I'm bored, so I'm gonna go ahead and write a guide.
Chances are, if you have CD's, you're gonna rip them. Sometimes you just can't find a good torrent, or the 96kbps MP3 rip that you recorded using your Stereo Mix isn't quite good enough for your cultured ears.
Preliminary tip: If you can't find music ANYWHERE on the internet, go to Amazon. Third-party sellers will often have even the most obscure discs in stock, and for unbelievably low prices. Independent record stores like to sell through Amazon to make sure they move the maximum possible volume of discs. They generally ship within less than a week and give you better quality than anything on the internet.
Now that you've gotten your CD's off the internet, your mom's old collection, or your local thrift store, time to get some software. Go get dBpowerAMP reference edition 14.4 (You can get a "21-day trial" from
here or by searching "dbpoweramp R14.4" on TPB) and a good processor. Install the codec pack for... well, added codecs.
Open the program. Insert CD. You're gonna get the window to look like this:
First, let's set up the encoding.
See where it says "Rip to"? Change that to Multi Encoder if you want more than one format (If you give enough of a shit to be reading this guide, you probably want MP3 and FLAC. Converting between formats costs you quality.)
In the multi encoder window, click add encoder to add the MP3 LAME and FLAC encoders. Set them up as you like, or for maximum quality set them up like this:
You could set the FLAC encoder to maximum quality, but that makes your music files over 2x larger for only an infinitesimal gain in audio quality. The default is the most balanced.
Click "Set" next to that text box labeled "Dynamic," in each encoder and paste this:
[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][album artist][]\[album]\[IFMULTI][disc]-[][track] [title]This will automatically place the files in [album artist]\[album]\[disc number]-[track number] [track name]. It properly accounts for compilation albums and multiple discs. You can, of course, use the built-in documentation to work out your own sorting if you're so inclined. The DSP effects are highly useful, but unnecessary for less advanced actions like CD ripping.
MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE MULTI-CPU OPTION IN THE MAIN WINDOW.
After this, you should review the metadata. Click the button in the bottom-right that says "Review Metadata." To re-download the metadata, click the large "Meta" button in the top left of the main scren.
You are presented with four sources of tagging information - the AMG, GD3, MusicBrainz, and freedb music databases. If a piece of information appears in bold red text, that means that it's different from your current information. You may manually edit the information in the left column, or click on a piece of information under a database's column to apply it. In general, less bold red words is better. Be aware of the "Smart Capitalize Tags" button in the far bottom-right. You know what it does.
Click on "Choose Art" to choose the art. It automatically searches for the album art on the internet, simply pick whichever one looks the best. I would recommend against the default option, because GD3's album art rips are usually just scans of the CD cover. AMG is usually low-resolution. Last.fm or fanart.tv will generally have reliable album art images, but it's up to you to decide which looks best. Click on the artwork in the main window to view it at full resolution. Discrepancies in quality will usually be visible here. For reference, an ipod touch/iphone's display is 640 pixels wide. Anything less than that will be scaled to fit.
Once all of your information looks acceptable, and the encoder is ready, click Rip in the top right to start the process. From here, no input is required from you. The program will automatically check the accuracy of the rip and notify you under the "Rip status" column if it's inaccurate (Generally due to a damaged CD -- There will usually be no way around this if it happens).
Now, do this with your entire fucking library. It will take awhile. Donate the CD's to a friend or to a goodwill afterwards. Sell them at a yard sale. Do whatever you want with them, because you don't need them anymore. You're a fucking genius.
If you follow all the instructions well, eventually your music library will look like this:
You can see from this how varied my taste in music is.
