Tips & Tricks

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Do you have "a cunning plan" or do you spot a light on "the dark side of the moon"? Let us know and we will share it with the community.

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Cue file not working?
You can search a database of over 2 million cue sheets online here. There are also tools to create and upload cue sheets. Powered by freedb. (Thanks to pvdw@Susato)

Enhancing the quality of your scans
With ScanTailor you can correct and enhance the quality of your scans: you can change the resolution, the orientation, split pages, adjust the deskew, and many many more. It is very user friendly and the video tutorials are extremely helpful. And on top of that it is completely free. (Thanks to Cordelia@Susato)

How to download from Israbox (Isra Cloud)

Israbox has changed the link format for their downloads on Isra Cloud. It doesn't show the end digits to download the files anymore. Here is a solution for the Chrome based browsers:

When on the download page at Isra Cloud press F12 and choose the Console tab. Copy and paste the following code after the prompt

javascript:(()=>{const code=(document.cookie.split("; ").find(c=>c.startsWith("file_code="))?.split("=")[1]||"");const url="https://isra.cloud/" + code;navigator.clipboard.writeText(url);alert("Copied: " + url);})();

A message will pop up showing the (old) download link. Copy and paste it in your leecher.

(Thanks to docbrownlabs@Reddit)

Listing your files and folders
A nice little tool to list your files and folders from any drive is LUD. You can view the neat output in a browser, spreadsheet or text file. It is available in English or French and very easy to use. (Thanks to anonymous@Susato)

Looking for covers and booklets?
Here are some addresses where you can find front and back covers, booklets, etc.

Qobuz
Simply fill in the Qobuz album URL into this Booklet Puller form. (Thanks to lebiega@Susato)

Naxos Music Library
Naxos often has booklets that other sites don't.
Click on FREE PREVIEW and search for the album the booklet of which you wish to download. Since Naxos changed its policy the only way to circumvent the 15 minute preview is to use the TOR browser. (Thanks to Jeremiah@Susato)

Chandos
A lot of the smaller labels are offering their digital media here.

From today on Chandos only offers artwork on purchase. But you can still access the booklets by using the following URL: https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/CHXXXX.pdf  

On the Chandos product page control-click on the small cover. The full-size cover https://www.chandos.net/artwork/CHXXXX.jpg will then open in a new tab. From the address bar, copy the code "CHXXXX" into the booklet formula above to get the PDF file. (Thanks to Jeremiah@Susato)

e|classical
Calling themselves a high-quality classical download store. Sometimes you can find "Extra material for download" here for more obscure labels.

Ben Dodson's iTunes Artwork Finder
Choose Album from  the left drop down selector. Here you will find front covers only but in a very resolution (up to 1200x1200 px).

HighResAudio
Read this to download booklets from HighResAudio. (Thanks to Portve-shock@Susato)

bol.com
Click on the (back) cover. A new window opens and the cursor changes to a magnifying glass. Click again on the cover (the image enlarges somewhat). Right click and choose to save the image. (Thanks to pvdw@Susato)

musicbrainz.org
For some releases covers can be found on this site. Quality can differ widely.

Album Art Downloader

The Album Art Downloader is a program designed to make life easier for anyone who wishes to find and update their album art for their music collection. The sources for the pictures can be defined by creating plugin scripts. (Thanks to drger@Susato for the hint).

Playing SACD
If you use Windows try Album Player to play SACD ISO files. It is completely free, simple and intuitive to use. You do not have to insert any type of external plugin for correct operation. It also allows many functions of interfacing with external devices such as DAC,  etc. You can download it from here (32-64 bit). (Thanks to siegfried-69@Susato)

Secure ripping with dBpoweramp

These guidelines for ripping with dBpoweramp will generate a secure rip that is acceptable for publishing as a post at Susato. (courtesy of drger@Susato).

Repair your rips with CUETools

If your EAC rip contains errors, try to repair them with CUETools. In this step-by-step guide you can learn how. (Thanks to carbozie@Susato)

Scanning Guide

If you are wondering why your scans are not looking like what you expected, then perhaps some basic settings need to be amended. Here is a very nice guide with tips and tricks to get the best scan results.

(Thanks to Roy@Susato)

Finding lossless music on Internet Archive

Go to the Internet Archive. In the Search area type some search terms followed by AND NOT collection:samples_only
The results displayed will only contain items with full lossless files. (Thanks to digitalmaestrorich@susato)