True, if there is a ripping error. But this is not the same as the rip not being a secure bit perfect match rip (the point of EAC, dbpa, XLD, etc. that all use AccurateRip database).
But I fully understand your point. The music is the point, and metadata just a helpful browsing/identification tool. The beauty of Roon is that it identifies (most) things and provides all the information one needs (and even more!). Makes it very simple. I wish I wasn’t a bit OCD regarding my tagging. Then again, I had most of my ~9,000 album library long before I became a Roon lifetime subscriber; and I do use my library with other software as well.
Happy New Year and back to some good music listening.
can be, I’ve ripped about 5,000 CDs, and at least a few hundred in last couple of years. I mostly rip brand new CDs, never played, and can still get a non-secure rip maybe 1 or 2 out of a hundred. So, correct, not many. But I do want to know which ones. I typically can fix by reripping with a different drive, or sometimes I resort to using cuetools and its database which can repair rips if only a few frames are bad and the CD is in its database.
It largely depends upon the condition and the manufacturing quality of the CD. If the CD is in good condition with no scratches, then, in my experience, with a number of different CD readers, it normally rips perfectly.
However, I do have a number of CDs (obtained from various sources) that are not in perfect condition and some of these do not necessarily rip accurately first time.
I also have a couple of CD’s from the early days of CD manufacture which, although not scratched or abraded in any way, have some deterioration in the metal layer caused by age (thankfully a problem with CD manufacture that has long been resolved and only ever affected a minority of CDs). This can also cause issues.
my suggestion is, connect your roon to a streaming service Qubuz or Tidal. You will find there most of your albums in CD-resolution or in higher quality. Ad them to your roon library, so you can hear them without any loss and you saved the time for ripping all your CD‘s. So you only have to ripp only the albums, you don‘t find at the streaming-service.
All the best to you and your family in the new year!
Thanks, Stephan! Yes, I have watched one or two videos for XLD and seen how settings can make or break a rip. I shall have to experiment and compile a document.
(If you ever came across that PDF - though please don’t think about looking for it on purpose - I’d be very grateful then; as I am for your help now
British in the US. I had thought of that. Can’t see any reason not to comply with the law. Also as a fall-back/safety/worse-case measure So that it’ll never happen.
You recently kindly offered me help on this. I now have a Roon project to amend my library accordingly.
Though since you point to the Roon rules, I wonder whether it is always right (and this is straying OT somewhat… my apologies - maybe it should be moved to its own thread?) to number ‘1.1’, ‘1,2’, ‘1.3’, ‘1.4’ then ‘2.1’, ‘2.2’, ‘2.3’ etc for a Roon import according to the space - if we’re honest - that each work('s movement) took up on, perhaps, the original disk.
Or according to work(s) movements themselves?
For instance the four Brahms symphonies: it would be convenient in a four CD (box) set if Symphony #1 were ‘1.1’ to ‘1.4’ and Symphony #2 were ‘2.1’ to ‘2.4’. But let’s say that Symphony #1 is much longer than any of the other three (it is, but not by much) and so should logically be imported as #1 - even though it may have been distributed across the whole of CD 1 plus the first track of CD 2, wouldn’t that make more sense? Or does Roon really like numbering by albums?
Of course, this commits you to providing annuity revenue to a streaming service, paying multiple times for something already in your possession. And risking that your favored mastering might disappear. But if one’s plans include maintaining a subscription indefinitely, that’s probably an option.
That is not really an issue with classical. Loudness war modernized remastering does not apply. On the major labels, one digital mastering gets reissued and repackaged multiple times. Or if any remastering occurs, differences are minimal. If mastering availability ever is an issue, it more likely affects niche label classical recordings that never have been and probably never will be licensed for streaming.
I have recently completed a similar task on my Mac. I used XLD. I agree the interface isn’t the easiest, but once you’ve got the settings as you want, you can save them as a Profile and then just select that profile on each subsequent use. There are some good online guides about setting up XLD. Once I have ripped the CD, I use a great little app called Metadactics to make any necessary edits to the metadata. You can download this App from the Apple App Store. It’s very easy to use.
I too was a bit daunted by the size of the task, but I just set myself a target of 5-10 CDs a day and soon got through several hundred!
Thanks for your encouragement; Yes, I’ve begin to gather some docs for XLD that I hope will be relevant.
Would you place XLDabovedBpoweramp for this task? I have both; but really do need to settle on one and get familiar with all its options.
Yes! Looks good. I believe I did once explore an earlier version but in the end opted for Yate, which seems to have endless possibilities, scripting and a very reliable and easy-to-use interface. Barry, Yate’s developer, is extremely responsive and helpful too.
But I’ll download the trial of Metadactics and see - in particular - how that comparison option to transfer good settings to existing ones works. Thanks for the recommendation, Stephen.
Thanks. I now that, if I decide to go on the same kind of route march, it’ll become just another chore and I’ll quickly start getting through them. Your help appreciated!
I have been experimenting with XLD having followed the settings suggested in this video - less than a year old, which relies on freedb with the server as ‘freedb.freedb.org’ and the path as ‘/cddb/cddb.cgi’ - as at around 3’21".
CD always not found.
I’m all too aware that metatagging via online sources for classical (my collection is almost exclusively Classical) is a minefield. I was using this CD.
Just wondering whether anyone experienced in this area has any ‘off-the-shelf’ ideas, please, as to best practice: AllMusic, Discogs? MusicBrainz?
Or should I abandon that part of the process and use the macOS tagging solutions I’m familiar with, chiefly Yate?
I agree—it really does. But with help from others I’ve learned it can be defeated. Of course, for you, you’d have to put even more time into organizing and tagging after you’ve ripped than you’re already facing. Before I go further, I’ll just say “don’t try it any other way” might be the better answer.
Let’s say you want to alter the contents of CDs within a multi-disc set… Say disc 1 and disc 2 both have four tracks, and you’d like to remove the first track from disc 2 and make it the 5th and final track of disc 1. I would do this by altering the track and disc values in your tag editor to create your virtual CD set, being as fastidious as you can be so you don’t leave behind anomalous values, and making sure your file & folder structure match up with your desired outcome.
The key is to properly configure Roon’s Import settings before you import your virtual CDs. You want Roon to obey your tag values rather than whatever it has in its database. Here’s what I would suggest.
Or, for simplicity, just set all the switches to ‘Prefer file.’ (Of course, you have to remember to set them back to what you prefer for your regular imports.)
I’ve found that chances are high that Roon will still make the proper match between your virtual CDs and the real recording in its database and fill in the appropriate metadata. I haven’t done this much, however, so you’ll have to see, and it’s possible some cleanup will be necessary in some cases.
As a quick little test, I just took the 2-CD set, Will The Circle Be Unbroken and edited tag values for the last track of the first CD to make it the only track, Track 01, on a virtual, third CD that hadn’t existed before. (I decreased by one the total number of tracks for the first CD.) After forcing Roon to rescan the library, the new, 3-CD “Circle” showed up as I designed it. Because over the years there were in all three different iterations of “Circle” recordings, Roon pulled their different album covers and assigned each one to one of my virtual CDs, even though the CDs all belonged to the very first Circle release. I had titled the CDs something like Circle 1, Circle 2, and Circle 3. When I changed these titles to Circle CD 1, Circle CD 2, and Circle CD 3, then Roon assigned all three the same, proper album cover. It wasn’t that Roon didn’t know that these three discs belonged to the same album—it did and presented them as such before and after the titling change. So, there are hard to predict subtleties like that.
Something I should point out is that in my example, I was changing the structure of an album that was already in the Roon library. Each time I make a change to an album in the library, on my computer desktop I move the CD folders out of the music library folder and then have Roon rescan the library. And then I have Roon clean up the library. Then I do the tag editing, move the folders back into the music library folder, and have Roon rescan the library. This is to make sure Roon forgets about the album before I import a modified version. I’m not sure if that is necessary, but I have the feeling that it helps prevent complications.
I’ve attached a screenshot of my XLD settings page for fetching metadata. Yes, I occasionally get a “CD not found” with my more obscure classical CDs, but not very often. Do you have a big-selling Pop/Rock CD you could test with? This would at least prove whether you are connecting to the FreeDB database or not.
Just noticed in my settings there is a “~” in the Path that you don’t have. Not sure if this is relevant.
I have come to appreciate that this feature is misunderstood. This screen affects every rescan of one’s library; it is probably misleadingly labeled.
I think the approach one could take to achieve what you’ve just outlined is to use “Metadata preference” for the album in question, scroll down to the section that is “Set preference for tracks of 1 album” (which on some screens is below the fold, as it were), and select “prefer file” for both “track’s track number” and “track’s media number.” Save those selections, give Roon a second (perhaps leave the album and come back to it; it doesn’t always like to reflect these changes instantaneously), and you should have what you need.
Edit: I added this post this morning to help with a visual:
