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dougstrach

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  1. For those interested in ripping your own CD collections, we've added support for the single drive Acronova Nimbie to our automated CD ripping application, Encode Center. The Nimbie is a solid unit capable of processing about 15 CDs an hour with a 100 CD capacity. The best part being a much lower price point. We're able to offer the Nimbie bundled with the Encode Center software for $499 + shipping.<br /> <br /> If your interested in learning more about the Nimbie, you can visit our website at:<br /> http://www.getdigitaldata.com/ProductNimbie.aspx<br /> <br /> Doug Strachota<br /> GD3 Data, LLC
  2. Dennis, GD3 Data has the exact software you need in order to rip with ALL of those data fields already filled in. We developed our ripping software to label up to 18 individual data fields, and so far only JRiver and the Sonata products have the ability to view and navigate collections which utilize those fields. Here are the products which you can use to rip and edit your classical music collection so that it works seamlessly with JRiver. Encode Center: This is a bulk ripper (reviewed by Computer Audiophile), but can also work in manual mode for individual ripping CD by CD. You get a free download of Encode Center after you purchase 200 CD lookups from GD3 for $25. GD3 Tagger: This is a companion editing software which allows you to review your collection and edit any missing fields. It's much simpler to use than any jukebox based editors. You can also push up an edits to GD3 under your account name for free usage later--say you edited a bunch of albums and wanted to re-rip your collection. When you re-rip, your edits would come down--rather than the old data we had. You can read a very good review of our CD ripping tools at http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Ripping-CDs-Style-GD3-Review Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Doug
  3. The images on page 3 and 4 are great and they highlight a few things. First, that no database is perfect, as this title is obviously wrong, and second, the GD3 Tagger tool actually highlights the entry so that you can quickly click on that album to modify the data (notice that entry is colored orange so that you can inspect it). On the 4th image, you see a page from our optional 'classical' editor which separates the composer, conductor, orchestra, chorus, and soloist(s) fields so that each can be edited with the correct data. We also provide a list of "known" entries so that when you start typing in "Minnesota Orchestra" you can pick from data which would be consistent with other entries in GD3 and maybe throughout your collection. These drop downs are available for all the fields that GD3 Data supports, so again, very simple to edit an album. If "Minnesota Orchestra" is consistent for all the tracks, you can easily select "Copy Down" to populate all the Orchestra fields for that album.<br /> <br /> Once you've edited any data for that highlighted album, you can SAVE it to GD3 under your username/password for your future use (free). GD3 does not include that album in our master database, just your staging database if you choose to save it and it is always selected first--before any entry that we may have or even if we improve the same entry that you did.<br /> <br /> Doug Strachota<br /> GD3 Data, LLC
  4. I can reply since the answer is somewhat technical, but I did explain this to Chris as well, so he could comment as well.<br /> <br /> You are correct about WAV metadata, and most players only support showing the folder hierarchy as navigational information for WAV files so if your folders aren't named right, you'll likely never be able to see any information. Even if your folders are named right, you'll only get Artist, Album, Track & Cover info for a WAV file.<br /> <br /> GD3 Tagger does something fairly unique, but also supported by some older players such as MusicMatch (remember that one?). We actually tag WAV files with an ID3v2 tag that can carry ALL the metadata for a CD, however, rather than pre-pending the tag to the WAV files like MP3 does, we post-pend the tag to the WAV file so that it can still be read by any device that can play WAV files.<br /> <br /> So while the answer is YES, GD3 Tagger does manage metadata for WAV files, the problem is that there really isn't a lot of players out there that can read this data and organize it within a user interface so that you can manage the files for playback. What it is very good for is if you choose to archive your collection in WAV (along with the metadata), then be able to output a variety of different formats which are better at carrying metadata such as FLAC, Apple Lossless, WMA Lossless, MP3, etc.<br /> <br /> Regards,<br /> Doug Strachota<br /> GD3 Data, LLC
  5. MusicTrax,<br /> <br /> We probably have over 500,000 classical music CDs in our database, but this is a very bad way of quantifying the results that you may see. As an example, we may have 5 million entries, but if we don't have any of your CDs in our database, the size of our database doesn't really matter.<br /> <br /> I prefer to quantify the database size in a percentage of hits for an average CD collection. This number is a much better measure of the database coverage and how it matters to you. For a typical classical CD collection in the US, we'll probably get about 96-98% coverage with some sort of metadata, and about 85% will have very good metadata with high-res cover images and extended classical fields. In our database we provide tag info for fields that most players do not support, but is very helpful for the classical music listener. These extended fields include: Composer, Orchestra, Chorus, Soloist(s), Period, Style & Instrument. These fields will be populated by dBpoweramp as well if you have an active GD3 license for that ripper.<br /> <br /> Ideally, many of the hi-fi systems will also extend these fields to their U/I so that you can properly navigate to the piece you'd like to listen to---say all Beethoven piano pieces by Ashkenazy. I had discussions with several of these manufacturers at CES this last weekend and I'm hopeful there will be some devices in the future to further assist us classical music listeners.
  6. MusicTrax,<br /> <br /> Again, your comments on right on target. If you have all the time in the world, and understand all the nuances of CD ripping software and ID3 tagging, manual ripping will save you a lot of money in exchange for the time required. There's a great article which Chris does that covers the manual ripping process and how to configure dBpoweramp for the best outcome. I think it was one of his most popular topics to date.<br /> <br /> For those that want an automated process, GD3 Tagger was designed to be the tool that can handle the "petabytes" of data so that a user can maximize their time and output CDs at a much faster rate with the same quality as a manually operated process or workflow. It's not a free solution, but there is certainly a need for tools that make work a bit easier as well as maximize time.<br /> <br /> Thanks again for your comments.<br /> <br /> Doug
  7. MusicTrax,<br /> <br /> I can understand your skepticism on automated ripping, as there hasn't been well designed software that actually pays attention to the issues you mention. Double picks, CD miss-handling, damaged discs, metadata, etc., all run pretty nasty interference to an unattended process. As Chris describes very well in this article, it's not only the use of an automated ripper, but the reconciling process of the GD3 Tagger software which combine to deliver a process that is quite unique in the market and does pay quite a bit of attention to alleviating most of the issues of unattended ripping.<br /> <br /> When we ripped tens of thousands of CDs for Lala about 5 years ago, we did it all with 2 people with a few autoloaders and didn't have to work in 24 hour shifts. The only way that this was possible was because of our unique reconciliation process. As you very well state in your comments, the real bottleneck is not really the actual ripping of the CDs which can be done using several machines or even manually. The real bottleneck is the reconciling of the collection on the hard drive versus the CDs you just ripped. <br /> <br /> If you look closer at the GD3 Tagger software that we provided Chris for this review, you'll see that you are able to view a collection of CDs in a variety of different ways. Most importantly, you can view them in the exact same order as the autoloader ripped them. This view allows you to list them in descending order just as they are on the output stack of the ripper (say from disc 100 on top, to disc 1 on the bottom). Any other tagging software will list everything just as it is on the hard drive, then the reconciliation process is impossible or extremely time consuming.<br /> <br /> I don't think I could agree more with your comments that auto ripping without reconciling is a pipe dream and that most software available does not include or provide any mechanism for reconciling. I encourage you to take a look at GD3 Tagger to truly understand the entire process which Chris does a very good job at explaining in detail in this article.<br /> <br /> Doug Strachota<br /> GD3 Data
  8. I did see that Primera does rent the robotic loaders for $299.00/week here in the US. You may check with Primera to see if this program is available in Denmark.<br /> <br /> http://www.primera.com/bravorental.html<br /> <br /> Doug Strachota<br /> GD3 Data, LLC
  9. The answer to this is Yes and No. Probably No. In order for a CD database to be highly accurate, it must use an identifier within the CD which is also highly accurate. GD3, and nearly every other identification database uses the Table of Contents or TOC from an original CD. If you used Ripfactory software or dBpoweramp to originally rip your CDs, you may have the original TOC stored in the ID3v2 tag (in dBpoweramp there is a setting to store RAW TOC in the ID3 tag).<br /> <br /> If the GD3 Tagger can access the original TOC of the CD, then you can do a lookup against GD3 to see if we have better metadata or the correct cover art. Many of our commercial customers who like dBpoweramp are able to use it to rip their CDs, yet use the GD3 Tagger program to edit and store metadata with the embedded TOC.<br /> <br /> FINGERPRINTS<br /> There are some databases which have started using track fingerprints to identify specific songs, but this solution falls short in a few areas. First, we have not yet been able to test an algorithm which has a high probability of matching back to the original fingerprint created by the CD. Believe me, we have tested them all! Second, once you know a track from the fingerprint, it becomes very difficult to figure out which album that track belongs to since specific tracks can be on hundreds of albums.<br /> <br /> I agree with you that this would be a cool feature to implement and that it could help solve a lot of issues for those users who ripped CDs using poor metadata sources. This is essentially why we have stressed the accuracy and consistency of GD3 for years, but unfortunately, most ripping programs and software managers simply glance over metadata. Most feel that if they have Gracenote or FreeDB it is good enough. We don't agree and this is where you'll see that GD3 stands above any other commercial database available today.<br /> <br /> Doug Strachota<br /> GD3 Data, LLC
  10. As Chris mentioned in the article, Encode Center is available for $199 retail. Another way to get this program is to purchase 200 GD3 lookups for $25, then you will be able to download it from the website for FREE. You can also download GD3 Tagger with 200 GD3 Lookups in your account.<br /> <br /> Doug Strachota<br /> GD3 Data, LLC.
  11. Chris,<br /> <br /> I have one that I can send to you to try out. It's a Primera ComposerPro with 2 Plextor Premium drives on it. Do you have a PC with a Serial and Firewire connector?<br /> <br /> Doug Strachota<br /> Get Digital Data (GD3)<br /> www.getdigitaldata.com
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