EAC vs CueTools vs. dbPoweramp

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

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  1. klockwerk

    klockwerk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio USA
    CueTools for me, but any of the 3 will work. Always nice to have all three in case one of them chocks.
     
  2. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    If it's an accurate, secure rip, there isn't anything that needs to be checked, period.
     
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  3. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    If you're ripping your own CDs you don't need a log checker. The log checkers are for the pirates so they can attempt to verify that other untrustworthy pirates aren't trying to pass off a bad rip.
     
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  4. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I used to use dbpoweramp but now use EAC exclusively for for the way it rips. They have the same tools, but I feel EAC is much better. I buy lots of used CDs and you just never know what problems you may encounter.
     
    Carlox likes this.
  5. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    OK, I always wondered why most include cue sheets. I never saw the use for them.
     
  6. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    You can replace embedded artwork. I do all the time.
     
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  7. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I will embed original artwork anywhere from 600x600 to 1200x1200. I don't mind the larger artwork. The players I use scale them down anyway. I will not accept anything lower than 600x600. I have a huge album art archive of all the music I have+, and if I somehow do have anything lower, I'll even bump it up to 600x600 in Photoshop if I can't find a better source.

    Stitching is too much of a hassle, so i'll just scan CD and 45 RPM jackets.

    I will not accept whatever artwork a service automatically downloads. I always scan my artwork or use Album Art Exchange, Fanart, or if I absolutely have no other choice, Discogs or Album Art Downloader. I am very particular about the artwork.
     
  8. mj_patrick

    mj_patrick Senior Member

    Location:
    Elkhart, IN, USA
    You ought to check into CueTools if you haven't already. It's saved me from having to repurchase quite a few used CDs where the damage wasn't too extensive.
     
  9. GhostEMP

    GhostEMP Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    Yes if the tracks play fine with no problem, there's no issue. How about gap appending as well as correct offsets though, wouldn't those be viable things to check for?
    (Offset is only a thing though because CD's were from 1982 but my inversion results show that they're actually different from rips that have those corrected, which is one reason I've stopped using media players to rip anything.)
    True but it does save you the trouble of confirming whether or not a rip you made is good so you don't have to then re-rip a CD again.
     
  10. GhostEMP

    GhostEMP Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    They have extracted UPC/ISRC codes & catalog numbers from the CD (if any). For certain types of non-conventional CD's like, e.g. a soundtrack they can even show where within the same track an entirely different recording begins so it can be edited from there. Beyond this however, in a split rip they have no use.
    However they are absolutely necessary if for any reason you ever come across image files or should ever make one out of an entire CD (file folder or direct rip), because you can't split image files according to their tracks without them.

    Average users more than likely don't know or care about any of these though, I certainly didn't. Wish I didn't have to either.
     
  11. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I believe EAC includes it now.
     
    mj_patrick likes this.
  12. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    dB already does what is needed in terms of offset and detecting and placing gaps correctly. Again, I have used both programs for several years and have ripped thousands of CDs. You are talking nonsense here. If the program is set up correctly no extra log checking is needed. If there is an error, it will displayed both on screen and in the log. I'm not sure why you don't understand this. My guess is you downloaded a trial, played with it for 5 minutes and didn't really look into the settings or instructions.
     
  13. GhostEMP

    GhostEMP Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    I know that it does both offset correction and gap detection. And that it’s even more direct.
    But I don’t remember whether it’s automatic or not. It also isn’t recorded as an error anywhere if those two are somehow not enabled, just that they weren’t enabled.
    I used the trial (& I don’t quite like what it does to file explorer among other things), but the point is I personally wouldn’t bother paying for the program if there’s free alternatives that do the same thing with regard to both ripping and conversion, even if they aren’t all in one program. I’m not saying to avoid using this program or that one, but for people who haven’t made a choice to consider certain factors first.

    I do have one last question however: Can dbPowerAmp do index-based ripping? Because not even XLD does that and it’s one thing only EAC seems to be able to do.
     
  14. The emboldened bit intrigues me.
    What does it do to file explorer?
     
  15. GhostEMP

    GhostEMP Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    It seems to bloat the properties menu for all audio files.
     
  16. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    They are both automatic. However, offset requires setting up your optical drive just like any other good ripping program.

    That's your choice, just don't go around spreading false information such as saying the program only rips in burst mode when that's NOT the case.

    If you're talking about ripping "hidden" track "00" tracks, then the answer is yes.

    HTOA is an acronym for hidden track one audio, some CDs have a hidden first track. CD Ripper will inform of HTOA and allow this hidden track to be ripped. By default hidden tracks are shown unchecked, check to Rip. There is never any meta data for this hidden track and the ability to rip depends on CD drive, www.daefeatures.co.uk lists drives which can rip HTOA.

    dBpoweramp CD Ripper: Advanced Options
     
  17. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    It doesn't do anything. Just another case of this person not understanding the settings in the program and that index options in file explorer can be checked or unchecked.

    EDIT: here is a screenshot that shows the Windows Explorer settings.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2021
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  18. elvisizer

    elvisizer Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Jose
    XLD 100% supports HTOA tracks just like EAC does
     
  19. Ah, so nothing of any consequence then!
     
  20. I thought it might be something to do with what you've very ably shown :)
     
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  21. GhostEMP

    GhostEMP Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    No, not HTOA, those are useless.
    Don’t quite know how to demonstrate it since I don’t know if you have any experience with the specific sort of CD I’m talking about, but it’s a type of CD where a track has more than one point of silence within it after which an entirely different audio recording begins (like a track that’s an image file in itself consisting of 2-5 smaller tracks within it).

    EDIT: And it can’t be automatically split by the usual means like CueTools or just about anything else I know. They mostly have to be done manually.
     
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2021
  22. elvisizer

    elvisizer Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Jose
    sounds like you're just talking about taking what is a single track with multiple pieces of music contained within that single track and splitting it into multiple tracks. not really sure if I'm following you
     
  23. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Do you mean index marks?
    Index marks are where a track is divided into multiple sub-tracks. For example, a song that has multiple movements. The song itself would be one track. Then the track would be divided into different index points to be able to jump to a specific movement within the track.

    Index marks are a part of the original CD spec. Used on some CDs for a few years. Then the industry discovered that dealing with indexes within a track was more trouble than it was worth. No CDs are using index marks now. Very few CDs used index marks back in the 80s and early 90s. I own a total of 14 CDs that have index marks. Index marks were mostly used with classical CDs to index movements or sections within a piece. Not many rock or popular music CDs used index marks.

    An example of a CD with is CD versions of Rush 2112. Like this release of 2112: https://www.discogs.com/Rush-2112/release/741644
    The first track is divided into 7 index sections.

    Here's an example of a classical music release with index marks: https://www.discogs.com/Britten-Rob...orna-Haywood-Anthony-Rolfe-J/release/10249275

    Index marks are a PITA to deal with. Many CD players don't even handle them. Most ripping programs don't handle them either.

    One way to deal with index marks when ripping is to use EAC to rip to a CUE file. The CUE file will contain the index marks. Then use a tool to split the track(s) at the index marks. Medieval Cue Splitter is one tool that can, but has known issues with not doing the proper offsets or calculations to split at frame boundaries. So it can end up splitting tracks in a way that adds some silence and is not properly gapless. I haven't had that problem when using it the way I use it. But others have. There are also other ways to split a CUE file with index marks into separate tracks for each index.
     
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  24. elvisizer

    elvisizer Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Jose
    Oh interesting I've never run into a CD authored this way. TIL! :)
     
  25. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Unless you collect a lot of classical music and specifically very early classical CD pressings (I don't) you wouldn't. Out of 4,000+ CDs here I'd be surprised if I have maybe 10 that have this type of track marker scheme. At one point I had a vintage CDP from the 80s that could skip between those markers, but it had a lot of issues so I got rid of it. Just an obscure thing that 99.9% of people don't need to be worried about. Pre-emphasis is more common in my experience, and even that's an obscure thing.
     
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