Wave or Flac: Metadata questions

dBpoweramp puts the same metadata into WAVE and FLAC files (but using different metadata formats).

Some download providers don't put metadata into WAVE files (but some others do).

Arnaud, in terms of the data, what is found is what will be saved, regardless of format. The issue is more to do with will that format save the information and display it when the track is replayed. I can't answer for WAV, but it does on FLAC.

In terms of what is stored, this is also dependent on what settings in the metadata you have enabled - in dbpoweramp click the 'Options' icon and then the Meta Data / Meta Data & ID Tag 'options'. You can increase the Art size here, and enable/disable information to be saved all based on personal preferences...

There is no Gracenote with db. If you click the down arrow to the right of the 'Meta' icon you can enable by selecting or deselecting the different internet sources - AMG, GD3, Music Brainz et al - to get the best data for the tracks. It is important to select the 'Review Metadata' link to the right of the art work once the data is found, so you can then check and override a whole album or select tracks, in addition to updating track information. This is even more important when doing classical music, as you'll need to select the 'View Track Artists' if it's not all the same orchestra.

Not recognizing the CD is more an issue with your CD drive than the format you are trying to output to.

If you do want the Gracenote info with iTunes, and are ripping to WAV ( i doesn't do FLAC) keep in mind not all the metadata will be saved in the same way as dbpoweramp ( do the same file for an exact compare ) and it does not add the Art work to the file - it adds that separately and keeps it with iTunes on your local PC, I found that out the hard way a while back.

Freedb information is from 'crowd sourced' information. If I do edits and updates to CD's, I then click the down arrow to the side of the Meta icon and 'submit' to Freedb, sort of paying it forward if you will.

Thank you Huge and Guy. Now It's clear to me. 

Guy, regarding the CD drive, I use the internal One from my MacBook. 

Should I aim at another/betterave drive to avoid errors in the recognition of the right  CD by the system?

Arnaud, it would depend on how old your MacBook is (is it under warranty still) and how many CD's you intend to rip. 

If you were going to do several 1000, getting an external drive would save your internal one, in addition, the drive heats up (so do the CDs) so that heat would not affect the rest of the laptop if it were external.  It's also good practice to do them in batches, i.e. rip for a few hours, rest for an hour, start again, so the drive can cool down.  If you only have a few hundred cds you might be ok with the internal, but still do in batches.

An external drive can be had for $25-$100 on Amazon et al (Apple's superdrive is in the middle of that), it can be slim line and powered by usb or have have external power and look like a desktop drive.

+1 for using an external drive. Mac ones are expensive and not always the fastest.

One benefit of ripping your music is that an accurate rip will always be accurate - every time forever - whereas a CD reads in real time. So it's worth using the most accurate ripping software rather than the one with the best metadata. DBPoweramp is a bit fiddly and doesn't have Gracenote, but it works well. You can always fix the metadata afterwards. 

FLAC handles metadata consistently well, as do other (lossy) formats such as MP3. WAV handles it less well. Many people disagree with this, based on their perfectly-valid experience, and most of the time they're right. The issue comes when moving from one UPNP server (or client) to another, where the inconsistencies in WAV can result in problems. Generally it's fine, but sometimes it isn't.

For this reason, many people (including me) store music in FLAC and transcode it to WAV in real time before it reaches the streamer. UPNP software such as Minim and Asset will do this quite easily, and it seems to me to be the best of both worlds.

Solid Air posted:

For this reason, many people (including me) store music in FLAC and transcode it to WAV in real time before it reaches the streamer. UPNP software such as Minim and Asset will do this quite easily, and it seems to me to be the best of both worlds.

 

Totally agree. Your files stay perfectly tagged and recognised by any streamer ot server and you can optimise the files in wave for the Naim streamers.

ok thanks to everyone. Are there especially good brands/models of external drives?

Concerning Gracenote, is it a proprietary (and exclusive) Apple database? One thing that puzzles me is that it seems to find its informations from the AMG database, whereas dBPoweramp proposes direct access to AMG, but in the end isn't as reliable (by far!) as Gracenote... mystery of softwares!

I believe Apple license the Gracenote database so it's not exclusive to Apple, here are some other companies who use it http://www.gracenote.com/custo...enote-tech-portfolio|music|1 .   I don't know the logic of dbpoweramp, but if you think the AMG is better info, you can disable the others and just enjoy their results

In terms of external drives, there is another thread on that here that might help https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...30#51970829777947530