Tools for library management?

[amabrok]

Hi All

What tools/applications you use to:

- Manage your digital library?
- Lossless CD Ripping?
- House keeping tags and album art?

Please state Mac or PC

thanks

[thumb5]

I have a Mac, and use:

• Max or XLD for CD ripping
  
• Yate for tagging
  
• iTunes for library management
  

In the past I've also used Jaikoz for tagging, but got fed up with frequent upgrades that often "forgot" my preferences. Yate is a Mac-only program that's easier to use. There's some overlap with tagging features in both Max and iTunes, of course. I've also used CoverScout as a tool for finding cover art, but that's now covered by Yate.

Although I've listed iTunes as a library manager, I very rarely use it to play music from my library; I tend to do that almost exclusively through the Sonos UI. So in effect iTunes is not much more than a repository for the music files.

[amabrok]

I have a Mac, and use:

• Max or XLD for CD ripping
  
• Yate for tagging
  
• iTunes for library management
  

In the past I've also used Jaikoz for tagging, but got fed up with frequent upgrades that often "forgot" my preferences. Yate is a Mac-only program that's easier to use. There's some overlap with tagging features in both Max and iTunes, of course. I've also used CoverScout as a tool for finding cover art, but that's now covered by Yate.

Although I've listed iTunes as a library manager, I very rarely use it to play music from my library; I tend to do that almost exclusively through the Sonos UI. So in effect iTunes is not much more than a repository for the music files.

interesting, i will have a look on Yate. i currently use Kid3, it does the job, but is old fashioned and slow and i was trying to find a better alternative for Mac.

i assume that all your lossless library is ALAC to be able to use iTunes?

[thumb5]

Yes, sorry should have said: I rip everything to ALAC.

[amabrok]

Yes, sorry should have said: I rip everything to ALAC.

lucky u i am stuck with a huge Flac library now and it is a tall order to encode everything to ALAC

Yate seems promising, thanks for the tip!

[Eddye]

I use XLD for ripping my CD's to AIFF, and converting FLAC files to AIFF.
For library management I use iTunes and Audirvana 2.04. Audirvana is not quite ideal for library management, but the sound quality is fantastic.

[amabrok]

I use XLD for ripping my CD's to AIFF, and converting FLAC files to AIFF.
For library management I use iTunes and Audirvana 2.04. Audirvana is not quite ideal for library management, but the sound quality is fantastic.

I use Phile Audio (a Mac only tool) to rip CD to Flac and i am wondering if i am missing anything by not using the popular XLD?

[Eddye]

I'm not familiar with Phile Audio. XLD is free, and it checks your CD rips in the accurate rip database.

[amabrok]

Thanks Eddye.

[PhilP]

Another vote for the excellent XLD for ripping and transcoding. EDIT: I use Metadatics for editing tags.