Mixing brands of rippers and players

[Dennis Graves]

I have spent a lot of time trying to get set up with J River Media, mostly because it is the program Chris seems to advocate. I also have set up and used DBpoweramp, again because the concensus seems to be that it is the preferred ripper. But, I have tried to get the music that I ripped in DB to integrate into my J River Media listing of music and have not been successful. For example, trying to import some newly ripped files resulted in my inadvertently also importing a few hundred rock albums from somewhere (the internet? out space?)and that has completely trashed my carefully built up and managed classical collection. It just seems that, no matter how much you learn and how carefully you set up one program for ripping, you can't effectively use that data with another program for playing. (Perhaps a few experts can, but it seems us mere computer mortals are very likely to meet some fatal stumbling block.) So, although there is much I like about J River, I feel I have no choice but to abandon J River as a player, which means throwing away DOZENS of hours of work putting a library together. The only consolation is that this happened after dozens of hours of work (rather than HUNDREDS).

Since DBPoweramp player seems to be my only choice, I would appreciate knowing if I can expect to get sound from DB player that is as good as J River? What do I need to know (pitfalls, problems, etc.) when using DB as a player??

Thanks.

 

[Vade_Forrester]

Dennis, I don't use J. River, but I do use DBPoweramp as a ripper, and have never had a problem playing files it ripped using Foobar2000. Hopefully Chris or another J. River expert can help you more than I did.

 

Vade Forrester

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Dennis - A little education from some of the learned readers here on CA and you'll be using J River and dBpoweramp with ease. I have trick or treaters at the door right now so I can't offer much. Ideally if you ripp your collection correctly there is no need to re-enter any library information as it remains embedded into the tracks. Got to run right now. Be back later :~o

 

[Dennis Graves]

Chris,

I will remain open to solutions as to how to coordinate dbpoweramp and JRiver. However, since my last post, the problems have become even much worse. Fatal, I would say.

Either I find software that works with dbpoweramp or I have to abandon computer audio, which I am loath to do.

Most recent problems:

1) I rip a CD with dbpoweramp. Then I go to J River media and click on File, Open media file, and navigate to the drive and folder containing the newly ripped files.

What shows up in the Audio view of J River is a horribly mixed up mess where every field is different than it was when tagged by the ripping software. For example, Bach Keyboard Concertos, carefully tagged in dbpoweramp, show up as Beethoven symphonies in JRiver.

2) I downloaded the latest version of JRiver and then went to my library of music. EVERY FIELD WAS SCREWED UP. This appears to be an extension of the same problem as noted above: JRiver cannot coordinate with and use the info tagged or embedded in dbpoweramp.

I suppose it is possible that JRiver works with dbpoweramp for people who just rip a rock song and allow the auto tagging and play in JRiver without reorganizing files. (Although frankly I doubt it.) But I need to organize the ripped files in the form composer, genre (solo, symphonic, concerto, opera, chamber), and piece title. I can do that when I rip in dbpoweramp, but it seems impossible to get JRiver to read and accept those tags, so that the music can be organized and played in the same manner in JRiver.

I had thought the solution was to use a music player made by dbpoweramp but, remarkably, there does not seem to be such software!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JRiver may work for some people and be effective, but so far I just don't see how it can work for my purposes. So, I ask again: is there ANY software that might save the day?

Thanks!

 

 

[Matt Ashland]

Hi Dennis,

 

You have started several threads on the J. River forum, but have not responded in any of them when questions were asked. Please help us help you.

 

Here is a link to your posts:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?action=profile;u=26199;sa=showPosts

 

Please try to describe your problem with as much detail as possible. We may need a sample file if you believe there is a tag parsing or tag matching issue.

 

Thanks,

 

Matt

J. River, Inc.

 

[JR_Audio]

First: You have only specify with folder JRiver will watch for audio files and this has to be the same folder, that dBpoweramp rips the files into (lowest level of folder structure) and then every CD or song you ripped with dBpoweramp, will automatically recognized by JRiver within a minute.

 

Second: You can specify in JRiver over 50 different tag fields to organizes your audio, so you can exactley specify which of the created dBpoweramp ID3 fields are used for what purpose in JRiver. There is nearly no limitation.

 

You have to do this only once, and then you can forget and just rip and listen.

 

Juergen

 

PS: If you have difficulties with JRiver, you can also go to their forum or read their wiki.

 

[Dennis Graves]

Yes, I understand that you set up a folder that JRiver goes to and that the folder is where you rip in dbpoweramp. IN THEORY, the tags applied when ripping would show up in JRiver. BUT IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY! I have tried to organize my files by composer, genre (opera, solo, chamber, symphonic, etc) and name of piece. J River won't accept the data from dbpoweramp and retain that organization. Fields will be badly screwed up.

It shouldn't be hard to do what I want, but it seems virtually impossible in JRiver.

 

[ziggyzack]

seeing as you're using a very popular combination of software that is used successfully by a large number of people, the problem is unlikely to be with the software and likely to be because you're doing something wrong.

 

So, chill out with the all caps, describe your issues in detail, and perhaps people will be kind enough to lend you a hand.

 

[sim871]

Man, I feel your pain!

FWIW, as I type I am ripping my library (3000+ CDs) using DBP and I am currently trialing JRM as my library/player software. Like you I decided to have a look at JRM based on Chris' recommendation. I use to use iTunes (drove me crazy!) and Media Monkey (love the performance and the user control, hate the interface) Of the 1500 CDs I have ripped over the last couple of weeks (yes, I am a highly focused person; with no life!) JRM has never been a problem. My current configuration has me ripping to .flac format to a particular folder and JRM auto imports to this folder. All my tagging info is saved in each file as I rip them in DBP. JRM simply imports this info. If JRM can retrieve tagging info I haven't found that feature yet! (I find JRM documentation a little lacking, but then maybe I haven't looked hard enough) JRM seemed to work with little or no configuration other than pointing it to the library folder.

 

A couple of points/Qs

-What format are you ripping to?

 

-At what point do you notice the error? (Consider downloading freeware:'MP3Tag' and confirm all your tags are as you expect coming out of DBP)

 

- Are you manually adding tag information? How do you do this?

 

-Is JRM pointing to the root directory of your music folder(s)

 

-I see you are organizing your file according to composer, genre etc. This may be better achieved w/in JRM once you learn how to best use tagging, indexing and searching. Creating complex directory structures SOMETIMES makes it a little harder to recover when things go awry (and they will).

 

 

Probably not a whole lot of help... I am not an expert. If you try and give a little more detail around the problem and what you are doing others will be able to better assist. I am confident that both these programs are capable of doing what you want its just a matter of experimenting with them to achieve the desired response.

 

Good luck with your quest!

 

Darrin

 

 

 

[Brucemck2]

I use JRM as a player and DBP as a ripper and it's worked flawlessly for years.

 

I'm pretty sure that the ONLY tags that JRM "imports" are the ones embedded in the FLAC files themselves (I assume but don't know that you are using FLAC). Your posts indicate that you expect JRM to infer tags from the file/folder hierarchy you set up when you ripped the music, which is not how tags get "created" in JRM. (Your file/folder hierarchy does affect the library path for each file, but that's a very different routine "issue." )

 

I suspect you haven't properly set up DBP to completely tag the individual FLAC files ... have you checked that those tags are as you think?

 

Also, JRM does NOT copy or recreate the original file when you import it into JRM (unlike iTunes, where that is often the default configuration.) All the import does is create a link to the original file, so that it can find it when you want to play it.