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[rar2667]

I was wondering if many of you out there used Exact Audio Copy to rip CD tracks? If so, is there much of an advantage in that process v. ripping from within MC? Someone told me it created better rips, but is not as convenient as MC. Is it worth the extra trouble?

Thanks

[Matt]

MC is as or more secure than EAC if you put it in "Digital Secure" mode.  If you do a search here you'll find some empirical evidence to back me up.

[Charlemagne 8]

"Empirical evidence" ... one of my favorite phrases. When I use it in conversation, my wife says "Are you sure no one has ever punched you in the nose?".
Of course, I say it like "Empirical evidence would seem to suggest otherwise." instead of "You're wrong and I can prove it."

Anyway, the point:

MY empirical evidence is that there are some CDs that EAC won't rip but Media Center will. If you're in secure mode, you get a report on each track's accuracy that you can save to a file if you wish. The biggest reason that I use Media Center instead of EAC is that Importing is not necessary. It's already in the database and tagged to your specifications. Now THAT'S a time saver.

The downside is that FreeDB (that EAC uses) is somewhat larger than YADB (or it seems to me to be ... empirical evidence, you know) But we can fix that if we keep contributing info. Accurate info would be preferable.

CVIII

[pbreet]

The biggest reason that I use Media Center instead of EAC is that Importing is not necessary. It's already in the database and tagged to your specifications. Now THAT'S a time saver.

Everyone is different...

I use EAC over MC for ripping because it is not automatically imported.

And I find setting the target dir in MC a bit clunky, so I find it easier to rip using EAC, then use windows to move it where I want it, and then I import.

I love having choices.

[Quisp]

pbreet,

How long has it been since you've used MC for ripping (it has improved a lot recently)? The workflow you describe is pretty tedious (I know, I used to do it myself) and you need to do it EACH time you rip some CDs. While in version 10 you set a few parameters in MC (just as you have to do in EAC) and you are done with the added benefit of NOT having to move files in Windows and NOT having to import.

Don't take this the wrong way but I can't think of any other way to phrase it but... I'm curious, I design interfaces and always like to know why some people prefer to do things that take more time and require more steps with the same result as a another, more efficient workflow.

Is there some other advantage I'm missing with your workflow?

Thanks, and again no offense meant.

[Nolonemo]

A valid question, so here's my 2 cents.  I rip in EAC using EAC's LAME plugin to encode.  My workflow is to rip & ecode to a target directory that I create (artist - album), clean tags in mp3 Tag& Rename, get cover art and place in directory, import to MC9, do some custom tag editing I've set up.  The main reason for my doing this is that I don't like tagging workflow in MC9 (its the user interface and lack of preview ability that T&R has), and I want to get as much done as possible outside of MC9.

[pbreet]

Quisp - the last I tried to rip with MC was about a month ago.

I want to be able to set the specific target dir for the ripped files.  MC wants to "help" by creating dirs for me, based on the tag info it gets from the web.

I don't want a Billy Joel album in a "Billy Joel" dir, I want it in a "Joel, Billy" dir.  But if the tags show "Billy Joel", I get a "Billy Joel" dir.

I misspoke before, I use EAC to rip directly to the location where I want the tacks, then I use MC to import the ripped tracks, one extra step and I get to keep my file system exactly as I want it.

[Charlemagne 8]

Choices. That's really what everyone wants. I like MC because of the choices. EAC has some other choices and I do occasionally use it. I also use dbPowerAmp as it has some other choices. It just all depends on the desired outcome.

You also do things the way that you've got them organized in your mind. If it takes 10 extra steps to do a task but you can do it in half the time it would take you to figure out another, shorter way, you go with the way you know.

CVIII

[Quisp]

Quisp - the last I tried to rip with MC was about a month ago.

I want to be able to set the specific target dir for the ripped files.  MC wants to "help" by creating dirs for me, based on the tag info it gets from the web.

I don't want a Billy Joel album in a "Billy Joel" dir, I want it in a "Joel, Billy" dir.  But if the tags show "Billy Joel", I get a "Billy Joel" dir.

I misspoke before, I use EAC to rip directly to the location where I want the tacks, then I use MC to import the ripped tracks, one extra step and I get to keep my file system exactly as I want it.

pbreet, thanks for clarifying!

So, you create a Joel, Billy folder by hand and then rip to it? If so, you can do this in MC too. As far as I know, there is absolutely nothing forcing you to create folders based on Artist/Album.

Here is what I do. First, I don't care too much about my folder names since I only interact with my files in MC; however if I did, here is what I would do.

1. I create a custom field called "Sort". I use this in all my views since I personally think it is idiotic that artists are sorted by first name.

2. I rip files to the directory I want to use, creating artist/album folders automatically as is the default.

So far, all of this is set up once and totally automatic once set.

Once I have a batch of files ripped, I then copy the artist field to the sort field and go through the tedious process of manually editing this field, but this would be no different than manually creating a folder, accept that you have the added benefit of having access to a custom sort field that you can use elsewhere within MC.

At this point, I'm done, but if I cared about my folder names, I could just rename the files from properties and select the sort field instead of artist for the first folder. Done, and completely in MC.

Smartlists can be created to make the selection of files easier, for-instance, I could create a smartlist that looks for files where the sort field is empty to select files to process.

I realize it is a little different workflow, but once it is set up it works well, unless you don't have any use for a sort field, then I guess it is a good thing that EAC is free.  

[gwiz32]

I have to agree Quisp. Furthermore, you don't even have to manually create the folder before ripping to it. You can set the directory location during the ripping process and the folder, if it does not exist, will be automatically created in whatever format you input.

[pbreet]

Well I'm sure missing what you've been trying to explain to me.

When I select rip, I can then select options, and then select "file location" and set a base path there, but that's my whole point, I don't want to set a base location, I want to get to choose the exact location, easily every time, this is what I meant about "clunky".  It's just weird, and so easy to get things in the right place with EAC, and so windows normal.....

And, in EAC I get a chance to change the downloaded tags before ripping, like changing "Billy Joel" to "Joel, Billy".

And ripped albums don't show up in "recently imported", so when the initial artist tag is wrong, then I have go searching all over for it so I can tag it properly.

EAC is much more straightforward (for me).