dBpoweramp Version 16

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Batears52, Oct 1, 2016.

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  1. Batears52

    Batears52 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Near Baltimore, MD
    Just wondering if anyone has upgraded to the new version yet - actually 16.1 at this writing. I'm on 15.3 and am wondering whether this is a "must have" upgrade. I use dBpoweramp to rip my CDs to FLAC and also create MP3s for iPod use.

    Thoughts, opinions, recommendations? Thanks!
     
    jamesc likes this.
  2. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    I would imagine this is not a free upgrade for those on v15?
     
  3. Mike-48

    Mike-48 A shadow of my former self

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    I have upgraded. It didn't seem a "must" to me. The main thing I noticed is that the GUI has been changed. It's not better or worse, just different. I believe that new metadata sources have been added to the paid version, to make up for one that no longer exists. In operation, I don't notice a difference.
     
    JediJoker likes this.
  4. Batears52

    Batears52 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Near Baltimore, MD
    Correct.
     
  5. shaboo

    shaboo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bonn, Germany
    Did they finally manage to incorporate detection of pre-emphasis CDs?
     
  6. Batears52

    Batears52 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Near Baltimore, MD
    I believe they added Discogs as a metadata source - and no, I have not seen anything about pre-emphasis detection. At this point, I think that's a lost cause.

    Anyone else have v16?
     
  7. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    I'm assuming that 16 is a Windows upgrade as the latest I see for Mac 15.6. How much was the upgrade?
     
  8. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    If the tag is in the TOC it always has (For PC), SUB detection was derailed because it was located where copy protection was, EAC I believe received a cease and desist years ago, and why it remains only on one of the pre-beta versions
    Spoon ignores my requests for an EQ filter :laugh:
     
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2016
    jamesc and shaboo like this.
  9. Batears52

    Batears52 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Near Baltimore, MD
    Well, at least from a disc-ripping point of view, it doesn't appear that it's absolutely necessary to upgrade to Version 16. Same version of FLAC, etc. as v15.3. I'm tempted to stay with 15.3 and rip as much as I can with FLAC 1.3.1. Also, I edit the meta data myself as needed and prefer to search for the best quality artwork. Comments welcome!
     
    Grant, SteelyNJ and c-eling like this.
  10. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    Same here, happy with it, Until Spoon add's something I need I'll probably stick with it
     
  11. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    I'm glad that you asked, I was going to do the same.
     
  12. slainte

    slainte Forum Resident

    Location:
    philadelphia, pa
    funny you should mention this....i was halfway through ripping the cd box 'who can I be now?' when I realized I should check to see if there are any updates.

    I would definitely upgrade if spoon allowed for a hybrid license ( win and Mac).
     
  13. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    Yes, me too. I paid for both.
     
  14. Time Is On My Side

    Time Is On My Side Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    I upgraded to 16.1 when it came out. I like it, but I could get by with 15.3. It just seems to be a different interface and there are some different metadata options. That's about all I can find that is different.
     
    slainte and SamS like this.
  15. slainte

    slainte Forum Resident

    Location:
    philadelphia, pa
    just curious. . .which additional options do they present for the metadata?
     
  16. GreenDrazi

    GreenDrazi Truth is beauty

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    Folks - read the change log if you want to know what's changed.
     
    slainte likes this.
  17. slainte

    slainte Forum Resident

    Location:
    philadelphia, pa
    thanks for linking directly to the changelog!
     
  18. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    I just upgraded to version 16 today. I haven't ripped anything with it yet to test out how it works and what's different.

    Feature-wise there isn't much that is compelling to really entice people to upgrade. Mostly incremental changes that make things a little better. That's typical of mature software. The UI changes for high DPI will be nice for people that have high DPI displays, or that will be getting high DPI displays. I'll be getting a true high DPI display at some point. So that feature will be nice to have and worth the upgrade.

    The real reason I upgraded is to support dBpoweramp and AccurateRip. I'll continue to upgrade to each new version. Spoon developed AccurateRip. AccurateRip was the best thing to happen for CD ripping and those of us who own and rip a lot of CDs. And for that I'll keep supporting dBpoweramp as long as I'm ripping CDs. I've been using dBpoweramp for almost a decade. The majority of my library was ripped using dBpoweramp.

    It's unfortunate that AMG (AllMusic Guide) is no longer going to be a metadata source. That's AMG's doing. They changed the licensing. What was great about AMG metadata is that they were consistent in how they named bands, artists, album titles, and song titles. Consistent and predictable. Especially for classical where other data sources can be very very inconsistent. Having AMG as a data source in PerfectMeta helped get the tagging info that comes out of PerfectMeta to be consistent. Having AMG as a heavily weighted data source helped make all of the data ultimately better. And now it's gone. The good news is that MusicBrainz has been working to make their data more consistent over the years. So maybe the MusicBrainz data can take the place of AMG for being the king of data consistency. Unfortunately I do not like the way MusicBrainz tags classical. I liked the way AMG tagged classical. I'll now have to rely more on SonataDB for classical tagging. Discogs isn't a good replacement for AMG. Discogs doesn't have good data constancy.

    Once I rip some CDs with the new version of dBpoweramp I'll get a feel for how the new metadata sources are working out and how well PerfectMeta is able to combine the new data sources into consistent tagging info.
     
    wilejoe, jkauff and jamesc like this.
  19. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I've never ever gotten consistent tagging data for classical rips. Not previously, nor do I expect it in the near future. I've had to enter it by hand using copy and paste for various fields not already filled in correctly.

    The front basic fields offered up in dBpoweramp (and likely other ripping sw) is simply not designed for classical data. To dig deeper into the sw for the composer and various performer fields is combersome to say the least. Then there is the limited characters one can enter into some of these fields together with long names of orchestras and you have a mess on your hands.

    I came up with my own system for tagging. I want the master folder to be by composer and not conductor with orchestra. All Bartok needs to be in one folder, and all Stravinsky needs to be together in one folder. Just like bins in a record store. Quite simple to me, but not to the designers of ripping software.

    8tbs of FLAC later and I think it will be ok.
     
  20. slainte

    slainte Forum Resident

    Location:
    philadelphia, pa
    for the relatively small amount of classical i have in my library, it was nice to have 'sonata db' as meta source. i guess licensing changed with that one as well. . .
     
  21. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    I adjusted my classical tagging to mostly conform to the way dBpoweramp tagged classical. It was easier to conform than to resist.

    The main tags I'm interested in are the artist, album artist, album, and track name. I'll likely be manually fixing the composer tag. I will need to manually fill in the conductor tag. Along with the orchestra. I don't bother with filling in individual performers (except for a very few albums). So for the way I've adapted to tagging classical the PerfectMeta tags with AMG as the primary source are pretty much what I go with.

    For classical I've gone with:
    ARTIST: the composer
    ALBUM ARTIST: something like Yo-Yo Ma if it's a Yo-Yo Ma compilation, otherwise it is "various artists" or the composer for the entire CD
    ALBUM: something that lets me know what the CD is and what is on it
    TRACK NAME: a consistent track name formatting that happens to be very similar to what AMG uses and what MusicBrainz use to use.

    And for that dBpoweramp does wonderfully for ripping classical. The other tags I like for classical I can add later manually after the tracks are imported in to JRiver Media Center.
     
  22. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Did version 16 stop using SonataDB?
    I have noticed that SonataDB didn't have some of the classical albums that AMG had. AMG was more complete. SonataDB was hit or miss. More often a miss of obscure stuff.
     
  23. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Yes, but I find the incoming data not as you described in your favored way. I find it wildly scattered and a mess. User generated is what it's called. God bless those classical users, because they often cannot type, spell or write. Plus 90% of my classical is the modern avant-garde type, obscure is what it is called. The data (if it is there at all) needs severe editing before the rip.

    It has gotten better now than it was five years ago when I first started. I had to skip around the collection and rip what was partially in the databases, rather than what was totally missing. Sometimes going back later was effective.

    ALBUM ARTIST field with composer is not what the world does with classical as a habit.
     
  24. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    I just tried ripping a few classical CDs using the new version of dBpoweramp. SonataDB is still there. SonataDB only shows up in PerfectMeta if you insert a classical CD. Otherwise GD3 shows up in the place of where SonataDB would have been.

    The quality of PerfectMeta tagging data for classical is not as good now that AMG is gone. AMG added some much needed consistency that caused the AI in PerfectMeta to make better choices for the chosen tags.

    Version 16 of dBpoweramp is a step backwards for ripping classical. But what can you do? AMG is gone now. That's not dBpoweramp's fault. Thanks AMG. You've gone from hero to zero. The new owners of AMG are doing their best to drive AMG to irrelevance.

    Looks like I'm going to have to start contributing to MusicBrainz to get more classical titles in their database. MusicBrainz is currently missing too much. Most of the classical titles I quickly tried tonight were not in the MusicBrainz database. Those titles would have been in the AMG database.
     
  25. GreenDrazi

    GreenDrazi Truth is beauty

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    The dBp version has nothing to do with the loss of AMG metadata service and its impact on classical metadata.
     
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