EAC vs CueTools vs. dbPoweramp

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by buzzy, Apr 12, 2020.

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  1. George P

    George P Notable Member

    Location:
    NYC
    :agree:
     
  2. mj_patrick

    mj_patrick Senior Member

    Location:
    Elkhart, IN, USA
    It is handy for quick tag edits for sure, but it also requires manually going through each album directory with Windows Explorer. That quickly becomes very tedious when looking for ways to save time when working with large collections.
     
    tin ears likes this.
  3. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
  4. Mike-48

    Mike-48 A shadow of my former self

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    Yes, this also can be done with JRiver or mp3tag.
     
  5. George P

    George P Notable Member

    Location:
    NYC
    And Mediamonkey.
     
  6. buzzy

    buzzy Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Rhode Island, USA
    Thanks to you all, it is helpful hearing why you've chosen slightly different strategies. It sounds like, and correct me if I'm wrong, whether I choose to embed small, large, or not at all and just keep the jpgs in the folder, I can always go back and change it to my liking, albeit with some tedium.

    Yes, I want to get the folder organization figured out beforehand as well. I'll probably have to start another thread dealing with just that. I do love the way CueTools puts release year higher up in the hierarchy by default, something I probably wouldn't have thought of at first until I saw all the albums listed alphabetically instead of chronologically. One basic question I have about folders is does it mess everything up to change the folder around post rip? In other words, is any of the folder hierarchy path written to the file, and if you start manually changing that could it confuse a player?

    Is there other metadata besides artwork that you normally put in the folder (not embed)? Would lyrics fall under that category, or can they be embedded?

    I've read about large files causing problems with some players, but I thought it was just a problem with displaying artwork, I didn't know they actually wouldn't even play the music- Yeah, that would suck.

    That seems like best of both worlds that a lot of people seem to do. So players that need the smaller size just display it from the file, but you can tell a more capable player to grab the folder jpg and ignore the file jpg.

    So it sounds like you do embed it in the file eventually when you find the quality you want, or do you just mean put it in the folder?

    Are you saying you can embed and put a larger file in the folder at the same time during the rip? That would be cool.

    So you have 3 different file sizes for jpgs, one large 1000x1000 in folder, one in the archive file 300x300 embedded, and one in a car file 600x600 embedded. Not sure what you mean by 250 file size?
     
  7. PooreBoy

    PooreBoy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lake City, TN
    I’ve been using DBPA for probably 10+ years or so. For me it’s one of the best audio file programs I’ve used. It’s extremely versatile, and has a plug-in for virtually every audio file type.
    The one feature that puts it over the top, at least for me, is it’s ability to use multi core processing when converting multiple files.
    If you have an octacore processor, it will use all 8 cores to process a different file. So it’s converting 8 files simultaneously.
    This really speeds up the conversion process.
     
    tin ears likes this.
  8. Randoms

    Randoms Aerie Faerie Nonsense

    Location:
    UK
    Hi @buzzy, I only use two sizes and only embed for the car.

    For my domestic players I have one disc in one folder which contains, a Folder.jpg with the cover 1000x1000 pixel size with a max file size of 300KB - this is one setting with two parameters.

    Yes, you can manipulate the folders.

    The Pioneer car unit requires the cover art to be embedded, a maximum pixel size of 600x600 and maximum file size of 250KB.
     
  9. buzzy

    buzzy Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Rhode Island, USA
    Oh ok, I see your +1 on the not embedding in master files now- thanks @Randoms.
     
    Randoms likes this.
  10. buzzy

    buzzy Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Rhode Island, USA
    Hmm, ok, my intel i7 laptop has 4 cores, so I guess I can do four files at once. Just to be clear you're talking about converting, which is say going from FLAC to MP3 for instance, and not ripping?
     
  11. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    The use of multiple cores is only going to kick in doing file conversions. You can't rip CD tracks fast enough to get more than one core busy doing the file conversion. Ripping tracks from a CD just isn't fast enough. It is possible for the converter to fill up all of the cores by converting multiple files at once.

    One of the improvements in dBpoweramp R17 is that it can now use up to 64 cores for the converter. Preparing for the future of CPUs with lots of cores.
     
  12. AmadeusMozart

    AmadeusMozart Forum Resident

    Library Eye likes this.
  13. mj_patrick

    mj_patrick Senior Member

    Location:
    Elkhart, IN, USA
    I just put it in the folder and name it folder_hd.jpg*. No embedding. I use Foobar2000 for playback at home, and it can be set up to look for a specific file name in each directory to use for artwork to display. In my case, embedding is just extra steps and data that isn't needed, and going back to update them starts to become a pain in the ass.

    When I transcode from FLAC to lossy AAC or mp3-based files that I'm going to use on my phone, that is when I start embedding artwork. And in that case I'm using an entirely different program and platform to do so (XLD on MacOS), and it has been configured to look for that same specific file name to use as artwork and embed at the time of the encode.

    Everybody has their own tools, workflows, processes and ultimately preferences. Keep an open mind to trying out different software and not limiting yourself to one program to try and handle everything. Hope this helps!

    (*The reason for not naming art files folder.jpg is because when I first got, Windows Media Player used to scan music directories for artwork and automatically downsize images named folder.jpg to 200px X 200px thumbnails. This was many years ago and I'm sure they've since removed the "feature"... needless to say I stopped using that common filename for artwork.)
     
  14. Randoms

    Randoms Aerie Faerie Nonsense

    Location:
    UK
    Like many matters with ripping and tagging, there are many good ways of achieving what you want. After a couple of months the routine was second nature, so I simply looked at what I wanted to achieve, which was my personal digital music library, which was basically how I'd filed LPs for decades.

    Once I realised what I wanted to achieve, I asked people with years of experience with the software how to achieve it. Unfortunately there are so few standards in tagging and we work with the players we use whilst trying to retain compatibility.

    If we have lossless files error free, with good tags, we can then manipulate then how we want.
     
  15. Randoms

    Randoms Aerie Faerie Nonsense

    Location:
    UK
    And many simply don't let WMP near their files because of this!

    Foobar2000 is excellent.
     
  16. PooreBoy

    PooreBoy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lake City, TN
    Yes, this is only for conversion...not ripping.

    [​IMG]
     
    Randoms, c-eling and buzzy like this.
  17. c-eling

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

    Thanks Ham, updated.
    Finally..... Spoon added the pre-emphasis curve. Unfortunately it's not engaging.
     
  18. c-eling

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

    After some rather pointless back and forth on his forum I still can't get the pre-emphasis EQ to set while ripping. Oh well, it was the thought that counts right? :laugh:
     
    patient_ot likes this.
  19. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I'm gonna guess bugs are still being worked out on the new version. I'm sure you have other ways to decode PE from your ripped files in the meantime :).
     
  20. c-eling

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

    Oh I do, foobar works great. Spoon claims it works.
    More of a convenience thing than anything else.
     
    Randoms and patient_ot like this.
  21. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    @buzzy, this might help you...last year I started five separate threads about tagging and NAS storage strategy, each dealing with different specific topics and questions. You can access them by doing a thread title search on the word, "Workflow"

    I encourage other participants in this thread to contribute to each of those, anything we've missed, and help keep those alive and useful! :wave:
     
    Last edited: May 20, 2020
    buzzy and Randoms like this.
  22. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Yes, this is a particularly-variable component of the process that really needs its' own "recipe book"!
     
    Randoms likes this.
  23. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Gonna post the first of these threads right here.
    Your Ripping Workflow #1 - (NAS or) hard drive structure*

    If this thread doesn't answer your question, for heaven's sake, ask that in there, so others can share...
     
    buzzy likes this.
  24. Sevoflurane

    Sevoflurane Forum Resident

    I have never used CueTools, have only briefly used EAC, but have been happily using dBPoweramp for years. Worth the money IMHO. The support is good too.

    I’m sure the other two apps are just as versatile, and they certainly both have their advocates, but if I find an app that does the job with minimal fuss I tend to stick with it.
     
    tin ears, PooreBoy and Mike-48 like this.
  25. Sorry, I'm new here and this caught my eye -- as my usual CD ripper, CDex, used freedb which seems to now have been halted, I've been looking for an easy, intuitive replacement and have so far given up on EAC, which requires I add, say, a whole new program if I want to rip to Ogg Vorbis, which I'm just not proficient enough to do, and CueRipper. As you seem to know, perhaps you can tell me: how do you get it to sort a rip out into tracks? So far, I set it to rip and all it puts in a folder is an "Accurip" file and a "Cue" file, that I can't open, a text document and a sound file that has the whole album on as one big sound file, rather than separate tracks.

    So far, dbpoweramp looks the most intuitive, but over here it's about £50 plus VAT, 'cos I'd want to use it on my laptop and my PC, which means a "family pack".
     
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