iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

[Spleen]

I've a few iTunes purchases that I'd like to convert to FLAC and upload to my NAS. I can see how to actually convert them no problem but what I'd like to do is have a folder automatically created with the artist and associated .jpg. Can this be done? At the moment all I can do is just convert them but I would have to manually create folders, etc.

Thanks.

[garym]

Re: iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

I've a few iTunes purchases that I'd like to convert to FLAC and upload to my NAS. I can see how to actually convert them no problem but what I'd like to do is have a folder automatically created with the artist and associated .jpg. Can this be done? At the moment all I can do is just convert them but I would have to manually create folders, etc.

Thanks.

certainly easy to move the files and create in whatever directories you like (see the dynamic naming options in converter), but curious: why convert m4a files (lossy) to FLAC (lossless). You many know this, but just in case, do you realize that such conversion doesn't make the original file lossless or add back what was thrown out in the original lossy creation. All you're doing is making a very large lossy file that happens to be encoded as FLAC. Why not just move the m4a files to the directories you want on your NAS and play them in the original version?

[Spleen]

Re: iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

Cheers Gary, I realised between my post and your comment that it seemed daft to convert an m4a to FLAC because as you say I'll gain nothing, it's not as if I can get better quality. I'm just having some issues dragging and dropping folders but suspect thats it's me rather than the software, just need to get my head around it all!

[garym]

Re: iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

Cheers Gary, I realised between my post and your comment that it seemed daft to convert an m4a to FLAC because as you say I'll gain nothing, it's not as if I can get better quality. I'm just having some issues dragging and dropping folders but suspect thats it's me rather than the software, just need to get my head around it all!

you can use the [arrange audio] DSP to move your m4a files into particular folders based on tag data (folder such as ARTIST/ALBUM/tracks....). Or mp3tag will also allow you to move things and create directories from tags (Convert tag to filename).

[Spleen]

Re: iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

I'm not familiar with tags just yet but perhaps you can answer a simple question for me? I've managed to move a folder to my NAS. The folder has two sub folders of tracks, a Bruce Springsteen folder with two tracks from different albums so Bruce > Born in the USA and Greatest Hits. Each sub folder only has one track in it but none of the tracks shows an album cover.

Bruce Springsteen

• Born in the USA

I'm On Fire

• Greatest Hits

Streets of Philadelphia

Can I add a .jpg to the top folder or do I need to add one to the sub folders and if so, how do I do it so it shows up in my Naim app?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

[garym]

Re: iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

I'm not familiar with tags just yet but perhaps you can answer a simple question for me? I've managed to move a folder to my NAS. The folder has two sub folders of tracks, a Bruce Springsteen folder with two tracks from different albums so Bruce > Born in the USA and Greatest Hits. Each sub folder only has one track in it but none of the tracks shows an album cover.

Bruce Springsteen

• Born in the USA

I'm On Fire

• Greatest Hits

Streets of Philadelphia

Can I add a .jpg to the top folder or do I need to add one to the sub folders and if so, how do I do it so it shows up in my Naim app?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

let's back up a second. Do you actually have both these complete albums but only these few tracks show up? Or are these the only tracks you have from these two albums?

p.s. Time to get knowledgeable about tags. Beyond having bitperfect rips, tags are the most important thing (and the most time consuming!). And even bit perfect rips are not that useful if you don't have good tags!

[Spleen]

Re: iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

No, I only have just these two tracks from separate albums not the whole albums. Sir Bruce's music isn't really my cup of tea but these two are brilliant. I also watched a documentary about him on BBC4, not what I expected at all, a very deep man. Anyhoo, I digress. Understood about tags, I'll do more homework..!

Any ideas about the graphics?

[garym]

Re: iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

No, I only have just these two tracks from separate albums not the whole albums. Sir Bruce's music isn't really my cup of tea but these two are brilliant. I also watched a documentary about him on BBC4, not what I expected at all, a very deep man. Anyhoo, I digress. Understood about tags, I'll do more homework..!

Any ideas about the graphics?

what graphics? What you describe above is that you have a single artist directory for Bruce Springsteen, then underneath that you have two separate album subdirectories (born in the usa and greatest hits). Then under these album subdirectories you have the tracks you have from these albums. This is exactly the way I have my music library organized. Please clarify what the problem is....

[garym]

Re: iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

what graphics? What you describe above is that you have a single artist directory for Bruce Springsteen, then underneath that you have two separate album subdirectories (born in the usa and greatest hits). Then under these album subdirectories you have the tracks you have from these albums. This is exactly the way I have my music library organized. Please clarify what the problem is....

aha, you mean no album cover art (graphics?). Did you have album cover art embedded in these m4a files or "folder.jpg" or "cover.jpg" in the album subdirectories? If you pulled these from itunes, you didn't. That's because unlike almost any other program in existence, itunes doesn't use any of these methods. It stores the art in a separate subdirectory within itunes. So when you move the files, the art doesn't go with them. A couple of ways to fix this. One is to just to go to itunes, open the files within the album, select the files, select properties, then on the art, click copy then paste. this will embed the art. Another way, that i've used in the past, is to run this progam, iCoverArt, that will automatically go through your itunes library and embed the art in each of your files. Costs $5, but worth it if you have lots of itunes files.

http://www.maximized.com/shareware/icoverart/index.htm

there's this too, but it may only work on OSX. not sure.

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts13.php

[Spleen]

Re: iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

Aye, that's the thing, no album covers. I don't have that many iTunes stuff but I'm also epically lazy so $5 sounds like a bargain. Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

[Spleen]

Re: iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

what graphics? What you describe above is that you have a single artist directory for Bruce Springsteen, then underneath that you have two separate album subdirectories (born in the usa and greatest hits). Then under these album subdirectories you have the tracks you have from these albums. This is exactly the way I have my music library organized. Please clarify what the problem is....

garym, just coming back to this problem again! I've ripped all my CDs onto my NAS through dbpoweramp but now I want to get my iTunes purchases over. I have a folder of a-ha music that I want to move, how do I do it? Bizarrely, I managed to do it with the Bruce stuff but for the life of me can't remember how I did it..

[garym]

Re: iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

Copy directories from nas to the "automatically add to iTunes" sub directory under your iTunes parent directory and it should automatically take care of it.

[Spleen]

Re: iTunes purchases to FLAC to NAS - best way?

Thanks, solved it by dragging and dropping directly to the mounted music folder.