Naming During Rip

[dbarnby]

Post *4
I'm a neophyte at networked music and CD ripping. I bought dBpoweramp and PerfectTunes. Please help me understand the software.

The dBpoweramp Ripping Naming dialog box is a complete mystery to me.
I have read the "dBpoweramp Naming" piece on line but don't understand it. How can I get up to speed on this and understand it before I rip several hundred CD's?

[Spoon]

Re: Naming During Rip

Do you need to change the naming? often players do not use filename rather the metadata.

[dbarnby]

Re: Naming During Rip

Thanks, Spoon:

I guess I don't understand 1) what is meant by "name" and 2) where such name appears (in my PC, or in my Player software readout), so I don't know if I will use it.

Also, if I do want to use it how do I get a better understanding of what is written in the "dBpoweramp Naming" piece. (That write-up is too sketchy for me to understand).

Thanks,
Don

[Spoon]

Re: Naming During Rip

Naming relates to the filename that is generated for each track ripped. You are best to leave it on the default value unless specifically need to change.

[dbarnby]

Re: Naming During Rip

1) If it is just to identify the track, what is the purpose of the extensive name detail, i.e., "Album Artist\Album Title\05 Artist - Title"

2) After the system is set up and I am using it to play music when and how do I use this name information?

3) I don't understand the CHARACTER of the name field.

I'd like to benefit from your thorough understanding of how all this works.

Thank you,
Don

[garym]

Re: Naming During Rip

1) If it is just to identify the track, what is the purpose of the extensive name detail, i.e., "Album Artist\Album Title\05 Artist - Title"

2) After the system is set up and I am using it to play music when and how do I use this name information?

3) I don't understand the CHARACTER of the name field.

I'd like to benefit from your thorough understanding of how all this works.

Thank you,
Don

the naming is so the files are organized in some reasonable way on your hard drive. For example, I have about 100,000 tracks. I don't want those all stored in a single directory like c:/music. Instead I prefer

c:/music
c:/music/The Beatles/Abbey Road/01- Come Together.flac

So I have subdirectories for each artist then under that a subdirectory for each album of that artist.

This is all all just basic file management for what happens to be audio files.

[Timothy Wright]

Re: Naming During Rip

I like to file music by genera so that all similar music is filed together and I like to file by artist and CD by year so that an artists's recordings are sorted earliest to newest.

I also like to arrange a single CD with each song in original order. For that reason I use the track number as a preface for the file name.

Many folks are all in a hurry to get started and haste makes waste. I would suggest invest some time, weeks, reading on the forum, absorbing ideas. You may still end up ripping over a few times, but fewer times than you would otherwise. Do not permit your self to become frustrated. This is a project with the same learning curve for everyone.

Spend some time thinking about genera if you intend to use the concept. I did not want 100 very specific genera because often an artists work crosses many lines. I ended up with about a dozen very broad genera for example Rock-Pop are grouped together as is Jazz-Blues. I make good use of "Easy Listening" for things not easy to categorize.

As important as the specific details are, figuring out the broad concepts and making them work your way is even more important before you start.

In my case:

E:\FLAC\AUDIOPHILE\TELARC\1984 Telarc Sampler Vol.1\01. Superman Theme (Williams).flac

MP3 files are in their own directory structure.

It is critical to choose which file formats (such as FLAC or MP3) you require before you start.

[dbarnby]

Re: Naming During Rip

Hi Timothy,

I very much appreciate your post, particularly your interest in using genera to start your filename.
I was beginning to get talked out of that, partly because including genera lengthens filename and I'm concerned about the 255 character limit.
Have you found that to be a problem?

My listening procedures isn't so sophisticated; I don't really pay much attention to artist or date, or even tracks). I'm still living in the old days when we had a bunch of LP's on the shelf, grouped in broad genera such as symphonies, operas, concertos, pop, musicals, country & western, jazz, Dixie, etc. and I'd just look through them to find an album I wanted to listen to. The idea of selecting specific tracks to listen to is pretty foreign to me; (although, who knows, with this new capability I might evolve).

I welcome any other ideas you may have; I believe in rip right; rip once.

Don

[Timothy Wright]

Re: Naming During Rip

@ dbarnby Genera is not part of file name, I use it in the path name, that way I browse all all of one type of music at a time.

I invested some thought in to my genera:

Audiophile - includes Telarc - Chesky - Reference Recordings - Sheffield Labs

Christmas - Includes any kind of Holiday music

Classical - includes anything remotely classical

Country Folk - includes Bluegrass, ethnic and world music

Dance - Mostly Mambo and Samba music

Demo - just single track I like use to show off my speakers, all in one place

Easy Listening - Catch all including Symphonic Rock

Jazz Blues - jazz Blues

Prayers

Religious - Includes every sub genera of religious music from Gregorian to Gospel

Rock Pop - most contemporary music

Stage & Screen - Includes movies and Broadway

Obviously your Genera choices will reflect your collection not mine. I wanted a short list of very broad categories as opposed to a long list of very specific categories.

If I invite someone over to listen to my Magnepan speakers I want some place to put 200 interesting tracks with out searching all over for them. It is the same music I take with me on a thumb drive to audition systems.



==========
> concerned about the 255 character limit.
> Have you found that to be a problem?

That does not affect path length, when Genera is part of the path. It is still a problem with classical recordings.

> My listening procedures isn't so sophisticated;

By prefacing CDs name with the year date they will be listed chronologically.
under Al di Meola:

1976 Land of the Midnight Sun
1977 Elegant Gypsy
1978 Casino
1980 Splendido Hotel
2002 Flesh on Flesh

==

Artists spend a lot of thought on song order for a CD, if you don't number songs they will play alphabetically. That's just weird. Who would listen to Handel's Messiah alphabetically?

[dbarnby]

Re: Naming During Rip

I'm not yet "home free" but I've come a vast distance in understanding dBpoweramp, as a result of you seven wonderfully helpful people who have responded to my four threads. Specifically: garym, schmidj, mville, oggy, Timothy Wright, Dat Ei, and, of course, Spoon. If I could get you in a room I'd lift a glass to you all and give you my heartfelt thanks.

My music saga continues, and I'm not out of the woods yet, however I must endure a hiatus because I need, now, to focus for a time on planning to have the house tented for termite fumigation and in late August my wife and I are going on a road trip to see the total eclipse of the sun.

Nevertheless, I will continue to push on, implement the advice you have given me, and hope to continue our conversations as I get stuck, but communication may become spotty. My sincerest thanks to each of you.

Don

[Oggy]

Re: Naming During Rip

A friend uses the default settings, for nearly all. There may be some small errors, there may be better art available, but he can find, and play all of the albums.

He gets on and enjoys the music; the fine detail simply doesn't concern him.

This approach may not be for me, but it doesn't impede his enjoyment of music.

[dbarnby]

Re: Naming During Rip

Hi Oggy,
When you speak of your friend using the default settings, are you talking about the Filename settings or tags. Your comment that he may have "some small errors" suggests to me that you are referring to tags, yet don't the default setting relate to coding the filename string? This may be an issue that is a source of misunderstanding for me.
Don

[garym]

Re: Naming During Rip

Hi Oggy,
When you speak of your friend using the default settings, are you talking about the Filename settings or tags. Your comment that he may have "some small errors" suggests to me that you are referring to tags, yet don't the default setting relate to coding the filename string? This may be an issue that is a source of misunderstanding for me.
Don

Oggy may be referring to errors in tag information. Recall this info is not from the CD itself, but from online databases. It's mostly correct for pop music CDs. It is often incorrect for classical CDs. Consequently, one often has to manually edit the tag information before ripping to "get it right". Your "strange results" post is an example of how you should have manually edited the tag data when ripping, because what was automatically used was not correct.

edit: there are 100s of settings in dbpa, and all come with some default. Filenaming is one setting. But there are settings regarding which tag fields you want to be included in your files, for example. One think I recommend is that you click on every menu item and submenu item in dbpa and its options so you can see what sorts of things are there. and click on the "?" icon on any of these pages or settings to learn more about the setting. As noted by others, in 99% of the cases, the default setting is the best setting.

[Oggy]

Re: Naming During Rip

Hi Oggy,
When you speak of your friend using the default settings, are you talking about the Filename settings or tags. Your comment that he may have "some small errors" suggests to me that you are referring to tags, yet don't the default setting relate to coding the filename string? This may be an issue that is a source of misunderstanding for me.
Don

Hi Don,

Yes, garym is spot on, the small errors, are tags, or song titles that have spelling errors, and minor discrepancies. He is using the default naming scheme, so things work, and he can easily find music by artist and album.

Because the Genre and Year tags are a bit random, he loses the option of a reliable search by Genre, and displaying chronologically.

It was an opposing post, compared to getting everything perfect, before ripping. He can enjoy his music with minimal effort, but still having error free rips. He doesn't worry about the odd wrong song name, occasional different cover art, than he was expecting.

The only tags he does ensure are correct, are, Artist, Album and Disc number.

So, in your "Strange Result", he would ensure Artist on both discs is Verdi, Album on both discs is Rigoletto, Disc 1 would be 1/2 and Disc 2 would be 2/2.

He may have different years for the two discs, one may be Genre, Opera, and the other, Classical, BUT, he wouldn't have your Strange Result.

All your comments, are also spot on, so with a good naming scheme, and garym's is certainly that, correct and consistent naming, on all discs in a set, the "tags", you are ready to give it another go.

You may want to take a little bit more care over the tags, than my mate, but if you get the basics right, you can tidy up the "some small errors", later.

[garym]

Re: Naming During Rip

but if you get the basics right, you can tidy up the "some small errors", later.

Correct. I'm still tinkering with my tags in my collection, and probably will till I'm dead. One thing for sure, over the years I've realized I had way too many GENRES to be useful. The good news is that tag tinkering is a few clicks of a mouse, and not the hassle of re-ripping CDs.