CD Ripper default to MusicBrainz

[MarkSealey]

CD Ripper in Release 2024-05-30 (6) on macOS 13.6.7.

I want to default to MusicBrainz for retrieved metadata. For batch ripping on multiple drives, usually. But potentially always.

Is this the best practice, please:

1. Is it safe/best practice simply to uncheck everything except 'MusicBrainz' in the Active providers dropdown?
2. If I do, will they remain available in the future if I ever need them again?
3. Or should I keep anything else in that list ('PerfectMeta', 'dBpoweramp cache', 'Acurate Rip Meta' etc?)?

TIA!

[Dat Ei]

You can enable / disbale the different metadata sources forth and back and whenever you want. If you just check one source, it might happen that no metadata will ne found while the sources would have those. I prefer to use all different online metasources plus CD Text plus PerfectMeta and just in case check which source gave me the best metadata to my liking.


Dat Ei

[MarkSealey]

Dat Ei - thanks so much for your quick and helpful reply!

You can enable / disbale the different metadata sources forth and back and whenever you want.

Do those sources which I disable remain available in the dropdown? They're not hidden in a Plist somewhere, are they?

If you just check one source, it might happen that no metadata will ne found while the sources would have those.

Thanks; I can see how that might happen.

…plus CD Text plus PerfectMeta…

I'm not sure what each of these does. Are they documented somewhere, please: I'd like to be able to understand the features and functionality of all these metadata source options.

(BTW, I tried to edit this post of mine last night: although I could save it and the text came up containing my edits, only the original/first version before I tried to edit it. Is this useful in troubleshooting what appears to be a bug in (this implementation of) the vBulletin software?)

Thanks again in advance for any help on offer for best practices with metadata sources…

[Dat Ei]

You can enable / disable the different sources as often as you like.

CD Text refers to additional metadata stored on the CD itself. Not every CD has those metadata.

Da Ei

[MarkSealey]

Dat Ei,

You can enable / disable the different sources as often as you like.

Got it. Thanks. Good to know :-)

CD Text refers to additional metadata stored on the CD itself

And:

1. PerfectMeta
2. dBpoweramp cache
3. Acurate Rip Meta'

???

Are these documented somewhere, please; I did look?

[Spoon]

PerfectMeta combines the metadata looking for spelling mistakes

The cache is just that a cache, any previously known disc it takes from the cache (last say 50 discs stored)

AccurateRip Meta is our own meta database created from PerfecftMeta, so will be the most accurate out there eventually.

[MarkSealey]

Many thanks, Spoon!

All clear now :-) .

So for my purposes (the most accurate tagging for Classical music, preparatory to importing into Roon) would a good combination be to enable these four:

• PerfectMeta
• dBpoweramp cache
• AccurateRip Meta
• MusicBrainz

and - over time - to compare each table to see which results in the 'best' set of data?

[MarkSealey]

Following up, if I may: I did try deselecting the sources I don't want. But all of them return on each new launch of dBpoweramp:



Nor can I see a way actually to make MusicBrainz come first as a default.

Thanks in advance for any ideas here, please…

[MarkSealey]

Is someone able to help with my question, please: is there a documentation page which explains in detail how to use the metadata databases - especially which is the most accurate for classical music?

Thanks in advance…!

[Spoon]

You would enable them all and let the system work it out. For classical there is no better database, they are all so-so with regards to classical (such as composer, conductor).

[MarkSealey]

Thank you, Spoon!

I've been doing this for months (years?!); never sure what I'm doing, though.

I suspect(ed) I could tweak it a bit.

When you say that the 'system [can] work it out', do you mean I just let CD Ripper somehow grab all those database's data; and that it will then fill in each field with what dBpoweramp 'knows' to be the most accurate?

How does it do that?

I'd also like to put catalog numbers in. But I can't get them to stick - even when entering manually in the Meta vertical tab.

Any ideas, please?

Thanks so much in advance… !

You would enable them all and let the system work it out. For classical there is no better database, they are all so-so with regards to classical (such as composer, conductor).

[Spoon]

Does not stick as in, if you click off the track and back to it, it is gone? or when ripping, there is no catalogue number?

PerfectMeta takes data from all the databases and cross checks for errors.

[MarkSealey]

Spoon,

Does not stick as in, if you click off the track and back to it, it is gone?

No.

or when ripping, there is no catalogue number?

Yes; that's right: although I can enter each catalog number (which I get from various sites with each CD's details) before ripping (and it always does stay in the vertical 'Meta' tab), it's never there - for any of a good three or four dozen labels whatsoever - when I then load it into my tagging software.

PerfectMeta takes data from all the databases and cross checks for errors.

That seems like the best of all worlds. So (how?) can I force a rip to take (only, first) from PerfectMeta, please?

[PeterP]

Please check CD Ripper Options / Meta Data & ID Tag / ID Tags / Write ID Tags
Make sure Catalog # isn't unchecked on the list of tags to write.

Also, what other program isn't reading the Catalog # tags?
Are these tags visible in dBpoweramp itself, if you navigate Batch Converter to ripping output folder, right click some file and Edit ID Tags?

[Doug Mackie]

Please check CD Ripper Options / Meta Data & ID Tag / ID Tags / Write ID Tags
Make sure Catalog # isn't unchecked on the list of tags to write.

Also, what other program isn't reading the Catalog # tags?
Are these tags visible in dBpoweramp itself, if you navigate Batch Converter to ripping output folder, right click some file and Edit ID Tags?

In my DBPA rips I could never read catalog number tags in other applications. Output files from the Music Converter had the same problem. All other tag values set by dBpoweramp appear as expected in all my applications. The reason turned out to be simple: catalog numbers were indeed stored in the ripped files but with a nonstandard tag name: CATALOG #.

The standard tag names are:
MP3 TXXX:CATALOGNUMBER
MP4: com.apple.iTunes:CATALOGNUMBER
FLAC: CATALOGNUMBER

These names appear in the tag mapping tables at Hydrogen Audio. "CATALOG #" is not listed there for any file type.
I have not checked all types of dBpoweramp output files for this naming error, but that might be a good idea. In other respects, the ripper works great for me.