Multiple CPU, CD to FLAC ripping

[spudwa]

I've just paid for the gold version in the hope that ripping CD to flac would be sped up as I have a 4 core/8 thread CPU. I can see it is enabled in options but my rip times are the same and task manager shows only a single thread active.

What do I need to do to enable this??

[Peke]

Hi,
It is not the gold settings that is teh problematic but Actual Ripping and CD-Rom limitations where if you ask CD to read two tracks at same time you would end in slower rip (was enabled 6-7 years ago but disabled due the 40%-60% slower rip).

Only way to speed Ripping time is to add another drive. When I ripped my CDs I had 3 Drives in PC.

[spudwa]

So a faster CD reader is the answer. Wish the Options->Performance tab made it more obvious that multiple CPU ripping doesn't work

[Peke]

Not faster, multiple drives will be the solution. CD-Roms are not capable to read two sectors at same time so switching read position of laser takes time.

[nauip]

Just to pile on to this, but the limitation is not CPU or software here. The limitation is the year 2000 tech you're relying on to read. CD/BD ROM drives are going to top out (theoretically) at around 8 or 16 MB/s and that's assuming optimal perfect conditions. Because as soon as there's the slightest deviation (a speck of dust somewhere in the mix) there's a retry on the read which will decimate your read speeds. All the CPU threads and all the software optimizations aren't going to change the fact you're reading from a storage medium developed in the 90s.

[Media_Allen]

I was happy to find this thread as I wanted to know if using multiple drives would "work". I may be ripping a few hundred CDs soon, and I can easily put three more optical drives on the system, but I was afraid that MMW wouldn't thread the tasks, but would serialize them.

Yes, "CD" optical disc was originally designed to move audio, and the quality of printed discs varies just as "burned" media does. I see printed audio CDs that rip much faster than others when the surfaces of all are clean. So there are other factors involved.

I know that I can rip a CD while MMW "rediscovers" my music collection after opening the program, so it can "thread". It will also attempt to rip the same disc TWICE at the same time if the user inadvertently starts ripping twice, with the performance degradation you'd expect from all the extra head movement.

Are users finding more benefit than irritation with using multiple drives? I know that, just using one is pretty irritating. Invariably I have to route the metadata hunt to freedb, then MMW drops focus on the next drivespec down (?) and I have to click back UP before starting the rip. I can imagine if I have FOUR optical drives, MMW is going to drive me crazy with this unless I stagger the drive letters or something.

[Peke]

Hi,
I ripped my CDs with three drives and it is essentially much faster. At start till you Catalog first 50 disks it looks like it will be slower but once you start rip and use one drive to add next discs in queue then you really see the potential. Each drive uses 2 Threads RIP+Encoding which totals 4 threads and Third one uses another 2 threads Add to library+Metadata fill/UI Updates so 8 Thread CPU do not struggle at all.