flac dev - Sep 2004 - CD Baby using FLAC to archive 40,000 CDs

As for the storage, I recommend something like AFS, that's distributed and
network-transparent.  AFS/Kerberos has a tendency to take
over the network for use as an authentication protocol, but it's both
possible to use AFS/Krb in a hetereogenous environment and a good idea to
switch to Krb5 :).

OpenAFS is quite a good product, I am finding.

A few general notes: Isn't cdparanoia more "correct" at audio
extraction?
And can't you emulate the 'pregap'-etc. effect with a .cue (or
similar)
plus the various .flac files?

-- Asheesh.

-- 
Q:	What's the difference between Bell Labs and the Boy Scouts of America?
A:	The Boy Scouts have adult supervision.

On Wed, 25 Jun 2003, Derek at CD Baby wrote:
> > Actually, I was more interested in how you set up the disk array.
>
> I think we just set up 3ware IDE raid cards with 200-gig drives,
> all on 1 PC for now (3/4 slots) and seems to work OK.
>
> No case would fit them so it's just sprawled out on a desk away from
> everything else with 4 power supplies powering the drives.
>
> When it's time to buy more disks then I'll have to set up a
separate
> PC with more RAID cards and figure out when that day comes how to
> make them all accessible through a single IP.  Maybe NFS.  Not sure.
>
>
>
> > > But definitely doing them as individual songs. Not as a whole CD.
> > > We need the separate songs for working with services like iTunes
+
> > > Rhapsody.
> >
> > Um...there's no reason you can't extract individual songs from
a flac
> > file based on the TOC in it, if someone would just write a little
> > utility to do so. (I may end up doing it one day if nobody else does.)
> > And then you won't lose the stuff in the pregap on live CDs, and
it also
> > makes the storage and naming easier to deal with.
>
> Interesting!
> I'll look into it.  Thansk for the tip.

> A few general notes: Isn't cdparanoia more "correct" at audio
extraction?

Yeah but takes 10 times longer, and for most CDs cdda2wav does a perfect job.

For 40,000 CDs we're willing to have to re-do the occasional problem
oddball,
but choose the faster method for the rest.



--
Derek Sivers, CD Baby, Hostbaby
http://www.cdbaby.com  <-- best new independent music
http://www.hostbaby.com <-- web hosting for musicians

> Actually, I was more interested in how you set up the disk array.
I think we just set up 3ware IDE raid cards with 200-gig drives,
all on 1 PC for now (3/4 slots) and seems to work OK.

No case would fit them so it's just sprawled out on a desk away from 
everything else with 4 power supplies powering the drives.

When it's time to buy more disks then I'll have to set up a separate
PC with more RAID cards and figure out when that day comes how to
make them all accessible through a single IP.  Maybe NFS.  Not sure.


> > But definitely doing them as individual songs. Not as a whole CD.
> > We need the separate songs for working with services like iTunes +
> > Rhapsody.
> 
> Um...there's no reason you can't extract individual songs from a
flac
> file based on the TOC in it, if someone would just write a little
> utility to do so. (I may end up doing it one day if nobody else does.)
> And then you won't lose the stuff in the pregap on live CDs, and it
also
> makes the storage and naming easier to deal with.
Interesting!
I'll look into it.  Thansk for the tip.





--
Derek Sivers, CD Baby, Hostbaby
http://www.cdbaby.com  <-- best new independent music
http://www.hostbaby.com <-- web hosting for musicians