CD Ripper

[TheOldPresbyope]

Thanks for the update guys really looking forwards to having a play with Moode.

Recipe would be great to try out.

Just a little background to help manage expectations.

<tl,dr: the recipe works fine>

The recipe being discussed is in two parts: CD playback and CD ripping. 

The CD playback portion is minimally integrated into moOde in the sense that when a shell script to "add" the CD is executed, the current playlist is cleared, then the CD tracks are added (as cdda:///1, cdda:///2, etc; e.g., no metadata), after which the tracks may be played in the normal way. A separate shell script clears the playlist and ejects the CD. Nothing is done about cover art currently. This portion takes advantage of the fact that MPD already has a CD plugin available.

The CD ripping portion actually has nothing to do with moOde. It takes advantage of abcde and several other applications which should be available for almost any Linux repo to rip and encode (into both FLAC and MP3 files with the recipe developer's default settings). It searches the usual online database(s) to find metadata which it adds to each track in appropriate metadata tagging schemes. Nothing is done about cover art currently. The only point of integration with moOde is that the recipe currently stores ripped tracks in directories under /mnt/SDCARD/CDs so that MPD can find them during a Library database update.

All this works fine from the CLI but there's a lot of work yet to be done in figuring out now to integrate its configuration and operation into the moOde UI.

My personal bias is to rip on a separate host using fully featured apps like Exact Audio Copy, dbPowerAmp, and others where I already have a full panoply of options available and an established workflow. Also, the throughput is much higher on my x86 server. That said, the approach taken with the recipe may suit many users perfectly well once they have customized its workflow to their needs.

None of the above should be read as a criticism of the recipe. Its developer (not me) did a great job.

In tests with moOde 5.4beta2 on an RPi4B and an old Samsung external USB2.0 DVD writer, I just ripped a 60 min, 6-track classical CD into both FLAC and MP3 files in 22 min. Here's a screenshot of moOde's playback screen with all 12 files loaded into the playlist. I did this to see how the metadata turned out in the two encodings.



These tracks play without issue.

OTOH, I"m getting dropouts (silent pauses, really) when I try to play the CD directly. Not the recipe's fault. It works fine for the developer. I haven't tracked down the problem but it's likely the CD drive itself (less likely, an issue in Raspbian Buster).

Regards,
Kent