Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

[HRockefeller]

Hello,

I wondering if someone can shed some light on why I may be experiencing slow ripping and encoding on my aforementioned computer. I have the latest version of dBPoweramp, and in the past was able to rip CDs at higher speed. Currently, I rip at about 5x, and it takes a very long time to encode whereas it did not before.

I rip to ALAC and FLAC with ReplayGain added. My drive, as per the program, is HL-DT-ST DVDRW GA32N. I have a lot of RAM, and do not run anything in the background. I have Microsoft security essentials and no errors from this appear. Everything on my computer is stable and seems to be running well.

The confusing part is that I have tried all solutions mentioned in the threads:
-I have tried ripping in secure mode, but without Ultra Secure and C2 pointers to little effect (most of my disks are brand new so not sure if I need these two options)
-I have the cache at 1024 (although the test says my drive has none - I have read about this not mattering in other forums)
-I usually rip to an external USB drive formatted FAT32, although when I rip to my HDD it might give me a 1x ripping improvement.
-I tried a test conversion and again, I was at 5-6x
-I confirmed my IDE controllers: Ultra DMA Mode 5

I am sure there is something I can do, I just do not know what that is. In the past I was able to rip at much higher speeds but am unsure why I cannot now. Any help is appreciated,

Philip

[HRockefeller]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

I am pleased to report that after ripping several discs the ripping speed is again back up to the double digits - high teens - and encoding takes seconds usually which is great. Overall my discs are taking about 10 minutes which is great.

I changed the ripping location to the HDD vs the USB and this I think helped speed things up. This is all while using Ultra-Secure and C2 pointers, as well as verify written audio. I don't know why this happened, but it is working now so I am ok with everything.

Two questions though I had thought of, in case anyone else was wondering the same thing:
-In boot camp, I can't seem to write to the windows portion of my HDD - I am assuming that is because it uses a different file structure (HFS I think)
-More importantly, is there any advantage when creating storage folders to specify "Album Artist" vs simply "Artist"? I am wondering because, on for example any CD where there is not just one artist, or where other artists are quoted in that field, these disks get filed under Various Artists, even though they have a clear Album Artist. How do others approach this?

Philip

[Spoon]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

The music folder should be on the Windows HDD and should be writable.

Album Artist is best if present, as on many CDs you can find a cd which is not a compilation, yet the main artist who the disc is released by, might not be present for a given track, you want the album to have all the files in the same folder.

[HRockefeller]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

Thank-you, that is good to know.

My folder structure as I have it set up is: [artist]\[album]\[artist] - [title].

This ultimately works, as any album gets stored as so. I wanted to simulate the concept of an LP - tracks on a disc are stored together. At worst, in my master library, I have a folder called Various Artists, under which I think DBPoweramp writes tracks files to Album Artist folders which I think must be set in the program as a default. As I haven't seen any discs yet without a specified Album Artist, would it be better if I substituted 'album' for 'album artist' in the above? Is that how most approach this in their naming?

Thanks again,

Philip

[garym]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

Thank-you, that is good to know.

My folder structure as I have it set up is: [artist]\[album]\[artist] - [title].

This ultimately works, as any album gets stored as so. I wanted to simulate the concept of an LP - tracks on a disc are stored together. At worst, in my master library, I have a folder called Various Artists, under which I think DBPoweramp writes tracks files to Album Artist folders which I think must be set in the program as a default. As I haven't seen any discs yet without a specified Album Artist, would it be better if I substituted 'album' for 'album artist' in the above? Is that how most approach this in their naming?

Thanks again,

Philip

If you use this string, it will use ALBUM ARTIST for directory name (if it exists) and otherwise use ARTIST name for subdirectory.

[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[artist] - [title]

And since you already know the artist name (as you have these in the artist directory, I wouldn't also add artist to file name. Or even if I did, I'd probably want to have the track number first for purposes of sorting and seeing things appropriately in file explorer, etc. Like:

[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[track] - [title]

I use the following (to automatically handle compilations (which I put in Complications subdirectory) and multidisk (where I have album\disc 1\..., album\disk 2\..., etc.). It also adds track artist to file name for the compilations but not for the single artist albums.

[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album] [IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title]-[artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title][]

[HRockefeller]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

Thanks Garym,

I didn't actually know the string could get that complicated, but I will try it out and see how the results begin to appear. It looks like you have put a lot of thought into that.

Thinking out loud, coming up with some sort of recommended file directory naming process would be a useful thing to have in the DBPoweramp user guide, especially for the mac release.

Philip

[garym]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

Thanks Garym,

I didn't actually know the string could get that complicated, but I will try it out and see how the results begin to appear. It looks like you have put a lot of thought into that.

Thinking out loud, coming up with some sort of recommended file directory naming process would be a useful thing to have in the DBPoweramp user guide, especially for the mac release.

Philip

there's a good help screen on the "dynamic naming" pop up screen. I basically used what others posted here at the forum, the help screen info, and trial and error to get the dynamic naming string I wanted. It's very flexible.

[HRockefeller]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

That's interesting.. I have reviewed the list of options on the dynamic naming 'set' pop-up menu, and there certainly are a lot. I thought I had done a forum review for that, but I guess not.

What are your thoughts - I'm in the process of ripping a latest bunch of discs (probably 300-400 in total) - and just switched Artist to Album Artist as mentioned before. Is this new file structure naming something you would suggest I just jump into or perhaps best to leave things as they are? The reason I am cautious is I have an external 1TB drive with my 'master' working copy (ALAC) and archival copy (FLAC) libraries as suggested in Computer Audiophile. They are nicely named with an organized and pre-existing file structure format. The only problem is that while I 'thought' I was saving things as LPs (i.e. an entire album in one folder), if the tracks have individual artists, albums are split up into a few folders which is inconvenient to say the least. I mean it's grand if you use iTunes and Apple TV as I do as they read the files perfectly and place them back into complete album format in the program, but if I was ever to use a DLNA audio system if I ever got into HD audio, not having all tracks in an album in one place would be a problem.

How do you who are using this elaborate file structure string find it? Is it versatile and things end up well filed? I just don't know much about it and am a bit hesitant to use it after all the ripping I have done. The classic question of whether to leave well-enough alone.

Philip

[garym]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

That's interesting.. I have reviewed the list of options on the dynamic naming 'set' pop-up menu, and there certainly are a lot. I thought I had done a forum review for that, but I guess not.

What are your thoughts - I'm in the process of ripping a latest bunch of discs (probably 300-400 in total) - and just switched Artist to Album Artist as mentioned before. Is this new file structure naming something you would suggest I just jump into or perhaps best to leave things as they are? The reason I am cautious is I have an external 1TB drive with my 'master' working copy (ALAC) and archival copy (FLAC) libraries as suggested in Computer Audiophile. They are nicely named with an organized and pre-existing file structure format. The only problem is that while I 'thought' I was saving things as LPs (i.e. an entire album in one folder), if the tracks have individual artists, albums are split up into a few folders which is inconvenient to say the least. I mean it's grand if you use iTunes and Apple TV as I do as they read the files perfectly and place them back into complete album format in the program, but if I was ever to use a DLNA audio system if I ever got into HD audio, not having all tracks in an album in one place would be a problem.

How do you who are using this elaborate file structure string find it? Is it versatile and things end up well filed? I just don't know much about it and am a bit hesitant to use it after all the ripping I have done. The classic question of whether to leave well-enough alone.

Philip

it looks like an elaborate string, but it produces a very simple outcome. In terms of file structure, it produces:

For "non-compilation" CDs:

x:\music\artist\album\tracks (with track names 01 - title, 02 - title, etc.)
if there are multi disks within an album, it looks like:

x:\music\artist\album\disk 1\tracks
.............................\disk 2\tracks
etc.

if the album is a compilation (multiple artists), the files look like:

x:\music\compilations\album\tracks (with track names of 01 - title - track artist, 02 - title -track artist, etc.)
likewise if multidisk, it looks like

x:\music\compilations\album\disk 1\tracks
......................................\disk 2\tracks
etc.

I use iTunes for loading an mp3 mirror of all my FLAC files on to my iThings. My recollection is that the iTunes directory/file organization is the same as I use above.

EDIT: to be clear, I use

x:\music\flac\.... for the flac files, and

x:\music\lossy\... for the mp3 mirror.

Then I point my home music server to the x:\music\flac directory so I only use those at home.

[HRockefeller]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

Hi Garym,

So just to review, you use:

[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[artist] - [title]

If it is a single disc with a stated metadata album artist.

However you use:

[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album] [IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title]-[artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title][]

If ripping a complication disc (e.g. Philly Soul or something like that with multiple artists, or a soundtrack for example) or a multi-disc album (including that of a single artist) you use this string:

[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album] [IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title]-[artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title][]

Is that about right? Do you find that if you get markedly different results if you accidentally use the compilation string for a single artist disc - or perhaps the latter string is one size fits all? I am ripping a horribly complicated three-disc MixMag DJ compilation right now using the latter string so I am curious to see how it does to a test folder.

Philip

[garym]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

Hi Garym,

So just to review, you use:

[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[artist] - [title]

If it is a single disc with a stated metadata album artist.

However you use:

[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album] [IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title]-[artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title][]

If ripping a complication disc (e.g. Philly Soul or something like that with multiple artists, or a soundtrack for example) or a multi-disc album (including that of a single artist) you use this string:

[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album] [IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title]-[artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title][]

Is that about right? Do you find that if you get markedly different results if you accidentally use the compilation string for a single artist disc - or perhaps the latter string is one size fits all? I am ripping a horribly complicated three-disc MixMag DJ compilation right now using the latter string so I am curious to see how it does to a test folder.

Philip

no, I use the following string for everything:

[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album] [IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title]-[artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title][]

Note that this string TESTS for whether something is a compilation or not and whether it has mult disks or not, and whether ALUBM ARTIST exists or not. That makes it simple as it *automatically* does the right thing about file name/directory name. But one can also setup up profiles in the dbpa ripper and use different strings if one wants. I like the "automated" approach. Paste my string into your "dynamic naming" SET screen and you can see what it does by clicking on the examples (the Madonna album examples).

NOTE: along with the string, I have to put the right directory location in the row just above this, e.g., x:\music\flac

[HRockefeller]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

Ah I see..

I'm not a computer guy or programmer so making sense of those strings is a bit harder for me.

I did do that first rip and it looked pretty good, however I really like the idea of the automated approach, so will use that all-purpose string! Myself, unless there is a major pressing issue, I don't see myself changing that.

I put that info into the example field and do see what it did with the Madonna disc. I initially wanted to have it so you could identify a file just by the filename, however I recognize that now all the metadata is embedded so as long as you're using a music program or somehow don't lose your file structure - which seems unlikely anyways - this makes a lot of sense.

My biggest issue before was that discs would be divided up into several folders, which although 'fixed' by iTunes, is not ideal. This, however, I feel solves that which is great. Thank you for your help and advice.

Philip

[garym]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

yes, this should work well for you. play around a bit (rip some compilations and some multidisk albums to see how it looks to you). The good news is that once ripped, you can easily change the naming/directory structure for your entire collection with a couple of mouse clicks in a batch way (using dbpa, convert to [arrange audio] dsp or using the program mp3tag). And this is without reripping, etc. So you're not locked into any structure. Main thing is to get all the info in the tags themselves when ripping. again, play around a bit to get comfortable with what it is doing for you.

p.s. I'm not a programmer or computer person either. I just learned what I know when I started down the same path as you a few years ago (that is, I had a lot of CDs and I wanted to convert them to digital files). But you're ahead of me. I started just ripping everything (somewhere between 5 and 10k disk) to mp3. I then discovered lossless and dbpa and have been on a journey to rerip everything to lossless (FLAC).

p.s. I'm not sure why you are bothering to keep an ALAC set of files and a FLAC set of files. These are both LOSSLESS. An ALAC can be losslessy converted to FLAC and vice versa. Normally, people keep a lossless set of files and then a lossy set of files for use on portables (rather than TWO lossless sets of files). Of course one does need lots of good backups of his lossless archive. I have at least 5 backups of all my lossless files, stored at three different physical locations. Backup drives that are sitting next to each other in the same house don't do much good when the house burns down or is burglarized.

[HRockefeller]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

Hey Garym,

I went with the two formats after reading the ripping strategy a few years ago at Computeraudiophile.com. For me it's not a bad place to start - I use iTunes for music management as wiring issues in my place mandate wireless streaming, hence the ALAC for Apple TV. I want to have the option to go with a music server later once I start getting into more HD audio so hence the FLAC, although perhaps iTunes will allow that then too. Either way, I like your idea of having another copy "off-site".

Not to cheat, but if I could ask yourself and any others out there that are reading this.. after seeing your file naming scheme, my question is whether there is one all-purpose naming scheme that "most" people are going with? Yours is great from the discs I have ripped, and maybe yours is it, but reading on the subject others have posted their options. I'll be honest, I just don't have the time to play around with different options. It would seem most logical to name files as if looking for them in a record store, i.e. by most prominent artist then by album. I am curious to see if there is a "main" all-purpose naming algorithm, but perhaps that question has just not been settled yet.

Philip

[garym]

Re: Slow Ripping on 2010 Intel iMac in Boot Camp Windows 7

Hey Garym,

I went with the two formats after reading the ripping strategy a few years ago at Computeraudiophile.com. For me it's not a bad place to start - I use iTunes for music management as wiring issues in my place mandate wireless streaming, hence the ALAC for Apple TV. I want to have the option to go with a music server later once I start getting into more HD audio so hence the FLAC, although perhaps iTunes will allow that then too. Either way, I like your idea of having another copy "off-site".

Not to cheat, but if I could ask yourself and any others out there that are reading this.. after seeing your file naming scheme, my question is whether there is one all-purpose naming scheme that "most" people are going with? Yours is great from the discs I have ripped, and maybe yours is it, but reading on the subject others have posted their options. I'll be honest, I just don't have the time to play around with different options. It would seem most logical to name files as if looking for them in a record store, i.e. by most prominent artist then by album. I am curious to see if there is a "main" all-purpose naming algorithm, but perhaps that question has just not been settled yet.

Philip

there is no "all purpose" naming scheme. It's all personal preference. For "pop" music, I'd say my scheme is fairly standard. For classical music, there are other things people like to include.

p.s. itunes will never use FLAC in my opinion. (which is too bad).