Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

[sean-p]

I have just ripped my collection creating a FLAC copy and an Apple Lossless copy of each.
I didn't really understand the path settings and I set the same for each codec.
I have a nice directory structure - i.e. music/artist/album with a FLAC & an ALAC copy of each track.
When my bluesound catalogues this, it registers both the FLAC and ALAC copies.

Is there a way to get the bluesound to ignore one of the codec types? (I appreciate this is not a bluesound forum)
Should I have set up a different directory structure? i.e. music/FLAC/artist/album + music/ALAC/artist/album
If I have my directories wrong, is there an easy way to separate the FLAC & ALAC copies into their own directory structures?

I have windows 7 pro for what it's worth.

Many thanks in anticipation

[mville]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

Why do you have a flac and alac version of each file?

[garym]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

I have just ripped my collection creating a FLAC copy and an Apple Lossless copy of each.
I didn't really understand the path settings and I set the same for each codec.
I have a nice directory structure - i.e. music/artist/album with a FLAC & an ALAC copy of each track.
When my bluesound catalogues this, it registers both the FLAC and ALAC copies.

Is there a way to get the bluesound to ignore one of the codec types? (I appreciate this is not a bluesound forum)
Should I have set up a different directory structure? i.e. music/FLAC/artist/album + music/ALAC/artist/album
If I have my directories wrong, is there an easy way to separate the FLAC & ALAC copies into their own directory structures?

I have windows 7 pro for what it's worth.

Many thanks in anticipation

Yes, should have setup the separate directory structures for FLAC and ALAC. To fx, try this (experiment on an album or two first before doing it all in one big batch)

1. in Windows Explorer, select all the music files (i.e., everything in MUSIC parent directory)
2. Sort by file type (so that all ALAC files are listed first in the list)
3. Then select only the ALAC extension file (you can select first and last, with shift key down to get them all)
4. Right click, select "DBPoweramp Batch Convert"
5. Upper left, click CONVERT button
6. Select [ARRANGE AUDIO] as your CODEC DSP. (might need to install ARRANGE AUDIO from Codec Central if not installed already
7. Make the "root path": MUSIC\ALAC
8. Arrangement should be: [artist]\[album]\[track] - [title]
7. choose what to do with the arrange album art, depending on what you've done with album art (embedded, folder.jpg, cover.jpg, etc.)
8. Bottom right, select CONVERT

This should create a directory of all your ALAC files under MUSIC\ALAC arranged by artist/album.

When this is tested, then applied to all your files, you should be left with the ALAC files in MUSIC\ALAC arranged by artist/album. The the FLAC files are left alone in the original structure. For those, just create a FLAC directory under MUSIC, so that you have MUSIC\FLAC. Then select all those artist subdirectories under MUSIC (which now contains only FLAC files), "cut" then paste underneath MUSIC\FLAC.

At this point you should have two identical directories:

music\alac\artist\album....
music\flac\artist\album....

[sean-p]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

Hi, Thanks for the reply. The main reason I have both is because I don't know what I am doing really.
I have a mix of apple & non-apple products and I might buy some streaming speakers that are not quite as clever as the Bluesound in future.
I have plenty of storage and I don't much fancy ripping twice. I thought I could not go wrong. Here I am 2 days later asking for advice. Doh.

[mville]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

Hi, Thanks for the reply. The main reason I have both is because I don't know what I am doing really.
I have a mix of apple & non-apple products and I might buy some streaming speakers that are not quite as clever as the Bluesound in future.
I have plenty of storage and I don't much fancy ripping twice. I thought I could not go wrong. Here I am 2 days later asking for advice. Doh.

You don't need to rip twice. You can easily create an alac copy from a flac library or vice versa, using dBpoweramp Music Converter.

However, seeing as you now have both formats (and plenty of storage), garym's arrange audio advice is sound.

[sean-p]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

Yes, should have setup the separate directory structures for FLAC and ALAC. To fx, try this (experiment on an album or two first before doing it all in one big batch)

1. in Windows Explorer, select all the music files (i.e., everything in MUSIC parent directory)
2. Sort by file type (so that all ALAC files are listed first in the list)

...

I fall at the first hurdle here:
When I select the music directory, of course, all I get is a list of sub-directories of the individual artists. I can't sort or select ALAC files.


I have not ripped too many albums so I can separate manually.

Please can you tell me how I should have set-up 'output to' for each of the codecs so that I get separate directory structures for the rest of my albums?

Thanks
Sean

[mville]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

Which version of dBpoweramp Music Converter are you running?

[sean-p]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

I guess you two kind people have given ma a good combined answer thinking about it.
I can easily delete my ALAC copies.
For the rest of my collection, I can just create FLAC.
If I ever need to, I can just convert the whole lot.

I would still be interested to know how I should have set-up 'output to' correctly though...

Thanks for your advice so far, much appreciated.

[garym]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

are you using the multi-ripper, where you are ripping to two formats at the same time? If so, just set the dynamic naming location to what you want for each codec. You are probably just using the default dynamic naming, thus the problem you're facing.

Frankly, if it were me, I'd rip to FLAC, make sure I had all the metadata, art, etc. the way I wanted it (or tweak it to get it right) and then do a batch conversion to ALAC (changing only that it is in the ALAC subdirectory).

[sean-p]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

Which version of dBpoweramp Music Converter are you running?

16.1 [64 bit] but I am using 21 day trial if that makes any difference?

I will be buying it though as it's very impressive.

[garym]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

and as mville said, you'll never have to rip twice (or again). Once you have FLAC files, you can always batch convert these (with metadata included) to any other lossless format (ALAC, WAV, etc.) Also, since you're just starting, are you happy with the file naming structure, the artwork size (and placement, embedded or not, named folder.jpg or cover.jpg), the genres used, how complilations and multidisks are handled, use of ALBUM ARTIST (or not), etc. I'd focus a lot more on those things initially and get my desired options setup before worrying about having two different types of lossless files (the latter is easy to do, once the former is correct).

[mville]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

Once you have FLAC files, you can always batch convert these (with metadata included) to any other lossless format (ALAC, WAV, etc.) Also, since you're just starting, are you happy with the file naming structure, the artwork size (and placement, embedded or not, named folder.jpg or cover.jpg), the genres used, how complilations and multidisks are handled, use of ALBUM ARTIST (or not), etc. I'd focus a lot more on those things initially and get my desired options setup before worrying about having two different types of lossless files (the latter is easy to do, once the former is correct).

... I agree.

[sean-p]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

Many thanks to you both for getting back to me with sound advice, on what is obviously my first post.

Re the point about getting art-work and meta-data format correct and consistent, is there a good-practice guide somewhere?
I am guessing different people do this in different ways for some reason?
I should probably stop this post here and search for the answer as I am away from the original point....

Thanks again

[garym]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

there's no one right answer to metadata and directory structure. Different people do different things. Here's what I do as a reference.

1. here's my dynamic naming structure.

[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album] [IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track] - [title] - [artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track] - [title][]

This creates the following automatically:

single artist, single CDs
x:\music\flac\artist\album\track no. - title.flac

Single artist, multidisk album
x:\music\flac\artist\album\Disc 1\track no. - title.flac
...................................\Disc 2\track no. - title.flac
etc.

Various Artist/Compilation/Soundtrack, etc. (single disk)
x:\music\flac\Compilations\album\track no. - title - artist.flac

Various Artist/Compilation/Soundtrack, etc. (multidisk)
x:\music\flac\Compilations\album\Disc 1\track no. - title - artist.flac
............................................\Disc 2\track no. - title - artist.flac
etc.

2. If a disk is a compilation, I make sure that the compilation tag is set to "1" (compilation ticked in the ripper screen will do this). I leave Album Artist blank on most compilations. However, if it is something like a tribute album (tribute to Bob Dylan), I make the Album Artist "Bob Dylan" so that the tribute album shows up in my system under the artist Bob Dylan, even though he's not on any of the songs.

(Note some people prefer to have an album artist entry for every album, even if the ALBUM ARTIST tag is equal to ARTIST tag.

3. If an album has differing artists per track (e.g., maybe one track of a Delbert McClinton album is Delbert along with Lucinda Williams), I'll add ALBUM ARTIST for the main artist of the album (Delbert McClinton in the example). But the track with Lucinda would also have her name under artist (artist tag can hold more than one name; in dbpoweramp ripper user ";" to separate. And in my system, that one track would also show up under Lucinda Williams artist listing.

4. When I started ripping I got very specific with GENRE (50s rock, 50s pop, etc. Vocal Jazz - Female, Vocal Jazz - Male, Jazz Guitar, Big Band, Rock, Folk Rock, Alternative Country, Traditional Folk, Modern Folk, etc. etc.). This was actually unworkable for me. So now I try to simplify and have broader Genres (mostly only Pop/Rock, Jazz, Folk, Country, Comedy, Spoken Word, Classical, Opera)

5. Use ultrasecure ripping. If it finds a match in AccurateRip, then it is super fast. If it doesn't find a match, it does multiple passes and compares the CRCs to give you an indication of "secure" ripping.

6. In ripping, I rip to FLAC with the default compression "5". The only DSP I add at ripping time is the REPLAY GAIN dsp (note this is ReplayGain and *not* REPLAY GAIN (apply). I use the RG dsp to add album and track RG tags that can be used by some players. I use the option to use EBU 128, at -18 (default).

7. For album art, I prefer to create a single art file in each album folder (cover.jpg or one could use folder.jpg). I try for 1000x1000 art. I do this rather than embed art into each file. (However, I do also create a mirror directory of mp3 files to use in my portables (using dbpa batch converter which automates the process). For these, I do embed the art, but keep it at 500x500)

[sean-p]

Re: Sort FLAC & ALAC into seperate directories

Brilliant, thanks Gary.
The multi-codec option defaults include [origpath] and [origfilename] which did nothing but confuse me.
The tips you have provided will certainly guide me.
I have heard of including artwork in the file but I have no idea how to achieve that. I will have to look into it....

Thanks again for your help