I can't get my music collection (ripped from CDS over the years) to sync to iPad mini OR Iphone4

I have well over 500 songs from cds I've burned onto my computer for safe keeping (for good reason as I don't have any of the cds after moving around so much) I can't get iTunes to sync any of it to my ipad or iphone. It's driving me nuts. I have already paid once for all this music, I shouldn't need to pay $25 for the match in order to have it on my devices.. is there a way to fix this?!