Some questions about dbpoweramp and digital music

[paddlefoot]

The other day I downloaded the trial version of dbpoweramp reference and am almost positive I will purchase the full version within the next few days. I have been reading the wealth of knowledge (good and bad) on the internet and think I have a pretty good handle on things, but then again just last night I was totally confused... again. I have chosen to rip my cd collection in flac -8 and will be using mediamonkey and/or foobar2000 as my media player. Eventually I will transcode individual albums and tracks to mp3 for portable audio, but one step at a time. These are some of the questions I have amassed since beginning to experiment with dbpoweramp.

1. I just have the default settings for tagging information. All of the information being tagged appears to be enough for right now. Should I tag accuraterip, etc. or is that just preference? I don't have many extreme tagging preferences right now.

2. When I viewed my flac files in media monkey, if I look through the library view I see album art, if I look through the external hard drive path I see nothing. Does anyone know why this is?

3. When I rip my files is dbpoweramp tagging each file with album art or just putting folder.jpg album art in the folder? If this is the case then #2 might be answered.

4. Are ID3V1 and ID3V2.4 tags put in the files? I can just add them when I transcode to mp3 correct?

5. I am using the default filepath, with just a slight variation. /album so each artist gets a subfolder for each album I own. I have 5 and 6 cds for each artist and thought this might help with keeping track of everything. Can you think of any negative to this filepath other than another mouse click

6. dbpoweramp automatically appends pretrack gaps, correct?

Thats everything for now :o

[LtData]

Re: Some questions about dbpoweramp and digital music

1) It is just a preference, you don't have to put extra tags if you do not think you will ever use them.
2) Never used media monkey, so I cannot say.
3) Check your settings, sometime only one or the other is done. The folder.jpg setting is a checkbox on the options page below the "ID Tag" options button, the embedded album art is within the "ID Tag" Options pane.
4) No, FLAC uses Vorbis Comments by default. For mp3, dMC does ID3v2 and ID3v2.3, it does not write ID3v2.4 tags.
5) I use the same file structure, so I think it is just fine. Also, it allows you to have a folder.jpg for each album.
6) I believe so, yes.

[paddlefoot]

Re: Some questions about dbpoweramp and digital music

Thanks for the quick response.

Is there anyway to check the files I have already ripped to see if the album art is in the tags for sure?

Otherwise, I am loving this program. It even ripped a couple cd's I haven't been able to play in my car and home cd players for years. :smile2:

[LtData]

Re: Some questions about dbpoweramp and digital music

Right-click on one file, go to "Edit Tag" and see if you have anything listed under the "Album Art" section.

[paddlefoot]

Re: Some questions about dbpoweramp and digital music

Thanks for all of your help LtData. I checked and have fixed everything that needed fixing.

2 last questions for right now

1. Does it matter how large the picture is for portablilities sake? For example, if I use a 500x500 album cover, when I transcode to mp3 and put it on my portable player, will it have trouble showing it or will it resize it?

2. Can I just have the album art in the folder for flac files and just embed them in mp3 files when I transcode?

[LtData]

Re: Some questions about dbpoweramp and digital music

1) depends on your device, you would have to check the specs of your device.
2) If you are using Reference, you can set up profiles that could do this. Otherwise, you would have to manually change the settings each time.

[EliC]

Re: Some questions about dbpoweramp and digital music

Thanks for all of your help LtData. I checked and have fixed everything that needed fixing.

2 last questions for right now

1. Does it matter how large the picture is for portablilities sake? For example, if I use a 500x500 album cover, when I transcode to mp3 and put it on my portable player, will it have trouble showing it or will it resize it?

2. Can I just have the album art in the folder for flac files and just embed them in mp3 files when I transcode?

Along this line I would like to see the ability to downsize album art for tagging files. I also like to have a large file for backup and computer display, but it would be nice if dMC could downsize the album art when using it for tagging. There are some nice opensource apps that can do this and if a plug-in architecture where provided then maybe they could be incorporated.

[Spoon]

Re: Some questions about dbpoweramp and digital music

>check the files I have already ripped to see if the album art is in the tags for sure?

For explorer columnsyou culd switch on the 'Contains' dbpoweramp column (Reference only), this would show what is contained in the audio files.