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

I just add the data manually now for a CD that is not recognised. It is a pain, but you do get to know your collection better.
Images are easily found and imported and Wikipedia has plenty of interesting data for inclusion in the review section.
It's fun to hunt for ordinary peoples reviews as well.
I just turn it into a game. How you look at things can make all the difference.
Not helpful thoughts, I know. Chris

You're a glass half full guy for sure Chris! I like that

I have a 2 little ones under the age of 4 and another one due in May. I am a small business owner working on two new start-ups as well. My listening time is limited, let alone time to do data entry for Sooloos issues.

I bought Sooloos to populate the data for me. I would have purchased JRiver for $50 if I knew I'd have to input it myself.



...glass half full though, the Sooloos sounds great and does find some albums. Hah! Just not enough for the amount I spent on getting it setup in 8 zones throughout the house.

SomeGuy,

Ripping in dBpa will get you 99.9999% of albums that you rip.

Tick the local meta box and drag and drop (as per the guide).

This gets you an album imported in about 2mins max.

Sure it might miss the credits and reviews but given how busy you are I bet you're after the music.

Are you ripping in Control:PC ? If so, shame on you

Well, I always rip using Control:PC and feel no shame

I've just had a total failure with Rory Gallagher's "Calling Card". While it was no biggy to manually enter the basic metadata, I do expect a core piece of the product to work the way the product is meant to. If I was new to Sooloos and getting repeated failures like this while bulk importing I would not be happy.

Thanks for the tip! You're right, I could care less about the reviews, but the credits is nice meta data to have.

Can I have my cake and eat it too by?

1) Import all albums I can with the "local meta box" unchecked.
2) Do another import using "local meta box" checked for the ones it could not find.

Will this work or do I need to import all one way or the other?

Is the prefer local metadata feature working for everyone? Last time I tried it didn't seem to do anything.

Cheers,

Tony.

It preserves Track titles and Artwork IIRC. If credits and review are available it does bring those too.

So, it has always been a bit of a hybrid.

If you rip in dBpa first and it [Sooloos] doesn't find the album in AMG on import then it defaults to the local meta set anyway.

Thanks for the help Nick

I do all my ripping in dBpa...

You're referring to dBpa finding it, right?

So would my scenario if letting Sooloos try to find whatever it can on imports, then checking the local meta data checkbox for second import be the way to go?

I just set it as local data and import once. Artwork and track titles are mine from dBpa. All other info for review and credits comes through if it is available. Is left blank if not found.

Just run a couple of test albums and you should see the same.

Definitely don't import twice.

Ok, so after checking the local data checkbox and trying to import there are 3 different scenarios that occur, depending on the CD:

1) Imported in full without issue.

2) Message: "This album was verified by the Sooloos Metadata Service and is ready for import".

Options: Accept and Transfer, Edit, Unalbumize.

3) Message: "This album was not found by the Sooloos Metadata Service. Many Sooloos features depend on complete metadate. Press "Edit" to enter data manually.".

Options: Accept and Transfer, Edit, Unalbumize.

I noticed that when I click edit on scenario #2, the credits are not populated. Maybe that is why it didn't go straight through?

Thanks again for the education!

Do you have the box checked to accept verified albums automatically? Is that what drives your #1? I prefer not to use that. I check and accept each album.

With #2 you will find some albums get credits and review; others won't. All depends on what is available.

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the great guide - perfect for beginners like me. My MD600 is being delivered and installed this Thursday and I thought I'd download dBpoweramp and get ahead a bit on ripping some CDs.

My problem is with album art. I followed your guide and always first remove the default art and then choose from internet. If I choose 1000x1000, the result always defaults to 800x800. You mentioned that there's a user setting for this. I might be being daft here, but I can't find it ...

Any help gratefully received.

Thanks
Dave