Need Help with DBpoweramp

TNHNDYMAN

OK guys I'm ready to start ripping. The X-1 USB/Asynchorus converter arrived this morning and I expect the Peachtree DAC*it tomorrow. So now I'm going to download this program and start ripping a few cd's to get a feel for things.

I've been reading some of the various setup guides on the net and have a couple questions as to implementing various features....

1. Not sure whether or not I should even use replay gain. It seems to me to be an effect to level sound for portable devices such as ipod and iphones for playback. I'm not sure I want every cd
to start out at the same volume level. Am I missing something here?

2. The bigger and more critical concern I have is the setup of the file structure for saving ripped files. The developers guide shows how the default setup is whereas others such as Carlton Bale's
guide goes into more detail for multi discs and compilation discs ect... Could someone provide me the exact set of characters with brackets and all for how they are ripping and what the result
looks like. Even better would be to explain in layman's terms why to set up in such way.

For now I may just rip a few using the default settings to test for getting a good rip and seeing how the software works, but I don't want to redo all my cd's later so I'd like to have a better feel for what's needed up front and get a good file structure set up from the start.


Thanks for any and all help.

SCompRacer

Without replay gain, you may have to crank the volume up on one album, switch to another and it can be really loud. I have read that you can run into clipping issues when high gain is applied to really low volume albums. The higher gain albums/tracks will simply be reduced in gain.

I don't use any leveling options, I just have my finger on the remote volume when changing albums.

TNHNDYMAN

Thanks SC ^. Talked to EndersShadow as well and he helped point me in the right direction.

Got a few cd's burned and tested playback thru computer and checked metadata. Seemed to do ok. Had 2 tracks on Beatles Past Masters that came back with errors but still played well thru the music folder where they are being ripped to. Not sure if I should delete those and go back and rip again or change burner speed to possibly get better results.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Don't use replay gain, that's what your volume knob is for.

Take a look at the starter guide I put together here on the forum if you haven't already, you need to nail down an approach and a structure BEFORE you start ripping. Decide what tags you want on your music and then organize your folders accordingly.

I use the genre, artist, album, and track number and title tags, and have dbPowerAmp set up so that it rips into that same file structure. So I'd have a folder for Rock, then a folder for Pink Floyd, then a folder for Animals, and then inside that folder would be all the flac files and a folder.jpg for the cover art. I can send you the file syntax for that in dbPowerAmp if you want but it's simple enough to create.

When I rip a new CD I pop in the disc and grab the metadata from the internets, then I change any tags there accordingly. Pink Floyd is Rock, not pop/rock IMO. The tags I end up changing most of the time are the genre tags, but occasionally I'll end up changing the artist tags as well because some albums may be labeled Eric Clapton and some may be labeled Clapton, Eric, and I only want the one entry in my library. Then when I rip the CD it stores in a folder structure according to those tags, so my iTunes library interface and my physical folder interface are always in sync.

My OCD comes out a bit when managing my music library, so I actually add a step in the process after ripping to use Tag&Rename to strip ALL the tags from the files and then rebuild those tags from scratch based on my folder structure and then embed the folder.jpg file in that folder as artwork in each file. This gives me complete control over everything and also makes things like multi disc albums easier to manage.

TNHNDYMAN

^ WELL that is why I asked the ?'s. I did read the starter guide you put together Danny and appreciate the effort you put into it. The replay gain I understand and will be discontinuing use. As to the file syntax, that's what I don't understand. Well I understand how to make folder and sub folder in windows explorer in general and how to organize my own thoughts as to how to sort things in my own head- I do not understand how to use the proper syntax symbols, brackets, parenthesis, ect... in the program itself to accomplish this.

That is why I was asking for an exact copy of someone else structure and try it out vs the default setting to see if the results were better for myself. If I have to create folders and subfolders in my music directory in windows explorer 1st and then direct the program where to put things, it seems a little too involved and I would probably just be better off using the default setting. I'm not trying to burn my whole collection overnight, I just wanted to try 4 or 5 albums to get a feel for the program and if necessary I can delete those rips and start over after I get the folder structure part figured out.

When I say new to computer audio, I mean really new. I have never really played songs thru my computer and have only seen others use iTunes ect. It just never was an option I was interested in before. Yes I could put a cd in and listen or download a song for a friend, but music for me has always been on the 2ch system. The only reason I'm doing it now is the for ease of use. I will be using the system as a big cd changer while sitting on the couch and going thru a decent Peachtree DAC into my 2 channel system. Control will be thru either an iPad, iPod touch, or Kindle Fire's depending on how I like the software for each device. JRemote seems highly liked on the apple products and Gizmo something is the android option to control JRiver.

I will be purchasing JRiver and checking it out tomorrow. I think I will have to change some settings on my program default devices once it installs. Right now I have Nero 11 Burning Suite on my system and I do still like it for it's facial recognition features for my photo collection, I realize I need to override it when playing music moving forward. If I try to click on a song within DBpoweramp it plays there, but if I dbl click a song that has been ripped earlier today inside windows explorer then Nero takes over and starts playing the FLAC file. I will need to establish that JRiver is the default for playing all music files on the computer if it doesn't automatically take over that aspect during installation.

Thanks for any feedback or insight on these issues.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Here is my naming syntax:

[genre]\[artist]\[album]\[track] - [title]

TNHNDYMAN

Thank you, I appreciate it. ^

Having Genre first makes sense to me now that I can see it in action. All the symbols just screw with my brain.

AsSiMiLaTeD

if you get hung up on anything feel free to PM me and I can give you a call

Loud & Clear

I've always avoided the genre designation. My cd, vinyl, and computer catalogs are all sorted by artist. But I do know people who have their music sorted by genre. I only do artist, album, song title. No genres, song numbers, ratings, etc.

EndersShadow

Yup, how you categorize it is all a personal choice.

Since XBMC lets me view them by artist, genre, year, etc as long as my tags are correct the actual file structure doesnt matter to me. So I have mine artist, album, track number, song title (I think).

The Squeezebox software is also pretty good about letting me browse them without worry of how the actual file structure is setup either.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Loud & Clear wrote: »

I've always avoided the genre designation. My cd, vinyl, and computer catalogs are all sorted by artist. But I do know people who have their music sorted by genre. I only do artist, album, song title. No genres, song numbers, ratings, etc.

How do you not do song number? Do you just not listen to the tracks on an album in the correct order? I get skipping the genre as I rarely use it myself these days, but cannot imagine my music collection without the song number.

AsSiMiLaTeD

EndersShadow wrote: »

Yup, how you categorize it is all a personal choice.

Since XBMC lets me view them by artist, genre, year, etc as long as my tags are correct the actual file structure doesnt matter to me. So I have mine artist, album, track number, song title (I think).

The Squeezebox software is also pretty good about letting me browse them without worry of how the actual file structure is setup either.

Just be careful with that, the file structure MAY matter someday. On my Oppo 105 that's how I access my music, by browsing the file structure. I don't use that method very often as I typically go through the JRiver app, but I do use it from time to time.

EndersShadow

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Just be careful with that, the file structure MAY matter someday. On my Oppo 105 that's how I access my music, by browsing the file structure. I don't use that method very often as I typically go through the JRiver app, but I do use it from time to time.

I understand, however my mind doesn't go genre first, it goes artist. If I am looking for something I tend to be looking for a specific artist or artists CD if I was browsing via the folder structure.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I wasn't referring to the genre thing, I totally get not using that tag and I very rarely use it even though I have it set up. I was referring to you not worrying about the folder structure of your music files, if I read that correctly. The library approach may work fine for now but someday you may end up in my shoes and want to have a more direct approach to listening to your audio and need the folder structure in place, just trying to save you some trouble because it's easy enough to do the folder structure right the first time, sucks having to go back and fix it later.

Loud & Clear

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

How do you not do song number? Do you just not listen to the tracks on an album in the correct order? I get skipping the genre as I rarely use it myself these days, but cannot imagine my music collection without the song number.

Ha. I know, sounds weird but that's what I do. For some reason seeing the numbers bothers me. Does present a problem for the occasional song that leads into the next song. Maybe I'll change my mind on this at some point.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Oh wow, yeah there's no way I could listen to the majority of my music out of order like that. A good portion of my music is classical and progressive rock, both of which tend to be designed to listen to sequentially. Maybe if I had more pop music it wouldn't matter so much, but of my 4500 CDs probably close to half I have to listen to in album form.

TNHNDYMAN

Has anyone used the ripping ability of JRiver and categorizing features from the start. Wondering if doing it all from a single program may be a better approach.

rooftop59

No but I just use Media Monkey Gold for everything, ripping, organizing, and playback on my PC. Once you get your settings right it works great. Costs 25.

EndersShadow

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

I wasn't referring to the genre thing, I totally get not using that tag and I very rarely use it even though I have it set up. I was referring to you not worrying about the folder structure of your music files, if I read that correctly. The library approach may work fine for now but someday you may end up in my shoes and want to have a more direct approach to listening to your audio and need the folder structure in place, just trying to save you some trouble because it's easy enough to do the folder structure right the first time, sucks having to go back and fix it later.

Gotcha, I do worry about it, but like you, set it up once and was done, but in my case I left my dbpoweramp settings at stock which IIRC are Artist Name/ Album Name / Track Number - Song Title. That was sufficient for me, hence my mentioning "not caring" because I didnt obsess as much as some folks did about all the other stuff.

Also since I can edit tag's with MediaMonkey (since my 30 day trial for dbpoweramp expired) I didn't worry too much about them at the time. Once I was done ripping I could look for the outliers with weird metadata and fix them.