Uploading and backup storage

[Ian Barber]

Hi,

I have not bought a B2 yet, but I will be doing so later next week after my car has passed it's MOT and service.

Ok, so I have probably 1,000 + cds, and around 14,000 tracks on my laptop ( older Macbook Pro 13 inch ) which I only  use for dj'ing at present. The laptop data was ripped from the original cd's which are partly  ripped as WAV and mostly ripped as MP3 as that was all that was available many moons ago when I started using a laptop with iTunes instead of cd's and cd players etc. Now, in the last 3 or 4 years, I have set the iTunes on my iMac to rip to WAV, rather than MP3 but I now understand that  compilations and the majority of the latest rock/pop etc releases are actually recorded on the cd's in MP3 format.

So, the question is will I be able to upload all the data from my laptop on to the Brennan as FLAC files , or MP3 or could I just plug it in and play the tracks, if I am unable to do so as above, please ?

Last question for the moment, is can I back-up all the data etc when uploaded to the B2 using an external desktop hard drive and is it worth getting the 2TB( rather than the 1TB ) version for what is a relatively small cd collection overall ? Many thanks to all

[Rob Harriman]

Hi Ian,

Taking your last question first:

You can backup your B2 to any external USB HDD, but it must be formatted as FAT32 to be recognised by the B2.  If you're not planning to expand your music collection the 1TB should be more than enough.

As for copying your music from your Macbook to the B2, there are a number of points to consider:

Firstly if your Apple Music collection contains music purchased from iTunes then it'll be DRM Copy protected and will require extra software to remove the protection before it can be copied. 

If you still have the CDs then you can rip them, on your Macbook using a software ripper, such as dBpoweramp to FLAC for copying across to the B2, if the B2 is set up as a NAS drive.  Be aware though that Apple's NAS handling is not optimal and may be very slow.  Alternatively you can rip the CDs directly on the B2 as WAV files, which could then be compressed as FLAC, which is the default compression option on the B2.

If you don't have the CDs then you're probably looking at using a usb stick to copy the music to the B2, or again copying the music directly to the B2 once setup as a NAS drive.  As for what the B2 would make of WAV files copied this way rather than ripped, I am not sure, but I suspect it would convert them to FLAC anyway. 

As for plugging your Macbook into the B2, I don't think that's an option, because the B2 USB interface only recognises FAT32 drives. I've certainly never tried it, but perhaps others here might know differently.

Hope this helps.
Rob

[Daniel Taylor]

Rob is correct that you cannot connect your Macbook directly to the B2 for music transfer.

A word about file conversions:  If you have MP3 files that you'd rather be in lossless format (probably FLAC), it will be better to rip them again from the CDs.  If you don't have the CDs anymore, do not convert MP3 files to FLAC - that will only make the files bigger, it will not restore the lost resolution.

To reiterate some of what Rob has described in more detail: 

Other than ripping CDs directly, there are three ways to transfer music files onto the B2.

1) Import from USB HDD (formatted as FAT32 only);

2) Upload via the WebUI;

3) copy via NAS, which must be followed with the Scan Disk command.

[Ian Barber]

Hi Guys,

Many thanks for your replies, much appreciated.

My iTunes only contains ripped copies of all the cd's that I have bought for dj'ing over the last few years, so should not be a problem.

What is an NAS drive, please ?

Re ,the mp3 cd's, I always assumed that all cd's were WAV format taken from master copies off the original recordings. However it seems that a lot of the music being produced on cd is being taken from mp3 files, then copied on to cd.So, will they be ripped to FLAC as WAV's or will they take-up more space than the originals, please ?

Re the laptop, I thought it might be possible to download the files to a B2 via wifi rather than any physical connection but I  suppose the B2 will not recognise the files unless they are FAT32 etc ? I shall just, in that case, keep the music on the laptop and just plug it in to my DAC whenever I want to play them, as before. I do, however, still have most of the music on the laptop on the original cd's but I don't think it is worth ripping them all over again hwen I can listen to them straight off the laptop, as now.Cheers.

[Daniel Taylor]

FAT32 applies to any external hard disk (or SSD), not to the music files themselves.

You can upload the files to the B2 over WiFi using the B2's WebUI that runs in a browser on your laptop.

NAS is Network Attached Storage.  Maybe you shouldn't worry about that right now.

I had not heard of people using MP3 files to master a CD.  But with most anybody being able to produce an album these days, I guess it's possible.  The important thing to understand is that once a file has gone through data reduction, usually with the intent to get a smaller file, just converting it to a higher resolution file format will not restore the data that has been lost.

The music on a CD is stored in the format used for the CD - I forget what it is called.  When it is ripped to a computer, it can be ripped to either a WAV file or a FLAC file (and there are others) and retain full CD resolution.  If you rip to MP3, you will lose some degree of data and resolution, depending on the bitrate you choose for your MP3 file.  The higher bitrate MP3s are hard to tell the difference between them and full CD resolution.

There are also higher resolution files than what's on CD.  But that's another discussion.

[PMB]

Hi Ian.h...,

The B2 will be happy storing and playing a mixture of WAV (the original CD format), FLAC and MP3 Tracks and unless you have a really good sound system, good ears and know what you are listening for, probably not hear any big differences between them.

The way the B2 works is to rip the CD in WAV format and later, when it is not being used (and in standby mode) it compresses these to FLAC or MP3. Programs, such as dbpoweramp can rip and convert to FLAC in real time (as the CD is being ripped) so are faster in that respect.

Usually the B2 will want to compress any WAV files but I'm not sure how it will respond to iTunes ripped WAV Tracks.

Anyone else done this?

Paul

Brennan Support.