Using Dbpoweramp with Your Meridian System

Using dBpoweramp with your Meridian system dBpoweramp Music Converter, from illustrate, is a popular series of digital audio tools for Windows, with over 30 million users. Stability and compatibility are two of Music Converter’s defining characteristics, appealing to home users and businesses alike, and the suite is widely used by TV and radio stations for its accuracy and reliability. With the advent of a new Meridian plug-in for dBpoweramp, the suite’s CD Ripper can be used with your Meridian streaming system to bit-accurately rip CDs to your system using the lossless FLAC codec, while at the same time collecting all the detailed metadata and track information and artwork in which your Meridian system excels. The plug-in works by ripping a CD to Meridian’s backup format, from where it can be loaded into your system. Thus this is a two-stage process: first rip the CD, then Restore it to your Meridian system with the Control:PC Application. Before you begin, you will need to install dBpoweramp itself. The instructions then lead you through installing the plug-in and configuring CD Ripper, and then the rest of the process to add a new CD to your library. Installation and Setup 3. Install the Meridian plug-in, which will have a name of the form 1. If you have not yet installed dBpoweramp, please do so before continuing with dBpoweramp-MeridianXMLWriterDSP-R1vxx.exe these instructions. 2. Locate dBpoweramp Music Converter in Start > Programs and run dBpoweramp Configuration. • If a previous version of the plug-in is already installed, please remove the previous version from dBpoweramp’s DSP section, before proceeding with the installation of the latest version. To do this, navigate to the DSP tab in dBpoweramp, right-clicking on the previous version, and choosing Remove Selected from the context menu. 4. Now find and open the dBpoweramp CD Ripper application and click on Options. • Navigate to the Meta Data section and click [Options] for MetaData and ID • Click Check for Updates and, if necessary, download and install the latest Tag. version of DSP Effects, following the on-screen instructions. • Do not install any codecs (leave the default settings). • Leave the default settings in all cases except: Album Art: Maximum Pixel Size: 1000px Album Art: Write to [output folder]\: cover.jpg (all lower-case) – this should be listed in the pop-up menu. Write ID Tags: check Raw CD TOC – you will need to scroll down for this. • Click OK on the MetaData and ID Tag Options and main Options windows. 5. In the bottom left corner of the application main window, under the transport buttons, set the Path to the desired backup directory on the target hard drive, and ensure that Rip to is set to FLAC. Click the Encoder tab between this pane and the centre pane, and make sure that the Encoding field is set to Compression Level 5. 6. Click the DSP tab (under the Encoder tab you clicked a moment ago), and click Add DSP/Action. Choose Add DSP Effect and from the pop-up menu, select Write Meridian XML file 7. Save Profile under a useful name, (e.g.Meridian). • Review Metadata: allows comparison and selection, at a granular level, of metadata information returned from different services, as well as letting you include custom data. • Meridian relies on AMG (All Music Guide) for the automatic generation of metadata of newly imported albums. There may be cases where you want to make adjustments or personal edits to the metadata of certain albums before they have been imported into your Meridian System. The Meridian plug-in provides the ability to choose between custom metadata and AMG metadata for the creation of an album’s Meridian XML file (see over). Using the CD Ripper The program is fairly self-explanatory; however the following points are worth bearing in mind. 1. On first CD run the system will attempt to calibrate your drive. This is a very good idea. 2. When the disc has been recognized, you can use the bottom right area of the main window to: • Choose Art: Clicking on this will start a web search, but the first items will be the automatically selected option from the metadata services (see above right). 3. Once you are satisfied with the chosen metadata and artwork, click Rip at the top left corner of the main application window. 4. A pop-up window will ask you to once more, review metadata found by AMG, and choose from three options: Use AMG metadata (will replace ALL metadata with AMG metadata shown above) Use my metadata (will rip album with ONLY your manually input data) Use mixed metadata (select AMG metadata above to complement your manual • If you would like the plug-in to remember your choice (handy for bulk rips), data). (see screenshot right). check Do not ask me again. (Note: this is only available for the first two options.) 5. Choose the first option if you would like the plugin to use the default AMG • This can be reversed at any time by navigating to the DSP tab, clicking metadata. Choose the second option if you would like to plugin to use on Settings for the Write Meridian XML file DSP, and checking Show AMG any metadata you have edited manually or chosen from other sources, metadata popup window. exclusively. The third option will allow you to select from the AMG metadata displayed above, to replace or merge with your manually input data. 6. Click on OK. 7. Your album will now be ripped to the chosen output path. Getting content on to a Meridian System The dBpoweramp CD Ripper will write a set of subfolders to the selected output path in the Meridian backup format. To bring the content into your Meridian system, run the Control:PC application. 1. In the Backup Tab select Run Restore Wizard, point it at the above-mentioned path, and click Next. Control:PC will then offer a list of albums for restoring. Any albums already found to be in the system will appear as unchecked and will be skipped unless otherwise desired. 2. Select Confirm to begin the Restore process. Meridian-dBpoweramp Script Guide v1.0 – 20130805.

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