XLD vs Music app CD ripping

[OldCorpse]

I guess this is a good post to end the year with

I had a whole bunch of CDs I wanted to transfer to my Music app library, and decided to do it with the new office system, on the Mac Mini. I downloaded XLD out of habit, since that is what I have used for years and years. However, I have not used the new Music app to rip CDs and was curious to see how it worked. I didn't anticipate any difficulties, because largely ripping CDs is an eminently solved problem.

In the Music app, I selected the longer process that incorporates error correction, and everything worked seemingly fine.

Until I listened to one of the newly ripped CDs - Brian Eno's 2022 release "Foreverandevernomore", on his Opal label, licenced to Universal Music Operations Limited. To be clear, I purchased the CD brand new, from Amazon, and upon visual inspection of the disc I could see no flaws. Nonetheless, when listening to the ripped files on the Music app, on the last track, the last couple of minutes had some significant errors, clicks and glitches. I was rather surprised, and it was clearly errors, not some intended musical effect.

Now, again, I used the longer ripping process afforded by the Music app, which theoretically should've corrected for minor errors. I therefore went ahead and re-ripped the CD this time using XLD. When XLD got to the last couple of minutes of the last track, it slowed down dramatically and was error correcting for quite a while, which indicates that there's a problem with the brand new CD. Eventually, the process was completed and the report was the final product was good. I now re-listening to the ripped CD in the Music app, and this time, indeed there were NO ERRORS in the last track - unlike the Music app rip, the XLD rip restored the integrity of the CD.

Additional info: the MM is up to date, Sonoma 14.2.1, Music app version 14.2.83, and the drive was a brand new Apple SuperDrive connected directly to the MM (not going through any hub or using any additional cables etc.), the CD in question was brand new, opened and immediately inserted into the SuperDrive.

Here's where that leaves me: I conclude from a clear demonstration, that the XLD error correction process is superior to the Music app native process. Quite frankly, I was rather surprised, as I expected both apps to work equally well. Oh well, you learn something new every day, lol.

From now on, I will go back to my old habits and rip everything using XLD, as it is in my eyes clearly superior. Score one for third party software vs Apple native (and btw., one has to jump through hoops to install XLD on Apple machines - here the M2 MM and M2 MBA - you have to swear up and down that you trust the software etc., lol).

Happy New Year, everyone, and may 2024 be a good year for everybody!

 

[Ray2]

XLD. Simpler interface and, in general, Apple software has become too buggy to bother with when free alternatives are readily available.

 

[MajorFubar]

How long is the CD? iTunes and Apple Music has always given me (inconsistent) issues when ripping CDs that are longer than the red-book standard of 74 minutes. Some rip well, some rip very glitchy towards the end, and by end, I mean beyond the 74 minute mark. I have some long 75+minute CDs that even XLD won't rip towards their end, but yes, I can corroborate that it seems to do a better job with them than iTunes/Music.

 

[OldCorpse]

That particular CD I think is just faulty - the length is only like 52 minutes. Looking at it, I can't see anything wrong, and obviously no scratches or abrasions since I opened it brand new. I think it just came that way. I bought it on Amazon, limited edition, I went back to see if any reviews mentioned technical problems, but nobody did. Maybe I just got a lemon.

 

[OldCorpse]

This is absolutely bonkers. I ripped a bunch of CDs and eventually got around to listening to them on Music app on my mini. I originally ripped them all through the Music app, and upon listening to one of them, found glitches, which I described in the first post. I figured it's a one-off lemon.

Well, yesterday I got around to listening to another one - Roger Eno's 2022 "The Turning Year", Deutsche Grammophon. Same set up: MM, brand new SuperDrive, connected directly to the MM, nothing else going on except ripping, brand new CD openend and inserted.

When I got to the last track listening, #14 "Low Cloud, Dark Skies", toward the end, there was clicking and glitching! Not as extensive as on the other CD, but there it was - the CD is 51 mintues of music, 14 tracks.

I was amazed. I went ahead and re-ripped it in XLD, and it came out perfect, although it apparently had to work harder on the last bit of the track 14. I include a screenshot of the log:

As can be seen, there's a retry sector count of 83 on track 14, and it's the only track that has a retry sector count. OK, so it had to try a little harder, but gee, is the Music app ripping so poor that even with their best setting it can't manage such things? I don't get it.

Or is something wrong with my setup, because 2 lemons in a row is a bit much coincidence. Either way, I regret ripping all those CDs in the Music app, as it seems I'll have to re-rip them in XLD anyway. Anyhow, I'm sticking with XLD from now on.

 

[MajorFubar]

XLD does do a better job. But the bigger issue is you're either very unlucky with the quality of your CDs or there is an issue with your drive. I used a generic USB drive that cost £15 and out of 600 CDs I had about 4 that iTunes (back then) couldn't rip without errors, and all of them were over 74 minutes.

 

[Chancha]

The default setting in XLD would include querying AccurateRip server whenever available, that alone is one more layer of whatever Apple Music app is doing. Typically an error correction is just an on-the-fly interpolation that isn't going to go much against real damages. While you are right that CD ripping is largely a solved problem, but Apple in its history has no point in time trying that hard in their music software. Even at its best, iTunes on older OS X needed hacks and self-added codecs in order to not suck all that much.

And I concur with the above posts that it is unusual to get consistent errors among multiple discs. Something is wrong with your signal chain. I myself always rip discs with a Pioneer BDR-X12J-UHD and XLD, almost never get error sector count unless on a disc that is really, visually, damaged.

 

[ojfd]

Maybe just a faulty CD/DVD drive?

 

[OldCorpse]

Yeah, there’s probably something wrong somewhere along in the chain. I bought the SuperDrive brand new in December, but I’m going to dig up my old reliable drive I know is good because I’ve ripped thousands of CD/DVDs over the years on it. I’ll see if it makes a difference.

 

[Cassandle]

XLD does do a better job. But the bigger issue is you're either very unlucky with the quality of your CDs or there is an issue with your drive. I used a generic USB drive that cost £15 and out of 600 CDs I had about 4 that iTunes (back then) couldn't rip without errors, and all of them were over 74 minutes.

Is it possible to link to the drive you brought? Looking for something like this myself and want to avoid the Apple tax on their version…

 

[MajorFubar]

No I've had it 13 years. It was just a really basic £15 USB DVD drive I found on eBay. They were very very easily available back then.
(EDIT: I actually bought it specifically so as not to wear-out the built-in drive in my then-new 2011 iMac because I knew I'd be ripping 600+ CDs.)