When I first started to use streaming services using my Naim ND5XS, I briefly subscribed to Spotify Premium before switching to Tidal. I came across the excellent "Blue Wave Album" by Gaye Delorme on Spotify, and was very disappointed to find that his music just wasn't (and still is not) available on Tidal.
I recently came across a number of his CDs including "Blue Wave Sessions" on Amazon, so purchased the CD with the intention of ripping it to my NAS as I normally do, since I no longer possess a CD player. Unfortunately, DBPoweramp is not able to rip the CD, and so I now have a CD that I can only play on my PC, which is very far from ideal.
Interestingly, although DBPoweramp is able to play the CD perfectly, whenever I try to rip (using 'secure', 'burst' or 'defective by design' options), the ripping process terminates almost immediately with the error message of "Unable to open file" displayed for each of the album tracks. I assume that some sort of copy protection is the culprit, although the CD itself claims to originate from 1990. I know that people have reported problems ripping specific CDs in the past, although I don't recall previously having a problem ripping any of my own CDs in the past.
A bit of a wild shot, but does anyone have this particular CD, and have you been able to rip it successfully? Any suggestions about what I might be able to do to get around the problem?
Any (sensible) suggestions appreciated.
Posted on: 17 December 2016 by Huge
Another possible option is to rip the contents to an ISO file, reformat that file to ISO 9660, then use an ISO extraction tool to read the tracks into separate files.
Posted on: 17 December 2016 by Hmack
Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
I would have tried the iTunes option, but I don't have iTunes installed on my current PC, and would eventually have tried the ISO suggestion or ripping from a copy of the CD. However, I discovered that Windows Media Player in Windows 10 provides an option of ripping CDs to lossless FLAC. It was able to bypass the copy protection (assuming the disc is copy protected) and rip the CD to my PC or NAS. It was then a simple matter of downloading & 'installing' the artwork & rescanning in Minimserver to complete the exercise.
I now have 'Blue Wave Sessions' available from my NAS - happy days! I have no idea if the result is as good from a SQ perspective as it would have been using DBPoweramp, but it certainly sounds pretty good on first listen.
Thanks again to all who replied.
Posted on: 18 December 2016 by Hmack
The error message was "Unable to open file" for each track whenever I attempted to rip the CD, and not "Unable to write to file".
DBPoweramp was able to play all the tracks, but unable to open each file for ripping.
Posted on: 18 December 2016 by J.N.
Greetings HMack,
Well there's a musical rarity. The man who did 'Knopfler' before Knopfler. I use a CD player in my main set, so cannot assist you with regard to ripping.
Are you aware that there are different versions of 'Blue Waves Sessions' available on CD? I have:-
Guitar House GH829 and
Epic ZK 80147
Which version do you have?
I could try ripping my two copies in iTunes, but I guess that wouldn't help you?
If you like the music, 'Borderline' is another great album by Mr Delorme; also superbly well recorded and mastered on the Denon label.
John.
Posted on: 18 December 2016 by Hmack
Hi JN,
Thanks for the offer, but I managed to rip the CD in the end using Windows Media Player. The version I have is the Guitar House GH829 one - I wasn't aware of any other versions. How do the two that you have compare?
Yes, the first track in particular is very Knopflerish (early Dire Straits style) , although it's a JJ Cale song, and Mark Knopfler was very heavily influenced by JJ Cale.
Not sure that Delorme preceded Knopfler though, unless he has some much earlier stuff of the same style. The 'Blue Wave Sessions' CD is dated 1990, but I remember hearing the first Dire Straits album back in the mid 70s. How far back does Delorme go?
I'll certainly look out for 'Borderline' and any other Delorme albums.
Posted on: 18 December 2016 by J.N.
Good news on being able to do a rip of BWS. You have the best sounding version on the Guitar House label.
Yes indeed; MK was greatly influenced by JJ Cale. I was thinking in terms of Delorme being a bit older than MK and a professional musician by 1967, but as you say, his albums came later.
Enjoy the music.
John.
