Need help/advice on ripping with dMC vs iTunes

[shlea]

Hi,

I have decided to start on the huge process of ripping my cd's in lossless format. Until today I have used mp3 and I have approximately 36000 songs in my library.

I want to do this properly so I don't have to do it over again later.

I use iTunes for Windows, hence I want to use Apple lossless ALAC format.

As a test I ripped one CD using dMC/CD ripper as well as ripping the same CD using iTunes set for ALAC format.

I noticed a few problems/issues:

1. The .m4a-files from CDripper was slightly bigger than the ones from iTunes (for the whole CD it was 391 Mb vs 376 Mb). Why?? Is there a difference in algoritms and/or quality?

2. The tagging from CDripper (AMG I presume) was not bad. Wrong artist name ("Kaspers orkester" instead of "Bo Kaspers orkester") as well as wrong track names for certain songs. The iTunes tagging was flawless.

3. CDripper created a folder for the artist, but not for the album. Can that be changed?

4. I had to add the album which I had ripped using CDripper into iTunes after the ripping. Is there a way to add it directly into iTunes?

5. CD ripper was significantly faster than iTunes. Is it possible to access CDripper from iTunes? Lik eusing iTunes to tag and add to the library, but using the ripping and encoding from CDripper?

6. Finally the very general queston: How can I best use the combination of dMC/CDripper and iTunes?


Thanks for any help.

Best regards,
Svein-Helge Lea

[garym]

Re: Need help/advice on ripping with dMC vs iTunes

3. CDripper created a folder for the artist, but not for the album. Can that be changed?

This is the easy question. See this thread.

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=16761&highlight=garym

Can't help on the apple lossess. I use dbpoweramp to rip to FLAC for archive, then use dbpoweramp to convert the FLAC files to mp3 files (LAME -V2). I add the mp3 files then to my itunes library for syncing with my IPODs. I use foobar2000 on my home computer that's connected to my home stereo for playing the FLAC versions of the files.

There are plenty here that use apple lossess and they'll be able to respond to those issues.

[LtData]

Re: Need help/advice on ripping with dMC vs iTunes

1. The .m4a-files from CDripper was slightly bigger than the ones from iTunes (for the whole CD it was 391 Mb vs 376 Mb). Why?? Is there a difference in algoritms and/or quality?

dMC's implementation of ALAC is reverse engineered, so there is probably some tweaks iTunes has that dMC does not.

2. The tagging from CDripper (AMG I presume) was not bad. Wrong artist name ("Kaspers orkester" instead of "Bo Kaspers orkester") as well as wrong track names for certain songs. The iTunes tagging was flawless.

Try the new "PerfectMeta" option in the dMC r13 alpha (perfectly stable, just not feature complete) to see if you get better results. The link is below in my signature.

3. CDripper created a folder for the artist, but not for the album. Can that be changed?

Added to the naming scheme tutorial: http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthre...7728#post77728

4. I had to add the album which I had ripped using CDripper into iTunes after the ripping. Is there a way to add it directly into iTunes?

I think there is some way in iTunes to have it rescan your library, just have dMC rip to the iTunes folder then have iTunes rescan. But as for directly interfacing, no.

5. CD ripper was significantly faster than iTunes. Is it possible to access CDripper from iTunes? Lik eusing iTunes to tag and add to the library, but using the ripping and encoding from CDripper?

As I said above, no.

6. Finally the very general queston: How can I best use the combination of dMC/CDripper and iTunes?

I don't use iTunes, so I couldn't tell you.