I like to back up some of my best CDs, and those which I borrow, onto my offline computer - for both the convenience of being able to access them from one interface almost instantly (foobar2000) and the reassurance that if anything ever goes wrong, I can reconstruct a CD which has the original audio on at full quality. I'm not bothered about CloneCD levels of accuracy (at least until I get a Plextor Premium, after which such levels will be possible! 
), but I want to have the closest to exact audio quality which I can.
So, to that end, I use Exact Audio Copy to add any necessary titles and artist names (I don't know if I have any CDs which already include CD-Text for this purpose), then start it copying in secure mode to take a .cue+.wav image of my discs. The files then go into C:\My Documents\My Music\Artist\Album.* (for artist CDs) or just C:\My Documents\My Music\Album.*, for albums like Azel - Panzer Dragoon RPG - Complete Album, which don't have an artist mentioned on the case, or for various artist albums.
I then use WavPack 4.3 beta to compress them in high quality (more compression) mode, embed the cuesheet in the compressed file and, if necessary, add any extra tags like DISC. Finally, I delete the original two files since I now have a 100% quality compressed backup of them. After that it's just a case of getting my album list blasting in foobar2000 and letting the music play!
Anyone here have their own favourite methods of preserving their precious music collection, or any hints on how I can improve my method, until I get a better CD drive for bit-perfect copies?
), but I want to have the closest to exact audio quality which I can.So, to that end, I use Exact Audio Copy to add any necessary titles and artist names (I don't know if I have any CDs which already include CD-Text for this purpose), then start it copying in secure mode to take a .cue+.wav image of my discs. The files then go into C:\My Documents\My Music\Artist\Album.* (for artist CDs) or just C:\My Documents\My Music\Album.*, for albums like Azel - Panzer Dragoon RPG - Complete Album, which don't have an artist mentioned on the case, or for various artist albums.
I then use WavPack 4.3 beta to compress them in high quality (more compression) mode, embed the cuesheet in the compressed file and, if necessary, add any extra tags like DISC. Finally, I delete the original two files since I now have a 100% quality compressed backup of them. After that it's just a case of getting my album list blasting in foobar2000 and letting the music play!
Anyone here have their own favourite methods of preserving their precious music collection, or any hints on how I can improve my method, until I get a better CD drive for bit-perfect copies?
