Ripping CDs: Is AccurateRip really necessary, or just being anal?

The problem with doing stuff for free is that you generally get what you pay for.

 

I did this before buying dbPowerAmp. I did it on a old, under powered PC and if I did anything else on the PC, the encoding would die. It was mostly due to the machine, but at least part of the problem is that iTunes wanted 100% of the CPU to do the encoding. If it didn't get it, it choked. This wasn't a problem with using iTunes directly to convert from WAV to ALAC. It only happened when invoking iTunes though the Windows object interface.

This was many years ago, iTunes 5 or 6, so I hope it isn't a problem any more.

 

A bit is a bit. You won't hear differences in the highs or lows or dynamic range. There may be differences in terms of pops and clicks. You can reduce the ripping speed to maybe 4x or 2x to reduce read errors.

 

That's about right. If you look at the dBpoweramp site under AccurateRip, it states around 2% of ripped discs have errors.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/perfecttunes.htm

 

True, but the free version has done the job for me all these years, as does MediaMonkey.

 

Media Monkey is a horrible, horrible program in my experience. I had about 20 major crashes and problems with it. Not a stable program during the years I tried it. I gave up and just used Tag & Rename, and settled on iTunes purely for organizing playlists, loading music files onto iPods, and playing back on my servers.

 

I wanted to pay for dBpoweramp. Because I wanted to support the developer, I knew that I would be using it on countless computers, and the price seemed rather low.

But I am not above doing little tricks to use trial periods beyond their normal limit. I've once in a while reversed my computer to an earlier date before I installed a piece of sw. Then reinstalled it and got another trial out of it. Got another 30 days. I don't claim to be an angel goody two-shoes. LOL!

But for dBpower, and for ClickRepair, I paid for both. These people have written original code and not copied someone else's work. I will use these programs for many years I know it. And they were cheap anyway.

 

Exactly. I'm a big advocate for supporting small software companies like this, particularly when they have terrific support (as dBP does).

 

It has a small problem with RAM, but, otherwise, it tags great. I only use it for tagging. Nothing else.

 

Agree 100%. If it's a free program with no paid version, like MP3Tag, I send a donation to the author.

 

Another good way to do it is just use EAC to make CUE files on an external HDD. You can use Daemon Tools for free, mount the CUE, rip the CUE with iTunes to whatever format you want. All free, all accurate. You have image backups then too if they ever come out with a new format.

 

Have they deigned to add cuesheet support yet? There's still no mention of it on their description page.

 

I use it only to compare to see if my rips are good. dBpoweramp is the tool of choice, EAC is hard on drives, so not allowed here.

 

EAC is no harder on drives than you tell it to be.

 

A long time ago I used to rip my CDs to MP3. The process I read that gave the highest quality and most error free MP3 was to rip to a Wave File using EAC then convert the Wave File to a high bit or variable bit rate using lame. All my MP3s were perfect. The only issue is I lost the tags and needed to retag the files. This was a horribly long process but the results were flawless. Now I am considering starting the process over to rip to FLAC. I was about to purchase dBpoweramp and just rip away. After reading this post I believe there needs to be an additional process incorporated to assure clean rips. Is it recommended to rip the CD with dBpoweramp and then run accuraterip? Is accuraterip included with dBpoweramp when you purchase it or an additional purchase or just a setting that you switch on when ripping using dBpoweramp?

 

AccurateRip verification is done during the ripping process with dBpoweramp and EAC.

There are some tools that can post-process a rip to verify if it was accurately ripped after-the-fact. CUETools is one such tool. PerfectTUNES by dBpoweramp is another.

But the very most common way AccurateRip is used is to have it verify during the ripping process.

 

Thanks, I just purchased both dBpoweramp and PerfectTunes, so from what I understand you are saying I am almost ready to go. I just need to run the downloads and read up on the process. Any other tips in using either programs would be helpful.

 

I use dBpoweramp for ripping. I have never used PerfectTunes. Can't offer any advice on using PerfectTunes.

dBpoweramp takes a little bit of tweaking to get set up.

First tweak is to get it to display the "Track Technical" column. Explained here: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/help/dmc/CDhelp.htm
scroll down to Track List Columns

Other setup tweaks will be to get folder naming and track naming set so your rips get put where you want, with names you want, in directories that make sense. You'll want to test to make sure that regular albums with a single artist get named correctly. And test a multiple artists album to make sure that gets named correctly (with files all getting saved to one directory rather than saved in different directories for each artist). I believe the defaults in dBpoweramp should set things up right. But it's been so long since I've done a fresh install that I don't know.

Other than that, dBpoweramp will be ready to go for the most part.

 

Great, can't wait to get started. If I understand correctly, prior to ripping I define the directory I want the songs to be placed in. This would be a universal directory for all rips to be sent to. I would then manually move each album to a more complex directory structure if I so wish? I assume I also define the tags I want associated with each rip, this being a universal setting that then follows consecutive rips? Once home from work I will read up and post any questions I may have. Thanks for the help this far.

 

That's about it for getting started. You can make it as complicated as you want from that point on. I tend to make things complicated in the way I handle things after the rip. All depends on how you want to manage and organize your files. And what media player you'll be using to manage the files.

You'll want to keep an eye on the Track Technical column to see if a CD has HDCD or pre-emphasis. Those discs you'll want to handle differently. I rip HDCD discs twice. Once with HDCD decoding and once without HDCD decoding. dBpoweramp is able to do HDCD decoding as one of its DSP options.

You'll want to think about naming conventions for albums that you have multiple copies/versions/masterings of. You'll need to name the albums so all those versions stay separate and so you'll know which is which when you view them in your media player. I add square brackets at the end of the album title with the label or other identifier inside the brackets. Like "Sea Change [MFSL]" "Sea Change [DGC]" etc.

 

(The anal part) C'mon, how can I be the only one with the US OMD-Crush, geesh (Not Found In Accurate Rip)

 

dbPowerAmp's CD Ripper checks five different online databases -- All Media Guide, SonataDB, GD3, MusicBrainz, freedb -- which is more than any other CD Ripper. If your CD isn't in any of the five, then you're screwed. My advice: enter the info in manually, then voluntarily send the info in so that the next person will have the info.

 

So where's the Mac dBpoweramp already?

 

That will work just fine until one day it won't. Ask me how I know. There's nothing quite as unsettling as wondering how many more land mines are lurking after you trip over the first one.

 

If the meta data is found but it's not in AccurateRip, you're probably the first to rip that pressing with software that feeds AccurateRip. It happens quite a bit with brand new CDs and old ones.