Software

Using a computer as an audio source you need programs to build and maintain your audio collection. Common task are:

• Ripping - transferring CD's to the hard disk.
  

  In general this requires 2 stages

  • ripping your entire CD collection
  • re-ripping it because now you have found out how to do it

  You have to choose an audio format. As a hundred buys you a terabyte of storage, I wouldn't settle for anything less than a lossless format.
  You have to choose your ripping software. EAC and dbPoweramp are the big names but popular players like WMP11 or iTunes can do the job too.

  
  
• Tagging - adding information describing the music like title, artist, album, composer, etc.
  

  In general online databases provides this information.
  If you are tagging classical music using these databases, you have a problem.

  
  
• Syncing - transferring your songs to a portable music player. Check if the player software supports transcoding.
  
  
• Burning - transferring your songs from your HD to a CD.

  You can burn a true audio CD (Redbook audio) but a lot of CD players also support the MP3 format.

  
  
• Recording - digitizing LP's, tape or live recordings, editing, mixing, etc.
  
  

• Converting - there are many different audio formats. If the player of your choice doesn't support a certain format you must convert it.
  
  

• Backup - Perform regular backups of all of your media. If you don’t, someday you’ll wish you did. Lot’s of people think they don’t need a backup because they have RAID. RAID protects you against a failure of a hard disk. It also store all your user errors redundantly. No, RAID is not a backup.

  
  
• Playing - navigate your collection, filtering, searching, building playlist, select the songs you want to hear.