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It took awhile, but I finally figured this out. Mostly by reading some of the threads here, and by remembering some old standby troubleshooting insights. By way of introduction, I've been lurking here off-and-on for years, but only recently decided to use dbPowerAmp to rip ALL of my CDs.
Three weeks ago, I had dbPowerAmp working great! I followed every Setup and Configuration Guide from here and on the Web. I did not upgrade to the very latest version, but I was using the one just previous to the latest. I had all my Naming Settings working perfectly. Files and Folders were being created perfectly. Rips were happening willy-nilly! And I even had enabled Multi-Encoding - so I was creating both high-res FLAC files AND those ubiquitous MP3 files. Cool! I was a happy man.
Then a kind of "Perfect Storm" took place...
I was having trouble with my computer, so I decided to rebuild it by replacing the main SSD. I backed everything up -- including the dbPowerAmp Registry because it was working so well. Reinstalled a fresh copy of Windows 10 Pro. That was the first wave heading my way.
The next wave seemed even larger, because I had ordered some of those huge collections of CDs to top-off my music collection. Most all of these came from China: Pink Floyd "Discovery"; Eagles "The Studio Albums"; Queen "Greatest Hits I, II, and III".
The third wave was of my own creation: I used my backup of the dbPowerAmp Registry Settings to reinstall My Personal Profile for dbPowerAmp. This one hit me from behind. I think it was the worst of all.
I immediately started getting nothing but outright errors with every Chinese-sourced CD that I tried to rip. I mean, dbPowerAmp did not even hesitate. Error! Error! Error!
I complained to my vendors online because they "MUST" be bogus CDs, right? -- the weird part of this was eBay had actually REMOVED some of these transactions from my profile there -- stating there were reasons beyond their control. Uh-oh. Maybe I had trashed my system because I was sent some dangerous CDs, I thought. I called eBay and was left with a bigger mystery: "eBay cannot comment on this action, nor the items involved in the transactions due to privacy concerns." Hmmm. I was convinced these were all bogus recordings. I was more convinced they simply weren't rippable because the discs were bad. I thought dbPowerAmp was telling me that. But it wasn't. It was simply telling me something in my configuration was wrong.
I then thought "Maybe the CD recorder / player is the culprit. It's pretty old." So I ordered a new external Asus Blu-Ray Player / Recorder. Surely it would work? Nope. Worked great on reading my older CDs. Played them beautifully. Hell, it even played these new Chinese imports that were, somehow, "recorded in the EU". So did my old TSST internal drive, once I checked it for playability vs. ripping.
So, calming down a bit, I decided -- you know what? I didn't really need that hulking big external unit. What I really need is a new internal unit for my 2012 Shuttle SFF PC. So off I went to buy one that was the best-rated one I could afford -- another Asus, in fact. 16-speed. But after installing it -- still no luck in ripping with dbPowerAmp. Error! Error! Error!
So next I decided it was dbPowerAmp's fault. Must be corrupted, somehow. Off I go on a Web search and I end up with Exact Audio Copy. Hoo-boy!! Another learning curve I had to master. After two or three days, I had it working. It somehow "magically" ripped every cheap Chinese CD (or are they really cheap EU CDs??). But, damn!! NOWHERE near as convenient or intuitive as dbPowerAmp. And I never did figure out how to Multi-Encode with it. The files played fine. But, Christ -- the amount of configuration and extra encoding time I was facing. This meant I would have to re-rip to get those MP3s, or a large chunk of my collection would only offer FLAC versions (which is okay with me... just sayin'). Yuck! I hate it when that happens!
So, back to dbPowerAmp. Downloaded the very latest version. Surely, THIS was the answer! Nope. Same issue. Error! Error! Error!
So my old Troubleshooting Skills started stirring deep inside and my mind started realizing it was ME. What was I doing wrong? What was the procedure I had used before to get this software working so well? I started from scratch -- that's what. A few searches for issues, and I came across Spoon's one answer when a User said something like: "I want to re-use the same Profile on a new PC..." -- and Spoon said: "I don't advise that." Why, I thought? Because the Registry ties itself to the OLD PC setup, I think. Okay, Throw away the old Profile.
I had noticed the Old Profile did weird things. It "found" my "Music" folder -- but it was NOT the one I created where all my newly-ripped files were. It was the one under a different User Account, under C:, and under "One Drive". I attempted to reestablish it to my known locations of preference. Did not really work. I eventually had to wipe that Old Profile completely, and create a new one.
Playing with it a bit, I was able to recreate the correct connections and pointers. Everything started recording to the correct folders I wanted. All those "cheap Chinese imports" ripped JUST FINE. All were now being labelled just as I had wanted. And the ease and speed of dbPowerAmp is phenomenal compared to EAC. One feature, alone, was immediately noticeable: Finding the correct album art. And finding it quickly.
Damn, I love this program!
But be careful when trying to import Old Profiles. It did not work for me. Instead, copy and save your Naming Strings to a convenient text file -- you can at least copy those into the appropriate blocks when setting up dbPowerAmp anew. And you can take Screen Shots of your other settings to compare them as you walk through this. Another thing to consider: I stupidly created my own "Music" folder on my desktop. Well, Windows 10 thinks the string means THEIR default "Music" folder. Just call your folder something other than "Music", okay?
The really big clue for me was Spoon explaining that "Errors occur for a reason. They aren't just something the program makes up." (to paraphrase) That explanation made me realize that -- although the Path looked correct in the Old Profile, it was referring to the Path under my old, previous PC build. Windows never recreates those Paths exactly the same when rebuilding your PC. It's better to create new ones that will be accurate to YOUR new setup. I think this applies to any restoration of Windows - and especially to replacing a Hard Drive. Perhaps, most especially when a new User Account has been created.
There is one baffling issue... not sure I can explain this.
Repeatedly, whenever I create two separate folders for these files -- I have mine setup this way:
Flac Encoder points to C:/Desktop/Music/Flac
MP3 Encoder points to C:/Desktop/Music/MP3
...the lower left area of dbPowerAmp, where it shows the Path seems okay. But if I click on the individual Encoder settings, and then select which Folder to store that output, it insists on showing whichever folder I last selected for BOTH Encoders. In other words, if I set the Flac Encoder to output to C:/Desktop/Music/Flac... and then jump over to the MP3 Encoder and set it to C:/Desktop/Music/MP3 -- a quick check of the Encoder settings in the lower left window area will show BOTH Encoders now set to C:/Desktop/Music/MP3. I cannot figure out why.
Three weeks ago, I had dbPowerAmp working great! I followed every Setup and Configuration Guide from here and on the Web. I did not upgrade to the very latest version, but I was using the one just previous to the latest. I had all my Naming Settings working perfectly. Files and Folders were being created perfectly. Rips were happening willy-nilly! And I even had enabled Multi-Encoding - so I was creating both high-res FLAC files AND those ubiquitous MP3 files. Cool! I was a happy man.
Then a kind of "Perfect Storm" took place...
I was having trouble with my computer, so I decided to rebuild it by replacing the main SSD. I backed everything up -- including the dbPowerAmp Registry because it was working so well. Reinstalled a fresh copy of Windows 10 Pro. That was the first wave heading my way.
The next wave seemed even larger, because I had ordered some of those huge collections of CDs to top-off my music collection. Most all of these came from China: Pink Floyd "Discovery"; Eagles "The Studio Albums"; Queen "Greatest Hits I, II, and III".
The third wave was of my own creation: I used my backup of the dbPowerAmp Registry Settings to reinstall My Personal Profile for dbPowerAmp. This one hit me from behind. I think it was the worst of all.
I immediately started getting nothing but outright errors with every Chinese-sourced CD that I tried to rip. I mean, dbPowerAmp did not even hesitate. Error! Error! Error!
I complained to my vendors online because they "MUST" be bogus CDs, right? -- the weird part of this was eBay had actually REMOVED some of these transactions from my profile there -- stating there were reasons beyond their control. Uh-oh. Maybe I had trashed my system because I was sent some dangerous CDs, I thought. I called eBay and was left with a bigger mystery: "eBay cannot comment on this action, nor the items involved in the transactions due to privacy concerns." Hmmm. I was convinced these were all bogus recordings. I was more convinced they simply weren't rippable because the discs were bad. I thought dbPowerAmp was telling me that. But it wasn't. It was simply telling me something in my configuration was wrong.I then thought "Maybe the CD recorder / player is the culprit. It's pretty old." So I ordered a new external Asus Blu-Ray Player / Recorder. Surely it would work? Nope. Worked great on reading my older CDs. Played them beautifully. Hell, it even played these new Chinese imports that were, somehow, "recorded in the EU". So did my old TSST internal drive, once I checked it for playability vs. ripping.
So, calming down a bit, I decided -- you know what? I didn't really need that hulking big external unit. What I really need is a new internal unit for my 2012 Shuttle SFF PC. So off I went to buy one that was the best-rated one I could afford -- another Asus, in fact. 16-speed. But after installing it -- still no luck in ripping with dbPowerAmp. Error! Error! Error!
So next I decided it was dbPowerAmp's fault. Must be corrupted, somehow. Off I go on a Web search and I end up with Exact Audio Copy. Hoo-boy!! Another learning curve I had to master. After two or three days, I had it working. It somehow "magically" ripped every cheap Chinese CD (or are they really cheap EU CDs??). But, damn!! NOWHERE near as convenient or intuitive as dbPowerAmp. And I never did figure out how to Multi-Encode with it. The files played fine. But, Christ -- the amount of configuration and extra encoding time I was facing. This meant I would have to re-rip to get those MP3s, or a large chunk of my collection would only offer FLAC versions (which is okay with me... just sayin'). Yuck! I hate it when that happens!
So, back to dbPowerAmp. Downloaded the very latest version. Surely, THIS was the answer! Nope. Same issue. Error! Error! Error!
So my old Troubleshooting Skills started stirring deep inside and my mind started realizing it was ME. What was I doing wrong? What was the procedure I had used before to get this software working so well? I started from scratch -- that's what. A few searches for issues, and I came across Spoon's one answer when a User said something like: "I want to re-use the same Profile on a new PC..." -- and Spoon said: "I don't advise that." Why, I thought? Because the Registry ties itself to the OLD PC setup, I think. Okay, Throw away the old Profile.
I had noticed the Old Profile did weird things. It "found" my "Music" folder -- but it was NOT the one I created where all my newly-ripped files were. It was the one under a different User Account, under C:, and under "One Drive". I attempted to reestablish it to my known locations of preference. Did not really work. I eventually had to wipe that Old Profile completely, and create a new one.
Playing with it a bit, I was able to recreate the correct connections and pointers. Everything started recording to the correct folders I wanted. All those "cheap Chinese imports" ripped JUST FINE. All were now being labelled just as I had wanted. And the ease and speed of dbPowerAmp is phenomenal compared to EAC. One feature, alone, was immediately noticeable: Finding the correct album art. And finding it quickly.
Damn, I love this program!
But be careful when trying to import Old Profiles. It did not work for me. Instead, copy and save your Naming Strings to a convenient text file -- you can at least copy those into the appropriate blocks when setting up dbPowerAmp anew. And you can take Screen Shots of your other settings to compare them as you walk through this. Another thing to consider: I stupidly created my own "Music" folder on my desktop. Well, Windows 10 thinks the string means THEIR default "Music" folder. Just call your folder something other than "Music", okay?
The really big clue for me was Spoon explaining that "Errors occur for a reason. They aren't just something the program makes up." (to paraphrase) That explanation made me realize that -- although the Path looked correct in the Old Profile, it was referring to the Path under my old, previous PC build. Windows never recreates those Paths exactly the same when rebuilding your PC. It's better to create new ones that will be accurate to YOUR new setup. I think this applies to any restoration of Windows - and especially to replacing a Hard Drive. Perhaps, most especially when a new User Account has been created.
There is one baffling issue... not sure I can explain this.
Repeatedly, whenever I create two separate folders for these files -- I have mine setup this way:
Flac Encoder points to C:/Desktop/Music/Flac
MP3 Encoder points to C:/Desktop/Music/MP3
...the lower left area of dbPowerAmp, where it shows the Path seems okay. But if I click on the individual Encoder settings, and then select which Folder to store that output, it insists on showing whichever folder I last selected for BOTH Encoders. In other words, if I set the Flac Encoder to output to C:/Desktop/Music/Flac... and then jump over to the MP3 Encoder and set it to C:/Desktop/Music/MP3 -- a quick check of the Encoder settings in the lower left window area will show BOTH Encoders now set to C:/Desktop/Music/MP3. I cannot figure out why.