What do you do with CDs after you digitize them?

Because selling them seems a little dishonest/unethical if you 'keep' the music as files on your computer, and throwing them away seems silly. Give them to charity?

I bet there's a whole lot of dishonest/unethical people on this board.

Sell what I can, throw the rest in (rapidly reaching capacity) boxes.

I record the mp3 onto cassettes in case my drive crashes.

Store them in rubbermaid containers in my attic in case my music library ever gets fubared and I have to rip them again. Which I have, twice.

I'm a little reluctant to get rid of them bcz what if computer gets ruined in one way or another? And I've already sold 80% of the ones I don't much give a fuck about. Also they don't actually sell for that much $$$. Some of mine would on eBay but I have the worst fucking luck with eBay buyers.

Hey does anyone want a CD of a guy playing cello pieces inspired by the poem 'Maldoror'?

Put it on Amazon for a penny and we'll take bets on how long it stays unsold.

I don't understand what you mean?

Oh, THAT CD, not my entire collection.

Erik Friedlander - Maldoror
26 new from $9.75 8 used from $9.40

Also half of why some of these I do not want to get rid of is treating them like stray puppies - "I know SOMEONE would be a good home for these." That person just doesn't happen to exist anywhere near me.

That's easier to do with unwanted dvds and books. Music is such a fickle thing.

yea i pretty much never get rid of cds anymore. i used to do regular purges and 6 months down the road i'd be kicking myself, tho i suppose i could've digitized em, duh.

but i've had enough problems with computers in the past that unless i'm regularly backing up my hard drive (which i'm not) i'm gonna hang onto my cds

who wants to have a bunch of crap you're on the fence about crowding up your "shuffle" function? just get rid of it. you can always bootleg later.

I back everything up on an external so I've got two copies of everything digital. I've found that only middle aged white dudes will buy my CDs and the record stores are being stingy what with downturns of their own so basically this sucks.

And yeah I've found it's faster to download a copy of an album I own than it is to rip it.

CDs are already digitized, duh!

I file it on a shelf!

An I alphabetize them! It's fun!

hey if this is a problem for you guys you can just send them all to me.

i will even pay for your shipping costs!

I used to do that (cd racks, alphabetized), but I've gotten so lazy I don't even organize my mp3 folders anymore. I have stuff scattered all over two different drives on my computer in about 20 different folders.

I'm not selling anything. I end up buying back stuff I sold years ago.

^tru

there should be a thread on albums you sold and then bought back

If I like them a lot, I keep them. But I will never sit around and rip thousands of CD for months on end, unless I suddenly find out that I'm going to live to be 250 years old. But I don't really sell the CDs I want to get rid of anymore. I usually donate them to a thrift shop and then write off the donation on my taxes.

i want to buy the babes in toyland cd back i sold 10 years ago. or get the vinyl.

Donate them to public schools and libraries.

i put them back on the shelf, but do question what use i'll have for them in the future.

If and when you become an audiophile, you will regret having only shitty MP3 versions of yr music around, unless you rip to FLAC or whatevs. Also, hard disks die. Anyone who sells CDs after they rip them probably doesn't give a shit about data preservation strategies.

I pretend that they're still important to me- in a paranoia-esque way- so I hide them in the depths of my drawers, using their original jewel boxes to store illegal mixtapes I burn with their songs on them.

love u libcrypt

I actually like the look of having a nice big shelf full of cds, as I do my books and my dvds.

there should be a thread on albums you sold and then bought back

I did this with a lot of hip-hop. No idea why, it was all fucking great stuff. Bought it back asap.

We put'em in boxes and shoved'em behind the bookcases in the attic. Now when I need a CD, I just go on soulseek and dl it. Why bother looking in the boxes? It'd take me forever to find it. See, we just got a new PC and I can't be arsed to transfer the MP3s. Yes, I'm lazy.

i will be selling most of mine, which will still leave a lot, though just the stuff i would want to rebuy if it got destroyed or stolen. it's not for the $$, which would be minimal anyway, but to get back the crazy amount of space that several thousand cds takes up.

I don't digitize them. I play them. On my portable CD. I do have a mobile phone that can play digital files, but I have never used it for that, because CD sounds better and is more practical.

there should be a thread on albums you sold and then bought back

I believe there is one already. Somewhere.

I bought back "Electric Ladyland" twice. Anyone beat that! :)

I carry on playing and enjoying them, through a decent sound system rather than shitty computer speakers.

I heart my CDs with good artwork & liner notes just as much as records with good artwork. MP3 albums (and individual tracks), will always keep 'em I'd say. It's nice sliding a cd into my hifi to.

What kind of place do people claim tax deductions for giving stuff to thrift stores?

i mean, MP3 albims are not good at artwork imo. will always keep the cds.

Maybe this is age, but I just don't understand this. Does all your music fit on your computer? I've only got a laptop and it certainly doesn't. I have to periodically go through and delete all the stuff that I have on CD. Do you only listen to music at a computer or on an ipod? What about in other rooms in your house/flat? It just seems weird to me to not have a stereo as well (although I've never understood the point of computer speakers either - why not just hook the computer up to your amp?)

So, after digitising them, I put them on a shelf and play them.

Mind you, nearly new CDs are very cheap as a result of people selling them, so it's all good.

I've never understood the point of computer speakers either - why not just hook the computer up to your amp?

1) Because they're in two different places and the wires won't stretch that far.

2) Because MP3s sound horrible over decent hi-fi systems. I've got an iPod dock hooked up to the hi-fi, and it always sounds like second best (NB, I rip CDs at 192k). After a while, my ears start hurting from the lack of depth and detail.

rip higher sir

i am pretty sick of my computer speakers tho. don't have any others but hoping to get some new proper ones and re-use the amp i bought ages ago (also means i can hook up turntable again).

i agree with mike (and presumably nick southall).

though atm play everything through phones :(

Hmmm, maybe, but second best still better than on PC speakers?

I think bigger speakers would improve anything, really. I have an audio interface thing hooked up to a little stereo in the bedroom and then a proper stereo in the living room.

2nd-hand hi-fi is cheap these days!

I have to say the fact that everyone listens to things only on their MP3 players has kind of killed the mix CD.

Hey does anyone want a CD of a guy playing cello pieces inspired by the poem 'Maldoror'?

I love that album :(

Haha instead of mix CDs just hand someone a printout of a playlist and tell them "Download these!"

Dude Mr. D it is great, which is why I was trying to find a good home for it.

I have to say the fact that everyone listens to things only on their MP3 players has kind of killed the mix CD.

I wish I could make someone a nice CD-length mix in a nice order, but if you give someone an audio CD lately, they never listen to it. I mean, you pop it in, and the SoundScan software or whatever doesn't know what commercial release it's supposed to be, so if you want track listings you have to rip the thing and then label it by hand before you transfer it to your iPod -- it's giving someone an hour-long project, basically. Nobody wants that.

xpost pancakes otm

yeah that is what I mean, Kenan.

The alternative, which I am forced into, is making mp3 mix cds, which at least have a fighting chance of being heard, even if not in the order I intended. But then there's the pressure to fill it up, which could be like 100 songs and 9 hours, which is one hellacious mix.

I miss cassettes.

I skipped over the mix CD really. By the time I had a CD writer I went from mix tapes -> mp3 mixes.

I'm hanging onto my CDs for the moment. If I could afford a reliable storage to rip the whole lot as FLAC onto I might possibly think about it but I'm still attached to the physical object right now.

Haven't done too much of this, but I'll be getting into this this Summer po'ly.

When I do, if I really care about them, I rip them to FLAC, store those on a backup drive, and them rip VBRs for my iTunes library. I plan to sell a bunch of stuff I don't care so much about when I get my closet racked out. Pro'ly eBay the stuff that's collectible, dump the rest to a used store that they'll take, and pout about anything that's left.

Anything I don't care so much about, that'm still interested in, I'll rip right to MP3 until I need to free up some space.

i rip to flacs for the archive, oggs for actually walking around with (although usually this is only ever the last n things i have bought. i can get about a years worth of purchases on my 8G player)

anyway, 10K flacs (and about the same as oggs / mp3s) is about 450G.

i don't actually listen to any of them, just rip and archive them. i have plans for turning an old computer into a media centre which'd let me get at anything instantaneously but it's currently just sat there...

anyway, 10K flacs (and about the same as oggs / mp3s) is about 450G.

No way mp3s are that big. I have 25k songs on my drive now, and it's about 150G. And I'm not chintzy with the bitrate, as a general rule.

Oggs are still too nerdy for me. Maybe it's the name. "Ogg." It's all lopsided.

> No way mp3s are that big.

i didn't say they were.

i have 10k flac files. most of these are also there as oggs or mp3s. hence "10k flacs and about the same as oggs / mp3s", ie 10k of each. in total that's 450G. oggs and mp3s at default rates (which are fine for walking around) are about 10% of the size of flacs which are in turn 60% or so the size of the wavs.

CYGWIN:asdjhk> ls -lh 01*
-rwx------+ 1 asdjhk ????????     34M Feb 10 12:44 01_Sing!_Harpy.flac
-rw-r--r--  1 asdjhk mkgroup-l-d 4.4M Feb 13 18:19 01_Sing!_Harpy.ogg

(that's a default (-q3) ogg which is 112kbps abr and sounds about the same as a 128kbps mp3.
it's reporting the flac as 872kbps but i don't know if that's an average or what.
55M for the source wav.)

I misunderstood.

btw, the word "ogg" may be lopsided, but the word "koogs" has that nice consonant at the front end to balance it, so it's alllllright.

i listen to CDs at home and in the car.

a default (-q3) ogg which is 112kbps abr and sounds about the same as a 128kbps mp3

Hm. Not really fine for my walking around, unless it's an older (pre-70's?) or poorly engineered recording, where a high bitrate just makes it sound extra-crispy-bad.

I know I've linked to this before, not because I started it but because libcrypt drops some good info on this thread:

The Data Migration Thread

I need to rip all of my World Serpent CDs, damn things are like time bombs of lost data.

I rip to FLAC and then make two DVDR backups.

My stereo hardware is just fine. Maybe it's not "very good," but I certainly know when something sounds bad.

Yes, exactly. With yr hi-quality Technics speakers, you can detect a 64-kbit MP3. But can you sort the OK from the great? (OK, yr post is sarcastic, but the point remains.)

I hate audiophiles, I swear, but I don't want to lose an archival quality artifact that also has cool art and info, either. I see hard disks die every day as part of my job, so I have very little faith in them. A lightning strike and all yr disks connected via wires to anything are potentially fried. Someone breaks into yr house: They might steal yr computer and disks and shit, but they probably aren't going to steal yr entire CD collection.

Someday, I'm going to invest in a nice stereo and so really KNOW what it's like to own actual vinyl and CDs.

i sort of resent this whole idea that wanting music to sound as good as possible makes you an "audiophile" douchebag. like no one gives you shit for wanting a hi-def TV and surround sound.

(OK, yr post is sarcastic, but the point remains.)

It... wasn't supposed to be sarcastic. I like those speakers.

Honestly, I do get better sound out of my earphones than anything, but that's not necessarily my speakers' fault. I live in an old apartment building with wood floors and strangely shaped rooms... there's nowhere to put 3 1/2 foot tall loudspeakers that won't be way out of phase. I do what I can.

like no one gives you shit for wanting a hi-def TV and surround sound.

I believe this qualifies as a truth bomb.

Someone breaks into yr house: They might steal yr computer and disks and shit, but they probably aren't going to steal yr entire CD collection.

I know several people who did get that stuff stolen.

speaking of "out of phase" -- surround sound should come with a sound engineer who's worked with Pink Floyd to get that shit to sound right. Otherwise it's mostly annoying. Oh great, yeah, it's zooming around my head... does this make anyone else feel nauseated? I feel like I've been forced to go to Disneyland against my will.

i sort of resent this whole idea that wanting music to sound as good as possible makes you an "audiophile" douchebag. like no one gives you shit for wanting a hi-def TV and surround sound.

I half-agree. There's nothing wrong with wanting good sound. The audiophiles I know (only two, so small sample size) do things like "burn in" the detachable cables that DON'T come with their headphones ($200-$500 extra) by sending white noise thru for one month. Audiophiles are quite vulnerable to snake oil, and this isn't a positive character trait.

You can cook them in the microwave.

http://hamjudo.com/notes/cd.jpg

actually thought that was a pastoral winter scene for a few seconds

When you borrow a CD from a library, do you rip it before you return it?

Oh yes.

i sort of resent this whole idea that wanting music to sound as good as possible makes you an "audiophile" douchebag. like no one gives you shit for wanting a hi-def TV and surround sound.

I half-agree. There's nothing wrong with wanting good sound. The audiophiles I know (only two, so small sample size) do things like "burn in" the detachable cables that DON'T come with their headphones ($200-$500 extra) by sending white noise thru for one month. Audiophiles are quite vulnerable to snake oil, and this isn't a positive character trait.

― also *free* online sex personals - got any links? (libcrypt), Friday, February 13, 2009 8:34 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah i mean obv the whole ridic audiophile stereotype exists for a reason, like buying "power conditioners" and stuff...but honestly i've enjoyed music a lot more since i bought a nice turntable and stereo and just sat and actually listened to records and CDs

I have a closet full of stuff that is waiting for the next FMU record fair.

I rip to FLAC and then make two DVDR backups.

Not to be a douchebag (read as: I'm a douchebag), but how is making two DVDR backups better than just saving the one CD you already paid for?

As for me, I'm too old to go completely digital. Don't trust them fancy pants computers and MP3 thingies. Must own physical media.

Some back of the envelopes here, but CD -> FLAC -> 2xDVD is going to reduce yr discs by a factor of 8-12.

i put the shit on my computer and then i sell that shit to fools.

flac my ass. 192!

> but how is making two DVDR backups better than just saving the one CD you already paid for?

because 2 copies are safer than one. plus it saves you the hassle of re-ripping should the cd or hdd copy die (and cds do die, i have a bunch that have gone coppery and unrippable). but, yeah, you do tend to end up with acres of original cds, multiple usb drives and spindles of dvdrs all of the same stuff.

re q3 oggs
> Not really fine for my walking around

well, yeah, that is as low as i'd probably go. there's always the quality vs quantity balance and i favour quantity. plus my walking around tends to be by busy roads 8)

(i did a blind test once, ripping to all ogg qualities and lossless flac and went walking around and couldn't tell the difference apart from the 2 very lowest settings so...)

i can always re-encode from the stored flacs anyway should something sound terrible. takes a couple of minutes.

(and oggenc takes flacs as input so no need to decode to wavs first (which will also lose all your metadata in the process))

but then its taking up space you're supposed to be saving?

clay pigeon shooting?

Koogs is planning a MEDIA CENTRE !!!

Was coming to say "return them to the circulation desk" but I see Abbott has that covered.

"burn them"
;)

> but then its taking up space you're supposed to be saving?

sometimes it's less about saving space and more about having instant access to everything. and having multi-disc shuffle (which barely any cd players will do, certainly not do well).

plus there's space and there's space. keeping all your original cds to hand takes up more living space than ripping them all to a usb drive and shoving the originals in the attic or under the stairs.

ive still got a massive bitrate hangover form when itunes used to insist 128kbp was cd quality. I ripped several hundred cds at 192 thinking it would be fine but now ive some decent monitors they sound weedy as hell. They're listenabel but lose a huge amount of the physicality

I rip at 320 but that's about as far as it goes re: sound quality. Thje majority of my CDs were ripped before I figured out that you could choose the bitrate too, so that only goes for the more recent stuff.

Generally, if I buy a CD it's because I've already downloaded and loved the album. So I rip it to replace the downloaded files and then put it in my CD rack alphabetically. I should get rid of a load of stuff I don't care about but I like having a physical CD collection. It looks good on my wall and it's always good to know that you have the physical product there as backup and as tangible evidence of where your money has gone.

I've personally never found a CD collection to look nice on the wall.

What I'm going to do is keep the CDs in the closet and rip 320 bit rate copies for my computer. Although it'll add to my 'stuff,' at least I'll be in the clear conscience-wise.

I dunno, I still walk over to my CD wall and browse it when I'm looking for something to listen to. I like that.

I've personally never found a CD collection to look nice on the wall.

Yeah. Cool people put them on the ceiling.

Well, that's where I put my Lionel Richie.