RE: Ripping Level Question (help?)

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

I've done ABX tests (double blind tests) using foobar2000 player and its ABX component, and I typically can't detect any difference between a mp3 file (ripped with a decent program) and the FLAC (original CD). This is almost always true at 192kb or above. Mostly true at 160kbs or above. I can often (but not always) pick out the lossy mp3 at 128kbs.
p.s. I don't rip to FLAC because I think I can hear differences between a good mp3 and FLAC. I do it because FLAC is lossless....rip once, rip right. And just a comfort level knowing that I have bit perfect copies of the CDs. I made the mistake years ago of ripping about 5,000 CDs to lossy mp3 when I didn't know any better. I'm almost done reripping them to FLAC.

Cheers Gary,

That's interesting!

I made the same mistake in 2007 of using 'Windows Media Player' to rip circa: 300 x CDs. I went with the deafaut format which was 'WMA'. Now, I keep finding that every other album has - usually - 1 x track which is corrupted! Everyone now tells me I should have never used 'Windows Media Player'; but at the time I did not know any better.

Do I need to check the 'Verify' box, please? (see attach.).



Thanks,

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

... and I am here now regarding 'AccurateRip'.




The ORIGINAL CD (ripped to mp3) size is:




And as calculated by AccureRip:




Thanks,

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

... took 10 x minutes to rip a 70 x mins CD at level '5' (Miles Davis: "Miles In The Sky").

I checked the 'verify' box so I hope that's correct!

All ripped tracks seem to play OK using 'Groove Music.

(please see attach.).



Paul

[Jailhouse]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

It's not necessary to check Verify Written Audio. Do so if you want to be absolutely certain the files were written correctly. It will take extra time to complete.

Size of MP3 files vs FLAC: That's the difference between throwing away a lot of CD audio information as opposed to having bit-perfect playback. The actual FLAC file sizes may turn out to be somewhat lower than the estimate. For what it's worth, I ripped an album of over 1hr 20min duration using FLAC compression level 6 that clocks in at about 421MB.

[Jailhouse]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

Using FLAC level 6, I can rip a 70-minute CD in roughly 3.5 minutes. Verifying the writes looks to add quite a bit of time to the process.

[garym]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

yes, check the verify box. Can't hurt anything! (I guess I'm never in that much hurry).

[garym]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

not sure what you're asking, but yes, ripping ultra secure, using ACCURATERIP is the gold standard for ripping CDs. An accuraterip match is extremely informative. It means that at least one other user, with a different copy of the CD, using a different computer, with likely a different drive, got the same exact digital 0s and 1s that you did ripping your own CD. That's confirmation!

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

Thanks very much indeed guys,

That's really helpful.

I will post some follow up questions tomorrow.

Paul

[schmidj]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

Gary and I are in the same boat. I originally ripped the "most important" (to me) couple of thousand of my CDs to m4a, about 128K. Ripped using Winamp. Loaded onto a Ipod. Quickly got fed up with all the bad rips, skips, chopped off music, misidentified songs, etc. Then got a nice "home theater" system for my TV after distressing over the lousy audio from the flat screen. Fringe benefit was that it would play music from my NAS server. A quick A/B (not even A/B/X) test with my own location recordings, original .wav versus .m4a disclosed that even my 70 year old far from golden ears could sometimes hear the difference between them. So I started over, bought dBpoweramp, started ripping to FLAC (first the stuff I hadn't ripped yet and new stuff), and spending much more effort on correct tags. Still have about 1000 of the original CDs to rerip.

FLAC for home listening, m4a for now a smartphone, mostly via bluetooth on the car radio. I've been using the multi-encoder, but am looking forward to Spoon's Tune Fusion to load the phone audio.

Home listening is with DLNA which has its issues, but basically works. Although I spend quite a bit of time on tags, a lot of that is because much of my collection is ethnic, and many CDs have no tags in the databases, and even fewer album art. While tags are important, I really want to listen to music, at home and particularly in the car, to enjoy it. I refuse to get so tied up into the mechanics of ripping or playback that it takes away from the enjoyment of listening. I just get annoyed when it's really messed up, like skipping or really bad rips (one or two clicks, so what?) or when the tags are messed up enough that the rip "disappears" on my storage device.

I went with FLAC rather than WAV (and my own recordings start off as WAV, because that's what my editing software uses) because of the much better tagging. The original WAV predated tags, and there is no standardization of tags for WAV files. Some of my editing software strips the tags off the WAV files.

[garym]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

I went with FLAC rather than WAV (and my own recordings start off as WAV, because that's what my editing software uses) because of the much better tagging. The original WAV predated tags, and there is no standardization of tags for WAV files. Some of my editing software strips the tags off the WAV files.

And FLAC files have built in CRC (MD5 checksums). So one can check the integrity of every one of your FLAC files in a single batch with a couple of mouse clicks. This is not possible with wav (or apple lossless for that matter)

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

not sure what you're asking, but yes, ripping ultra secure, using ACCURATERIP is the gold standard for ripping CDs. An accuraterip match is extremely informative. It means that at least one other user, with a different copy of the CD, using a different computer, with likely a different drive, got the same exact digital 0s and 1s that you did ripping your own CD. That's confirmation!

Hi Gary,

For what I need, do you think I can get away with just having 'dBPowerAmp' and not bothering with 'Perfect Tunes', please? All I really want is for accurate ripping and reliable tagging - in FLAC.

Cheers,

Paul

[garym]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

Hi Gary,

For what I need, do you think I can get away with just having 'dBPowerAmp' and not bothering with 'Perfect Tunes', please? All I really want is for accurate ripping and reliable tagging - in FLAC.

Cheers,

Paul

Yes. Dbpa does ACCURATERIP checking when ripping.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

Using FLAC level 6, I can rip a 70-minute CD in roughly 3.5 minutes. Verifying the writes looks to add quite a bit of time to the process.

Thanks Jailhouse,

I really don't mind about waiting for a CD to rip. If it takes ten minutes or an hour, that's fine. I don't want the PC to rush the process because that would defeat the object of maintaining accuracy!

I plan the rip (sing level '5') at the rate of 1 x CD per day. I should be able to have completed my entire CD collection in 12 x months.

Thanks,

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

Yes. Dbpa does ACCURATERIP checking when ripping.

Thanks Gary,

I ask because there is a 25% sale on if you purchase 'dBpa' and 'Perfect Tunes' together:

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/purchase.htm

But I think the latter is more geared towards sourcing and d/l artwork etc?

Cheers,

Paul

[garym]

Re: Ripping Level Question (help?)

Thanks Jailhouse,

I really don't mind about waiting for a CD to rip. If it takes ten minutes or an hour, that's fine. I don't want the PC to rush the process because that would defeat the object of maintaining accuracy!

I plan the rip (sing level '5') at the rate of 1 x CD per day. I should be able to have completed my entire CD collection in 12 x months.

Thanks,

Paul

I can usually rip 10 CDs while I'm reading the morning news online and drinking coffee. 1 a day would have taken me 17 years.