CD ripping and some bonus learning
Thursday, October 18th, 2018 15:54![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zimenaI've started that huge CD ripping project I mentioned here a while ago. In the beginning, I ripped everything with iTunes, to Apple Lossless (ALAC, or actually M4A) format. However, I had some doubts about this method, because:
1) I don't actually like iTunes anymore. Some years ago, I used to like it much more, but nowadays it's getting less and less useable with each update. Not to mention, uglier with each update as well.
2) Using an Apple-specific format sounded like a bad plan, in case I decide to move to a different OS as my main one in the future. Right now I'm at the point where I continue to use macOS because it's what I have, and what I know best, but I'm not certain that my next computer - a few years into the future - will still be some kind of Mac.
Still, I went with the obvious choices at the start of this project, because I wanted to get started with the ripping, and I didn't feel like researching alternatives. However, after ripping a good few CD's, I started getting annoyed - with iTunes and with it being unable to rip CDs that I know are perfectly good in other contexts, with having ALAC files instead of FLAC, with my own nagging thought that I'm doing this to preserve my music collection for the future, so why not do it properly from the beginning... and so I started looking for alternative ways to do things.
... and I have them. I have a ripping setup I really like now.
First of all, I replaced iTunes with Clementine - which I already had once before, back when I was testing out Ubuntu a few years back. I liked it a lot then, and I still like what I'm seeing now - it's certainly a lot better than the current iTunes - but I still need to get used to it, and there are probably lots of cool features I haven't discovered yet.
It's apparently possible to use Clementine for ripping as well, but I found a much cooler alternative. There's a nice command line tool called abcde ("A better CD encoder"). When I first installed it, I didn't really know what I was doing or how it was supposed to work, but after some research it now works fine. It uses a configuration file to specify ripping options, like which format you want to rip to, which folder you want to save files to, which online database you want to use to fetch CD info, this sort of stuff, so once everything is set up nicely in that file, you just insert your CD and enter "abcde" on the command line.
...Well, except not.
I found that I needed to unmount the CD drive before ripping, and then mount it again after ripping is done, so I made a tiny bash script file which does that, and also ejects the disk when it's done ripping. So, I now have a folder with my own bash scripts (with just two files in so far - this one for the ripping, and one more which converts all files in a folder from ALAC to FLAC, as I needed to do that with the stuff I'd already ripped), registered in PATH so that I can use them from any folder. Learning more about what I can do with such scripts is definitely on my list of things to do, as these ones are just simple things - but they're simple things that I made for my needs, and I feel a little bit cool for that :)
Also, while I was researching abcde and stuff, I also found out that there is a nifty little thing called Midnight Commander - a file manager kinda like the old Norton Commander, so I installed that one as well. That proved to be a bigger challenge than I thought, because it somehow started up with menus and everything in Czech, with the odd Norwegian word thrown in here and there. Well, fixing that at least taught me to edit my .bash_profile. And, as a bonus cool side effect, I've also set up Midnight Commander - or mc - to always exit to the current folder I'm at.
Believe me, it's so much more convenient to browse the file system this way, instead of clicking in the Finder endlessly. Plus, MC shows hidden files and system folders, which is also a big plus while working in the terminal and trying to learn things there. In the old days of MS-DOS, I used to be a huge fan of a file browser/manager called LIST.COM, so for that reason I never really used the old Norton. However, MC feels strangely familiar in a computer-nostalgic way, even with the Norton-style dual-pane layout.
Imagine the work it would have been to convert 20+ folders of ALAC files to FLAC via the graphical file manager interface. Lots of clicking, plus I'm not even sure macOS has FLAC as an alternative to convert to - it probably doesn't. What I did instead? Used mc to browse to the right folder, exited and ran my convert script, then used mc again to go to the next folder and repeat the process. No clicking at all, no moving my hands from the keyboard, no unnecessary click-clickety-clicky stupidity.
Before you ask, no, I don't hate using the mouse, but I do find it a slow alternative to using the keyboard efficiently. And yes, I'm that old, now.
At least I've learned a number of new things - and now I'm off to rip some more CDs.
1) I don't actually like iTunes anymore. Some years ago, I used to like it much more, but nowadays it's getting less and less useable with each update. Not to mention, uglier with each update as well.
2) Using an Apple-specific format sounded like a bad plan, in case I decide to move to a different OS as my main one in the future. Right now I'm at the point where I continue to use macOS because it's what I have, and what I know best, but I'm not certain that my next computer - a few years into the future - will still be some kind of Mac.
Still, I went with the obvious choices at the start of this project, because I wanted to get started with the ripping, and I didn't feel like researching alternatives. However, after ripping a good few CD's, I started getting annoyed - with iTunes and with it being unable to rip CDs that I know are perfectly good in other contexts, with having ALAC files instead of FLAC, with my own nagging thought that I'm doing this to preserve my music collection for the future, so why not do it properly from the beginning... and so I started looking for alternative ways to do things.
... and I have them. I have a ripping setup I really like now.
First of all, I replaced iTunes with Clementine - which I already had once before, back when I was testing out Ubuntu a few years back. I liked it a lot then, and I still like what I'm seeing now - it's certainly a lot better than the current iTunes - but I still need to get used to it, and there are probably lots of cool features I haven't discovered yet.
It's apparently possible to use Clementine for ripping as well, but I found a much cooler alternative. There's a nice command line tool called abcde ("A better CD encoder"). When I first installed it, I didn't really know what I was doing or how it was supposed to work, but after some research it now works fine. It uses a configuration file to specify ripping options, like which format you want to rip to, which folder you want to save files to, which online database you want to use to fetch CD info, this sort of stuff, so once everything is set up nicely in that file, you just insert your CD and enter "abcde" on the command line.
...Well, except not.
I found that I needed to unmount the CD drive before ripping, and then mount it again after ripping is done, so I made a tiny bash script file which does that, and also ejects the disk when it's done ripping. So, I now have a folder with my own bash scripts (with just two files in so far - this one for the ripping, and one more which converts all files in a folder from ALAC to FLAC, as I needed to do that with the stuff I'd already ripped), registered in PATH so that I can use them from any folder. Learning more about what I can do with such scripts is definitely on my list of things to do, as these ones are just simple things - but they're simple things that I made for my needs, and I feel a little bit cool for that :)
Also, while I was researching abcde and stuff, I also found out that there is a nifty little thing called Midnight Commander - a file manager kinda like the old Norton Commander, so I installed that one as well. That proved to be a bigger challenge than I thought, because it somehow started up with menus and everything in Czech, with the odd Norwegian word thrown in here and there. Well, fixing that at least taught me to edit my .bash_profile. And, as a bonus cool side effect, I've also set up Midnight Commander - or mc - to always exit to the current folder I'm at.
Believe me, it's so much more convenient to browse the file system this way, instead of clicking in the Finder endlessly. Plus, MC shows hidden files and system folders, which is also a big plus while working in the terminal and trying to learn things there. In the old days of MS-DOS, I used to be a huge fan of a file browser/manager called LIST.COM, so for that reason I never really used the old Norton. However, MC feels strangely familiar in a computer-nostalgic way, even with the Norton-style dual-pane layout.
Imagine the work it would have been to convert 20+ folders of ALAC files to FLAC via the graphical file manager interface. Lots of clicking, plus I'm not even sure macOS has FLAC as an alternative to convert to - it probably doesn't. What I did instead? Used mc to browse to the right folder, exited and ran my convert script, then used mc again to go to the next folder and repeat the process. No clicking at all, no moving my hands from the keyboard, no unnecessary click-clickety-clicky stupidity.
Before you ask, no, I don't hate using the mouse, but I do find it a slow alternative to using the keyboard efficiently. And yes, I'm that old, now.
At least I've learned a number of new things - and now I'm off to rip some more CDs.
no subject
Date: Fri, Oct. 19th, 2018 15:03 (UTC)I don't remember what software I used to rip the CDs with, because I haven't been buying CDs for ages... And yeah, scripts are the way to go, so much more convenient than point&click.
LOL, menus in Czech, but you would be pretty comfortable with them, no? I remember once I had to fix something urgent on one of our servers at work, but it was giving me error messages in some incomprehensible language, and I had to use Google Translate! I don't remember what it was - something with Cyrillic script but not Russian. Then I changed the locale to English.
no subject
Date: Tue, Oct. 30th, 2018 11:45 (UTC)I do admire you for what you are able to do with things like ripping CDs and making files. It makes me want to take a bunch of computer courses. :)