Experiences and suggestions

[Helicon]

Hi everybody,

after having switched from EAC to dBpoweramp 13.2 and ripped some hundred CD's, I would like to tell my experiences and give some ideas for the further development:

1) in general, path and naming on the one hand and ID tag processing on the other hand should be separated more clearly. If I change or clear a field, it's sometimes not obvious, if this influences naming or tag- processing or both. For me, tag- processing is much more important, because naming follows ID- tag (foobar / file operations / rename to...).

2) meta data / retrieve from... should allow a preselection or a kind of priority, from where I would like to get the meta data first! For example: 1) freedb - if not: else - if not: else...

3) ID Tag Processing: lowercase except first letter - does not work

4) Meta Data & ID Tag Options: force no date on year - does not work

5) Meta Data & ID Tag Options: if album artist is ticked, the field "album artist" on top of the ripper will be filled out by artist (anyway) and I *always* have to wipe it out if it's not a compilation! If the album has one artist, there is no album artist! Artist is artist. So please, let this field blank!

If the album has different artists (track artist) it's a compilation. In this case I fill out the field "album artist" and set the field value as "Various". It would be much easier for me, if just the tick on "compilation" could do this for me automatically.


My settings: dBpoweramp 13.2 reference, DSP Effects: Release 4, rip to flac, Flac ID Tagging: Vorbis Comments, ID3v2 Version: v2.3


Thanks for your patience


Helicon

[EliC]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

regarding metadata, dBpoweramp currently pulls meta data from all available sources at one time and compares them to look for possible problems and comes up with the best metadata.

[Spoon]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

) Meta Data & ID Tag Options: if album artist is ticked, the field "album artist" on top of the ripper will be filled out by artist (anyway) and I *always* have to wipe it out if it's not a compilation! If the album has one artist, there is no album artist! Artist is artist. So please, let this field blank!

In this case I fill out the field "album artist" and set the field value as "Various"

We have to work with the whole range of programs, such as WMP and iTunes. We default to the most compatible (album artist should never be set to Various, that is the job of the compilation tag).

[Helicon]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

@ ELiC, @ Spoon,

We have to work with the whole range of programs, such as WMP and iTunes. We default to the most compatible (album artist should never be set to Various, that is the job of the compilation tag).

Yes, indeed! But just the complexity and range of programs requires more freedom for individual settings in order to satisfy the personal needs!


Helicon

[EliC]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

@ ELiC, @ Spoon,



Yes, indeed! But just the complexity and range of programs requires more freedom for individual settings in order to satisfy the personal needs!


Helicon

Sure, I completely agree that you should have more power to use the software as you want. I wasn't sure if you were aware that it was pulling all of the meta-data at once. If for some reason you want to do it a different way explain why and maybe spoon will implement your request.

[Helicon]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

@ELiC,

sorry Elic, but I dont understand what you mean with this:

I wasn't sure if you were aware that it was pulling all of the meta-data at once.

Helicon

[Teknojnky]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

We default to the most compatible (album artist should never be set to Various, that is the job of the compilation tag).

I have to respectfully disagree, I think.

I don't think that dbpa should auto-set the album artist to various, but that often a user will want Various (or VA or Various Artists or Soundtrack, etc) in the album artist field to properly group the tracks in whatever music library they use.

Another thing is, that a compilation can be often be the same artist, ie a greatest hits album with some tracks having a featured or additional artist.

[EliC]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

@ELiC,

sorry Elic, but I dont understand what you mean with this:

Helicon

dBpoweramp currently gets its metadata from 4 providers at once. It gets AMG, GD3, musicbrainz and FreeDB. It then compares the results from all four. If the results agree then that data is probably correct, if they disagree, it uses the meta-data that the most sources agree on (basically).

[Spoon]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

I don't think that dbpa should auto-set the album artist to various, but that often a user will want Various (or VA or Various Artists or Soundtrack, etc) in the album artist field to properly group the tracks in whatever music library they use.

We do not auto set to various, but we also do not stop anyone from typing Various in there if they want to...

[Helicon]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

@ ELiC,

thank you for your clarification. I will give you an example, that sometimes happened to me when ripping: the year is missing! But when I go (for example) via metadata/retrieve from/freedb, the year suddenly appears! How can that be? Or the kind of writing the tracktitle is slightly different and I want to choose the one which match my needs.

In your first respond you wrote:

regarding metadata, dBpoweramp currently pulls meta data from all available sources at one time and compares them to look for possible problems and comes up with the best metadata.

Sorry, but I myself would like to decide which are the "best metadata". I wold like to get this freedom.

And concerning the various artist issue:

Here is a short abstract how the tag "various artists" is used in foobar:

ALBUM ARTIST

Basics:

* the tag-fieldname used for declaring and describing albums/split-EPs or split-singles which contain various artists is "ALBUM ARTIST" (separated with space, not underscore)
* tag should only exist if an album contains various artists. It should NOT be created when an album does not contain various artists.

Here you will find two links with the whole discussion:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=31530

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=31543

My understanding is, that "It (the album artist tag) should NOT be created when an album does not contain various artists".

Conclusion: If its *not* a compilation, the album artist field should be blank! - but it always has the artist- value!

From my point of view (surely other users see it different because they have a different order- system) three points are important to get the right tags:

1) ordinary CD with just one artist?

2) compilation with different track-artists?

3) multiple CD's?

Here I have to take a decision.....and the rest should go automatically!

May be I could not express myself very clearly, but English is not my native language, so excuse my poor English! And last but not least: I don't want to blame anybody! All I want to do is to give some stimulation for the future development!


Thanks for your patience


Helicon

[Spoon]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

Your posting only relates to Foobar, not Windows Media Player (which needs album artist always) or iTunes.

We default to the most popular programs, if you want "Various Artists" and no "Album Artist" for non-compilation, simply type in to the Album Artist box.

[Helicon]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

@ Spoon,

simply type in to the Album Artist box

No problem Spoon! But the other way round (if its *not* a compilation) is annoying - and this concerns about 95%!

If its not a compilation I *always* have to wipe out the album artist field and if I forget it, I have to retag and to rename the CD! I think its fairly easy to give the user a choice, whether the field sould be blank or not!


Helicon

[Spoon]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

Have 2 profiles, one Compilation one not, the one where you want to remove album artist, use the DSP effect to delete the album artist tag.

[Teknojnky]

Re: Experiences and suggestions

Here you will find two links with the whole discussion:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=31530

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=31543

I did not read those whole threads, but I did note that the discussion was from 2005, so I am not sure it represents current practices or realities.

My understanding is, that "It (the album artist tag) should NOT be created when an album does not contain various artists".

Conclusion: If its *not* a compilation, the album artist field should be blank! - but it always has the artist- value!

I disagree with this in both principal and practice:

If a track has an album, it should have an album artist populated (and artist of course). If there is no album, then the album artist tag should be cleared.

A good example would be Neil Young's Greatest Hits.

You could classify this as a compilation by checking the compilation tag, but unless you set the album artist to neil young, you will have 3 different groupings if using only artist.