Mac Users: Anybody Try XLD for secure ripping?

No, it’s not a bug. You have an error on a CD that XLD can not resolve in secure mode, but it can overlook in a non-secure mode. It may be an audible error or it may be not.

I suggest that you try to rip this on another PC (Apple or Windows) using XLD, EAC or dBpoweramp to see if the different drive can do a better job at resolving the error.

 

I would like to know this, too. Furthermore, I hope it's based off of matrix, etc. numbers and not actual album titles (due to CDDB, etc. having multiple versions, multiple versions due to remasters, etc.).

I just used etc. three times. A shame!

 

It's just weird that Max (sbooth.org) can do it in paranoia mode without issue (on the same MacBook Pro; with the same internal optical drive - HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS23N).

Usually when I have this problem, I take the same CD to a PC with EAC configured similarly as XLD with a Plextor drive, and it rips fine. I'm about to sell said PC, however, and need to have another option going forward when XLD decides to do what it's...doing right now.

To surmise, I suspect hardware - though I've ripped hundreds of CD's with my MBP's internal drive - utilizing XLD - without issue. Any suggestions for good/cheap external optical drives?

Thanks!

 

Related, has anyone tried using sbooth's RIP yet? I will give it a whirl with the same disc/hardware and see what gives.

http://sbooth.org/Rip/

 

RIP couldn't extract the same track - found an average of 67 C2 errors after 5 retries. It looks like I'll have to try alternate hardware.

Unrelated, RIP is pretty awesome - does CUE and LOG files, ReplayGain - and seems far more intuitive than XLD (no disrespect). Hopefully it will be out of beta soon!

 

Yes.

 

Looks interesting. I'll try it out.

 

None really. I would just avoid the slim line models as they typically are not nearly as robust at speed nor handling errors that standard size drives are.

 

Thanks for the advice - just bought an LG External GE24 (one of the few externals that comes with a wall wart, as opposed to dual USB connections - one for power, the other for data transfer). Same results with XLD, although now of course after looking very closely at the CD itself (I only quickly glanced at it before in low light; it's new and therefore I thought pristine - a mistake!), there is a small but non-perpendicular (i.e. the worst kind) scratch relatively close to the center.

So, since XLD is failing on track one (which is 20:05 in length and erroring out @ 34.3% through), and I think the laser reads from center to rim, the scratch is probably the reason for error(s), right?

If anything, at least I think I've determined it's just a disc issue, and not an optical drive/XLD issue. Thanks again for help/advice!

 

DB Power AMP

I gave up with ripping to FLAC on the MAC. Max is OK but not flexible enough. Instead I run DB Poweramp via VM Ware. It works very well indeed. Thus far I have ripped nearly 2000 out of 4000 CDs. With DB it is less of a chore than the other programmes available on the MAC.

 

A beta program that hasn't been updated in almost a year? Think I'll pass...

XLD is updated constantly, and e-mail's I've sent to tmkk usually get answered pretty quickly.

 

In the preferences, you can set the naming properties of tracks ripped in XLD to "%n %t", which will match how iTunes' file naming convention. You can also set the output of files encoded by XLD to the "Automatically add to iTunes" folder inside your iTunes Media folder (in v.9 and up), and when you next start iTunes it'll inspect the file and add it to your library as if you ripped it in iTunes yourself.

All that hash that showed up in your Track Names...did you see that in XLD when it found the track info in freedb? Cause you can edit the tags in XLD before ripping them if that's the case. But I've never seen tags like that pop up in XLD before.

 

Can someone please answer a question? I'm setting up XLD (I'm a XLD newbie who has used EAC on the Win side), and I don't know what to check for "set Oggs filetype" in the FLAC settings.

From poking around online, it appears that setting this means I can play the files in iTunes, but I'm not sure if I'll be doing that at all (I'm also ripping to Apple lossless), and I'm concerned that there might be some unwanted side effect on the Windows side, as I'm going back and forth with the files.

Since I'm about to rip a large collection (2500+ CDs), I want to get this right. I looked at the XLD tutorials, but they're not specific enough for me on this point.

Thanks in advance!

 

Unless you are using Ogg codecs (which is really just a "container"), don’t check it.

There are some codecs/hacks that allowing playing Flac and/or Ogg in iTunes, but I don’t use them and don’t recommend them. I recommend that you pick the format that is your dominant use and stick with it, as there is no difference in sound quality among lossless formats. And you can easily convert one format to another with no loss in quality.

If you’re using mostly iTunes/iPods/Macs, then use ALAC. Outside of that closed loop, Flac dominates.

 

Thanks!

 

That was my problem with all of SBooth's software. The support is sporadic, and the programs are real buggy and have strange interface issues. My favorite are disclaimers like this:

"There is currently no stable version of Rip."

That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. It's stuff like this that drove me to dBPowerAmp, kicking and screaming.

I'd gladly pay $100 for a version of dBPowerAmp that worked natively under Mac OSX.

I agree with GreenDrazi above that ALAC is not a great choice if you're in the Apple iTunes / iPod universe. But there are alternate programs like Songbird that play FLACs just fine on the Mac, and there's lots of programs that will convert FLAC -> ALAC and ALAC -> FLAC under OSX.

 

VLC plays FLAC's as well.

If you install Perian, any Quicktime-enabled application (including iTunes) will play FLAC's, although from time to time, I have had problems with 24 bit FLAC files playing correctly--sometimes they are overlaid with pumping, hissing noise, other files play too slowly. Converting them to ALAC solves these problems.

 

NOT a great choice for a Mac? Why not? Just for the simple fact that editing metadata on a Mac for FLACs is a nightmare (I haven't experimented too much with Songbird), ALAC is the way to go. Aside from some compatibility issues I had with a Squeezebox Touch (ALAC songs would drop off the last 10 seconds of every song), there's been zero issues using ALAC. I have my iTunes library integrated with a hardwired Sonos Zone Player and my iPod Touch and everything works great.

I know that there's some weird Big Brother hatred towards iTunes out there, but outside of it's latest Ping integration, whose presence I find somewhat annoying, I don't feel much of it's warranted. It works perfectly fine for me and always has. Even when I was on Windows machines.

 

Try using sbooth's 'Tag' software (for editing FLAC metadata):

http://sbooth.org/Tag/

 

Also Vox.

 

I'm ripping a couple of the The Beatles's 2009 Remaster sterero cds and I select the CDDB to name & obtain disc info. The selections are FreeDB and MucisBrainz. The CDDB isn't naming the correct name for as example "Revolver" [2009 Sterero Remaster] its just naming it "Revolver". I have the latest update on XLD Version 20101107 (124.1) When I take these rips into ITunes it lists the as "Revolver". I would like to have them say "Revolver [2009 Stereo Remaster]. Now I have ripped this same cd in Toast, doesn't show the "Revolver" [2009 Sterero Remaster] but it appears in ITunes when I import the songs. So what I'm asking or trying to find out is there any settings to change to obtain the correct name of the cd on the XLD software or it just doesn't offer it?

 

For clarification, are you requesting help with getting XLD to reproduce the specific query you want or are you requesting help with modifying what you get so that when you rip the files will display: Revolver [2009 Stereo Remaster]?

For the former, no luck there at all. If the databases it queries don't have the info then your option is manual only (and by extension, going to FreeDBa and MusicBrainz and inputing that information yourself so future users don't share your grief).

The manual route:

Query DB
Highlight all tracks in the window once the info has been retrieved
Under the Album field add: [2009 Stereo Remaster]
Close that window
Now continue ripping

the correct info will now show up in any software that can read the meta data tags. There is a chance that iTunes is actually querying a separate DB from just the standard CDDB that XLD may have access to (if it does at all, I don't think it does by default).

 

1. The title of the CD is “Revolver” which is what the database reflects and probably what most users want and submit. You are free to change/customize the data provided. It’s pretty rare when I rip a CD and not change something about the tag info.

2. Tag info is provided by the database selected by the application and not by the software itself. Although, there are several databases available for application developers to chose from.

 

The tagging is done in XLD. Any changes you want to make must be done in XLD before you rip the CD. When you import the converted tracks into iTunes, the tagging that was done in XLD is what appears. iTunes doesn't re-tag anything or query CDDB on tracks that are imported. You, however, can edit the tags in iTunes yourself.

I much prefer CDDB's tagging info (which iTunes uses) over FreeDB and MusicBrainz (which XLD uses)...but what are you gonna do? I like the rip quality in XLD better, so if I have to re-tag in iTunes to get them the way I want, I guess it's a small price to pay. I'd love it if XLD utilized CDDB, though.

 

Me too, but as you say, a small price to pay.