WMA) so that I could use them with other software (I am playing with Direttore and the Sound Solution DSP for WinAmp). Eventually I plan to rip a few hundred vinyl LPs and 78s. I have stayed away from the WMA format because of the royalty issue resulting in zero,nada third party software, particularly in the freeware/shareware arena. I would like to re-rip everything in the WAV format, given its higher fidelity (and disk space at $100 for a 250 GB external HD is not an issue).
I have been using Windows Media Player (groans) for a while now. Version 10 on an XP Pro PC. I have ripped a couple hundred CDs into MP3s at 320 k (rather than WMA) so that I could use them with other software (I am playing with Direttore and the Sound Solution DSP for WinAmp). Eventually I plan to rip a few hundred vinyl LPs and 78s. I have stayed away from the WMA format because of the royalty issue resulting in zero,nada third party software, particularly in the freeware/shareware arena. I would like to re-rip everything in the WAV format, given its higher fidelity (and disk space at $100 for a 250 GB external HD is not an issue).
However, back in my real radio days, we were "Album Oriented" and some old habits die hard. I like the "Album Oriented" presentation of Win Media Player that appears with each CD that I rip and its library. Also I like the data base features that come from its (free) automatic lookup of the AMG Database and all of ancillary info that I can later use on searches (like year of release, album artist, composer, contributing artist, etc.) And easy ability to edit and override the AMG info, which is wrong occaisionally. Media Player even displays the Album art, although if need be I could live without that one feature.
Right now I use Win Media Player to play music over my "private" (as opposed to community) FM station for listening around the house and yard. I also do mixes on audio CDs every so often for friends. However Win Media Player can't cut out the dead air between cuts very well or either application or provide good automatic gain normalization.
I would ultimately like to use the music library created by such a program for other programs like Direttore (mixtime.com) to work with, if I add community radio in the future.
I have looked at CDex, but it didn't appear to offer much in the database area or an easy internet database lookup. (I may be wrong though.)
So what I would like to keep from Win Media Player's great database features & automatically finding the relevant database info from the internet.
What I would like to improve on would be the ability to rip in WAV format, readlily convert to other formats like MP3s, and create playlists and CD mixes with decent audio processing like removing the gaps and normalizing gain levels.
Does such a program exist? If so, is it reasonably intuituve to use? While I would prefer freeware/shareware, up to $100 or so would be ok.
Any other advice on storing and organizing ripped music would be welcome.