New user, two simple questions

[MarkSealey]

Hi - new user here… &*128523;

I'm facing the immense job of ripping a collection (begun in the 1980s) of several hundred CDs of Classical music CDs to Roon on my 'Late 2014' iMac, currently running 10.14.6 - but soon Big Sur (macOS 11).

Two related questions, if I may:

1. until now I've been using XLD - which seems to do a great job. (How) is dBpoweramp CD Ripper for macOS superior in terms of reliability/accuracy of ripping - to FLAC, and ease of use, please?
2. I don't think I can face 'feeding' multiple, cased, CDs in boxes, envelopes, jewel cases etc, manually, one at a time; I've spent some time looking for 'CD-Changers' (and similar) which would allow me to 'load' even half a dozen CDs in one session and have dBpoweramp CD Ripper rip them sequentially… again, ideally, USB direct to my iMac.

May I throw myself on the mercy of experienced users here for any convincing + suggestions, please?

Shall be truly grateful !

[Spoon]

Re: New user, two simple questions

You should find dBpoweramp has much better metadata and is easier to use than XLD.

I will find out about running multiple cd rippers on osx.

[garym]

Re: New user, two simple questions

given that your CDs are mostly classical, I'd recommend biting the bullet and ripping them one CD at a time. Classical CD metadata provided by databases is often a mess, and you'll likely want to carefully edit/modify the metadata at the time of ripping to suit you. Once you get a process going, it's simply not that bad. I recently ripped about 900 CDs in less than 3 weeks, while doing other things on the computer. All one CD at a time.
p.s. Many dbpa users have ripped many thousands of CDs. I know I've ripped over 5,000. So a few hundred should be very doable. Also, test the waters. Rip various kinds of CDs (various artists, multiple CDs in a box set, etc.) and see how you like the file naming outcome, metadata tags, etc. Most people find that they end up changing this after they get started when they start using the rips in their server/player. Better to figure out up front these things than AFTER you've ripped all the CDs. Good luck.

[MarkSealey]

Re: New user, two simple questions

Thanks, @spoon - I appreciate your help, and look forward to anything you can advise on hardware :-)

@garym - I took a look at the count: it's closer to 4,000 CDs/CD sets… I didn't want to frighten anyone off (including myself) :-)

It also seems as though accurate metadata is less of an issue (=chore) than I thought it would be because I use Roon.

At first I expected to have to spend hours with each CD and Yate or Jaikoz. Even though Freedb seems no longer to be working (in XLD) and not all Classical CDs are cataloged properly in Musicbrainz, Roon somehow 'knows' as much as I need - although I am fanatical/meticulous about such things.

It's the enormity of the task which seems so off-putting… even at ten a day it's over a year!

Your encouragement much appreciated!

[Spoon]

Re: New user, two simple questions

There is an option in CD ripper >> File >> Rip with multiple drives, which allows cd ripper to run one window for each drive.

[garym]

Re: New user, two simple questions

Thanks, @spoon - I appreciate your help, and look forward to anything you can advise on hardware :-)

@garym - I took a look at the count: it's closer to 4,000 CDs/CD sets&*8230; I didn't want to frighten anyone off (including myself) :-)

It also seems as though accurate metadata is less of an issue (=chore) than I thought it would be because I use Roon.

At first I expected to have to spend hours with each CD and Yate or Jaikoz. Even though Freedb seems no longer to be working (in XLD) and not all Classical CDs are cataloged properly in Musicbrainz, Roon somehow 'knows' as much as I need - although I am fanatical/meticulous about such things.

It's the enormity of the task which seems so off-putting&*8230; even at ten a day it's over a year!

Your encouragement much appreciated!

Yes, Roon will provide lots of useful information on top of file tags, so that's good. Of course, one of the number one complaints on the Roon forums is that it doesn't handle classical as well as it should, particularly large box sets.

p.s. It could be worse. I probably ripped 3 or 4 thousand CDs to mp3 back in the day, before I really knew what I was doing. I had to re-rip all those after I learned about lossless (FLAC), secure ripping, etc. And in the end, at least you've found what many to believe the best ripper/converter software in the business (dbpa), and it's just a matter of starting the task. It won't take as long as you think (on a roll, with AccurateRip matches, I could easily do 10 or more an hour rather than a day!).

[MarkSealey]

Re: New user, two simple questions

Thanks - So if I got, say, three drives, feeding wouldn't be too much of a 'hardship', would it.

In which case I have another vital question, please: is all hardware created equal; or do I need to select a(n external) drive from which to rip CDs in sequence with any special characteristics?

...There is an option in CD ripper >> File >> Rip with multiple drives, which allows cd ripper to run one window for each drive...

[MarkSealey]

Re: New user, two simple questions

You're right, @garym. I know you are. Thanks :-)

Yes, I was pretty skeptical about Roon's handling of Classical. But approached it looking for what it does do, rather than the improvements which one hopes are yet to be made. So far I've been extremely impressed. Not least because the forum - apparently like this one - is excellent for help. Audirvana's support is&*8230; 'patchy'.

[garym]

Re: New user, two simple questions

The good news about dbpa and AccurateRip confirmation is that the drive hardware is mostly not relevant. I have several drives because some CDs that won't rip accurately on one drive might rip perfectly on a different drive. All my drives either came with the computer or I salvaged them from old throw-away desktop computers. All are cheap.

You can purchase inexpensive internal SATA drives and connect them via USB to any computer you want (with USB connection). For example, I use this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0093HKFYW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

But you can check this for any new purchases you are considering.

https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?43786-CD-Drive-Accuracy-2019

[MarkSealey]

Re: New user, two simple questions

Thanks again, @garym!

I’m not sure if I’m still in mod here: some of my replies have appeared; others not - so my apols if this duplicates.

Very grateful for your advice, and encouragement.

I certainly feel for your having had to re-rip your thousands of CDs :-(

I have been very pleasantly surprised by Roon. It seems to have other improvements for Classical coming.

And 1.7 is stable and does all I need... I think! And the support on their forum (like the support on this one, it seems!) is much better than the ‘intermittent’ answers from Audirvana itself.

I have always bought my drives from OWC/MacSales. And they’ve been perfect every time. But if I’m going to do this - and probably use the suggestion which @spoon kindly offered, I want to make sure I’m squeezing out the ‘best bits’ (!) I can.

If it doesn’t matter, I might just get three of those in the ‘CD Drive Accuracy 2019’ list (from Amazon?) and stack them into a USB hub and make a start, Yes?

Although I couldn’t immediately see any Panasonic/Matshita etc which were available as standalone/externals.

[Spoon]

Re: New user, two simple questions

They are not all equal, but relate to their ability to read through scratches, etc. For 98/100 discs which are likely to be undamaged then any drive will do as they all read the same.

[garym]

Re: New user, two simple questions

Thanks again, @garym!

I&*8217;m not sure if I&*8217;m still in mod here: some of my replies have appeared; others not - so my apols if this duplicates.

Very grateful for your advice, and encouragement.

I certainly feel for your having had to re-rip your thousands of CDs :-(

I have been very pleasantly surprised by Roon. It seems to have other improvements for Classical coming.

And 1.7 is stable and does all I need... I think! And the support on their forum (like the support on this one, it seems!) is much better than the &*8216;intermittent&*8217; answers from Audirvana itself.

I have always bought my drives from OWC/MacSales. And they&*8217;ve been perfect every time. But if I&*8217;m going to do this - and probably use the suggestion which @spoon kindly offered, I want to make sure I&*8217;m squeezing out the &*8216;best bits&*8217; (!) I can.

If it doesn&*8217;t matter, I might just get three of those in the &*8216;CD Drive Accuracy 2019&*8217; list (from Amazon?) and stack them into a USB hub and make a start, Yes?

Although I couldn&*8217;t immediately see any Panasonic/Matshita etc which were available as standalone/externals.

I agree with your plans. And yes, Roon is very serious about having a good quality program and their forums are very helpful. (p.s. there are no "best bits", you either get a secure rip or you don't (even better when you get an accuraterip matched rip.) Have fun. And test out naming strings and folder organization, etc. and tag info with a number of different types of CDs (classical, pop, multiCD, single artist, multiple artists, etc. I can't stress this enough, as much of the learning curve comes from DOING the ripping....reading about it only gets you so far..nothing like experimenting to make sure you're getting what you want our of the rips and tagging. Tagging and naming is actually the bigger issue. Getting bitperfect rips is the easy part.

[MarkSealey]

Re: New user, two simple questions

Thanks, @Spoon! I've identified a handful of possibles (on Amazon!), which appear in tour list. This one seems to be one of the better ones. Although I'm used to OWC - like this - and don't need the software.

[MarkSealey]

Re: New user, two simple questions

Thanks again, @garym. I spent yesterday ripping a variety of CDs - and (as you say) experimenting with CD Ripper's naming tokens. (Have also happily paid for and registered the s/w.)

As long as I had Roon 'Prefer Roon's tags, it seemed to perform impeccably :-)

If virtually any drive will do - provided it gets all the data because it can cope with faults - because it's all a digital operation, I can hardly go wrong, can I?

Your encouragement appreciated.

[garym]

Re: New user, two simple questions

Thanks again, @garym. I spent yesterday ripping a variety of CDs - and (as you say) experimenting with CD Ripper's naming tokens. (Have also happily paid for and registered the s/w.)

As long as I had Roon 'Prefer Roon's tags, it seemed to perform impeccably :-)

If virtually any drive will do - provided it gets all the data because it can cope with faults - because it's all a digital operation, I can hardly go wrong, can I?

Your encouragement appreciated.

correct, almost any drive will work just fine. Re: roon and tagging. While it is true that Roon can provide tons of info automatically, I wouldn't discount the step of having the best possible metadata in your tags when ripping so you are future-proofed. Roon may not always exist (I hope it does, I've had a lifetime membership for 4 years). And many other servers/players will need good tagging. You don't need to go overboard. Just the basic tags will be fine (ARTIST, ALBUM, ALBUM ARTIST, TRACK, TITLE, GENRE, along with artwork (I put a single "cover.jpg" in each album folder. In classical, you'll likely want things like COMPOSER, WORK, PART, etc.