[Peter J]

Help me not make a mistake I’ll regret!

Fair warning; I’m a total neophyte when it comes to ripping discs and storing them elsewhere.  Yeah I know, but it took me a long time to get on the CD train too…I’m slow to adopt!

I recently started ripping my music collection onto two external hard drives, mostly following the methodology presented here;

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/309-computer-audiophile-cd-ripping-strategy-and-methodology/comments9.html#comments

I'm using dbpoweramp.

20 or 30 discs in I noticed some artwork dbpa presented that differed from the actual jewel case artwork…not a big deal I figured, so I overlooked it. Soon after I was a little surprised to see a disc classified in what I’d consider a wrong genre which got me to thinking…and looking around a little more at how metadata? tags and artwork can be manipulated prior to ripping.

This led me to reconsider letting dbpa do its default thing with the genre and metadata, mostly being concerned about how this might affect (I imagine) searches for music once I get it all on hdd.

I have no server yet, my plan is to build a CAPs, and probably use Jriver, but I just don’t know what that interface is like or how I will eventually access it. My method of choosing music now is to look through discs and find what I’m looking for or just gaze at the CD rack and see what strikes my fancy…pretty non-technical and unfocused.

So here’s my questions:

1. How do searches work in Jriver (or other player)and how do y’all look for the music you want to listen too?

2. Should I be more concerned about genre so these (imagined) searches prove to be fruitful?

3. What’s the deal with mismatched artwork? I see an option to search for alternate artwork, should I be doing that?

My overriding concern is that something I do in getting all my music rounded up on hdd now will come back to haunt me because I didn’t anticipate well.  Bottom line is I’d like some help finding out what I don’t know, but probably should.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

[chip]

There is some info here - http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=91973.0

For me I went thru and fixed any cd covers I didn't like with Album Art Sources from the above link.

For Genre - well some stuff isn't labeled right for what it is. Some stuff will come up as pop/rock and I want it rock, etc so I just pull it up in media monkey to fix it.

It can be a complex task but if you want it done to your taste that is what it takes.

So here’s my questions:

1. How do searches work in Jriver (or other player)and how do y’all look for the music you want to listen too?

I use squeezebox/squeezeplay and create playlists or just shuffle my music.

2. Should I be more concerned about genre so these (imagined) searches prove to be fruitful?

This is more what you want as the user. for me I don't play back by genre so my stuff is put thru media monkey and I group it by how I want it to keep genre to a  minimal.

3. What’s the deal with mismatched artwork? I see an option to search for alternate artwork, should I be doing that?

Don't have an answer on this one as artwork isn't always perfect so best bet is find a program to scan all your music and fix the items broken or that you don't like.

[JEaton]

1. How do searches work in Jriver (or other player)and how do y’all look for the music you want to listen too?

No idea about jriver. I use Squeezebox Server primarily. I end up browsing New Music (the most recently ripped CDs)  probably 1/4 of the time. Mostly, though, I browse albums sorted by artist, like I might at a music store. Searches I do are typically by artist, album or track name.

I do occasionally browse genres (which then drills down into artists and then albums), but it's only when I feel like playing something from a genre that makes up a fairly small portion of my library. There's little sense in my browsing Rock or Jazz, each of which consists of hundreds of artists in the library.

One thing I really like to do is browse by year. Go back to, say, 1987, and see what was happening then. For two reasons: 1) a bit of nostalgia, reminiscing about back in the day, and 2) it's an enjoyable way for me rediscover things I've forgotten about and might not normally play.

2. Should I be more concerned about genre so these (imagined) searches prove to be fruitful?

I would be concerned, but don't obsess over it. I try to keep the genre list to a couple dozen. Getting hung up over whether something is 'Blues', 'Rock' or 'Blues Rock' isn't worth the time. Nor is dicing things up into sub and sub-sub genres like 'Death Metal', 'Speed Metal', 'Classic Rock'. Some people get carried away, and I have no idea how they manage to shoehorn many things into these little niches.

3. What’s the deal with mismatched artwork? I see an option to search for alternate artwork, should I be doing that?

My overriding concern is that something I do in getting all my music rounded up on hdd now will come back to haunt me because I didn’t anticipate well.  Bottom line is I’d like some help finding out what I don’t know, but probably should.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Jeeze, just take your time. I don't use dbpa, nor do I automatically download any artwork. I find most covers at http://www.albumartexchange.com. If something isn't there, then I do a Google image search, then I'll fall back to scanning my own cover if I can't find something or I'm not satisfied with what's online. I do obsess a bit over cover art.

You'll also find plenty of typos and mistakes in the other metadata that dbpoweramp downloads. Again, take your time, crosscheck it against the printed info that came with the CD, fix whatever needs fixing. You'll undoubtedly find mistakes days, months, years later, so you'll find yourself correcting metadata afterward, regardless.

[chip]

Once this is complete this may help -

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/perfecttunes.htm

[Peter J]

Thanks for the insight, every little bit helps. It's all new ground for me, and I've run across a puzzling problem. There may well be something I've overlooking, but I'm perplexed.
 
When I'm ripping compilation discs (dBPoweramp) such as Narada or Windham Hill, they have many artists on a single disc, they display in the directory as seperate individual artists. Consequently they show up in JRiver as many instances of the same disc. I'd prefer they show up as a single disc, much like if I were looking for a actual disc. I'm imagining the individual artist tracks listed as some sort of sub directory to the Album, but don't know how to accomplish.
 
Help appreciated!

[richidoo]

All media players create their own database of the files in the library after they scan the tags of all files. The app can search the single-file database much faster than searching through individual files and folders. Some players create and update their database faster than others. This is the reason music placed in the library is sometimes not seen by the media player until after a library scan is performed.

I have a lot of classical music in my library, so the genre selections in dbPowerAmp didn't always offer the choices I wanted. So I would enter my own, like chamber, or whatever. But you have to enter the genre exactly the same for every track in that genre. I soon realized that I always searched  by composer, never by genre, so I just use Classical now and don't worry about genre.

Alternate album art is usually just previous artwork from an earlier release of the same recording. If the art is just plan wrong, you can always manually change it, either in dbPowerAmp before ripping, or after ripping with the commands under the right mouse button in Win explorer. Additional tag editing commands are added to that menu when you install dbpoweramp. Another good free tag editor is mp3tag. It will also edit flac tags as well as mp3, maybe others. You can also download the art you want from mazon or whatever to the desktop, then point dbpoweramp to the artfile before ripping.

The tags available from downloading are rarely perfect enough to just let it ride, especially with classical. So I usually edit things manually before ripping. When I forget to edit I can change the whole rip after the fact or months later using an editor.

I organize my library by artist for jazz and by composer for classical. On multi artist records like your Windham Hill I would make the Artist Windham Hill and be done with it. That's what my brain will remember when i want to listen to it, and that's where I will look, in Artists. For classical I put the composer as Artist and the work as Album Title. For popular music/jazz I would put the Leader as Artist.

I store my music in folders organized by Artist, Album. I usually search by folders, bypassing the player database. I find the maintenance of tags boring, so my library database is not accurate enough to find what I want but folders is always good. But it would be nice if the tags were as clean as the folders and track names.

[JEaton]

When I'm ripping compilation discs (dBPoweramp) such as Narada or Windham Hill, they have many artists on a single disc, they display in the directory as seperate individual artists. Consequently they show up in JRiver as many instances of the same disc. I'd prefer they show up as a single disc, much like if I were looking for a actual disc. I'm imagining the individual artist tracks listed as some sort of sub directory to the Album, but don't know how to accomplish.

In dbpoweramp make sure that the album gets marked as a compilation. I think there may be checkbox that needs to be ticked. For albums that are already ripped, add a COMPILATION field and set it to '1'. That may be what JRiver needs. If not, you might also need to set the ALBUMARTIST field to something like 'Various Artists'.

[Vincent Kars]

Personally I do think the CA guide a bit over the top with its Archival Copy, Working Copy and Edited Copy.

Rip to lossless
I recommend FLAC as it is lossless, good support for tagging and a checksum allowing verifying possible corruption of the data afterwards
This requires a media player with support for FLAC so no iTunes or WMP

Rip to a single folder for each CD.
Most of the time you don’t need this. Who cares about the file structure?
However when if things go wrong e.g. a missing track or using a tagger like MP3Tag, you are glad you have the entire CD in 1 folder.

Ripping software must store the tracks somewhere.
Most of the time this is done using rules like Root/Artist/Album
In case of samplers, this might scatter the files as the Artist is different for each track.
Check before you rip if e.g. a rule like Root/Album Artist/Album helps as “Album Artist” is often set to “Various Artist” in case of samplers.

For tracks, use a rule like Track #- Title. If possible, use leading zeros to have them sort nicely.

[toddbagwell]

Vincent, I agree that the CA structure is more than I'm willing to do!

I rip to AIFF and FLAC, with the metadata done initially to both prior to rip. I use FLAC for an archive copy simply due to smaller file size, I've stopped backing up both copies of my library as it has reached a size that both file types fill my backup drives.

As usual, your suggestions are great.

todd

[Vincent Kars]

Hi Todd

Why do you rip to 2 formats?

[glynnw]

For non-techie PC users like me: 

Using dBpoweramp to record in WAV, tags are  done automatically and gives me the option of editing them and artwork is added.

Then in JRiver, any missing artwork is added automatically and you can access and modify all tags by all albums under an album artist,or by  single album or song.

Might not work everytime - I have a few obscure recordings with no artwork, but well over 99% success rate - Probably at 99.9%

When I discover an error, like misspelled name, it is simple to enter corrected data.

[JoshK]

So I use to use musiccollectors lot along with late Gordy.   
http://www.collectorz.com/music/

I liked their scanner technology and I might look into revamping my db again.   I need t see whether it is worthwhile, but I have at least 90% of my collection in their db, so that is a good start.   Their scanner makes it pretty easy to keep track and it works with Squeezecenter which I use.

I really like jewelsleeves for storage btw... they are just 100% better than any other storage for artwork and storage once you've put everything on HDs.   You don't have to fold the art.   http://www.jewelsleeve.com/cgi-bin/mivavm?/mm5/merchant.mvc+