archiving issues

[komakinojd]

(I will give quite a few details first to make my case as clear as possible so that answering my question might be easier.)

I am using WinXP Home SP2 on a 2003 Compaq Presario, 2.6 GHz Intel Celeron, 512 MB RAM. I used dbpoweramp r12 (Powerpack & mp3 license only--not Reference) to rip about 350 CDs to uncompressed WAV, about 2/3 of them on the Lite-On CD-drive that came with the computer, and 1/3 with the latest SONY DVD+-R drive. While ripping the CDs, I made sure to have no other applications running, except the always-on ZoneAlarm Security Suite (but I tried to make sure that most of the rips took place in-between updates or scans), and I made sure to let the CD drive(s) "cool off" for at least 30 min between rips.

Yesterday, after having spent many hours over the past several weeks naming the tracks (I usually wasn't satisfied with the names downloaded from freedb) and ripping all of the CDs, I started reading the FAQ/forum (about some other issues) and realized that most people prefer the Secure mode in ripping, but that I used the default Burst mode to rip all of my CDs. Reading about how errors can arise in Burst mode, I was quite disappointed at the prospect of all of this time having archiving in Burst mode possibly having been wasted on my part. (I didn't have time to listen to almost any of the WAVs, so I was counting on the accuracy of the ripper.)

About 150 of the CDs were perfectly clean--no scratches at all. About 150 had a few small scratches here and there, but were mostly clean. And the rest were quite worn, with quite a few scratches. From all 350 CDs, dbpoweramp reported errors on only two of them--on a total of three tracks. On some brand-new, perfectly clean CDs, one or more of the tracks came out as inaccurate according to AccurateRip, and on several of what I considered badly scratched CDs AccurateRip reported that all tracks were accurate. On the other hand, up to 200 CDs were not even in AccurateRip, whether they were perfectly clean or slightly scratched.

I don't mind having to go back to re-rip some 40 or so "badly" scratched CDs in Secure mode, but since I ripped all of my CDs in Burst mode, what are the chances that there are audible errors (pops, clicks, etc.) on my rips from the perfectly-clean and slightly scratched CDs (the remaining ~300/350 CDs)?

A few more questions: I didn't use Reference, so how big is the difference in accuracy between Secure and Burst mode in the basic version of DB, as only the Reference supports Ultra-Secure ripping? (Yesterday I purchased Reference initially only for the reason that it has more batch-conversion features)? Why does AccurateRip report inaccurate on some or all of the tracks of brand-new CDs in Burst mode? Why is Burst mode the default mode?

Thanks.

[Spoon]

Re: archiving issues

>what are the chances that there are audible errors (pops, clicks, etc.) on my rips from the perfectly-clean and slightly scratched CDs (the remaining ~300/350 CDs)?

That would depend on your drive, many drives will interpolate when there is an error, so you would not even hear it, but the result is still not 100%

Burst is default because the majority of people out there want to rip in burst.

It is possible for a drive to return a small error on a seemingly scratch free cd, when burst ripping, there are no checks there, secure adds more chance of catching the error, using c2 pointers can catch more errors and accuraterip should catch all the errors (if the cd is in the database).

[komakinojd]

Re: archiving issues

Thanks for your reply, Spoon. If I can't hear the difference in the WAV files, then I suppose it's not worth going back to re-rip 300 CDs in secure mode.

What I meant with my other question was why do most people choose to rip in burst instead of in secure? Is it because secure takes much longer and many times they cannot hear the difference between a technically imperfect burst rip and a "100%" secure rip?

In fact, why is it so important to have a 100% secure rip if the difference between that rip and the burst rip is not audible even on a good stereo system?

[LtData]

Re: archiving issues

As Spoon said, what a track sounds like when errors are present depends on the CD drive. Also, some users want to know with some degree of certainty that their rips are as good as they can be.

Burst mode is what I use for my laptop when I want to rip a CD and put it on my laptop. However, on my desktop, I use secure and ultra secure for archiving purposes to make sure my copy is as good as it can be.

Also, secure mode is a little harder on the CD drive than burst mode, which is probably another reason why burst is the default.