Finally I am Ripping with dBpoweramp for Music Server

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Jeff T.
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Finally I am Ripping with dBpoweramp for Music Server

Postby Jeff T. » Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:04 am

I'm ripping and encoding my collection for server playback. I bought the dBpoweramp software - I even paid for the "family pack" so I could use it on more than one computer. Often I will simply use trial versions, or crack a legit version, or use an outdated version of some software. But I felt that this company deserves the money and the $58 was not really that much especially for the use of unlimited computers, as I mentioned below.

I found this out about the "family pack". This version, as well as the regular version can in fact be used on as many computers as you wish. But the tagging databases would be limited to one PC with the standard version. The family pack lets you access the tagging meta-databases from more than one computer. That's right, you are not really limited to 5 PCs. You can use it on 10 PCs if you like. They just don't tell you this.

Anyway, I plan on having two to three 'puters ripping all at the same time in order to get through doing this brutal work as soon as possible. You know, sit down and do a 9 hour session with three computers all going at once. Then connect up the 2trb drive and scoop up the FLACs off of each PC daily. I have large drives on my computers, so I can get by for a while without cleaning out the FLACs.

My main problem right at this minute is that I was having some problems with my Lynksys router several months back, and I reset it. Big mistake, because the problem was not the router I later discovered. So now my router needs reinstalled, and when I did it originally it was a bitch I recall.

So right now, I am just plugging the Ethernet connector into the computer I use at the time, not two or three machines online at once. But with this ripping project, I need to have all three online to reach the tagging data when ripping with dBpoweramp.

Anyway, I never thought I would never go to a server system, but now finding it the only way to go. Too many good needle drops filed away, too many perfect burns from friends collections and then all those boots from trading, and all the stuff I bought. It got out of hand. I want to dig into the collection a bit deeper and the server will make it all easier once I am done or near done.

I'm wondering how well the databases bring up Yellow Dog and Sea of Tunes discs? I'll let you know soon.

With the prices so low on drives, and the databases loaded up with tags, there really has never been a better time to go server.

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Jeff T.
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Re: Finally I am Ripping with dBpoweramp for Music Server

Postby Jeff T. » Mon Dec 20, 2010 6:54 am

Ok, I just spent some time with several labels to see what would come up for tags. I tried the Beach Boys on Sea of Tunes and Dumb Angel, Beatles on Yellow Dog and another label I could not make out on my ink jet printed artwork, and then Dylan on the Spank label.

All these discs came up with tags for songs and titles, and some variation of artists. Only one disc had a cover jpg. Interesting that cover art for boots is just not there, but all the other info is.

Also interesting the AMG consistently had the most info in the fields. Also interesting that AMG had the most typos and misspelled words. Every AMG album tag had typos all over it.

Anyway, I did save all the boot cover art on CD-Rs. I spend many late nights back in 2000 to about 2003 over at the Bootleg Zone downloading all the covers for my discs I got in snail mail trading. I saved all that art. Now I just need to rip it to a folder and start using it for the server rips. This is the most fun since the invention of the CD burner.

And this is the worst nightmare for the industry since the invention of the CD burner, which was the worst since the invention of the mp3 + the internet.

I mean I could realistically start trading hard drives rather then CD-Rs. Of course I would never do that, but it could be done, and likely is being done. This is the final nail in the coffin for physical media, don't you just know it. Like in that movie "Big Labowski" "I've never been so sure of something in my life".

I will be listing my CDs on Amazon after this big project is complete.

But anyway, back to the boots, I am glad I was using TDKs when they were made in Japan, and the TYs after that, also made in Japan. Then I ordered online TYs, the ink jet printables from SuperMediaStore.com. And only recently started using Philips because they are so cheap and found at Big Lots. I never had a bum disc out of that brand either. But my main point is that I am now experiencing some terrific ripping speeds without errors showing up thus far. They good quality discs do rip faster I notice. Because I also have some GQ branded (CMC) I burned, things that were not as important, like things friends loaned me, that I could get again. But even those discs are working out fine as I rip through the night.

So, it will be nice to have all 3,000 bootleg discs on my HDDs won't it. I knew all that trading was for something besides wasted days and lonely nights filing away tin discs in plastic cases. The big payoff is right about now!

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Jeff T.
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Re: Finally I am Ripping with dBpoweramp for Music Server

Postby Jeff T. » Tue Dec 21, 2010 6:56 am

Yessss!!!!

This software even tags needle drops correctly, at least my first four I tried came up right and with pictures.

It is exciting ain't it!

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lukpac
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Re: Finally I am Ripping with dBpoweramp for Music Server

Postby lukpac » Tue Dec 21, 2010 6:00 pm

Jeff T. wrote:Yessss!!!!

This software even tags needle drops correctly, at least my first four I tried came up right and with pictures.

It is exciting ain't it!


That's just whatever online database (FreeDB?) you're connecting to, no?
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Jeff T.
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Re: Finally I am Ripping with dBpoweramp for Music Server

Postby Jeff T. » Tue Dec 21, 2010 6:05 pm

lukpac wrote:
Jeff T. wrote:Yessss!!!!

This software even tags needle drops correctly, at least my first four I tried came up right and with pictures.

It is exciting ain't it!


That's just whatever online database (FreeDB?) you're connecting to, no?


dBpoweramp uses 4 databases, yes. It does depend on them having the info. Many times only one database will have the info, and words are misspelled. Somes all have it, and you can pick and choose which elements to use from each database. Some fields will be blank, some fileds wrong info.

But anyway, needle drops will have timing variations, no promise of having home made CDs in the databases there.

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lukpac
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Re: Finally I am Ripping with dBpoweramp for Music Server

Postby lukpac » Tue Dec 21, 2010 6:23 pm

Jeff T. wrote:But anyway, needle drops will have timing variations, no promise of having home made CDs in the databases there.


I think my Die Beatles even shows up in iTunes...
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Jeff T.
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Re: Finally I am Ripping with dBpoweramp for Music Server

Postby Jeff T. » Tue Dec 21, 2010 6:34 pm

Yeah, I get the feeling itunes gathers info from people's music libraries, and then hooks up others who have discs with similar caracteristics. I droppped in a needle drop of a Flamin' Groovies LP into a friends itunes (I don't use it), and all I have were artist and TK - 1, TK - 2, and itunes came up with all tracks named corrctly. It was frightening at first to think that they know what albums I am needle dropping.

I decided (a few years ago) that since info can be brought up for needle drops, I have begun to title my tracks with a correctly spelled artist name. For Captain Beefheart, I no longer would put CP tk 1 as a track number, but at least put Beefheart in full so that the databases can do their thing more likely. Why screw yourself buy a shortcut in title of tracks if it will keep your from getting tags. I think those data bases go by first any names you use, and then general length of tracks, and then they find a close match. Toss in a bonus track that nobody else has, and you will not get a match at all.

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Jeff T.
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Re: Finally I am Ripping with dBpoweramp for Music Server

Postby Jeff T. » Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:18 pm

random ripping thoughts

Still ripping away. I'm finding that needle drops get tagged easier if BS names are not used. Track 1, track 2 works fine often. But when you write LZ RL a, and LZ RL b, for each track that kind of wording or abreviation is worse then no words at all. Zeppelin tk 1 will get tagged right, LZ II tk one might not.

Yes - Close to the Edge needle drop from the MFSL LP got tagged with nothing but length of the three tracks to go by.

I did get 500 CDs done thus far, with at least 4,500 to go. I found that the CMC cheapo CD-Rs rip slower and do not give a report of accuracy at end. But if I copy the CMC to a Kodak (my highest quality disc I have) re-writable, then it purrs along like a kitten and confirms a perfect rip. I don't see how a perfect copy can be made from a CMC disc, yet ripping from one gives me errors.

I went out Sun moring for after Christmas sale prices on hard drives, and prices were a tad higher than pre-xmas. Looks like I am ordering online. But I do have plenty of space on my existing drives, so no worry yet of running out of room.

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Jeff T.
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Re: Finally I am Ripping with dBpoweramp for Music Server

Postby Jeff T. » Sat Jun 25, 2011 1:58 am

Well, I'm still ripping away. I just tonight set up another computer for ripping. See I had two PCs for doing heavy lifting, and an older one for needle dropping and nothing else. My laptop will not be used for this stuff, which is probably best.

I just grabbed an old Pent III I had been given by a friend a while back, and dropped in a large additional HDD. So this will be a 3rd machine for FLAC encoding / downloading only. It's crazy with four computer all lined up working away. And then a Mac G5 at the other end of the long desk. I should post a picture of this monstrosity. I do have DVI video switcher boxes so I can run all these computers on fewer monitors. And the new Linksys router sends the internet to each one.

Anyway, this old computer the Pent III is where I am going to shift my downloading to. I figure that it might be a good idea to keep all downloading activity on one old computer that has nothing else going on on it other than FLAC encoding. It's a music machine!!!

So... the boot encoding with tags and artwork has been going kinda slow. I really need this additional machine. I started out doing Beatles, Rolling Stones, Dylan, and Beach Boys. Just those four artists are a massive amount of ripping/tagging/encoding. I'm actually making sure every boot has correct album/song titles & artwork (front & back covers). Turns out many of the boots do not have tags listed in the databases on dBpoweramp's interface. So I have to have the Bootleg Zone open on a separate page and copy n' then paste a ton of song titles into the dBpower fields. At least that info is out there to be found, and organized pretty well. I am going to have one of the coolest hard drive collections when this done. Front, back covers, and even scans from inner booklet pages are being embedded into these flacs.

Sometimes I was over at the Vigotone site http://www.vigotone.com/ gathering up artwork and comments, as I'm even pasting the comments text on each disc into the comments fields when ripping. Like for example - the "Get Back Journals" I & II box sets (eight discs each) have comments listed for the contents of each disc, and where the musical highlights are. The 17 disc box "Thirty Days" also has some commentary found there that I copied into correct fields.

I've been up as late as 5am burning the midnight oil with this stuff. So it's easy to see that I really needed this additional rippin' machine. At least when I am finding all this data & pictures to insert into a CDs meta-tags, there are two other computers ripping away. It's not so bad once you get the process up to speed.

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Re: Finally I am Ripping with dBpoweramp for Music Server

Postby Jeff T. » Mon Dec 19, 2011 6:47 am

A year later and I am still ripping. It does look like there is an end in sight somewhere this coming year.

There is something interesting I noticed. When I came to a CD not found in the database, no tags available, I had to make a decision, type in tracks manually, and find and album/CD cover pictures online to use, or put it aside to be done later.

I have been going back to some of these CD previously missing in the tagging databases, and find that now they are there. I think in many cases, 8 to 10 months is a lifetime in internet years. Folks have now added the discs' tags that were not there a while back. So it was best for me to wait some months to rip those rather than have to type it all out by hand.

At any rate, I am still loading in hundreds of albums every week. I loaded in a 33 CD set of Time-Life - AM Gold 1960s to 1970s hit collections. I then went in and deleted all tracks that appear on other Rhino sets, or nicely remastered hit collections. Like all Grass Roots. Three Dog Night, Guess Who, Monkees, Mamas and the Papas, and those artists whom I have nice doubles and box sets from, so to save some space on drives and have less repetition or songs. I just hope that the Time-Life mastering was not the better mastering for the ones that are also on Rhino, etc. Have a Nice Day, Didn't it Blow Your Mind, and Brit. Invasion CD sets are where the bulk of the Time-Life material seems to be already acquired. It was almost like Time-Life used Rhino CDs are their sources, and then filled them out with additional hits not found on Rhino. Or I may find out later that Time-Life used original mono masters when no one else did? I don't care anymore, I like Three Dog Night just fine in stereo.

And then missing odd titles found on the green devil site. Lots of holes in the collection have been filled in from there. Tons of the old MFSL golds, and Mosaic and Bear Family box sets which I love.

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Jeff T.
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Re: Finally I am Ripping with dBpoweramp for Music Server

Postby Jeff T. » Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:08 am

I'm still rippin' away little by little bit by bit.

I had a long time friend of mine, this 74 year old guy who died - who was a 20th Century classical music collector. He left me in charge of selling his collection of LPs and CDs. It was 1,300 CDs. I was recently down to the last 300 or 350 CDs that had not sold. Anyway, I have been ripping that entire collection to my server as I sold them off on amazon. So I have ripped about 900 of these modern classical titles in addition to my own rock, blues, r&b, and country. And now I am about to rip that final 300 discs and take them to the Amoeba music and dump them for $2 a title after I rip them. The sales have fallen on that stuff. I think what is left is still very good music, and many 19.99 to 39.99 discs, but the format is finally cooling off, and even if they are rare ones, the bloom is finally off of that rose.

So I have a staggering amount of music coming in, and it has made this whole project quite long and involved. But get this, some of these classical CDs sold for north of $59 a disc. The old man bought tons of rare imports that do not turn up in the used bins in this country at all. So I have made enough cash off of this collection that it saved me from financial ruin during this horrible economic downturn, and I did not have to sell much of my own collection. I've also been flipping the classical LPs on ebay here and there. I still have a few thousand LPs to flip on a rainy day. I even did needle drops of the Russian Piano Concertos on the Melodiya label, the ones by composers who never made it out of the former USSR, and never got their works issued on CD. So many rare things to listen to later.

But the ripping / tagging project seems to be never ending. I am going to he closing in on 4tb by summer.