Combining tracks -- list of known requirements?

[knightmare]

I recently bought DBPoweramp and am pleased with it so far. I ripped several CD's and then wanted to do some classical CD's. With classical it is fairly common to want to combine multiple tracks to get all the movements. For instance the first 3 tracks of Vivaldi's Four Seasons:
1. Spring - 1. Allegro
2. Spring - 2. Largo
3. Spring - 3. Allegro
You would want to combine these 3 in to Spring.
Searching the forum this seems to be a common wish and there are 2 methods that work, but are not as nice as what folks seem to ask for. You can run Rip as One which requires you running the Rip multiple times. For the Four seasons this would be 4 separate rips. ALso you can use the DSP Insert Audio. The instructions for this are not really clear. I selected Track 1 and then did 2 Insert Audio's pointing to the CD itself for track 2 and track 3. This seems to work but the results are radically different. Using Rip as one I get a 65 MB file showing 62% Compressed (level 5 FLAC selected). Using the DSP I get a 40MB file also showing 62% Compressed. Individually the 3 files would match about what the DSP method gives. So Rip as One seems to create a much larger file. Is there any recommendation as to what is the best method? Any thoughts on why Rip as One creates a larger file?
Is there any chance that there will ever be a more user friendly way of combining tracks such as provided by Audiograbber?? Both the original Xing Audio Catalyst and Audiograbber let you select Track properties with a Right click of the track and then you can modify the start and end sector. This is very useful for combining tracks or getting rid of unwanted audio such as talking in a live CD or talking at the beginning of a song for a Musical such as Phantom where you set the start sector to skip to the actual music. You can do this for all tracks and then finally do the rip. Just download the free Audiograbber to see how Jackie did it. Rip as One is close to this but requires running multiple times. I assume that Verification wold be bypassed when doing this, but thats to be expected since you modify the start and end sector.
Maybe you could provide a List of known wishes or requirements so as to avoid us asking multiple times.

Once again I am happy overall with the product. These are just comments on what would make it even better for me.

[mville]

Re: Combining tracks -- list of known requirements?

I recently bought DBPoweramp and am pleased with it so far. I ripped several CD's and then wanted to do some classical CD's. With classical it is fairly common to want to combine multiple tracks to get all the movements.

Just to be clear, please can you explain the reasoning behind this statement? I would like to understand why there is a need to combine multiple tracks to get all the movements and why does this apply specifically to Classical music?

I have many classical CDs, which I have ripped fine, so I am just not sure what you are trying to achieve, ultimately.

[knightmare]

Re: Combining tracks -- list of known requirements?

Not sure if my reply got submitted... I got an error when I hit submit... Re-posting just in case....
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It is not specific to Classical, but Classical CD probably has more cases where you want to do it. If you are randomly playing recordings you would get pieces out of order. For instance if you ripped Sarasate's Carmen Fantasie you would get 5 tracks:

Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy, Op.25 - Introduction. Allegro Moderato
Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy, Op.25 - 1. Moderato
Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy, Op.25 - 2. Lento assai
Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy, Op.25 - 3. Allegro moderato
Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy, Op.25 - 4. Moderato

While it's possible you might want to only hear track 2, I would rather hear the entire piece. Hence combine these 5 tracks. When playing a playlist randomly these would then all play together and not at different times. These are not the only tracks on the CD as well, so you would not want to rip the entire CD as one. For instance these are tracks 6-10 on Anne-Sophie Mutter - Carmen Fantasie
Another example would be 2 Cellos Celloverse CD.
Track 3 - Thunderstruck (Intro) :32
Track 4 - Thunderstruck 3:40
Once again playing Random you would hear the Intro at one point and later on Thunderstruck. I would combine these so as to hear them together as intended.
On Live rock CD's you may want to skip past an intro or cut out the last part of a track that has the clapping or once again the end of a track may be the intro for another on live recordings. Using Start and End to rip just a portion of a track is useful here. These functions are all available on the free audiograbber which has not been in development for quite a while. FLAC was never part of that although you could probably figure out a way to add it in. I would rather not mess with software no longer maintained. I had the original Audio Catalyst which then became Audiograbber. The function is available in DBPoweramp, but not in a user friendly manner. Setting up a playlist of songs and then playing random or shuffle is where combining tracks is quite helpful. I could have a selection of violin concertos by multiple composers. Playing random you would not hear an entire concerto together. You might hear the first part of Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D followed by the last piece of Paganini Violin Concerto no 1. There is no way to hear the entire Concerto in a random playlist unless you combine the tracks to have the entire concerto as one piece. In many cases I would keep combined and non-combined copies so I can play it however I want. The main issue is using random playlists where I want to hear the entire piece. The 2 Cellos example is a perfect example of where it is frustrating to be listening on random in my car and hear just the intro of Thunderstruck but not the rest of the song. They go together but are separate tracks on the CD.

[Jailhouse]

Re: Combining tracks -- list of known requirements?

I would combine the tracks in question into a separate single file using an editor such as Audacity, tagging the resulting file as a phantom extra CD track, then include that track in the random-play playlist and move any of the individual tracks I don't want to hear by themselves into a separate playlist.

[AlexBr]

Re: Combining tracks -- list of known requirements?

I also have the need to combine several audio files into one. How can i do this?
In my case, the CD's recorded lectures, which you want to combine into one file. 1CD = 1 file

[Spoon]

Re: Combining tracks -- list of known requirements?

Click the 'Rip as One' option on the menu.