Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #25)

What did you use to rip the files? Can you verify with AccurateRip? As George suggested, it might be the playback software with a volume-leveling feature -- however, that should not affect the music dramatically mid-song, if it's working well. What are you using for playback?

 

You MUST REPEAT MUST rip with dBpoweramp if you are ripping classical. In addition to using AccurateRip, the metadata options alone make is essential.

I feel your pain. I have my Aldo Ciccolini and Samson Francois complete EMI boxes just languishing in partial-rip limbo. Going through all 50-odd discs of the Cziffra box nearly killed me.

 

iTunes. I looked AccurateRip up, and this is what I found: http://www.accuraterip.com/software.htm

I assume from your following comment that you'd recommend dBpoweramp (I have a Windows Vista computer).

I tried dBpoweramp once and found it utterly confusing. I actually like iTunes. It works for me. Or at least it has worked for me since 2007 or so. This is the first time anything like this has happened. I wonder what it says about me that I find iTunes easier to use than any of the audiophile approved ripping programs.

Actually, this makes sense. I did have soundcheck checked, and once I unchecked it, the volume stopped going low when track 6 crossed into track 7. And the transition between 21 and 22 is correct now.

Even more idiotic than iTunes' soundcheck was the idea of dividing movements into smaller groups of tracks back in the beginning of CD. What was the point of that?

Thanks, George.

And thanks to you, too, Sean. But I think I'm going to stick with iTunes.

 

Seriously, I was kind of freaking out, thinking I was going to have to buy expensive used copies of Abbado's old Mahler cycle, of which I only have 7 & 3. The M6 is $40 used on AM. That ***hole arkivmusic is selling one of his "new" copies for $44, so that sets the price for the used copies. I would not mind one bit if that man went out of business.

 

Yes, if you're on Windows, dBpoweramp would be my recommendation. I learned about it on SHTV. I had actually started out ripping with MediaMonkey, which I still use as my library organizer and playback software -- it is phenomenal with classical music, as it allows me to sort and search by artist, album artist, genre, and -- most important for classical -- composer. So I can search and sort with what is to me an accurate set of metadata, e.g.:

Artist: George Szell
Album: Beethoven Symphonies
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

If you're comfortable with iTunes, no need to switch, but . . . I can promise you that with only a few more minutes, and maybe a couple questions posed in the Audio Hardware section here, or on the dBpoweramp forum, the program would make sense to you. I am no computer whiz by any means and I figured it out. Or at least the basics of it. Let this be your standard: If Sean Burke can do, I can do it!

For me the issue became a big one early on, as the laptop I started ripping with has a very poor drive in terms of accuracy. So I was getting audibly bad rips on CD's that looked fine. I knew something was up. I switched to AccurateRip and could see the drive was incompetent. Then I switched to other computers and since then have ripped probably thousands of discs.

 

Until now I've used EAC with AccurateRip and was quite happy (especially since it's free). I might be too cheap to pay for a program that late in the game (I've ripped about 1500 CDs already), but maybe I will just give the free trail version of dBpoweramp a chance once I start ripping the Beet Box. 21 days should be enough and I found EACs freeDB not really great for tagging classical.

 

Well, after that charming statement, how can I say no?

If I needed to be convinced to keep my CDs, this statement would do it.

Maybe I'll try it. I'm still not getting rid of my CDs, though.

 

Yes, definitely try the free version and see what you think. FreeDB is atrocious with classical, IMO.

 

So maybe I thought dBpoweramp was atrocious because I was using the free version?

 

According to the dBpoweramp site the free trail should be a full version, so I'd expect it to use all the five listed databases at once, including SonataDB (a Classical database).

 

Well, some early CDs had indexing within tracks. (I still own a few.) I guess the idea was that if you wanted to hear when the chorus enters in Beethoven's 9th you could skip right to it.

 

Beethoven
[size=-2]CD 35
String Quartet in F Op. 18 No. 1
String Quartet in G Op. 18 No. 2
CD 36
String Quartet in D Op. 18 No. 3
String Quartet in C Minor Op. 18 No. 4
CD 37
String Quartet in A Op. 18 No. 5
String Quartet in B-flat Op. 18 No. 6
String Quartet in F Minor Op. 95 “Serioso”[/size]
Sharon Quartet
Arts Music Recording, Rotterdam 1998

[size=-2]CD 38
String Quartet in F Op. 59 No. 1
String Quartet in E Minor Op. 59 No. 2
CD 39
String Quartet in E-flat Op. 74 “Harp”
String Quartet in C-sharp Minor Op. 131
CD 40
String Quartet in E-flat Op. 127
String Quartet in F Op. 135
CD 41
String Quartet in A Minor Op. 132
String Quartet in C Op. 59 No. 3
CD 42
String Quartet in B-flat Op. 130
Grosse Fuge Op. 133[/size]
Guarneri Quartet
American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters, New York 1987-1992



I started with the string quartets in this big box because I spent a lot of time with this music last year (mostly with the Quartetto Italianos), and I thought it was time to get back to it. The spirited playing of the Sharon Quartet is technically flawless to me, and the SQ is very fine. I have to wonder why the producers of this box have included the Sharon’s Opus 95, when the Guarneris play the four mid-period quartets before and the five late-period quartets after it. Not that there’s a whole lot wrong with this "Serioso". It is nicely played with great precision and the required power this music needs.

I am very happy with the Guarneri's on the rest of these. I was prepared to have my Italiano 'imprint' highly challenged here, but to be honest the difference doesn’t seem that great. For example, my favorite, Opus 130 seemed to be very different in a couple of key places from Q.I.’s classic recording until I compared the Guarneri to it side by side. So much for my deep imprint. (Although the Guarneri's presto is molto presto.) Bottom line is if I enjoy the rest of this box as much as I have with the quartets here I’ll be one happy camper.

 

I bought Mozart's Piano Concertos performed by Curzon with Britten and Kertesz. After one listen it seems to be a very fine set. I'm especially impressed with Kertesz's conducting. I'm thinking of getting the Mozart symphonies he did with the Wiener Philharmoniker. Anyone familiar with those?

 

No, even the trial version should have all metadata options. The key though is to click on "review metadata" to see all the different options you can choose from if you don't like the PerfectMeta algorithm.

 

Then what did you mean by this?

 

I have some of the Symphonies and I have the disc pictured. Is there any recording by CC that is not a least excellent up to amazing?

 

I was responding to wolfram's post in which he said he'd been using EAC (which includes only the FreeDB). So I what I was trying to say, perhaps not very clearly, was something like "Try the free version of dBpoweramp, so you can get away from being stuck with the FreeDB in EAC."

 

Oh. So "FreeDB" is not the free version of dBpoweramp? You can see where I might draw that conclusion, no?

 

I need to hear more of him, then.

 

Please continue the thread here.