Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

[Melapi]

Hi Folks,

Apologies in advance as I'm a Newbie. I've looked around the Forum and made some notes.

However I wanted to check with the Guru's out there before ripping over a 1000's Cd's to FLAC.

I did originally rip these several years ago to WMA Lossless and am reluctant to have to do this again.

So I want to make sure I get it right and the settings are as future proof as possible.

Could you tell me what the best DSP settings would be? I'm using the OS X version if that makes any difference?

I wanted to check the best settings for the album artwork. In future I'd like to stream FLAC wirelessly around the house.

Not sure what system/software yet in case that makes a difference to how the artwork needs to be copied? Probably a NAS(Asustor) and B&W wireless speakers, but that's a project for another day and pending funds and Wife's permission of course!

As I've got several songs which are the same but from different albums. I'd like to be able to clarify which album it's from. Does this mean I need to copy the artwork JPEG as a Folder and embedded it into the song file as well? If so how do you do that as the options are only Folder or Cover? Do I need to rip compilation albums separately with a different setting to original artist albums? Not sure if compilation albums need to have the settings differently? Ideally I'd like the format -Album, CD number, track, artist for compilations. Probably a format of - Artist, Album, track number, song for original albums. Can this be done together or does it have to be setup separately?

For instance I've got Pearl Jam songs from their Ten Album, Plus Greatest Hits, Plus compilations, Plus again from special editions from overseas markets with bonus tracks. When playing them it would be nice to know which album the song file is currently playing from.

Are there any other pointers or tips, I'd appreciate any input.

Kind Regards

[mville]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

1. Decide how you want to organize your albums in terms of the file/folder structure. It is up to you how the file/folder structure is to be and how you deal with compilation CDs, so you will have to learn how the Naming string in CDRipper works. There is a default Naming string created in CDRipper, which you edit as you need.

2. Ideally, ripped tracks for an album will be saved in individual folders named as the Album title and CDRipper can save the artwork as folder.jpg or cover.jpg to the same folder as the tracks.

3. The flac files need to be tagged consistently before ripping, so, in CDRipper, Review the metadata/artwork BEFORE ripping and make sure that the tags are being populated as you need, especially the essential tags e.g. Artist, Title, Disc Number, Track Number, Album, Album Artist, Year and Artwork etc. Decide also, if you want to use the corresponding Sort tags e.g. Artist and Artist Sort etc.

4. If tagged consistently, your media player will determine the album by reading the Album tag and will usually display the artwork from the folder.

5. Consider using the ReplayGain DSP to add the ReplayGain Track and Album Gain tags.

6. To start, I suggest trying with just a few CDs, 1 pop/rock CD, 1 classical CD, 1 various artist CD, 1 multi-disc CD set. Get used to the processes involved, which initially, you may need to tweak. Once satisfied all is working OK, only then would I begin ripping the 1000+ CDs.

7. Read dBpoweramp CD Ripper for more help.

[garym]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

1. Decide how you want to organize your albums in terms of the file/folder structure. It is up to you how the file/folder structure is to be and how you deal with compilation CDs, so you will have to learn how the Naming string in CDRipper works. There is a default Naming string created in CDRipper, which you edit as you need.

2. Ideally, ripped tracks for an album will be saved in individual folders named as the Album title and CDRipper can save the artwork as folder.jpg or cover.jpg to the same folder as the tracks.

3. The flac files need to be tagged consistently before ripping, so, in CDRipper, Review the metadata/artwork BEFORE ripping and make sure that the tags are being populated as you need, especially the essential tags e.g. Artist, Title, Disc Number, Track Number, Album, Album Artist, Year and Artwork etc. Decide also, if you want to use the corresponding Sort tags e.g. Artist and Artist Sort etc.

4. If tagged consistently, your media player will determine the album by reading the Album tag and will usually display the artwork from the folder.

5. Consider using the ReplayGain DSP to add the ReplayGain Track and Album Gain tags.

6. To start, I suggest trying with just a few CDs, 1 pop/rock CD, 1 classical CD, 1 various artist CD, 1 multi-disc CD set. Get used to the processes involved, which initially, you may need to tweak. Once satisfied all is working OK, only then would I begin ripping the 1000+ CDs.

7. Read dBpoweramp CD Ripper for more help.

excellent advice. This is the dynamic naming string I use to automatically deal with compilations, noncompilations, multidisk sets, and albums with "albumartist" vs just artist.

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

If you do a lot of classical CDs, you might want to create a different profile in the ripper and use something very different from above (naming based on composers, etc.).

EDIT: And if you already have Windows Lossess files, why rerip. If you have decent metadata(tags) already, I'd simply use the dbpa batch converter to convert all to FLAC. You can add the ReplayGain tags at the time you do this conversion, and also have the files organized however you want, including how suggested above. Then, when done converting, I'd use the PerfectTunes application (a separate product of Illustrate) to do an "after the fact" AccurateRip check on the FLAC files. For the ones that get an AR match, no ripping is necessary. I'd only rerip the albums that I don't get an AR match on. This would save you lots of time, as the conversion is a batch process that can handle all your files at once without having to insert each CD and rip.

[Melapi]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

Hi Garym,

Thanks so much for you input. I've looked for a while now for a batch converter which would take WMA Lossless and convert to FLAC. However most won't work on Mac OSX. The only one I could find was Media Human as a converter but it doesn't do batches. Are you sure PerfectTunes works on OS X I thought it was Windows only? Does dbpa batch converter do WMA Lossless I thought it didn't as WMA is a proprietary of Microsoft? I could be wrong and things could have changed. The last time I looked was over a year ago. At least 700 of the 1000 Cd's were accurate with WMA so batch would be the best way to go. Any suggestions to which DSP settings are essential? Thanks!

[Melapi]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

Hi Mville,

Thanks you so much for your help and input. Very much appreciated!

[mville]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

Does dbpa batch converter do WMA Lossless I thought it didn't as WMA is a proprietary of Microsoft? I could be wrong and things could have changed. The last time I looked was over a year ago. At least 700 of the 1000 Cd's were accurate with WMA so batch would be the best way to go. Any suggestions to which DSP settings are essential?

dBpoweramp Batch Converter would be your best option for large conversions to flac.

However, you are correct in regards to the WMA codec. It IS owned by Microsoft and is not available on any other platforms other than Windows.

[garym]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

dBpoweramp Batch Converter would be your best option for large conversions to flac.

However, you are correct in regards to the WMA codec. It IS owned by Microsoft and is not available on any other platforms other than Windows.

im away from my computer, but I assume that the Windows version of dbpa would convert wma lossless to flac.
Also, the only DSP I use in ripping or converting is adding track/album replaygain tags to my files. You might need the ID Tag DSP too for doing any automatic mapping of certain tags or handling of artwork when converting.

[Melapi]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

Thank you for your help. I'll give the dbpa windows version a go via running windows on a mac. That might be the best option as it has perfect tunes and I can batch convert WMA Lossless to FLAC.

I will have to try and pick up an old copy of Windows 7 as the iMac can't run any later versions. Can anyone confirm before I buy more software.

Does dbpa definitely convert WMA Lossless to FLAC? When I originally over a year ago I thought it didn't and I'd have to re-rip all my cd's.

There was some confusion back then as it depended on what version of Windows Media you copied the files in? On the encoders WMA is supported but it doesn't state Lossless. Without having the Windows version of batch converter I can't actually check.

[d2b]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

It doesn't sound to me like anyone gave you a definitive answer to your original question: What is recommended for DSP settings?

I would also be interested in everyone's answer to this. Currently we use the ID Tag Processing, Bit Depth, Trim Silence and the Volume Normalize function in the appropriate order, of course.

I would also be interested in the media player you plan to use on the Mac platform to play your FLAC library.

Dennis, aka "d2b"

[garym]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

It doesn't sound to me like anyone gave you a definitive answer to your original question: What is recommended for DSP settings?

I would also be interested in everyone's answer to this. Currently we use the ID Tag Processing, Bit Depth, Trim Silence and the Volume Normalize function in the appropriate order, of course.

I would also be interested in the media player you plan to use on the Mac platform to play your FLAC library.

Dennis, aka "d2b"

I rip to FLAC and use only:

ID Tag Processing
ReplayGain (adding both track and album gain tags)

[mville]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

What is recommended for DSP settings?

I would also be interested in everyone's answer to this. Currently we use the ID Tag Processing, Bit Depth, Trim Silence and the Volume Normalize function in the appropriate order, of course.

I do exactly as garym, above.

It's not clear why you would use Bit Depth, Trim Silence and Volume Normalize. Perhaps you have a requirement for these DSPs?

[garym]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

I do exactly as garym, above.

It's not clear why you would use Bit Depth, Trim Silence and Volume Normalize. Perhaps you have a requirement for these DSPs?

I'm curious too. I know it is for a radio station. Particularly the Volume Normalize. Do you actually use it to change the audio volume permanently to, say, track level RG value (as opposed to using the ReplayGain DSP to only add the tags so that a capable player can use the tag info to modify volume on the fly).

[garym]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

The windows version of dbpa does have a WMA codec that handles WMA lossless (go to codec central to select and install). So you should be able to convert WMA lossless to FLAC.

[d2b]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

When we began our project in 2008, we were unaware of the RG tag(s). We also did not know if our media players of choice at the time supported RG. We began using dBpoweramp's DSP features to 1) remove unwanted silence before and after the payload, 2) to apply Volume Normalize features to achieve a reasonable (we hoped) peak level consistency...a poor man's Replay Gain, if you know what I mean. To do this, we first set the bit depth to 32 bit float, apply the volume normalize function and then return to 16 bits with dither.

We are now looking at using RG instead, but first we must verify that RG is actually supported for FLAC files on all of the media players we currently use and those that might be developed in the future. Of course the latter requires one of those elusive "crystal balls" as the future cannot be predicted.

We were also concerned that applying RG might add latency to the ripping or playback processes but this does not appear to be the case.

I am still curious about this: What media players do you use on Windows and OS X platforms that support RG tags in FLAC files?

"d2b"

[mville]

Re: Newbie Question - Best DSP settings?

I am still curious about this: What media players do you use on Windows and OS X platforms that support RG tags in FLAC files?

On my Windows 8.1 64-bit PC (soon to be upgraded to Windows 10), I use foobar2000 with my flac (ReplayGain) library.

Is your project for the radio station, as this is a very specific requirement? Most users would not need the Trim Silence, Volume Normalize with Bit Depth as these edits are destructive and most users want bit perfect rips.