PDA

View Full Version : How do I force dB Converter to keep tracks in order?



VictoriaGuy
10-29-2010, 10:23 PM
Title says it all- Tracks (FLAC) are numbered in computer folder but Converter scrambles them when converting (?? it doesn't do that either...see my post on problems burning from Flac) to Audio CD format....
ie 1-,2-,3...10,11,12- becomes 1-,10-,11-,12, 2, 3, 4 ...etc.

And, when it converts .flac to .wav, it not only randomizes the order (completely) but also makes two copies of each track!!
So I have to manually re-order the tracks ??

I can't believe I bought this!

John

garym
10-30-2010, 07:13 AM
Title says it all- Tracks (FLAC) are numbered in computer folder but Converter scrambles them when converting (?? it doesn't do that either...see my post on problems burning from Flac) to Audio CD format....
ie 1-,2-,3...10,11,12- becomes 1-,10-,11-,12, 2, 3, 4 ...etc.

And, when it converts .flac to .wav, it not only randomizes the order (completely) but also makes two copies of each track!!
So I have to manually re-order the tracks ??

I can't believe I bought this!

John

set the options to pad the track numbers with a starting 0. then you'll have 01, 02, 03, ....10,11,12. That should do the trick.

VictoriaGuy
10-30-2010, 11:39 AM
set the options to pad the track numbers with a starting 0. then you'll have 01, 02, 03, ....10,11,12. That should do the trick.
Thanks again, Gary.

I can't figure out how to do that- is it buried in the DSP section somewhere? ID Tag manipulation??

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the track order to be maintained....without delving deep into the options.
How many people like to have the tracks on their CDs scrambled??

garym
10-30-2010, 12:03 PM
Thanks again, Gary.

I can't figure out how to do that- is it buried in the DSP section somewhere? ID Tag manipulation??

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the track order to be maintained....without delving deep into the options.
How many people like to have the tracks on their CDs scrambled??

with CD ripper software open, click on options (the button, not the dropdown next to it). once in options, click on "metadata and idtag options", then scroll down to near bottom and you'll see "pad track number to 2 digits". Check this box.

dbpa is a very flexible program, but that also means it has lots of options. I'd suggest basically clicking on every option and just poking around to see what's where.

p.s. most folks (i think) don't actually look at their music files via file organization (once ripped). They use a program that uses the tags. And if you're using the track tags (say in SqueezeboxServer, itunes, etc.), it doesn't really matter if the number is padded with the zero. Only in file browsing do you notice this. And even in windows explorer they did some sort of workaround years ago the treat a file name beginning with "2" coming before "11". But computers are stupid and when it comes to file names, without a workaround, 2 is after 11, 12, etc.

garym
10-30-2010, 12:18 PM
Thanks again, Gary.

I can't figure out how to do that- is it buried in the DSP section somewhere? ID Tag manipulation??

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the track order to be maintained....without delving deep into the options.
How many people like to have the tracks on their CDs scrambled??

with CD ripper software open, click on options (the button, not the dropdown next to it). once in options, click on "metadata and idtag options", then scroll down to near bottom and you'll see "pad track number to 2 digits". Check this box.

dbpa is a very flexible program, but that also means it has lots of options. I'd suggest basically clicking on every option and just poking around to see what's where.

p.s. most folks (i think) don't actually look at their music files via file organization (once ripped). They use a program that uses the tags. And if you're using the track tags (say in SqueezeboxServer, itunes, etc.), it doesn't really matter if the number is padded with the zero. Only in file browsing do you notice this. And even in windows explorer they did some sort of workaround years ago the treat a file name beginning with "2" coming before "11". But computers are stupid and when it comes to file names, without a workaround, 2 is after 11, 12, etc.

VictoriaGuy
10-30-2010, 12:45 PM
with CD ripper software open......

Gary-
I DO appreciate the time you are taking with this.

I'm not using the CD Ripper-perhaps that's the problem.
I'm trying to use the Converter and Writer to take a .flac album (legal,paid for) downloaded from HD Tracks and burn an audio CD from it.

I'm a new user here- apparently .jpg attachments to messages aren't allowed, or I'd post a screen shot showing the 387 minutes of CD capacity that the Writer says are required to burn a 45 min .flac album in CD audio format, or the screen showing 'two of everything, and scrambled too' when converting .flac to .wav, etc etc

I don't want to do a lot of DSP and manipulation, and I don't want to have to manually rename every .flac track file.
I wanted to do two tasks:
1- burn audio CDs from downloaded .flac files
2- Rip CDs from my collection to .flac.

Since I can't even get the first task done after several hours of messing around in dB, I think I made a mistake with my purchase.

John

garym
10-30-2010, 01:20 PM
Gary-
I DO appreciate the time you are taking with this.

I'm not using the CD Ripper-perhaps that's the problem.
I'm trying to use the Converter and Writer to take a .flac album (legal,paid for) downloaded from HD Tracks and burn an audio CD from it.

I'm a new user here- apparently .jpg attachments to messages aren't allowed, or I'd post a screen shot showing the 387 minutes of CD capacity that the Writer says are required to burn a 45 min .flac album in CD audio format, or the screen showing 'two of everything, and scrambled too' when converting .flac to .wav, etc etc

I don't want to do a lot of DSP and manipulation, and I don't want to have to manually rename every .flac track file.
I wanted to do two tasks:
1- burn audio CDs from downloaded .flac files
2- Rip CDs from my collection to .flac.

Since I can't even get the first task done after several hours of messing around in dB, I think I made a mistake with my purchase.

John

stick with it! this is not the easiest program to use, but it is easier than EAC, and most people serious about secure ripping, using accuraterip database, etc. use either dbpa or EAC. Dbpa is the best money I've ever spent, and I had over 6,000 CDs to rip!

You can use the DSP "id tag processing" to set the padding to two digits, but I don't see that when I look. (p.s. don't get confused, the DSP stuff is NOT all digital processing things that affect audio...some of the options are tag manipulation, creating replaygain tags, etc......I think DSP is an unfortunate label as many people never look at those options because they don't want to manipulate audio and they think that is what it is).

In the meantime, try this. install mp3tag (yes it works with FLAC). It is a very useful tag manipulation program.

Load up an album (once you figure this out you can use for all albums at once in a batch). right click on a file and chose the option:

CONVERT

then select tag > filename.

This will create a file name from the tags. You can do whatever you want here. For example, this could be your string:

$num(%track%,2) - %title%

This would create a file name like: 03 - song name

$num(%track%,2) - %title% -%artist% - %album%

this would create a file name like, 03 - song name - artist name - album name

you get the idea. As long as your tags are good, you can make your filenames anything you want and the function above makes the track numbers two digits.

VictoriaGuy
10-30-2010, 05:11 PM
Thanks, Gary.
That tag editor did the job on the track numbering.
One problem 'down'.... though not solved with dB....

I'll post a screenshot showing the CD Writer problem with flac track lengths in the 'other thread' I started.....

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=22328

garym
10-30-2010, 06:09 PM
Thanks, Gary.
That tag editor did the job on the track numbering.
One problem 'down'.... though not solved with dB....

I'll post a screenshot showing the CD Writer problem with flac track lengths in the 'other thread' I started.....

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=22328

As much as I really like dbpa for ripping and converting, I still use mp3tag for a lot of my tagging "clean up" needs, so it's a useful program to have on your computer.