EAC & dBpoweramp Users – Which do you use/prefer & why?

I sort of have my own ACD rule - I like all the words in the song title to start with a capital letter. (I saw one person a few years ago where someone always matched the case that was used on each CD. If the titles were in all-caps, he did them that way. That would drive me crazy!)

I think we all have rules we like to follow. For example, lots of songs have parentheses in their titles. Which is why I only use brackets when I want to indicate a "version".

 

Here's something I've been wondering...

Do you include the artist's name as part of the filename for every song - regardless of whether the song is ripped from an artist's album or a Various Artists album?

For example, in EAC, when I would rip, let's say, an album by America, it would go into a folder structure of America/Homecoming. The songs would be named like this: 01 Ventura Highway.flac 02 To Each His Own.flac 03 Don't Cross The River.flac, etc. (No artist name in the filename - because of the folder structure.)

But - if it were a Various Artists collection, the folder structure would be Various Artists/Hits Of The 70s, and the song file names would have to include the artist's name: 01 America A Horse With No Name.flac.

I notice in dBpoweramp, the default setting is to include the artist's name in the filename of every track regardless of whether the song comes from a regular artist CD or a various CD. How do you do this?

 

dbpoweramp utilizes the EAC algorithms (Secure Mode)

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/secure-ripper.htm

how to configure dbpoweramp for Secure Mode

 

I don't add the artist to the filename like that. The artist is in the tag data and that's the important part.

For Various Artists albums the tags are set as:
Album Artist: set to "Various Artists"
Artist: set to the artist for the individual song

You could certainly make a file naming rule that adds the artist to the filename just for Various Artists albums. But I see no need for that.

 

That's what I prefer too, and all it is a matter of preference. Not only am I the "designated ripper" of my music collection, I'm also primary listener and now that I think of it, also the chairman of the board. So it works out for me.

I can think of a lot of titles which have the back cover tracks all listed lower case- that would drive me off the edge. I can appreciate his desire to be authentic, but large music collections can like searching through a phone book. I like my stuff uniform!

Album art can and often does have errors. I just ripped a various artist compilation called Digital Empire, Rhythim Is Rhythim's song on disc/track 2-07 is incorrectly listed as "Nude Photo" but it is actually the track "The Beginning".

For the most part I just use parentheses for everything related to the song title. I tend to use brackets more with album fields for mastering/version such as this:
Ozzy Osbourne - 1981 - Diary Of A Madman (Legacy Edition) [2011 Epic Expanded Remaster]

 

I think that's totally unnecessary, assuming it's already embedded in the metadata. The album title is in the folder name. I just go for "Artist Name - Song Title," which is much more readable if I'm searching for a specific song in the operating system and need to grab the file very quickly.

But I concede it's an individual choice.

 

Regular artist example:
Folder: Chicago - 1972 - Chicago V [2002 Rhino Expanded Remaster]
01 A Hit By Varèse.flac
02 All Is Well.flac
03 Now That You've Gone.flac
etc...

Various Artists Example:
Folder: Heavy Metal (OST) - 1981 - (Various Artists)
01 Sammy Hagar - Heavy Metal.flac
02 Riggs - Heartbeat.flac
03 Devo - Working In The Coal Mine.flac
04 Blue Oyster Cult - Veteran Of The Psychic Wars.flac
etc..

For DJ's I follow the same format, here's a 2 disc set example:
Folder: Paul Oakenfold - 2000 - Perfecto Presents Another World
1-01 Dead Can Dance - The Host Of The Seraphim.flac
1-02 Tone Depth - Into Being.flac
1-03 Chilled Eskimo - Take Me Away (Circulation Mix).flac
etc...

It's all about what makes sense to you, really.

 

It makes total sense to include the artist's name in the filename if you are ripping from a Various Artists album (i.e. 01 America - Ventura Highway.flac)

But if you are ripping from the artist's album, it's not really necessary - assuming of course that your folder structure accounts for the artist name. (i.e. In the "America" folder & "Homecoming" sub-folder: 01 Ventura Highway.flac)

But how can you get dBpoweramp to do that? It seems to want to force the artist name into the file name regardless if the CD is a artist CD or Various CD.

 

EAC for ripping and dBPoweramp for converting files.

 

I think this naming rule in dBpoweramp will do what you want (if I'm understanding correctly)
[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][artist][][] - [album]\[track] [IFCOMP][artist][] - [title]

 

It's in the lower left area of the main window (I think it's clicking the set button in the "output file" or something like that- I'm not at my PC at the moment). It lets you preview how final files will be. From memory i think mine is something like [track] [title] for regular albums and then [track] [artist] - [title] for various artist albums. I've been changing them as needed.

 

+1 This works for me as well.

 

Thanks!! That really helped a lot. I still don't completely understanding the code (i.e. what the commas do, what the double brackets mean, etc.) But I was able make one small modification that changes the inclusion of the dash, so that it only appears for Various Artist comps:
[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][artist][][]\[album]\[track] [IFCOMP][artist] - [][title]


Now, one more wrinkle - if possible: For multi-disc sets, how could I get it to create sub-folders for each disc? For example...

Right now, if I ripped The Beatles Past Masters, it would be:
The Beatles\
Past Masters, Disc 1
Past Masters, Disc 2

Could I get it to do this instead?
The Beatles\
Past Masters\
Disc 1
Disc 2

 

Another question:

Some bands have "The" in their names - some don't: The Beatles, The Beach Boys vs. Bee Gees, Carpenters. Do you rip The Beatles as: "The Beatles", "Beatles The", "Beatles, The" or just "Beatles" (completely ignoring "The").

How do you rip solo artists - as "Paul McCartney" or as "McCartney, Paul"?

Obviously, programs like iTunes have "sort" fields that allow "Paul McCartney" to be listed in the Ms - but I'm talking about the rips & themselves - and your folder names & filenames.

 

+1

EAC because I like Image & Cue, especially when there are gaps in the disc.

I use dBpoweramp for conversion sometimes, integrated in windows by a right-click, it turns out to be quite convenient.

To process APE images and cues for my portable player I use Foobar2000 however.

Edit: completely useless, but you're from Stockholm ! And we have some bands in common!

 

OK, so this is the File Naming I'm using now in dBpoweramp:
[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][artist][][]\[album]\[track] [IFCOMP][artist] - [][title]

It gives me the following - when ripping an album by America:

America\Homecoming\01 Ventura Highway.flac
(no artist included in filename)
(Note: If there is some advantage, that I'm not thinking of, to having the artist's name included in the filename - even when ripping an artist's albums - please let me know!)

or, it gives me this - when ripping an (fictional) Various Artists album:

Various Artists\Hits Of The 70s\05 America - Homecoming.flac
(artist name is included in filename)


Now...there is one more adjustment I'd like to make.

The default for Multi-Disc sets does this:

Bee Gees\Tales From The Brothers Gibb, Disc 1\01 New York Mining Disaster 1941.flac
(It appends the disc # to the album title, so that the "Bee Gees" artist folder would have 4 separate sub-folder "albums" for this one box set.)

What I would prefer is this - regardless of whether it's an artist's album or a Various Artists album:

Bee Gees\Tales From The Brothers Gibb\Disc 1\01 New York Mining Disaster 1941.flac
(Here, each disc in a multi-disc set is given its own sub-folder under the album folder.)

Any help with this is greatly appreciated!

 

The only thing I've come across is where an album has an album artist with several guests on it, e.g. The Rolling Stones' Rock & Roll Circus. I could see where many would say it's technically a various artist compilation, but I would file it under Rolling Stones since they are the album artist and that's how you'd find it in most record stores. I would want the guests listed in the file name for their respected tracks. Some will disagree with that, again it's preference.

I've encountered this on maybe 3-4 albums out of over a thousand so I don't mind doing it by hand- but I could see it especially happening a lot more with someone who has a lot of DJ mix type albums where the DJ included a few original compositions of their own.

Sorry I can't help with the syntax questions, haven't had a need to get that far yet.

I bought dBpoweramp today, don't want to stop using it, heh.

 

That's an excellent point! I took a few minutes to look back on some of the CDs I'd ripped before. In those cases, I didn't bother with the filenames - but the tags most definitely had the correct artist.

 

To get EAC peak values of 16bit files already ripped, but not with EAC, I use the freeware CUETools. Run it in “verify” mode and it will quickly give you exact EAC peak values as part of the report.

dBpoweramp can do a lot of audio processing by way of DSP plug-ins (see the dBpa site for all the available plug-ins) using the dBpoweramp Converter, but no, it’s not an audio editor like the one built into EAC or standalone apps like Audacity, SoundForge, Audition, etc.

 

dBpoweramp is my main program... I have however, exoerienced some problems with some dics, especially those with copy protection... and EAC helped with those

 

I tried this question in it's own thread & didn't get any responses, so I'll try again here...

In dBpoweramp, in "Secure" mode, what exactly does checking the "Ultra Secure Ripping" option do?? I've been trying to test a couple of settings before I start ripping in earnest - and I can't tell any difference in the amount of time it takes to rip an album. I've even made sure to delete the "CDRipperCache.bin" file after each test to get rid of the RipStatus & CRC values. Abbey Road rips in 2:03 each time - doing 1 pass for each song. (On one test it took 6:52 - but I can't replicate that timing in subsequent tests.)

By the way, 20 minutes plus in EAC vs. 2 minutes (or even 6:52!) in dBpoweramp makes the latter program almost a no-brainer for me. It isn't even close!

 

Open up the Secure Option in dBpoweramp CD Ripper and click on the “?” to get the setup guide (scroll down to Secure Ripping) which explains Ultra Secure. Again, if you are getting good Accuraterip verified rips, you need not bother.

Clearing the dBpa cache has no effect on the speed, nor the accuracy of the rip. If you hit the rip button again, it will re-rip the disc exactly as before, including verifying. IIRC, it will create a double log, though, if copied over the previous rip.