Moving ripped titles to iTunes

[iGowanus68]

Today, I downloaded a trial version of dBpoweramp. I ripped a cd & set the output path (I think) to the iTunes folder, "Automatically Add to iTunes". The folders appeared, structured according to the File Naming setup, but not the individual music files. Can someone help me out here? Detail would be appreciated.

Update: I tried the same process again, i.e., reripping. This time dBpoweramp reported "Error" for each title.

[schmidj]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

Did you set up the ripper and configure it?

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper-setup-guide.htm

In particular, assuming you have the PC version, you have to setup the drive to calibrate it for accuraterip. Otherwise, you'll get all errors.

[iGowanus68]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

I don't know what I changed but subsequent rips reported no errors. I clicked the link that you sent & went through the configuration process, following the Setup Guide. After that, good things happened. The ripped files went to the iTunes "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder & were then uploaded(?) to the iTunes Library, appearing pretty much as I wanted them to. The audio quality improved significantly -- no drop outs but there is still some distortion. I was using a new CD that I cleaned a couple of times. I have ordered some CD cleaning products & 2 new CD/DVD drives. I am not expecting ultimate audio resolution, but I can't live with the distortion. Thanks for your help.

[schmidj]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

Before you spend unnecessary money: If dBpoweramp is reporting error free rips, particularly if the disk is in the accuraterip database, the audio data on your hard drive should be (see below about DSPs, though) identical to what was on the CD, and if in accuraterip, identical to what was on other copies of the CD. Cleaning the CD, using a different CD drive won't change anything. If you hear distortion, there are several possibilities: Your playback system (soundcard, amplifier, speakers, etc.) may be distorting. Try copying the file to a different, known good computer and listening to it. See how it sounds there. Possibly the CD you are listening to was poorly recorded, there are loads of poorly recorded CDs for sale, particularly now that so many people record them on homebrew setups in their basement. Finally, are your ears fooling you? Don't get mad, its happened to many of us, hearing problems that aren't really there.

There are some settings on some of the dBpoweramp DSP's that could possibly cause distortion, after a clean rip. If you are using any of the DSP effects, you might consider creating a new profile to test things, with all the DSP's removed.

[iGowanus68]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

Thank you for the prompt reply.

I started a reply to your post this afternoon. In it I set out the reasons why I did not think that the source of the problem was my audio system, the computer, the recording quality or my ears. Pursuing that source led me down a path that ended with my shutting down the computer. I thought the unfinished post would save, but it didn't (or maybe it did but I had not yet discovered how to recover it). That might have been because I neglected to log out of the forum before I shut down.

As you suggested, I deselected the DSP settings, performed a rip & then listened to the result in iTunes. Things were going rather well, only the tiniest skip or blip, maybe. Then it occurred to me that the source of the problem might be the headphone jack. Perhaps your mention of the computer as a possible source cued me. I moved the headphone connection from the rear to the front jack & listened to the remainder of the recording. It was flawless. So, I shut down the computer & set about applying DeoxiT to all of the connections to the headphones & to the auxiliary jack on the Tivoli radio that I am using temporarily while my main audio system is out of commission. I reconnected everything, powered up the computer & listened: first, on the radio connected to the computer's rear jack, & then, on the headphones connected at the front jack. The problem was back at both devices. Because of its elusiveness I think that the problem is electronic. It is evidently not the jacks, so what is it?

In the unfinished post I mentioned that I had purchased my iPod Classic, that I had ripped many CDs to iTunes & then synced them to the iPod. I listened to that music on trips I made & if the current distortions were present I would have heard them. So, maybe the distortions are not being transmitted when I sync the iPod. This is a hope.

A few months ago I decided to rip my entire CD collection (about 1200 CDs) to the iPod. At the time I discovered the current problem, I had ripped about 375 CDs to iTunes. In a fit of pique or disgust or despair, or just by bad reckoning, I erased all of that music from the iTunes Library. I hope that I can achieve at least a partial recovery by sort of back-syncing from the iPod. Or, I just thought, the cloud might be a possibility.

Before I deselected the DSP settings, ripping to Apple Lossless, I had the settings at "ReplayGain" & "Track, Album Gains & iTunes Album Normalization". Since deselecting the settings did not solve the problem, I want to reset them. However, I am not clear as to what is correct. Under the heading, "Configuring DSP Effects", the Setup Guide has the sentence: "EBU R128 is a new form of Replaygain calculation, if ripping to an Apple format enable the iTunNORM tag option to write in a format iTunes can use." But at the beginning of this section, it says: "Click the DSP tab and Add a DSP effect ReplayGain." Would you please enlighten me? I found "EBU R128", but not the "iTunNORM" tag option. Should I be using "EBU R128" instead of "ReplayGain"? Where might I find the "iTunNORM" tag option?

[schmidj]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

First, make sure the distortion isn't the headphones themselves. They could have an intermittent problem. Possibly you've already tried another pair. Then there is the issue of the "sound card" chip in the laptop and also the installed drivers and operating system. I've run into audio issues with operating system/driver roots. One thing to try is an external USB audio headphone output. Even there watch out. I have a laptop which a MOTU portable audio box works flawlessly in one USB jack, but has constant dropouts in another USB jack, same computer. The second USB jack works flawlessly with everything else. Go figure...

Most of us now normalize replay gain using the EBU R128 with the normalization set to -18 LUFS. That is a compromise level that works well in most instances. One of the dropdown menu options in the replay gain DSP is "write track, album gain and Itunes Track Normalization. In the "advanced" window, you can select EBU R128 or Replay gain, and if EBU, set the level to -18 LUFS. Don't disable clipping protection.

[iGowanus68]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

I synced the CD I had been using for tests with the iPod & then listened through the headphones. It was perfect! So, it appears that the issue is with neither the headphones nor the radio nor their connections, but rather with something in the PC. I do not have a laptop. The PC is a Dell XPS 8700 that I purchased about 3 years ago. It was highly rated at the time. It is running Windows 7 64-bit. There is no mention of a "sound card" in the owner's manual. There are instructions for removing & replacing the "media-card reader", but I don't think that is pertinent. Is it?

I set the DSP settings as you suggested. Then I ripped a 2-CD set. The result was good -- I only had to make a couple of adjustments on the iTunes end. More problematic, however, is the fact that I had to manually edit the metadata in dBpoweramp. By far the greatest portion of the labor involved in ripping to iTunes was the editing of album & song information for consistency & searchability, & for merging multi-disc albums into one folder. The slightest discrepancy can prevent a successful merge. I have ripped a couple of 2-disc albums to iTunes & found that the edited data has been retained even though the music files to which it relates are gone. For this reason, I intend to do the reripping in iTunes. I made an attempt to recover the files from the recycle bin but it just didn't work out. After I complete the reripping of the 370 or so albums (encoding with Apple Lossless instead of AAC as I did before & with error correction selected), I will switch to dBpoweramp. I could see that its metadata is more readily edited than it is in iTunes. Also, I was impressed by its ability to access the artwork for a relatively obscure album.

Again, thank you very much for your help & time.

[garym]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

You might want to rethink your plans. Mostly because dbpa does secure ripping and lets you know when there are *any* errors. Itunes does NOT do that. That's why people serious about their ripping use dbpa, EAC, or CueTools (for the most part...there are some OSX programs I haven't mentioned).

Also, dbpa can be configured to combine all multiCD sets into one folder very easily. I suspect you just haven't explored the power and flexibility of dbpa yet.

[schmidj]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

First, it certainly sounds like your computer has an audio issue, thought you said laptop, guess that was a different thread. The "soundcard" used to be a separate card some years ago, now typically is some chips on the motherboard. Obviously from here, I can't troubleshoot it. However, you can now get USB audio devices, some quite cheap and of good quality. Most of the time they work well, although you have to go into the control panel settings under "sound" and select the device to get it to work after you plug it in. If you are here in the USA near a Best Buy or Microcenter, they should have them. Heck, I suspect that Walmart.com probably sells them. That will solve the issue of bad audio from your computer.

Now, regarding ripping. I agree with Gary, you shouldn't give up on dBPoweramp for ripping. (neither of us work for them, both just satisfied customers with some knowledge of the pitfalls of ripping CDs.

Metadata is the bane of any ripper's existence. The online databases are full of errors, most have no simple way to update (yes, it's easy to fix your metadata, but it would be nice if you could easily fix it for all those that follow.) Now a thought of a solution for you. It will take a little longer, but you should get a secure rip with good metadata. Here's how. Rip the CD twice, once in Itunes, once in dBpoweramp. Put the rips in different directories. Ignore most of the metadata in dBPoweramp, just make sure that you can recognize the resulting filename. The Itunes one has good metadata but may be a bad rip. The dBpoweramp rip is (presumably) secure, but has bad metadata. Now there is another piece of free software you should look into, "mp3tag" The name is deceptive, it works on tags of almost all audio files except .WAV. Anyway, after you learn to drive it, open up the two directories, select the same album from each of the two rips and copy the good metadata to the dBpoweramp files. Eventually you'll have to delete the Itunes rips and copy the dBpoweramp ones there. Be aware that Itunes stores album art in a separate directory, so you'll have to deal with that by itself, perhaps Gary can clarify that. I never used Itunes to rip with, even when I had an Ipod, I used Winamp, which had its own issues, and didn't make secure rips. I'm still reripping the stuff from Winamp...

Another thought, there is another piece of software available here, called PerfectTunes, which should be able to see if your Itunes rips are good, after you have made them. Just don't do anything to the audio which changes it in the files, like an applied gain normalization or trimming the beginning or end, as that will cause the track to fail PerfectTunes I think. Changing tags, such as the replay gain or naming tags is fine, it only checks the audio data.

[garym]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

It is not clear to me what metadata issue the OP is actually having with dbpa. dbpa should be as good metadata as itunes in 99.9% of cases. Perhaps the OP can provide a very specific example of what metadata/filenaming they are getting from dbpa vs what they would like it to be. Then we can assist in helping him setup dbpa to work the way he want.

[garym]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

Before I deselected the DSP settings, ripping to Apple Lossless, I had the settings at "ReplayGain" & "Track, Album Gains & iTunes Album Normalization". Since deselecting the settings did not solve the problem, I want to reset them. However, I am not clear as to what is correct. Under the heading, "Configuring DSP Effects", the Setup Guide has the sentence: "EBU R128 is a new form of Replaygain calculation, if ripping to an Apple format enable the iTunNORM tag option to write in a format iTunes can use." But at the beginning of this section, it says: "Click the DSP tab and Add a DSP effect ReplayGain." Would you please enlighten me? I found "EBU R128", but not the "iTunNORM" tag option. Should I be using "EBU R128" instead of "ReplayGain"? Where might I find the "iTunNORM" tag option?

EBU R128 is "under" the ReplayGain DSP. So select the ReplayGain DSP, then next to the DSP (after adding), click on settings, then in the dropdown choose "Track, Album Gain, & itunes Album Normalization" If you click on the "advanced options" on this settings page, you'll see where you select, identify by album tag, EBU R128 and -18. Do NOT click on the "disable clip protection"

[iGowanus68]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

Here is the situation from my perspective. Please excuse any repition.

I purchased the iPod Classic about a year ago. Before I began this project 2 or 3 months ago of ripping my entire CD collection to iTunes, I had already ripped many albums, some of which I listened to on trips I took out of the City. Listening through pretty good earphones & headphones, I discerned no errors.

Much effort & time has already gone into this project: 375 albums representing probably 500-600 CDs, which is only about a third of the collection, and as I said in yesterday's post, "By far the greatest portion of the labor [& time] involved in ripping to iTunes was the editing of album & song information for consistency & searchability, & for merging multi-disc albums into one folder [& I might add, for the satisfaction of my obsessive-compulsive personality]."

Now I must rerip all of those CDs, but to my advantage iTunes has retained the album & song information & I saved the artwork. I have assessed the benefit & risk, & I have opted to take the risk. In fact, I feel that my circumstances practically dictate that I do so. I have reripped 40 discs (cleaning them before I rip); the process has been relatively rapid. When I have completed the rerip portion of the project, I will switch to dBpoweramp & find out how well it handles metadata. If necessary at that time, I will seek further assistance with setting up the metadata. Meanwhile, I will look into PerfectTunes.

schmidj, would you tell me a bit more about the USB audio devices? How does it work & how should I name it for an online search?

Thank you both.

[schmidj]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

sorry, I have been "under the weather" a couple of days, I'll get you info when I feel better.

[garym]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

No offense meant, but you are really going about this all wrong if you're reripping with itunes instead of dbpa (been there done that...). And metadata should *not* be a problem. I'd slow down a bit and learn some more about using dbpa.

[iGowanus68]

Re: Moving ripped titles to iTunes

Before you spend unnecessary money: If dBpoweramp is reporting error free rips, particularly if the disk is in the accuraterip database, the audio data on your hard drive should be (see below about DSPs, though) identical to what was on the CD, and if in accuraterip, identical to what was on other copies of the CD. Cleaning the CD, using a different CD drive won't change anything. If you hear distortion, there are several possibilities: Your playback system (soundcard, amplifier, speakers, etc.) may be distorting. Try copying the file to a different, known good computer and listening to it. See how it sounds there. Possibly the CD you are listening to was poorly recorded, there are loads of poorly recorded CDs for sale, particularly now that so many people record them on homebrew setups in their basement. Finally, are your ears fooling you? Don't get mad, its happened to many of us, hearing problems that aren't really there.

There are some settings on some of the dBpoweramp DSP's that could possibly cause distortion, after a clean rip. If you are using any of the DSP effects, you might consider creating a new profile to test things, with all the DSP's removed.

It turns out that the problem was being caused by iTunes itself. A complete reinstallation of iTunes & related Apple programs appears so far to have solved that problem.