Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

[Russellc]

Please don't rush to defend Dbpoweramp, I know its a good program and the problem is on my end. I purchased it yesterday, downloaded and started playing with it. I started with a CD I had not previously added to my Music Bee collection, Sade, Love deluxe. Not the best CD in the world, but it was in perfect shape visually. I burned it and every track verified. My settings were Flac, and I chose Secure, assuming my drive detected c errors, (at least they showed on bad CDs with a MusicBee rip) chose 1 ,2 and 1 as the re rip choices it recommended for devices that could detect them. I did not perform the test with the blacked out pie slice on an old CD. I chose level 5 as recommended for compression.

I transferred to MusicBee by opening file, add to library, and moved it track by track to Music Bee. It sounded congested, not at all like I remembered it. No air around the voice or instruments, sort of like something was being overdriven to distortion. As a test, I recued it up, and placed the CD in a 1990s Phillips CD player as transport, and a DAC also from the 90s, Audio Alchemy single bit, way outdated technology. It walked all over my expensive lap top with MusicBee, Audioquest Dragonfly and jitterbug.

Then I deleted the file from MusicBee, and reburned it using MusicBee, Wasapi output. Results were every track "partially Accurate", I didn't rerip, just left it as was. Playback was by far, the best so far by a large margin. I understand it outperforming the hardware from the 90's, but what did I do to screw up the burn with dBPoweramp?

Confused,

Russellc

[garym]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

Did you use any DSPs when ripping? Are you 100% sure you ripped as flac not a lossy codec, is your server/player by any chance transcoding the flac to something else?

[Spoon]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

As a test try a different player, such as foobar2000.

[Russellc]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

I did test another player, like my original post says. I did it in MusicBee, it returned "partially accurate" (whatever that means) on all tracks, but it sounded far, far better than any of the other mentioned methods, sounded very good.
I will play further, like I said, I am sure the problem is on my end.

Russellc

[Russellc]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

Did you use any DSPs when ripping? Are you 100% sure you ripped as flac not a lossy codec, is your server/player by any chance transcoding the flac to something else?

I will try again this evening and report back all that, seems I remember setting something there, (DSP tab) I think replaygain?

Russellc

[garym]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

I will try again this evening and report back all that, seems I remember setting something there, (DSP tab) I think replaygain?

Russellc

replaygain shouldn't cause this problem. But are you sure your comparisons are at the same approx volume. Also, regarding trying another player, it sounded like you reripped (thus the partially accurate report). Spoon meant trying the dbpa rips with another player, such as foobar2000.

[Russellc]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

replaygain shouldn't cause this problem. But are you sure your comparisons are at the same approx volume. Also, regarding trying another player, it sounded like you reripped (thus the partially accurate report). Spoon meant trying the dbpa rips with another player, such as foobar2000.

Well, the problem seemed to resolve itself. The rip was indeed flac, level 5. Also, the two different rips were separate files ( one by musicBee, one by dbpoweramp) . I first transferred the newly ripped dbpoweramp file to musicBee, that is where it sounded so off. All volumes, even when I listened to the orginalCD via player were equal volume. It was really bad, sounding like some thing was horribly overdriven, flat unpleasant to listen to.

I deleted that file and reripped the CD using MusicBees software with similar settings, secure. The result gave "partially accurate" and offered to re rip, but I declined and played it. Partially accurate or not, problem gone. I deleted that rip from musicBee and went back to dbpoweramp, ripped it again. The only change was going from level 5 to lossless no compression. I dont know if this had anything to do with it, but after putting that file in MusicBee's library, all problems were solved. I have ripped a couple more with excellent results.

A couple of questions:

When I moved the files, I went to Computer> Music> (where dbpoweramp placed the album I wanted) clicked it again and it broke it down into single tracks. I could not open and move entire album file. So there after, on MusicBee: File>add to library, and one by one moved each trackng back to file>add to library and added next track. Surely there is a way to move the whole file? I know this isnt a musicBee forum, but I'm sure files are moved similarly in all players. Oddly, when I added the next CD rip via dbpoweramp to my computers Music file, I couldnt access it, it kept trying to open the first one. I deleted the first one and then installed the next one. I am sure both of these problems are do to my lack of computer knowledge, any advice highly appreciated.

My other question is what level of compression do most here use for highest quality? The help files indicated level 5 was adequate for most uses, but my problem went away when I went with "Lossless no compression"....I have no idea if this is what corrected my problem. What say you experienced rippers?

Much appreciated!

Russellc

[garym]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

Well, the problem seemed to resolve itself. The rip was indeed flac, level 5. Also, the two different rips were separate files ( one by musicBee, one by dbpoweramp) . I first transferred the newly ripped dbpoweramp file to musicBee, that is where it sounded so off. All volumes, even when I listened to the orginalCD via player were equal volume. It was really bad, sounding like some thing was horribly overdriven, flat unpleasant to listen to.

I deleted that file and reripped the CD using MusicBees software with similar settings, secure. The result gave "partially accurate" and offered to re rip, but I declined and played it. Partially accurate or not, problem gone. I deleted that rip from musicBee and went back to dbpoweramp, ripped it again. The only change was going from level 5 to lossless no compression. I dont know if this had anything to do with it, but after putting that file in MusicBee's library, all problems were solved. I have ripped a couple more with excellent results.

A couple of questions:

When I moved the files, I went to Computer> Music> (where dbpoweramp placed the album I wanted) clicked it again and it broke it down into single tracks. I could not open and move entire album file. So there after, on MusicBee: File>add to library, and one by one moved each trackng back to file>add to library and added next track. Surely there is a way to move the whole file? I know this isnt a musicBee forum, but I'm sure files are moved similarly in all players. Oddly, when I added the next CD rip via dbpoweramp to my computers Music file, I couldnt access it, it kept trying to open the first one. I deleted the first one and then installed the next one. I am sure both of these problems are do to my lack of computer knowledge, any advice highly appreciated.

My other question is what level of compression do most here use for highest quality? The help files indicated level 5 was adequate for most uses, but my problem went away when I went with "Lossless no compression"....I have no idea if this is what corrected my problem. What say you experienced rippers?

Much appreciated!

Russellc

Highly doubtful that flac with no compression vs -5 was the solution unless your player has problems playing normal flac files. Flac files are lossless without regard to compression of file. I use the -5 default personally and have no issues.

Regarding moving tracks, it appears that you didn't set the dynamic naming of dbpa to create the tracks within an ALBUM subdirectory. If you had then you could move the entire album subdirectory with a single action.

[Russellc]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

Yes, I did not think the "Lossless no compression" would have done it, that was just the only change I had made. Player plays FLAC fine, as pointed out with the other ripper.
\Thanks for the tip on moving files, I will see if I can figure that out. I did learn I could drag and drop into the players inbox, but then the tracks had to be moved to the library one by one. I will experiment and see if I can figure out your method, sounds like it is the proper way. I am new to this digital stuff, and am facing a learning curve. Still plenty of curve ahead, but it is surprising how much I have picked up in the past couple of days! I dont know a dbpa from a dynamic naming at this point, more reading required on my end.

Thanks again,



Russellc

[Brent4961]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

I just got dbpoweramp yesterday and last night ripped 3 new cds. The first one I ripped as an AIFF file first and then as a flac file. I set up the flac parameters according to the instructions on dbpoweramp.com. In both formats the Accuracy was 49. At first I listened to the two versions on my computer through my Bose speakers. There was quite a difference. The AIFF version sounded just like the cd played through the same speakers. The flac version was lifeless and at a lower volume. I increased the volume and it was still lifeless. The voices were muffled.

This morning I played the two versions on my stereo system. The music is streamed from my NAS to an Auralic Aries. It was the same result. Like the original poster, I had it set to level 5 lossless. I also had the following DSP's - HDCD and ReplayGain.

I'm pretty sure that it's not my system. I have a couple of downloaded flac albums and they sound fantastic. (All the rest of the cd's were ripped to ALAC using iTunes and they sound pretty good as well).

I'll play around some more. Ultimately, it's not a problem for me to store AIFFs because the NAS has a ton of room on it.

[garym]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

I just got dbpoweramp yesterday and last night ripped 3 new cds. The first one I ripped as an AIFF file first and then as a flac file. I set up the flac parameters according to the instructions on dbpoweramp.com. In both formats the Accuracy was 49. At first I listened to the two versions on my computer through my Bose speakers. There was quite a difference. The AIFF version sounded just like the cd played through the same speakers. The flac version was lifeless and at a lower volume. I increased the volume and it was still lifeless. The voices were muffled.

This morning I played the two versions on my stereo system. The music is streamed from my NAS to an Auralic Aries. It was the same result. Like the original poster, I had it set to level 5 lossless. I also had the following DSP's - HDCD and ReplayGain.

I'm pretty sure that it's not my system. I have a couple of downloaded flac albums and they sound fantastic. (All the rest of the cd's were ripped to ALAC using iTunes and they sound pretty good as well).

I'll play around some more. Ultimately, it's not a problem for me to store AIFFs because the NAS has a ton of room on it.

something is wrong/different. Both are lossless files so should be bitperfect back to CD (and your accuraterip matches confirm this). Try ripping without the HDCD DSP. Are these CDs in fact HDCD? I recall that HDCD dsp will lower the volume of the file by 6db. Be careful with ripping using HDCD dsp. You don't have bitperfect rips when done. See this (long) thread:

https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?27540-Ripping-HDCDs-Best-practices

[Brent4961]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

Thanks for your reply Gary. The cds are not HDCD. I just put that dsp in because the instructions said it wouldn't affect non HDCD rips. I'll take it out and rip it again to see what happens.

[garym]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

Thanks for your reply Gary. The cds are not HDCD. I just put that dsp in because the instructions said it wouldn't affect non HDCD rips. I'll take it out and rip it again to see what happens.

Also see if you can compare with the use of ReplayGain tag turned off in your player. In most cases, the RG tag will cause the volume to be lower (not muddy or lower quality, just lower volume, as if you turned down your preamp volume control). And make sure you are using the ReplayGain DSP and not the ReplayGain(apply) DSP. For testing, maybe just try comparing a FLAC and AIFF rip with no DSPs at all, just for a clean comparison.

[Brent4961]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

Taking out the HDCD dsp solved the problem. Thanks very much.

[garym]

Re: Problems with dbpoweramp, sounds awful....

Taking out the HDCD dsp solved the problem. Thanks very much.

Perfect. By the way, I don't bother with doing anything special with my HDCD CDs (as most of them don't even truly have the HDCD features that matter, PE etc., but that's a story for another day and easily googled). But if I did want to do HDCD control, I'd still rip those CDs without the HDCD DSP (in order to get bitperfect rips). Then separately I'd do a conversion of these to FLAC using the HDCD DSP.

p.s. I do use ReplayGain on all my rips. All my players handle ALBUM and TRACK replaygain tags nicely.