dBpoweramp not displaying meta data correctly

[RusticKnight]

Hello Everyone,

After having tried a number of different ripping programs, each one having it's own faults. Windows Media Player, just doesn't read the meta tag information correctly even when it's used to rip the cd.. Go figure.. I've just purchased dBpoweramp Reference (Release 13.1). I'm ripping the CDs into FLAC, WAVE, and MP3 formats. This probably seems silly to do it this way, but I figure that while I have the CD in the drive, and hard drive space is cheap, just as well do it all at one time. Figured doing it this way I could avoid some of the pitfalls of trying to convert formats.

The problem I'm having is with the Meta Tag information. During the ripping process, everything appears to be going great. See the "dBpoweramp CD Ripper" Picture. The problem appears when I try to view the ripped files using Windows Media Player, or dBpoweramp Audio Player. See "dBpoweramp - music collection" picture. In the case of the Wave files, much of the information is not read. With dBpoweramp, the Artist shows up only part of the time, the Genre, Album, and Track Number are not displayed at all. With the Flac files, dBpoweramp will not import the files at all. After pointing dBpoweramp to the correct directory for the Flac files, it appears to scan the directory and then nothing appears in the music collection window. Now on to MP3, it appears that dBpoweramp is reading all of the tag information correctly. It all appears to be intact. This applies to all three file formats. See "MediaMonkey view".

I'm running Xp Pro SP3 with all the updates. The version numbers for dBpoweramp are on the attached screen shot. See pictures "dBpoweramp Configuration Versions", and "dBpoweramp Configuration Codecs".

One more item, I tried MediaMonkey and it appears to import and display all of the information correctly. See picture "MediaMonkey View".

So, the big questions are, when using dBpoweramp, why is isn't all of the meta data showing up when using Wave files, and why doesn't it show the Flac files?

Last but not least, I've looked at the information on CD drives "CD/DVD Drive Accuracy List 2008" and needless to say, I would have a difficult time trying to figure out which drive to purchase. Would you consider listing say the top 5 drives you would purchase? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Steve

P.S. I've tried to figure out how to attach the pictures, and the button thats supposed to be at the bottom of the message screen isn't there. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[LtData]

Re: dBpoweramp not displaying meta data correctly

Where did the WAV files come from? WMP doesn't read or write WAV tags.
Did you install the FLAC codec from Codec Central?
Re: Album Art
What format are you looking at? You should see a button regarding album art at the bottom of the Edit Tag tab.

[RusticKnight]

Re: dBpoweramp not displaying meta data correctly

Hello LtData,

I setup dBpoweramp CD Ripper including all of the tag information. Then I ripped the Flac Files, then the Wave files, and then the MP3 files. All with dBpoweramp CD Ripper.

The codec either came with the download of dBpoweramp Reference, or were added using the procedure in dBpoweramp which I believed downloaded the codec from Codec Central.

My album art is working just fine. I guess I wasn't clear in that I couldn't figure out how to attach graphic files to my original post so that everyone could see my screen shots and see what I was talking about.

Thanks for your response,
Steve

[LtData]

Re: dBpoweramp not displaying meta data correctly

To attach pictures, you would have to use a free online site, such as tinypic.com or imageshack to upload the pictures to, and then link to the pictures here.

You ripped your files with what version of dMC, r13?

[RusticKnight]

Re: dBpoweramp not displaying meta data correctly

Hello,

I believe I am using dBpoweramp converter Release 13.1. In order to give you a clearer picture of whats happening, I have uploaded the screen shots to tinypic.com as you suggested. Here are the URLs.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=5x4i35&s=4

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=343ntkg&s=4

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=14xidkl&s=4

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=28ixg89&s=4

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=sblwrs&s=4

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=29c86md&s=4

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2mev59j&s=4

Thank you again for your help,
Steve

[LtData]

Re: dBpoweramp not displaying meta data correctly

dAP can't read WAV tags, it is using the older WAV codec that didn't support WAV tags.

Does that answer your questions? What else were you wondering about?

[RusticKnight]

Re: dBpoweramp not displaying meta data correctly

Hello Lt. Data,

Well, to some extent, I now feel like a fool. Guess that statement that dAP couldn't read the Flac files should have tipped us off. After doing some more research on your forums, I found the thread about having to install dAP in a seperate folder, and then install an older version of the Flac codec. After doing this, more than the problem with the Flac files was resolved.

Check out the screen shot at: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2wnbrjc&s=4

You'll see that the MP3 files show everything, seems tags work great with the MP3 format. Of course, considerable information is missing or incorrect for the WAV files.

Now, check out the screen shot of MediaMonkey: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=142rngn&s=4

Again, the MP3 and Flac files show the information as expected. Now look at the WAV files. Only the disk # and ratings are not shown. All of the rest of the information is shown correctly. Since all of these files, Flac, MP3, and WAV files were ripped with dBpoweramp, it appears the dBA is storing a lot more information than originally thought. Now, if only dAP and WMP would read these files as well as MM, I'd be a very happy man.

I will continue to use dBpoweramp for my ripping, and will take a closer look at dAP when the new version arrives. However, for the moment, looks like I'm stuck with MM. :headbang:

Thanks for all your assistance, and
have a great evening,
Steve

[arthurb]

Re: dBpoweramp not displaying meta data correctly

Hello RusticKnight,
you said in your last post:

"I will continue to use dBpoweramp for my ripping, and will take a closer look at dAP when the new version arrives. However, for the moment, looks like I'm stuck with MM."

If it is of any interest to you, and I fully understand if it is not, what you have described is exactly what I am doing, although with many fewer CDs (most of my collection is on vinyl). In the main I find dBpa's CD-Ripper to be an excellent, and accurate, tool. There are occasions which cause frustration, but I have found them to be mercifully few. However, I rarely rip to wave files, going straight to AAC or WMA Lossless, and the AAC files are for use with Media Monkey and a ZEN portable player. I should say here that I use Wave files when digitising LPs, and dBpa is the only software that allows proper tagging of them, and is essential - even though I have to use Nero to write the CDs, but that is another story. I have found, after quite a bit of looking and trying (I wouldn't want to use so grand a word as research), that Media Monkey was far, far better for me than any other player. The reason is that 60-70% of my collection is classical, without getting too precious about the precise definition of that term, and MM was the only player that gave the flexibility that I needed to organise a large classical collection. I noticed that in your examples above you were processing classical albums, and I would like to say that, in my opinion, in dBpa and Media Monkey you have two excellent tools for classical music (and rock/pop/jazz...), so I would not worry too much about being "stuck" with MM.

Although I yesterday had terrible trouble trying to use CD-Ripper to copy my recently acquired Barenboim/Klemperer Beethoven Piano Concertos (it just would not do it), I still regard it highly, as I do MM...

Just trying to be reassuring as I turn to Rip a John Coltrane album...

[RusticKnight]

Re: dBpoweramp not displaying meta data correctly

Hello Arthurb,

Thanks for your reassurance, I guess my comment about Media Monkey was probably more to my frustration when I first tried to use it for everything. That was before I found out about dBpoweramp. In addition, it took me a while before I figured out how to show the listings with the album graphic. I was more tied up with dBpa and not concentrating on MM. I will agree with you that as I spend more time with it, now that I have some of my collection on the hard drive it appears to be a superior product.

I also have a number of vinyl albums that I'd like to digitize. I did one quite some time ago, a album that I really enjoy but it has never been reissued as a cd as is the case with many fine LPs. May I ask what you're using to digitize them?

Thanks again for your comments,

Steve

[arthurb]

Re: dBpoweramp not displaying meta data correctly

Hello again RusticKnight - please accept my apologies for the slow response, I have been rather occupied with spending money I haven't got on Christmas. It does mean I may survive into the New Year though...

Actually, I have done quite a lot of looking at this subject (LP to CD), but, of course, everything is very personal. I started looking to convert vinyl to CD several years ago (5 or 6), but did very little of it for some time. One of the first decisions I made was to get an audio CD recorder (a Marantz twin-deck), so that there was no processing of low-level analogue signals in the PC (too much mush from high frequency electronics), and it meant using my current LP player with my Hi-Fi. This is of reasonable quality, though far from high-end: Linn-Sondek LP12 + Ittok + Lyra Lydian MC crtridge, used with Bryston amps and Spendor speakers. You can of course now get combined turntables and USB connections, but I have no idea about the quality of the ADCs in them, nor what quality of cartridge one could use, so I would still probably plump for the stand-alone recorder. The Marantz was about GBP350 when I got it (actually the wife bought it for me), and the ADCs, and DACs are of pretty good quality. I would, if I were doing this now, look at external Converters (USB connected) such as those from ESI (Maya44 etc), but I would still look to stuff costing upwards of £100 to ensure reasonable quality.

To be frank, recording on the Marantz makes the whole process a lot simpler in my opinion, but others may, and probably will, disagree. I create a simple two file recording of the two sides of the LP on Audio CD-R or CD-RW, and that is used to transfer the music to the PC, and is kept as a backup, at least during editing. I then edit these two 'tracks' down into the actual tracks using Nero WaveEditor (V7), although from what I can see, Audacity, which is freeware, would do just as well. I then use dBpa to 'tag' the resulting Wave files/tracks, and to convert them into AAC files for MM and my ZEN, or WMA Lossless for archiving if I wish. I burn the CDs from the 'tagged' Wave files using Nero, and, unfortunately, I have not been able to find a replacement for it. So, as I have said in another post, I am shortly going to have to upgrade Nero's somewhat bloated package, just to remain up-to-date. Nero is the only burner that I have found that allows me to do both of two important things to me: to record CDs with the album title/artists and track names included as CD-Text, and to set the inter-track gaps on a track-by-track basis (I use anything from 0 (often) to 8 seconds (between 'works' on a shared CD).

One last thing - I find that creating 'albums' for MM which are actually individual 'works' is very useful. If I have a CD which has two concertos on it, they will be ripped/created as two separate 'albums'.

[RusticKnight]

Re: dBpoweramp not displaying meta data correctly

Thank you arthurb for your time and information. I will carefully review your comments when I get ready to do the job.

Thanks again,
Steve