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[rungabic]

I know that this is covered in the docs, but as a newbie in terms of using disk-based music, I'd appreciate it if someone could give me a concise explanation & some advice on the following:

After much agonizing thought & deliberation, I'm going to be converting my 3,300 CDs (currently in a 12-changer Slink-e setup) to .APE format, so I can use the Media Center/MusicLobby combo.  I'll be doing the ripping to .APE using either EAC or Media Center itself -- or Nero? (I'd also be very grateful for advice on the pros/cons of this decision).

Then the 2nd question is:  what's the relationship between the FreeDB/YADB lookup, the convention in which the resulting .APE files are named, and the ID3 tags themselves?

The concern is that I want to make sure I understand what's going on & what I should be doing, BEFORE I start the process of ripping 3,300 CDs!  

Thanks for any help anyone can give me with this!

Brent

[rocketsauce]

1. Use either EAC or MC for the ripping/encoding.

EAC is widely considered to be the most accurate ripping software, if it is setup correctly for your drive. MC will most likely be just as good with the copy mode set to Digital Secure. If your CDs are in good condition, I doubt that you would notice any difference between the two.

2. Not sure what you mean by relationship. EAC uses FreeDB for looking up cd info, MC uses YADB for looking up cd info. MC used to use CDDB, but there were problems plus expensive licensing fees, so they built their own database.

Also, FYI, Monkey's Audio (.ape) doesn't use ID3 for tagging, it uses APE Tags. So, if you use EAC to rip to .ape, make sure you tell it not to add ID3 tags.

Rob

[rungabic]

Rob,

Thanks for the advice on ripping.  As far as the other question, I guess I wasn't very clear (mostly because I don't know what I'm talking about here).

I guess maybe what I'm asking is which is more important -- the filenaming convention or the tags (.APE tags in my case, then)?  Or both?  I'm not clear on which of the two gets used by MC for catalogueing purposes...and I know there are some functions to resolve discrepancies between the two.  I realize that the tags can hold all sorts of other info (genre, lyrics, etc.) -- but in terms of making sure I don't make a mess before starting this gargantuan project, I wanted to make sure I knew the proper way to generate the individual filenames and whatever I needed to know about tag generation/maintenance...

Hopefully I was vaguely clearer this time  

Brent

[rocketsauce]

which is more important -- the filenaming convention or the tags (.APE tags in my case, then)?  Or both?  I'm not clear on which of the two gets used by MC for catalogueing purposes...

MC uses the tags for sorting/organizing your files.

In MCs options you can specify almost any filenaming convention that you want. My suggestion would be to use a directory/filename structure that contains most of the relevant info about your files. That way, if the tags get messed up for some reason, you can use the Fill Properties From Filename option to restore them. For example, my filename stucture is Artist\Album\Album - Track# - Artist - Title.ape.

but in terms of making sure I don't make a mess before starting this gargantuan project, I wanted to make sure I knew the proper way to generate the individual filenames and whatever I needed to know about tag generation/maintenance...

Rather than just diving in and ripping all of you CDS, I would suggest you rip several and spend some time just playing around with stuff so you can get a feel for how it all works. There is really no right or wrong way, you just have to find the way that works for you.

Rob

[rungabic]

Thanks for the advice, Rob.  Things are starting to make a little more sense to me now!

Brent