Several questions and suggestions.

[esperado]

First, apologies for my poor English.
I'm just trying DMC. Found it was the best program i've tried to rip CD.
And i've tried a lot. The only One with correct codecs handling, both for Wma and MP3.
And perfect sounding (i'm sound engineer), and fast enough.
The best program with the the worse interface, to be true. Not intuitive and not ergonomic at all.
And so ugly and difficult to use (this CDgrab "option" window, oh, my god !)

My questions:
1- How can i use this nice 18 band equalizer to rip my cds or Vinyls:
I mean, how can i listen to the source with the equalizer in, in order
to listen in real time my corrections and get the right response curve BEFORE to rip ? (It seams it is not working using the little player in CDGrab ?) That
question goes for all DSPs.

2- When i use severall DSP's, did the order in witch they are set in the menu the order they are acting ? If i set Equaliser AND Normalise, did my program is normalised after curve correction ?
And if this is true, why there is not an "up" and down" buttons to set the correct order ?

3 suggestions:
Why so many different (and hard to understand) programs to do an unique thing ?
Please: an unique interface: (Cdgrab) with an explorer inside to do everything.

Also, there is so many hidden presets, you never know what you are going to do when you clic on "Rip".
Please, a message box like:
"You are going to rip on 'D:\xxxx\Artist-Album\xx-TrackName', on wma codec 128kb vbr 2 passes with "multiband-equaliser" and "normalise".

Please, a peak meter, re-initialized at all tracks, with the peak level memored during ripping would be nice too.

Please, we are using 1024 screen: all the tunings (codecs and DSP) would be better accessed via an unique window, with radio buttons to see if they are "on" or "off", a list box or a button to an other window to choose the settings of each)
This "power Pack" menu is a very non ergonomic idea.
Thanks in advance, and congratulations for the very good technical work.

[xoas]

Re: Several questions and suggestions.

With respect to your first question-You can preview EQ settings that you wish to apply to tracks you are ripping from CD using dBpowerAMP Audio Player (preferably with one of the skins that also features 18 band EQ-Craze's Magnum, StudioPro and DualPro skins are, I believe the only skins that feature 18 band EQ-otherwise a skin with 10 band EQ will probably do well but not a skin with a 20 band EQ). You cannot preview other DSP's and you cannot preview EQ settings you apply to tracks you are recording directly from vinyl (although you are probably better off recording these to wave without DSP effects and then add DSP's as you convert to your desired output format such as .mp3 and wma). If you record vinyl directly to wave you can also preview the effect of EQ settings using dBpowerAMP Audio Player as outlined before. It would be nice to be able to use the Preview feature to preview DSP effects, as you suggest.

With respect to your second question-Yes, DSP effects are applied in the order they are listed rfom top to bottom. Your idea about having a feature to enable the user to click on an effect and then change its priority by moving it further up and down the list is a good idea.

The variety of interfaces can be bewildering, especially for a new user. This is in part a reflection of the history of the development of dBpowerAMP Music Converter (at one point Auxilary Input-used for recording from vinyl, File Selector-used for converting larger numbers of files, and (I believe) Audio CD Input were all separate add-ons to dBpowerAMP Music Converter. They are now integrated into a single download although there are also other companion programs (dBpowerAMP Audio Player, dB CD Writer, and Sveta) that are compatible with dBpowerAMP Music Converter but can function as stand-alone programs as well.

However, I think that as you become familiar with the different components of dBpowerAMP Music Converter you may also come to appreciate that the different interfaces are partly different because of the different roles that Auxilary Input and Audio CD Input play.

There are many features and settings that are not immediately obvious to the user. I do like your idea of a preview message that would tell the user the file name and location for the output file, the output format and settings and any DSP effects right before starting the ripping or recording process. This might be trickier for ripping or converting several tracks at a time.

There is a lot of information about all of these features avalable through the Help files although these are in English.

There is a difference between ripping and converting (where you take digital audio information and convert it to some other digital format) and recording an audio signal (which is what Auxilary Input does). In ripping and converting there is no role to be played a Peak meter in this process. Auxilary Input does have a Peak meter, as it should. I am not sure if this is what you are referring to or not.

As you may or may not be aware, these programs are pretty much the work of a single programmer (with some help from others on codecs and skins for the Audio Player), Spoon. He is curently working on a major revision to dBpowerAMP Music Converter and perhaps he might consider adding some of your suggestions to dBpowerAMP Music Converter either in this version or some future version.

Best wishes,
Bill

[esperado]

Re: Several questions and suggestions.

You can preview EQ settings that you wish to apply to tracks you are ripping from CD using dBpowerAMP Audio Player (preferably with one of the skins that also features 18 band EQ-Craze's Magnum, StudioPro and DualPro skins are, I believe the only skins that feature 18 band EQ-otherwise a skin with 10 band EQ will probably do well but not a skin with a 20 band EQ).

So, i'm obliged to open a second program: "Audio player", use an other eq , (not sure they are identical) try to remember more or less the graphical curve of eqs i found ok, then do-it blind in CD grab ? Not a dream !
[edit] I've found a trick: equalise in player with Dual-studiopro2 -18 band equaliser, and save the EQ. It is possible to load this eq in cdgraber. Thanks for your track. :komisch9:

There is a difference between ripping and converting (where you take digital audio information and convert it to some other digital format) and recording an audio signal (which is what Auxilary Input does).

I never use a PC to copy a valuable vinyl on cd, because a PC is not good for analogic sound for many reasons, and i never use any correction during this process in order to destroy nothing. So all my vinyls i need to rip are yet on a cd :-)

In ripping and converting there is no role to be played a Peak meter in this process. Auxiliary Input does have a Peak meter, as it should.

It is not difficult, during ripping process, to sample the maximum
value of the bits. Like that, when a track is finished, you know if your track has been correctly coded in respect to the level (a way to be sure that normalize has worked fine, for an example) Other programs, like Audiograbber does that.
And, as a sound engineer, i'm pretty maniac about levels ;-)

...these programs are pretty much the work of a single programmer Spoon. He is curently working on a major revision to dBpowerAMP Music Converter and perhaps he might consider adding some of your suggestions to dBpowerAMP Music Converter either in this version or some future version.

Thanks, bill, for your nice and useful answer. And congratulation for Spoon.
If i can help him with suggestions (i'm a developer too) on the ergonomic point of view, i would be happy to help. More or less, all my suggestions refers to existings componants in his programs: not such a big work.

[xoas]

Re: Several questions and suggestions.

So, i'm obliged to open a second program: "Audio player", use an other eq , (not sure they are identical) try to remember more or less the graphical curve of eqs i found ok, then do-it blind in CD grab ? Not a dream !

No, this is not an easy process. What you can do is set and save your EQ settings in Audio Player and recall those settings in Music Converter (saving you from having to memorize those settings). I simply posted to let you know that it can be done. Your suggestion that Music Converter's Preview feature allow you preview the effects of DSP settings would be a more efficient and powerful way to do this.

Thank you for explaining about the Peak meter. I had not realized this was indeed a possibility.

Best wishes,
Bill

[ChristinaS]

Re: Several questions and suggestions.

Why don't you rip without any DSP effects first of all, to full uncompressed wav, and after that use dMC to aply any desired DSP effects and create new wav files or any compressed formats you want? This will be much faster than applying DSP effects during ripping - and discovering they were not right and having to redo the ripping.

[esperado]

Re: Several questions and suggestions.

Why don't you rip without any DSP effects first of all, to full uncompressed wav, and after that use dMC to aply any desired DSP effects and create new wav files or any compressed formats you want?

Is there any advantages, as ripping to Wav is a process witch can be done in the same time (to ram) ?
The best way i've found, following Xoax's nice suggestion: Listen the beginning of the cd with Amp player (Skin Dualpro 2, witch has the same kind of 18 band equaliser) applying the corrections i want for EQ, listening with the earphone of my portable player to be in real situation untill i'm happy with the EQ. Then, just save the eq and open cd grab. I reload is eq and rip in MP3/WMA.
A little boring, because Eq in player do not react in real time, but takes less than 10 mn for an album.

If i wanted to do a perfect work, i would use your suggestion: use one of my professional studio suites to equalize and set the level, save the changes to wav then compress flat with DMC. Takes long time, with not so much benefits: who can feel the difference with a compressed format listened in a noisy street or a car ? i just need a simple and fast program to rip my cds on my USB key with one or two clics. Dont want to re-masterize on MP3. :p

Thanks to you too, ChristinaS, for the time you give to help newbees like me.

BTW, i have an other suggestion for Spoon: to have the ability to save rips under the following format:
"NameOfArtist-NameOfRecord-Format\xx-TrackName.extension"
Where Format can be, for exemple: wma, MP3, etc...
A good way to get a different folder depending on the format, that you can copy strait in your portable player, with all the tracks in a unique format in each folder.

[ChristinaS]

Re: Several questions and suggestions.

Is there any advantages, as ripping to Wav is a process witch can be done in the same time (to ram) ?
.....

BTW, i have an other suggestion for Spoon: to have the ability to save rips under the following format:
"NameOfArtist-NameOfRecord-Format\xx-TrackName.extension"
Where Format can be, for exemple: wma, MP3, etc...
A good way to get a different folder depending on the format, that you can copy strait in your portable player, with all the tracks in a unique format in each folder.

The advantage is that ripping to uncompressed to wav, with no DSP effects, is fast and results in a rip identical to the origianl. The conversions after that are much faster as no ripping is involved.

You cna set the naming convention pretty much in any way you like, inclduign having some fixed characters strings to appear in all file names (like m3 or wma or whatever).

Click on the big Options button in dMC Audio CD Input and then on File creation and then Set . Youc an arrange the file names as you like. If you use \ as separator, that results in folders being created with that structure.

[esperado]

Re: Several questions and suggestions.

Click on the big Options button in dMC Audio CD Input and then on File creation and then Set . Youc an arrange the file names as you like. If you use \ as separator, that results in folders being created with that structure.

Of course, i've done that from the begining. There is, indeed, a lot of entries, but no entries available for the *format*: reason why i asked this feature.
And this entry would be the only one able to do what i would like: to get automaticaly different folders of the same album ripped in different format.
One folder by format with all the tracks inside.
one folder like:
"ThisArtist-ThisAlbum-MP3" and an other:
"ThisArtist-ThisAlbum-wma"
Am-i more clear ?

Chris.

[ChristinaS]

Re: Several questions and suggestions.

Well, not, the mp3 or wma character strings will not come from a variable field. You will have to manually set it for each type of ripping as part of the file naming convention as fixed characters appearing there.

[LtData]

Re: Several questions and suggestions.

If you use the "Multi-Encoder" codec from the beta section of this forum, you can set the filenames to be different according to the file type.

[esperado]

Re: Several questions and suggestions.

If you use the "Multi-Encoder" codec from the beta section of this forum, you can set the filenames to be different according to the file type.

The file names, of course. But they all goes in a unique folder for an album, with mixed format inside. So, you are obliged to create an new folder manualy and cut/paste all tunes of a format from the original folder, in order to get a different folder for each format, am-I wrong ?

[ChristinaS]

Re: Several questions and suggestions.

The file names, of course. But they all goes in a unique folder for an album, with mixed format inside. So, you are obliged to create an new folder manualy and cut/paste all tunes of a format from the original folder, in order to get a different folder for each format, am-I wrong ?

The file naming convention determines the folder structure as well - if you separate fields by \ then a folder is created . If the album field is first for you and a \ after it then that's a folder. If isntead you have, sa, [artist]\ [album]-[track] or soemthign like that then the fodler is by artist. You can play with that until you get the structure you want.

I don't know how the multi-encoder works, but in the normal course of operation I might have my file naming structure set, say, to:

wav\[album]\[track number xx]-[artist]-[track]

and for wma it would be:

wma\[album]\[track number xx]-[artist]-[track]

I don't do massive ripping. I usually rip to wav (or wma lossless of late) and convert after that to other formats. So I don't have a problem of juggling different file naming conventions. I can see how you might though.

[LtData]

Re: Several questions and suggestions.

Unfortunately, the multi-encoder doesn't make different root folders for files. dMC r12 may do this, but I don't know as I haven't used it.