Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Sooloos - Rough guide to Ripping and Importing

I've been using Control:PC to start ripping my collection and I'm finding it surprisingly bad at finding the correct metadata for albums - I'm having to do a lot of manual cleanup on what I'd not consider to be particularly unusual albums?

Just wondered if there was a way to see the jpegs on this guide as I have dBpa and might give it a go? Once done correctly, does it offer the same level of compatibility with Sooloos and can you edit metadata with Control:PC if you have to at a later stage? Also, does it still back up with Control:PC, etc.?

Cheers.

Check your PM.

Hi,

I need some help. I'm importing a compilation album, and for some reason Control:PC is splitting the album into several parts. Does anyone know how to reintegrate back into a single album?

Thanks,
Edd

Maybe you didn't select the compilation option on the initial rip? Compilations don't usually do this.

Anyway, un-albumise all the split albums so that they appear in the loose tracks area at the bottom on the import screen. Then sort, select and re-albumise these tracks into a new album.

Thanks, worked a treat. I think the problem arose as I imported all my albums at the same time so there was quite a few loose files left over, which left me scratching my head.
Had to go back and delete all the files with missing tracks and then reimport them using your method.

edd

Thanks for the guide!

I bought a Nimbie and plan to us dBpoweramp for my importing.

1. Can I import a folder of '/music' along with sub-folders rather than selecting each album folder?

2. If yes to #1, what happens if I import the '/music/' folder a second time after adding another 100 discs? Will it skip, overwrite, or create a duplicate of the existing albums?

1) yes

2) that is a user choice. See the Sooloos settings page.

Should I download HDtracks directly into Sooloos or into dBpa first? I'm assuming the latter.

Hi Someguy, there is no need to run HDtracks through dBpa (after all, that is a CD Ripping program, and the FLAC (?) or otherwise files you buy from HDtracks are already ripped, if you will).

You might care to use mp3tag to tag your files with a different metadata convention before importing to Sooloos. Metadata is a very complex issue and is not easily covered in a short posting

Thanks MJT! That makes sense.

I'll look into mp3tag a bit more

Any thought as to how dBpa compares to XLD sonically and to finding cover art? I primarily use a MAC PB and have tried XLD a few times. Also, does dBpa work with Parallels?

Most of us HH'ers seem to use dBpa, rip to FLAC. As the programmers say, lossless is lossless. I like to say, if FLAC is good enough for Meridian, don't worry about it.

Sonics for lossless codecs don't seem to be an issue, so the primary question is metadata & cover art.

The last CD I purchased I tried with the latest XLD for fun (the last time I used XLD it seemed like an obscure Japanese app...).

It seems to use FreeDB for its metadata, the cover art was not found but it accurately found the CD metadata and the fact it was the 1987 U.S. Wax Trax reissue. (Front 242 Back Catalogue.)

dBpa (run under Vmware Fusion on my Mac Pro) uses 4 metadata sources by default ( AMG, GD3, music brainz, and freedb).

Freedb was started as a reaction to CDDB taking its crowd sourced CD metadata and going private (eventually getting sold to SONY as Gracenote). I was always disappointed with the quality of the freedb crowd sourced data and was elated to discover dBpa.

Of course, dBpa found the cover art, (primarily GD3 art is higher res then AMG's by the way). They both ripped losslessly and used AccurateRip checksums to verify the rips, and either rip could easily be imported into Sooloos.

If you've read this far, you might be pleased to read that Spoon has promised a Mac beta of dBpa in Q1 2014. Now we only need to convince Zappiti and Mp3Tag to port, as well!