The reason I ask is, I've just started the task of organising all my prince vids on my hard-drive to watch on my new Xbox..

This has involved:

- renaming loads of files with years eg. '(1984) Purple Rain Tour live' so they make sense
- putting individual shows / promos etc. into date order so i can view it in chronological order.
- editing stuff together so i have fewer random entries (ie. putting all the Lovesexy promos in one folder).

Phew!! I'm bored just writing it.

OK, so someone make me feel better by owning up to being more obsessive (compulsive?!) than this.

CRAIG
ZZZZZzzzzz

Hi clbrooks,

Well, I recently got a big ol' 2 TB hard drive to sort my various media out on, and my largest collection by far is Prince's music & video!

As far as geekiness or obsessiveness, I had found a few glitches in some of the music I had on my hard drive, even though I had used the PLEXTOR PX-40TW (THE name in accurate audio ripping, and the ONLY Ultra-SCSI CD-RW) waaaay back in the day.

I re-ripped all of my original albums to FLAC with Exact Audio Copy (EAC) using the Accuraterip database, and I would try every optical drive in the house on tracks that had trouble reading accurately. The end result? I have had to re-purchase, Prince, Graffiti Bridge, Lovesexy, Purple Rain, For You, and Dirty Mind in order to get PERFECT copies of all official albums. The only track that has an (inaudible) glitch is Strays of the World, but even used, the Crystal Ball set is too much $$$ for such obsessiveness! I am still irked by this.

I'm also re-tagging live concert stuff with Mp3Tag, which is a freebie I highly recommend for various tagging needs!

At any rate, I'm still working on this project!

I'll let you know if I come up with any clever ways of organizing this stuff once I'm done!

In Prince,
Toadlips

I try to at least know WHERE all my shit is...

Toadlips said:

Wow, I had no idea about Accuraterip database... I don't think I have it turned on on my EAC... very helpful and thanks for the tip. I am in the process of re-ripping all of my CDs and this will be very useful.

After that I need to figure out how to organize it myself. I also plan on scanning the artwork in (including things like 45 picture sleeves) so I have a nice digital archive of all the Prince releases from 78-88.

Edit - I just realized that EAC was checking against Accuraterip all this time. I saved the log files and they appear to have been keeping note of it. All this time I thought it was a series of internal checks, not a check against an outside database. Very very impressive. They even had rips of my SHM CDs to check against.
[Edited 2/20/10 22:02pm]

Toadlips said:

Hi Toadlips.

Wow! Sounds like you know exactly what I was on about!

To BlackbeltJones:
Yes, Accuraterip is a godsend! I'm really surprised how many glitches get past the C2 error checking. I had some CD's that read "without error" (in EAC's Secure Mode) but didn't pass the Accuraterip test, and then I'd put them into another drive and, sure enough, the Accuraterip CRC would match up, so I know that there really was a problem with the original rip! Crazy!

I was wondering, actually, if there were any type of MD5 signature database for Prince WAVs anywhere? That would be pretty smooth for the anal retentive! Better yet, would it be legal to trade PAR2's that would fix a WAV file that had a few bad bits? Hmm...food for thought!

Also, I'm in the process of using your singles thread to help me in squaring away the singles and making sure I have everything I need!! The information on the FLAC downloads from Rhino was very much appreciated!!! I picked up Hello and Love or $! Thank you very much!

To clbrooks,

Yep, based on some of the things I've seen, my level of obsessiveness is quite mild! Take a look at princevault! Some people went to a lot of trouble to methodically document Prince's work!!

Good times!!!
Toadlips

I'm pretty geeky with it. Physical CDs are arranged chronologically, with American singles following each respective album, then foreign releases if there are any, then studio boots filed with each respective period (as close as can be approximated sometimes), followed by live boots of that period. That system was based on how my vinyl was organized (and still is). Digital files are usually renamed (and often reedited) for easy findability.

Toadlips said:

Awesome... I am glad that it helped! (Perhaps that thread needs to be bumped again; feel free to do the honors if you are still using it... maybe others would find it helpful as well.)

I don't know about the MD5 signature database... hell, I didn't know about Accuraterip before this thread... but it would be pretty sweet for nerds like us.

BTW, what is your take on dBpoweramp as an alternative to EAC? I originally ripped most of my collection in 2006 via EAC, but I was thinking about doing it again, especially with the Accuraterip database. dBpoweramp controls that Accuraterip database and they also allow you to rip directly to Apple Lossless. They also have some sweet metatag database tools. You take ripping CDs as seriously as I do, so I would to hear your thoughts on it if you have used it!

Thx! BBJ
[Edited 2/21/10 16:49pm]

I'm very geeky when organizing my Prince stuff. I have to have everything in alphabetical order, so that I can find what I'm looking for.

I just organize my prince stuff by dates.

I'll bump that bad mamma jamma!

The MD5 database has me thinking...if I can find an easy way to convert (i.e. with a script) the FLACs to WAVs and then take the MD5s, I could give you my MD5s, you could check your lossless files by converting to WAV and getting the MD5s, and you may not have to re-rip! The main disadvantage of the Accuraterip database is that you have to rip a CD in order to use it. If we had an MD5 database of our own, we could just compare the WAV files that way. I'll see if there's already something out there to automate this process, but I'm sure I could automate that pretty easily with a script, regardless.

I used dBpoweramp a LONG time ago, and I think I was just too cheap to buy it! I just took a look at the site, though, and it looks to be pretty solid, with C2 error correction, etc., just like EAC. People did seem to like the additional tagging capabilities, as well. I just might download the trial and see what it's all about! I would use the Reference version, though, with all of the C2 error checking capabilities, and not the free one!

Also, by the way, Accuraterip had every single official release I put through it already in the database...what would be REALLY nice would be a CRC (MD5 or whatever) database for some of the more "obscure" items.

Sometimes, I can't see the music for the bits!

Happy ripping!
Toadlips

^^^I am actually going to be re-ripping everything regardless... I picked up those new SHM CDs and a few others since my first stab at digital archiving, so I was going to do a top to bottom re-rip and metadata re-organize anyway. But thanks for the offer!!!

Regarding an MD5... as I understand it, this is the digital "dna" of the file, so when you check it against another WAV made from the same CD catalog, you can make sure that WAV is a bit for bit match... is that correct? Is this something I can generate right from the ripping software? If so, I could simply collect them all as I rip and share them w/ you when I am done. Let me know. Note my ripping project is going to take a while, but I am all for accuracy.

dBpoweramp are the guys behind the Accuraterip database, and apparently their ripper is highly considered (even against EAC) by some over @ the Hydrogenaudio forums. Here is a geeky comparison of the two: http://www.dbpoweramp.com...ripper.htm Their organizing tools are also sweet, and it allows you to rip right to Apple Lossless. I was going to buy it sometime this week and take it for a test spin.

BTW, is there a way to find out if your drive supports C2 (or if it supports it well)? I know most do, but, as I understand it, many are not that good at it. I always left that option "off" on EAC. My HP is fairly new, but it has a standard LG DVD RW (nothing special). I have only ever found offset info on the drive.

On topic: I have all of my CDs in storage - my collection is nearly all WAVs and Apple Lossless. The only CDs I have on display are my Beatles box sets, my Black Sabbath box sets and my Prince SHM Mini LP CDs. Organizing this stuff digitally is tough though, which is why I am glad a few iTunes threads popped up. Once I get all of my Prince and Prince Associates stuff ripped, I will chip in w/ screen shots of my iTunes.

Edit - Thanks for the thread bump!
[Edited 2/21/10 20:40pm]

That shit's all over the apartment.

you mean like this? I'm always doing stuff like this... with everything...
all albums singles and bootlegs are FLAC and with EAC... (or else there MP3 is noted in the map name)


[Edited 2/22/10 4:43am]

lotusflower said:

Ha! I LOVE it!!

in the old days of tapes, I had them (trough Sign) in a compartment in my car. The all fit perfectly! I kept them in order and I would count to pick the one I wanted. So i could switch to the tape I wanted to listen to without looking.

I haven't reached that level of fandom.....maybe in another 20yrs I will. As long as I can play his music I don't care how organized it is.

BlackbeltJones said:

Hey there Blackbeltjones!

Darn the SHMs! I just read about those AFTER I bought those used replacements! That's OK, I'm still not sure if I'm ready to spring for those yet!

MD5 is a standard checksum algorithm. I downloaded that dbPoweramp last night and I did a "head to head" comparison of EAC and dbPoweramp. On a badly scratched disc (sadly, Pandemonium), they both were able to recover as well as not recover the same tracks. I used dbPoweramp in ultra secure mode with C2 ON. I think C2 is very important as an additional layer of protection, and I'd be surprised if your LG drive does not support it! EAC (and probably dbPoweramp) has a test mode. Just pop in a scratched CD and it will figure it out. I have an LG-4163B and it was a very good ripper at first...I may have torn it up, though, because it started acting funny later! Right now, I'm using the cheapie Samsungs (yes, the $30 units), and they're surprisingly good for ripping, but they're slow in secure mode. These days, I don't know what to recommend. It used to be an easy "Plextor", but apparently they're rebadging drives and quality is inconsistent between drive models. I still have my old Plextors, and I'm going to install them in an old computer try them on Pandemonium after I get this message typed! That's right, I'm bringing Plexy back! Can't remember why I stopped using them...the 12/20 was kind of slow and I think I thought the Ultra-SCSI card was mucking up my system.

As far as checksums, it looks like dbPoweramp supports CRC32 right out of the box, so that's great! I'm not too concerned about official albums because those all seem to be in the Accuraterip database. I'm more concerned about stuff that's NOT in the database! You can set dbPoweramp up to log the CRCs to a log file. That would be cool if you wouldn't mind sharing them. I will send you mine, as well, if you are interested!

Good luck with the project!!!
Toadlips

novabrkr said:

As long as you know it's IN the apartment, we're good.

BlackbeltJones said:

I've been using the free dBpoweramp for some time now as my CD to WAV ripper (with the Accuraterip on), but I never sprang for the license to allow mp3 rips. The metadata frills that come with it are making me think I should purchase it since I have thousands of CD to rip.

OnlyNDaUsa said:

Brilliant! i only ever bought Parade, SOTT, D & P and the Hits / B Sides comp. In fact I picked up just the B-Sides tape off at a motorway service station for 99p in the bargain basket! It was dead handy as I'd previously bought the Hits 1 & 2 on cd and not the b-sides at the time.

Ah... tapes.... rewind... fast forward... back a bit... forward a bit.... Good days!

lotusflower said:

That it so damn cool! Very diligent!

I love how you have the albums listed with the year first. That way, they fall in order of year instead of alphabetical order which irritates me. I changed all my Prince stuff last night in my computer as well as a lot of other artists albums too. Now, it matches my vinyl collection more and things are much easier to find.

lotusflower said:

Oh Wow! Thats seriously cool.

I've got my ten albums in order of release in a stack.I've got a long fucking road ahead.

It's really a task oraganizing all of your O+>,
I must say I re-update, do inventory, Re Organize my stuff atleast once a month
My Rooms look like a record store & prince has his own Super Section LOl
& what about the assoicate artist along with...?

It sucks to look at all the $$ i've given this dude and think DAMN!!
He supports my funk habit, soooo well.

Wheu u have been buying Prince's music since 1982- WoW... it's an investment
Does any one know if there's stock/trading for prince? wall street exchange? Shares in PRN Productions? let me know!
[Edited 3/15/10 13:34pm]

I'm currently in the process of ripping all the older discs (and some newer ones) to single .WAV files and then raising the overall volume of the albums and re-indexing where each tracks start to make them perfect, with as little bleed-over as possible. it's very time-consuming and Prince is really the only one I'd do it for. but I'm in a Prince phase at the moment and needed to re-rip everything for my iPod in higher quality anyway, so I thought I might as well do this while I'm at it. after his albums are done, it's on to associated artists stuff.


also using the iTunes sorting function so they'll be listed in chronological order without having to have a year tagged on to the front of the album title.

also, there are about 500 artists in my iTunes and so far, Prince is the only one that ranks his own "Genre" so that I can have an easy way to access any of his or his associated artists stuff.