Getting Started: Rip to ? File Format?

[Vincent Kars]

Anyone got any suggestions that have worked for them in the real world?

I do all my tagging with MusiCHI tagger.
It is build with classical in mind.
It has a large database with almost all composers and a growing number of compositions.
Its Cleaner is pretty powerful: http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/CHI/CHI_Cleaner.htm

 

[Vincent Kars]

I have DBpoweramp set to: Artist/Album Title/Track Title

Beware of samplers. With this rule they get scattered all over the file system.
I prefer a single folder for each CD.
http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/Intro/Ripping.htm

 

[Diapason]

That's great Vincent, thank you!

 

[Sauerball]

Beware of samplers. With this rule they get scattered all over the file system.
I prefer a single folder for each CD.
http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/Intro/Ripping.htm

Agreed. I set dbPoweramp to /album - album artist/ title

Every album in a distinct folder.

 

[garylkoh]

Beware of samplers. With this rule they get scattered all over the file system.
I prefer a single folder for each CD.
http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/Intro/Ripping.htm

I organize my library by genre\artist\album\track

dBpowerAmp allows for compilations like samplers to be into a folder called [Various Artists].

This is what I have set for file naming

[genre]\[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][artist][][]\[album]\[track] [title]

 

[DonH50]

Anybody tried fre:ac? I downloaded it after looking over some reviews and on the advice of a friend, but am just starting the ripping process so am debating if I should just bite the bullet and pick up dBpoweramp instead...

Curious, thanks - Don

 

[Vincent Kars]

Almost any media player has the option to rip a CD.
Makes me wonder what the advantages are of using fre:ac.

An option I like is support of accurate rip, it tells you if your rip is bit perfect.
Another one is meta data. Most use freedb. Nothing wrong but it is a bit unstructured.
If you are going to rip classical I’m inclined to say no. You need a well-structured provider like AMG or GD3

If you want free ware with Accurate Rip support, have a good look at MusicBee: http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/MusicBee/MusicBee_Ripping.htm

If you want Accurate Rip and excellent meta data support its dBpoweramp
IMHO the best ripper there is.
http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/ripping.html

A happy dBpoweramp owner

Vincent

 

[DonH50]

Hi Vincent,

Thanks for the comments and the link (I had actually read it earlier). The only media players I had were iTunes and Windows Media Player, neither of which seems to do FLAC, so I was just looking around. I am hoping to set up a Sonos system over Christmas break and was looking for something to start with since virtually all my tunes now are CD or vinyl. fre:ac seems to have some decent features and good reviews but I didn't want to start the process only to have to get something else halfway through several hundred CDs.

It sounds like the overwhelming majority prefer dBpoweramp so I'll go that route.

Thanks,
Don

 

[Vincent Kars]

Hi Don

Good choice imho
There are rumors that FLAC will be supported by Win10.
However, the tagging of WMP is not really refined.
Having ones cover art reduced to 256x256 doesn’t appeal to me either.

The only down side of dBpoweramp is that it is a ripper only.
You can’t use it to correct your tags afterwards.
If you rip to FLAC (I do recommend) you might need an editor to correct tags.
MP3Tag is a famous piece of freeware.
The editing options of JRiver are excellent.

 

[rbbert]

The dBpoweramp I use includes an ID3 tag editor?

 

[Vincent Kars]

It can tag using the ID3 schema.
But once you have ripped you can't use it to tag files on your HD as far as I know.

 

[rbbert]

It can tag using the ID3 schema.
But once you have ripped you can't use it to tag files on your HD as far as I know.

When I right click a FLAC (or WAV, for that matter) file, one of the options that pops up is "edit ID3 Tag", and choosing it brings up a window with tags that can be edited? I did pay $12 or so for my version of dBpoweramp; it includes a multitude of DSP options like HDCD as well as file conversion capabilities.

 

[Vincent Kars]

Correct, this is the win explorer popup.
One can use it to edit indeed.
What I had in mind was that you can't use the Perfect Meta data once a track in on HD.
Should have been more precice

THX

 

[garylkoh]

Actually, most of us pay for dBpowerAmp and use just a fraction of its capabilities.

I've used the Batch/Music Converter to manipulate and change ID3 Tags - when I've made a mistake for an example. You can add a DSP called ID Tag Processing to manipulate the existing tags you've already put in.

Another useful process was for me to run HDCD decoding on my entire hard-disk without having to re-rip the CDs that were HDCD encoded. That was how I discovered that a bunch of my CDs had HDCD encoding even though they weren't listed as such on the album covers, and the HDCD logo wasn't on the disk may be due to licencing issues but possibly the mastering studio used a HDCD-enabled suite of hardware/software. According to dBpowerAmp this is safe as it leaves un-HDCD encoded files untouched.

 

[DonH50]

Gary - "add a DSP" = ??? Means digital signal processor to me, sorry...

Appreciate all the thoughts provided. I don't mind paying (too much) for dBpoweramp, but don't want to repeat past mistakes when I have gone through e.g. several ~$100+ drawing packages before finding one that actually did the job. Hoping to learn form others' mistakes instead of my own for once...

 

[garylkoh]

Yes - DSP means digital signal processor, but the dBpowerAmp Music Converter use this to refer to pre/post processes on the file, and one of the plug-ins is a ID tag converter. They have a number of DSP plug-ins that do nothing to the file, including forcing CPU, etc.

There are some that completely scramble the file - including a Karaoke function that removes either the voice or the instrument backing.

 

[DonH50]

Ah, thanks Gary.

Something definitely needs to be scrambled if I do Karaoke...

 

[NC Lee]

OK, I've got 1000's of audio files in various file types (FLAC, DSF, APE, DFF, DTS, ?) with various naming conventions. I'd like uniformity of all (FLAC) and all named in the same convention. How best to manipulate my 300+g music collection? Is dBpoweramp the magic tool?

 

[WBTbabe]

Why not ripping it to AIF format? isn't it the better format option for ripping a regular Audio CD?