Seeking advice on approaching a large-scale CD ripping project

I use both, ARTIST as well as ALBUMARTIST. Not always in the same way ...

For classical music, I typically tag ALBUMARTIST with every artist that plays the whole album and ARTIST with every artist that plays a given track.

You can also use these to find albums by band as well as bandmembers. For example, I own a lot of albums by Robert Plant. So I tag Led Zeppelin albums with "Led Zeppelin" as ALBUMARTIST" and "Robert Plant\\Jimmy Page\\John Paul Johnes\\John Bonham" as ARTIST.

Now I find all Led Zeppelin albums under Led Zeppelin as well as e.g. Robert Plant. Nifty, ain't it?

For classical music I use additional artist tags, such as SOLOARTIST or ENSEMBLE.

And yes, Album is important, but in some instances I want more and better information.

 

What do you suspect is the reason dBp will attempt a re-rip on bad frames, yet the sound played back seems fine with no obvious issues? Disc was in fact fine, or errors minor enough to not be audible?

I've burned a CD-R copy with Nero that ripped better than the original burned copy sometimes getting a perfect rip when the original would not deliver.

It seems that ripping CDs is very dependent on software and not just the drive's age, speed, or quality. Odd that software could make a disc rip, when a different drive made little or no difference.

What I do is try other drives, and note the number of frames not matched in each. Them I do my secure rip in the drive which showed fewest bad frames. Or I do a insecure rip if the disc is hanging up the drive for too long. One can quickly age a drive if the ripping process hangs on for too long.

I just got three new drives. All vintage machines. I got two NEC DVD/CD-R drives that rip smooth as silk and perform faster/better than my old aging drives (taken out of machines that never used them other than to install programs).
And I found a 2006 era DVD/CD-R LG brand drive on eBay for $14.99. This model was my longest lasting drive I ever owned. Seller had one still in box unused. Everything about this drive just screams quality. Even the sound of the door closing is more smooth and solid than other drives I've owned. And the drive gets top reviews on online forums. It's a beauty and only issue is it writes DVDs at only 4X It's fine, I don't burn that many discs anymore.

It's time to get serious about the rest of the ripping of my collection and get it over with.

 

A new question: are there any concerns about using a drive's fastest reading speed for the ripping? Does the confirmation checking done by the software ensure that the rip was good even when using the fastest speeds?

 

Yes, the confirmation is a little circular sign that says "confirmed". Regardless of the speed, it is either right and accurate or inaccurate.

 

Can you expand on what that means/what is the down side? And is that bad just if you have "use error correction" OFF, or even if it is ON?

I've ripped about 1000 CDs using iTunes on an iMac basically due to ease. I have it set so when I stick in a disc, it swallows it, loads it, rips it, spits out when done. Sooooo easy. Occasionally it prompts me asking which CD I stuck in when CDDB has multiple matches, and that's it. I'm not sure what "metadata problems" so many people seem to have, but then I'm just looking at artist/album/track names.

I did not make a big project out of ripping-I just stick in CDs while I'm doing something else. It is totally a background activity, which suits me fine. I read all these threads where people seem to be stressing so much about ripping and I'm like I just don't get it, for me it is totally

The one area where metadata can be annoying to me is albums with guests, especially hip-hop titles or something like Supernatural where I end up hand-changing to artist to "Santana" for every track instead of "Santana with XXX." I assume that is something any database will be problematic about. Classical title info in CDDB used to be crap, yet again I don't know if there is anything better, and part of it is I just want the artist to say "Buxtehude" not "Dieterich Buxtehude" not "Ton Koopman" (conductor) not the orchestra name. I just accept that if I want those things my way I have to edit them-so after the rip, I just go into iTunes, Get Info, tab through and change quickly. Again I just do it and it is not a stress point, so I'm really clueless why folks get us such anguish. Heh, probably I don't want to know!

 

Well, if you have bad bits ripped, than you (SHOULD) need to know about it - that is all. Just knowing that your tunes are not exactly like the original is what itunes will not let you know. If you are fine not knowing this info, then iTunes is good for you. With iTunes, there is no way to know.

If you are fine with the bad bits sometimes, and not knowing when you have them, then ok, that is the issue with using any ripper without "accurate rip" included as a reference. Error correction is also not the issue here. It's knowing what you have ripped "correct or not" is why the mystery rip is unacceptable to many of us, and why dBpoweramp is our choice ripper.

 

I use EAC to rip and occasionally get a slew of "Accurate Rip" errors detected right at the end of tracks. I'm assuming it's something to do with either my drive or other software running on my computer while doing the rips (maybe MediaMonkey is trying to use the drive simultaneously?). However, when I listen to the tracks I can't hear anything wrong with them - no clicks or pops, even at the end where the error was supposedly detected.

Every now and again I'll encounter an obvious rip error in an older track I ripped years ago using Musicmatch Jukebox. I've been slowly re-ripping those discs over the years.

As for hard drive lifespans, at the rate solid state drives are dropping in price within a decade 4TB solid state drives will probably be available for under $200. In theory - given how little music files are likely to be changed on your drive - those will last a lifetime. SSDs only wear out due to writes, not reads, and there are no mechanical parts to fail.

 

I bought an older LG DVD-R/CD-R drive from ebay as I noted in a previous post. It was in new condition still in original box. $14.99 plus shipping.

It's so obviously the best "ripping" drive in my collection, I hate to use it for ripping, and would like to save it for writes only, as ripping does age drives, and can burn them out.

So this is what I am doing, I am using the NEC drive (one of my other nicer drives) for an initial rip in burst mode, and then whatever comes up (one or two tracks in general) inaccurate, I redo those few tracks in secure mode with the new LG drive. The LG drive tends to nail them perfect.

I just did 30 discs last night checked out from the public library. A couple tracks out of those discs did not rip accurately, but no tracks played back with audible flaws, so that was good. I got the new remastered Wings Over America "Archive Collection", and the two Syd Barrett discs "Opel" and "The Peel Sessions" to complete my Barrett folder section on the music server. I am also completing my Billboard Top Hits collection of discs. (regarding Rhino) I was previously going for just the Top R&R Hits, and Top R&B Hits sets (besides the Have a Nice Day and the British Invasion). But now I am grabbing the ones simply titled Top Hits, and getting 1975 to 1983 in that series. It's regular Pop, and loads of cheesy junk as Pop radio went to crap. but there are some fun tracks in there that I may as well have. My Billboard collection is looking rather great now.

 

If that is happening at the end of the last track on the disc then check to see if the drive is set to "overread into lead-in and lead-out"
EAC >> Drive Options... >> Offset/Speed
It may be that you've enabled that setting but your drive does not actually support that.

If it is happening to tracks in the middle of the disc then try some different gap detection methods
EAC >> Drive Options... >> Gap Detection
There's three different gap retrieval methods. Try each of them.
There's three detection accuracy settings. Perhaps setting detection accuracy to "secure" might fix that.
I wonder if EAC uses the gap detection methods when it synchronizes between tracks?

If that all doesn't help then try different read command settings for the drive
EAC >> Drive Options... >> Drive
It's just trial and error to try the different read commands and find one that may work better than the autodetected read command.

 

The AccurateRip confirmation means you've got an accurate rip even if the rip was done at the fastest burst mode speed.

Rip at the fastest drive speed that works well with your drive. If burst mode ripping works well on your drive then use burst mode. Let AccurateRip alert you if the rip was bad. If the rip was bad switch to a secure mode rip and/or try a lower drive speed setting.

What speed settings work well depends on the drive. With one of my drives the max speed setting results in more errors than one notch below max speed.

 

as long as it rips accurately, you're okay. i still keep exact audio copy around for the occasional disc that just doesn't want to rip accurately on dbpoweramp.

eac seems to rip right through on every disc with my system, but it's just too slow.

 

Musicbrainz has a disambiguation field for recordings (called recordingcomment in it's scripting language). My script in Picard includes this... which adds it in parentheses after the song title. Really nice for identifying different mixes, etc. If there are two tracks with the same name/artist that aren't disambiguated, I just edit it on musicbrainz.com and help everyone.


// Add recording comments except on some generic types

$if($and($ne2(%_recordingcomment%,,original mono studio mix,original stereo studio mix,original stereo mix,original stereo studio master,original mono master,original studio master,officially released studio recording,catchall for unidentified versions,officially released stereo studio recording),$and($ne2(%barcode%,5099969945120,5099969944963),$not($in(%title%,%_recordingcomment%)))),$set(title,%title% \(%_recordingcomment%\)))

The scripting in MusicBrainz Picard is awesome, allowing me to append disambiguating info to the album titles of releases I have multiple versions of such as " (HDTracks)", " (SACD)" etc. with rules like this based on barcodes or MusicBrainz's internal release id.

// Sea Change (MFSL)
$if($eq(%barcode%,821797078061),$set(album,%album% \(MFSL\)))

Great for a coder like me, but a bit of a learning curve!

I've got it now where I can drop my entire iTunes Music library into MusicBrainz Picard and pretty quickly update the tags for any changes that have been made in the MusicBrainz database. Since I keep two iTunes libraries lock step (one Apple Lossless and one 320k AAC on my laptop), being able to make sure all the tags match between the two is crucial and that solves this for me.

 

Thanks for the tips. I did configure the drive when I got it, and it normally worked perfectly. I suspect it was some other software running concurrently - likely MediaMonkey. I just did another half-dozen rips and I made sure nothing else was running at the time - no errors.

 

Are you quite sure that's legal?

 

I wouldn't go there if I were you. You'll get this thread locked up and shut down. Just mind your own business.

 

Getting back on the topic here, I just bought a external "LG GE24NU30 24x Super-Multi External DVD±RW DL Burner Drive for PC/MAC" on eBay for under $30.00. USB 2.0, and I also have a spare Dell Windows Vista box so I think it's about time to get dBpoweramp and get down to business.

This thread has been such a help and I appreciate the many great comments

 

I use an old LG drive for ripping as well - a Hitachi-LG (HL) GDR-8161B DVD-ROM drive. It used to be part of a Compaq desktop PC. Then the PC died, so I took the drive out and connected it to my newer laptop via IDE-to-USB cables. According to the sticker on top of the drive, it was manufactured in 2003, and is still working perfectly fine today!

It only gives problems with Cactus Data Shield (CDS) Copy Controlled discs, where it can't give AccurateRip matches, but the music sounds fine. So for Copy Controlled discs, I use a newer LG GSA-E50N portable slim drive (from 2008), which came free with my laptop. It has a slower ripping speed, but gives AccurateRip matches for most Copy Controlled discs.

 

Frank. I started my ripping project a week ago. I grabbed a free trial of EAC. This rips and converts to Flac, grabs cover and track listing if available.
Slow going made more so with the fact I'm working thru' ALL my CD's. Radio broadcast's, grey area disc's etc, etc.
nine days in and 55 gig ripped and flac'd!
Good luck with your project old chum

BTW, trial is for two weeks but it's looking like the way to go for me at least.

 

EAC is free. No trial. No charge.
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

The only trial periods in EAC are for some of the metadata provider options. Like the GD3 metadata service which requires a paid subscription.

If your copy of EAC is in a trial mode you may have gotten it from a source that is trying to scam you and get you to pay for free software.

 

Is that even legal? No!! That is a felony.

 

i got it from the same link you posted here. i just downloaded a different version to another pc. this latest version is the one i'm more familiar with.

the trial version is different, looks very new. that download link is still available from the same site, newest version.

 

I see what happened. The trial program you have is Easy Audio Copy. Written by the same person who wrote Exact Audio Copy.

It's not a scam. Need to be careful though. It's a common scam to repackage freeware applications and wrap them in adware or just outright change the name and charge for the program. These scam versions of the applications are often distributed through deceptive advertisements in the Google search page or even deceptive big green "download" buttons displayed on the download pages on download sites like CNet's download.com. So need to be careful.

I didn't even know about Easy Audio Copy. A search on hydrogenaudio shows that it is for real and not a scam. A reason I didn't know about it is that I disable ads because ads are often fraudulent and deceptive and occasionally malware. Easy Audio Copy is mentioned on the Exact Audio Copy web site, but is mentioned as an ad that I had blocked.

I'd suggest sticking with the good old Exact Audio Copy version. If you want an easier version then use dBpoweramp, though dBpoweramp is still complex. Maybe Easy Audio Copy is aiming for the market that wants something easier than dBpoweramp? It's certainly possible to be easier than dBpoweramp and much easier than Exact Audio Copy.

 

LG drives, at least the ones from back 8 to 10 or more years ago are just beauties. And they were sold as "feature packed" drives (handle DVD-RAM, etc.) at a slightly lower price point - which makes them all the more surprising.

One thing I have not done yet, is to use a laser cleaning disc on older drives that now perform less than their original accuracy. I suspect that some of the drives that appear to be aging and not always ripping 100% accurate (even on perfectly new discs), is that there is dust on the laser, and nothing wrong other than that. So I have about six drives I have taken out of machines, and are no longer in use. Some of them might be fine after a deep cleaning.

 

Why not? After all, I'm not the one who does something illegal and then goes bragging about it on a public forum. Gotta love your righteous tone, though.

 

When I ripped my thousands of discs, I basically ripped in flac, alac, wav, 320 mp3, and iTunes plus 256. I didn't want to just rip in one format say alac or flac, then convert to a lower format since I feel that ripping to 256 is better sounding than converting alac to 256. Therefore I have a master flac folder, alac folder, and so on and so forth.