Best way to compress music files for back-up?

chris_debian · 2010-06-30 17:39:46

Hi, all!

I have 23.5 gigs of music (mp3's/ flac's/ ogg's) that I'd like to back-up. I don't have a removable drive to use for back-up, so I think my only option is to write to a DVD. I am aware of several method's of compressing files, and know that some are better at some kinds of files and some better at others.

Does anybody have an opinion on the best way to compress my music for back-up?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris.

karol · 2010-06-30 18:27:57

> Does anybody have an opinion on the best way to compress my music for back-up?
FLAC is the best way I know but I'm no guru. You retain the original quality (assuming you ripped them from CDs or downloaded flac files) but the files take up less space.

One of my favorite Albums is Queen - the greatest hits. I ripped the CD, removed a song or two I don't like and created mp3s so I can listen to the music on the road (I don't have a portable player that plays flac atm). I store both flac files and mp3s on my HD but I've backed up only flac files because I can encode them to mp3s (reducing the quality) but you can't create a hi-quality recording out of 128kbit mp3 file.

If you don't care about the quality, convert everything to ogg/mp3.

*Don't* compress the mp3s/ogg/flac w/ general purpose lossless codecs like gzip, bzip2, lzma, xz etc. - it will take ages and you'll get about 2% better compression that it was. It's simply not worth it.

awkwood · 2010-06-30 18:33:34

MP3/OGG files are already quite compressed due to the nature of the file format.
I don't think you'll get much of a space saving no matter what compression format you choose.

I really recommend getting an external HDD if you can afford it.
They're a lot cheaper than they used to be and you won't have to spend 5 hours burning DVDs

karol · 2010-06-30 18:38:51

> you won't have to spend 5 hours burning DVDs
DVDs are fine if you don't change your music very often. Do it the right way the first time (fix the typos in the filenames, fill the tags etc.) and then just add the new stuff as it comes i.e. burn new DVDs.

chris_debian · 2010-06-30 20:07:33

Thanks, guys!

I have thought about a USB HDD, and they are definately getting cheaper. In the UK, I saw a good brand 500gb model for £50. I'm sure I could do better if I shopped-around. This would also be useful for doing a system back-up before a rebuild, for example.

For now, I think I'll need to use the DVD solution until I have some spare cash.

With regard to correcting typo's and filling the tags, just out of interest, what do you use for your tags? I currently use EasyTag, which is quite good, and have tried using Musicbrianz Picard, but I always end up removing the package, as it's not to my liking.

Cheers,

Chris.

drcouzelis · 2010-06-30 20:14:39

chris_debian wrote:

With regard to correcting typo's and filling the tags, just out of interest, what do you use for your tags?

I organized my music by hand in my "Music" directory like so:

Genre/Album/Artist Name - Title Like This.mp3

Then I wrote a really crappy BASH script to go through all of my music files, delete all tags, and update them according to those four items.

Clean!

karol · 2010-06-30 20:15:11

> what do you use for your tags?
Nothing, I don't use them. I've ripped my music to mp3s a couple years ago on Windows Media Player IIRC. I've only checked that the filenames are OK.

Proofrific · 2010-06-30 20:48:20

chris_debian wrote:

I have thought about a USB HDD, and they are definately getting cheaper. In the UK, I saw a good brand 500gb model for £50. I'm sure I could do better if I shopped-around. This would also be useful for doing a system back-up before a rebuild, for example.

I'd also recommend getting a USD hard drive, not just for backups before a rebuild, but for daily and/or weekly backups! We all hear horror stories of data loss. Save yourself the heartache by backing everything up, not just music.

Hope it goes well!

Arch Linux

#1 2010-06-30 17:39:46

Best way to compress music files for back-up?

#2 2010-06-30 18:27:57

Re: Best way to compress music files for back-up?

#3 2010-06-30 18:33:34

Re: Best way to compress music files for back-up?

#4 2010-06-30 18:38:51

Re: Best way to compress music files for back-up?

#5 2010-06-30 20:07:33

Re: Best way to compress music files for back-up?

#6 2010-06-30 20:14:39

Re: Best way to compress music files for back-up?

#7 2010-06-30 20:15:11

Re: Best way to compress music files for back-up?

#8 2010-06-30 20:48:20

Re: Best way to compress music files for back-up?

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