Set-Up for Ripping

[garym]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

Thanks garym,

Here's what I get with the new string:

"Opera > Joan Sutherland > Verdi; Riroletto; Disc 2 > Disc 2" In other words:
Genera > Artist > Composer; Album; Disc > Disc. What I'd like is:
Genera > Composer > Album; Disc >

In the first go-around I did, indeed, have a double [] at the end ([][]), but the problems seems fixed now (no more maxlength showing).

As you can see, Album now (incorrectly) supersedes Composer, instead of the other way around.

Regarding Disc 2 vs. Disc 2/2 I thought that not checking the check box in CD Ripper Option "Disc number w/o disc count" established this automatically, but from what you wrote I take it that I must input the x/x myself every time I rip; is that correct, or can I set it and forget it?

Respectfully, I find it very difficult to follow your examples, as you often present conflicting examples of what you want, and the examples are not clear to begin with. First, here's another string, does this do what you want?

[MAXLENGTH]240,[genre]\[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album]\[IFMULTI]\Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title]-[composer]-[artist][][IF!COMP]\[composer]\[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track] - [title][][]

And here's what would help me to help you. Take a regular classical CD (not a compilation) and then list for me the contents of the following tags:

GENRE: ??
ARTIST: ??
ALBUM ARTIST: ??
ALBUM: ??
DISC: ??
COMPOSER: ??

Then do the same thing for a regular CD that has 2 Discs as part of the Album.

Then do the same thing for a classical COMPILATION CD.

Regarding your Disc 2 vs Disc 2/2. If you want it to be 2/2, then don't tick the "Disc number w/o Disc count". If you want it to be Disc 2 only, then tick the "Disc number w/o Disc Count. But either way, it shouldn't affect the naming string I gave you. Maybe you are including "Disc no" as part of the ALBUM name? This is why giving me specific EXACT examples of tag contents will help me.

[dbarnby]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

Thanks garym,

Here's what I get with the new string:

"Opera > Joan Sutherland > Verdi; Riroletto; Disc 2 > Disc 2" In other words:
Genera > Artist > Composer; Album; Disc > Disc. What I'd like is:
Genera > Composer > Album; Disc >

In the first go-around I did, indeed, have a double [] at the end ([][]), but the problems seems fixed now (no more maxlength showing).

As you can see, Album now (incorrectly) supersedes Composer, instead of the other way around.

Regarding Disc 2 vs. Disc 2/2 I thought that not checking the check box in CD Ripper Option "Disc number w/o disc count" established this automatically, but from what you wrote I take it that I must input the x/x myself every time I rip; is that correct, or can I set it and forget it?

[mville]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

8) mville, post *236: In the screenshot presented I notice what seems like a tag behavior that we have previously ruled out, (that is, that sort tags do NOT change the sequence of names), but that sort tags DO result in alphabetizing them; (i.e. a sort tags does NOT change Gustav Mahler to Mahler, Gustav. Note, however, that in the screenshot the Artists (Placido Domingo, etc.) have indeed been rearranged under Artist sort to Domingo, Placido, etc. This seems to be the situation we firmly ruled out earlier. What's happening here? Is sorting an alphabetizing function or a name sequencing function? I think it's pretty important that this issue is understood correctly from the get-go.

First, you may have ruled things in or out, based on the assumptions that you continue to make, but please do not include me in this.

What you see in the screenshot re. Artist and Artist Sort is what I entered in the Artist and Artist Sort tags, before ripping. This is so my player software(s) that support the Artist sort tag, will display the Artist as listed in the Artists tag, but sort these Artists as defined in the Artist Sort tag. e.g.:

Plácido Domingo appears in Artists lists, not under P, but under D, because Artist Sort contains Domingo, Plácido

Gottfried Hornik appears in Artists lists, not under G, but under H, because Artist Sort contains Hornik, Gottfried

Heinz Zednik appears in Artists lists, not under H, but under Z, because Artist Sort contains Zednik, Heinz

Francisco Araiza appears in Artists lists, not under F, but under A, because Artist Sort contains Araiza, Francisco

Vienna Philharmonic appears in Artists lists under V, because Artist Sort contains Vienna Philharmonic

Vienna State Opera Chorus appears in Artists lists under V, because Artist Sort contains Vienna State Opera Chorus

[mville]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

7) mville, post *236 (4) "&*8230;1 place tells the software what tags to write and not write,&*8230; " I don't know what "write" refers to so I'm left in the dust here.

Write in this context means adding tag data to the audio files and saving the files to disk i.e. creating the audio files (which contain ripped digital audio and your metadata) and saving them to your hard drive (or other storage device).

[mville]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

6) I don't see any location where I actually "populate" a sort tag (manually or via internet metadata)? If so, where? (When I hear "populate" it means to me something that I do &*8211; or direct the internet to do.) I don't find any location dealing with any tag that has a text box beside it except the obvious one at the top of the screen and the (linked) one under the "Review Metadata" tag-shaped icon, and both of these are labeled as an "ordinary" tags, e.g., composer or artist, not as composer sort, or artist sort. This is why I'm confused when reference is made to "populating" a sort tag &*8211; there seems to be nowhere to do it or type the text in. This is why it seems to me that all one can do regarding a sort tag is activate it (call for it, "turn it on").

I repeat from my post no. 237:
In CD Ripper, the only place to manually add and populate the ComposerSort tag is in the Tag Panel, bottom centre of the CD Ripper main window.

What is it about this statement that you don't understand?

[garym]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

Hi garym,
I just tried the last naming string you sent; here's what I got:

"MAXLENGTH]240,opera > Verdi > Joan Sutherland > Verdi, Rigoletto, Disc 2 > Disc 2"

What I think will work best for me is:

Opera > Composer > Album Title , Disc no > Artist
in this case:
Opera > Verdi > Rigoletto, Disc 2/2 > Joan Sutherland

&*8226; I'd like the maxlength feature, but not have it show up in the File Explorer.
&*8226; I've added Artist because if I have two recordings, I can see I need to distinguish the two.
&*8226; I prefer not to have neither Verdi nor Disc 2 show up twice.
&*8226; Also, disc numbers to be 2/2, not 2.

Can you make those adjustments to the string?
Thank you,

dbarnby

I think your error (causing maxlength to show) is you are missing a set of '[]' at the very end of the string. The very end of the string should have two sets: [][]

I'm not fully following what you want. Regarding showing disc numbers etc, as others have pointed out, this depends on what you have in your Disc tag. Try this one:

[MAXLENGTH]240,[genre]\[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album]\[IFMULTI]\Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title]-[composer]-[artist][][IF!COMP]\[composer]\[album][IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[track]-[title]-[artist][][]

[garym]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

Thanks, garym. hope you and your wife had a good time at the party. Where do you live (if I may ask? -- I'm in California). "Talk" to you next year.

thanks. I'm in Florida. For some reason I thought you were in the UK.

[Oggy]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

Hi garym,
I just tried the last naming string you sent; here's what I got:

"MAXLENGTH]240,opera > Verdi > Joan Sutherland > Verdi, Rigoletto, Disc 2 > Disc 2"

What I think will work best for me is:

Opera > Composer > Album Title , Disc no > Artist
in this case:
Opera > Verdi > Rigoletto, Disc 2/2 > Joan Sutherland

&*8226; I'd like the maxlength feature, but not have it show up in the File Explorer.
&*8226; I've added Artist because if I have two recordings, I can see I need to distinguish the two.
&*8226; I prefer not to have neither Verdi nor Disc 2 show up twice.
&*8226; Also, disc numbers to be 2/2, not 2.

Can you make those adjustments to the string?
Thank you,

dbarnby

Meant to add, you may also have Album Artist as, Verdi. I had a look at garym's string, and it works, but how you "populate", Composer, Artist and if used, Album Artist, will obviously affect how and what is displayed.

If you fill in Album as Rigoletto, on both disc one and two, with disc one Disc 1/2 and disc two Disc 2/2, garym's naming string will rather neatly put them in folders, Rigoletto, Disc 1 and Disc 2. This will then
play as a continuous album.

[Oggy]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

Hi garym,
I just tried the last naming string you sent; here's what I got:

"MAXLENGTH]240,opera > Verdi > Joan Sutherland > Verdi, Rigoletto, Disc 2 > Disc 2"

What I think will work best for me is:

Opera > Composer > Album Title , Disc no > Artist
in this case:
Opera > Verdi > Rigoletto, Disc 2/2 > Joan Sutherland

&*8226; I'd like the maxlength feature, but not have it show up in the File Explorer.
&*8226; I've added Artist because if I have two recordings, I can see I need to distinguish the two.
&*8226; I prefer not to have neither Verdi nor Disc 2 show up twice.
&*8226; Also, disc numbers to be 2/2, not 2.

Can you make those adjustments to the string?
Thank you,

dbarnby

Hi Don,

When you ripped this, you probably had Album Rigoletto, Disc 2. If in future you can edit the album name to not include the disc number. Also populate(!) Disc with 2/2.

If you locate this rip in explorer, right click dBpoweramp Edit ID- Tags, you can edit and delete Disc 2.

[Oggy]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

Thank you all for hanging in here with me.

It seems like we're going in circles a bit, and I think the reason is that we are trying to understand (or define) the sort tag issue in a single gulp. Maybe a better approach is to take it piece by piece and nail down each piece one at a time.

It may be that dealing with the following issues one at a time may, indeed, repeat some of the information provided in previous posts, but it will be helpful to me to pull it all together here (if for no other reason than easy reference).

1) I think we've already established that the words that show up in the File Explorer are an exact literal copy of the words put into the tag field at the top of the dbpa window. Is this right or wrong? If this is correct then we can put that one to bed and move on to how tags appear in the Player.

2) I also believe we've already established that the sort-feature has to do ONLY with alphabetizing, and not the reversing of word order (such as changing Gustav Mahler, to Mahler, Gustav). (Except, perhaps for some weird Players). Is that right or wrong?

3) My understanding of the function of the sort version of a tag is to alphabetize; it has to do entirely with how the software (and Player) handle the information, and nothing to do with the sequence of the words the user typed into the tag text box. Those words are handled differently depending on whether the sort function was "activated" or not. Am I correct so far?

4) If so, then there remains a subtle question regarding alphabetizing, and that is: does using a sort tag vs. a regular tag mean, 1) the difference between alphabetizing ,or not alphabetizing at all, or 2) alphabetizing according the first name (as written) vs. the last name (as written) &*8211; in this case G or M &*8211; while maintaining the order of the words?

5) Oggy, you have suggested that maybe the Composer tags are handled differently than the Artist. I surely hope that is not the case. I would hope that the function of sort tags in dbpa is constant as applied to any tag. But this is important to know. Perhaps Spoon knows the answer.

6) I don't see any location where I actually "populate" a sort tag (manually or via internet metadata)? If so, where? (When I hear "populate" it means to me something that I do &*8211; or direct the internet to do.) I don't find any location dealing with any tag that has a text box beside it except the obvious one at the top of the screen and the (linked) one under the "Review Metadata" tag-shaped icon, and both of these are labeled as an "ordinary" tags, e.g., composer or artist, not as composer sort, or artist sort. This is why I'm confused when reference is made to "populating" a sort tag &*8211; there seems to be nowhere to do it or type the text in. This is why it seems to me that all one can do regarding a sort tag is activate it (call for it, "turn it on").

7) mville, post *236 (4) "&*8230;1 place tells the software what tags to write and not write,&*8230; " I don't know what "write" refers to so I'm left in the dust here.

8) mville, post *236: In the screenshot presented I notice what seems like a tag behavior that we have previously ruled out, (that is, that sort tags do NOT change the sequence of names), but that sort tags DO result in alphabetizing them; (i.e. a sort tags does NOT change Gustav Mahler to Mahler, Gustav. Note, however, that in the screenshot the Artists (Placido Domingo, etc.) have indeed been rearranged under Artist sort to Domingo, Placido, etc. This seems to be the situation we firmly ruled out earlier. What's happening here? Is sorting an alphabetizing function or a name sequencing function? I think it's pretty important that this issue is understood correctly from the get-go.

9) Oggy, Post *239: Some questions on the screen shot of Album Art:
What is meant by:
"Each track genre the same"
"Album Art" check box; why is that left unchecked? What does it do?

Generally, I have no idea of what any of your album art comments relate to.

"It is entirely your choice if you want to change from embedded to a Folder.jpg, it is one of those settings that often gets implemented later: Together with a couple of friends, we wish we had used it, and unchecked Write ID Tags to Album Art, from the start."

Clearly, I don't want album art attached to each track; one for the album is sufficient. Perhaps the best way to proceed is for you to show me a picture of what I should check and un-check, and I'll set it up that way

My best wishes to everyone for a happy 2018. Certainly the year will be challenging for all of us here in the U.S.

dbarnby

Don and all, a very happy New Year,

1) Yes.

2) Yes

3) Yes

4) 2) GM remains GM, but shows (displays) under M.

5) Composer Sort tags are handled exactly the same way as any other sort tags.

What I showed in the screenshots, is how a library can be displayed, alphabetically by Artist or when used, Album Artist, with the Artist Sort and Album Artist Sort, "switched on".

I do not use Genre or Composer in my naming string, but I do search by those tags.

If you were to view your library by this method (Artist view), and you may or may not want to, in your Verdi, Rigoletto example, if you used Joan Sutherland as Artist, with Artist Sort, "switched on", then the cover will probably display as Joan Sutherland, under S, by default, which you may, or, may not want.

6) Yes, activate, turn on, check it, whatever term we may use.

7) By doing 6) to the sort tags, this is "written". Simply IT parlance for "turning on": using sort tags.

8) No! The Artist is Placido Domingo, will display everywhere as Placido Domingo, but "sorted" by Domingo, Placido.

9) I've shown you the picture of what to change and uncheck three times!

Instead of having the standard settings of 800 X 800, 500 X 500 and Write to output folder [None], with art embedded, the pictures show settings of 1000 X 1000, 300 X 300, which I've changed to maintain compatibility with Sonos (I don't own Sonos, but it is one of the most popular players).

Instead of None, (no Folder.jpg), if you want the Folder.jpg, you have to write whatever art size you choose in the settings, by writing to Folder.jpg.

This would give you embedded and a Folder.jpg, so to prevent you embedding the cover in each track, you have to uncheck the box, as per picture post *239.

I also wrote the file limitations for Bluesound, which unlike Sonos is 600kb. So your choice which pixel size and file size you want to use.

Hope the above clears up some concerns for you.

The reason people have suggested Foobar2000 or another software player, is because in the absence of a physical player, you can see how your ripped files look. In many ways, I learnt far more and got a greater understanding of how dBpoweramp worked in 15 minutes, looking at three CDs I had ripped, than reading about it for hours!

In the absence of a physical player in my situation, I wish I had downloaded Foobar before I had ripped my first CD; my learning curve would have been faster, however, without the magnificent support of the kindly folk on this forum, my progress would have been much slower. A sincere, thank you.


All the best,

Oggy

[dbarnby]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

Hi garym,
I just tried the last naming string you sent; here's what I got:

"MAXLENGTH]240,opera > Verdi > Joan Sutherland > Verdi, Rigoletto, Disc 2 > Disc 2"

What I think will work best for me is:

Opera > Composer > Album Title , Disc no > Artist
in this case:
Opera > Verdi > Rigoletto, Disc 2/2 > Joan Sutherland

&*8226; I'd like the maxlength feature, but not have it show up in the File Explorer.
&*8226; I've added Artist because if I have two recordings, I can see I need to distinguish the two.
&*8226; I prefer not to have neither Verdi nor Disc 2 show up twice.
&*8226; Also, disc numbers to be 2/2, not 2.

Can you make those adjustments to the string?
Thank you,

dbarnby

[dbarnby]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

Thanks, garym. hope you and your wife had a good time at the party. Where do you live (if I may ask? -- I'm in California). "Talk" to you next year.

[garym]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

Hi garym,
Thanks for the classical naming string with maxlength in you post *209. I'd like such string to handle compilations just as the NC does.
Can I impose upon you to add that feature?
dbarnby

Here you go. Happy New Year! My wife and I just toasted to the new year at 7:00pm our time, as this is new years Greenwich Mean Time! Killing time while she's getting ready so I could do your settings. Off to a party now..... Let me know if you want it modified in some way.

[MAXLENGTH]240,[genre]\[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album]\[IFMULTI]\Disc [disc][]\[track]-[title]-[composer]-[artist][][IF!COMP]\[composer]\[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track] - [title][][]

[dbarnby]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

Thank you all for hanging in here with me.

It seems like we're going in circles a bit, and I think the reason is that we are trying to understand (or define) the sort tag issue in a single gulp. Maybe a better approach is to take it piece by piece and nail down each piece one at a time.

It may be that dealing with the following issues one at a time may, indeed, repeat some of the information provided in previous posts, but it will be helpful to me to pull it all together here (if for no other reason than easy reference).

1) I think we've already established that the words that show up in the File Explorer are an exact literal copy of the words put into the tag field at the top of the dbpa window. Is this right or wrong? If this is correct then we can put that one to bed and move on to how tags appear in the Player.

2) I also believe we've already established that the sort-feature has to do ONLY with alphabetizing, and not the reversing of word order (such as changing Gustav Mahler, to Mahler, Gustav). (Except, perhaps for some weird Players). Is that right or wrong?

3) My understanding of the function of the sort version of a tag is to alphabetize; it has to do entirely with how the software (and Player) handle the information, and nothing to do with the sequence of the words the user typed into the tag text box. Those words are handled differently depending on whether the sort function was "activated" or not. Am I correct so far?

4) If so, then there remains a subtle question regarding alphabetizing, and that is: does using a sort tag vs. a regular tag mean, 1) the difference between alphabetizing ,or not alphabetizing at all, or 2) alphabetizing according the first name (as written) vs. the last name (as written) &*8211; in this case G or M &*8211; while maintaining the order of the words?

5) Oggy, you have suggested that maybe the Composer tags are handled differently than the Artist. I surely hope that is not the case. I would hope that the function of sort tags in dbpa is constant as applied to any tag. But this is important to know. Perhaps Spoon knows the answer.

6) I don't see any location where I actually "populate" a sort tag (manually or via internet metadata)? If so, where? (When I hear "populate" it means to me something that I do &*8211; or direct the internet to do.) I don't find any location dealing with any tag that has a text box beside it except the obvious one at the top of the screen and the (linked) one under the "Review Metadata" tag-shaped icon, and both of these are labeled as an "ordinary" tags, e.g., composer or artist, not as composer sort, or artist sort. This is why I'm confused when reference is made to "populating" a sort tag &*8211; there seems to be nowhere to do it or type the text in. This is why it seems to me that all one can do regarding a sort tag is activate it (call for it, "turn it on").

7) mville, post *236 (4) "&*8230;1 place tells the software what tags to write and not write,&*8230; " I don't know what "write" refers to so I'm left in the dust here.

8) mville, post *236: In the screenshot presented I notice what seems like a tag behavior that we have previously ruled out, (that is, that sort tags do NOT change the sequence of names), but that sort tags DO result in alphabetizing them; (i.e. a sort tags does NOT change Gustav Mahler to Mahler, Gustav. Note, however, that in the screenshot the Artists (Placido Domingo, etc.) have indeed been rearranged under Artist sort to Domingo, Placido, etc. This seems to be the situation we firmly ruled out earlier. What's happening here? Is sorting an alphabetizing function or a name sequencing function? I think it's pretty important that this issue is understood correctly from the get-go.

9) Oggy, Post *239: Some questions on the screen shot of Album Art:
What is meant by:
"Each track genre the same"
"Album Art" check box; why is that left unchecked? What does it do?

Generally, I have no idea of what any of your album art comments relate to.

"It is entirely your choice if you want to change from embedded to a Folder.jpg, it is one of those settings that often gets implemented later: Together with a couple of friends, we wish we had used it, and unchecked Write ID Tags to Album Art, from the start."

Clearly, I don't want album art attached to each track; one for the album is sufficient. Perhaps the best way to proceed is for you to show me a picture of what I should check and un-check, and I'll set it up that way

My best wishes to everyone for a happy 2018. Certainly the year will be challenging for all of us here in the U.S.

dbarnby

[dbarnby]

Re: Set-Up for Ripping

Hi garym,
Thanks for the classical naming string with maxlength in you post *209. I'd like such string to handle compilations just as the NC does.
Can I impose upon you to add that feature?
dbarnby