Having a bit of bother......!

[AR48]

Hi there. I recently bought DBPoweramp and have used it to rip our collection of CDs to FLAC. It took ages! Must be over a 1000, I'd previously scanned all my CD art into my laptop and was using the Load from File option in CD ripper to select my own files. Or so I thought, it turns out that no matter that you've selected the file and that it shows in the active window, it's not actually selected. I only found this out after copying my library to ALAC, then importing into iTunes.....all of which has taken days of processing. Now I'm facing a lengthy task to change all the files over. I'm really gutted, as this job should have been done now.

Is there an efficient way to do this? What software is recommended? Can I deselect the option to automatically download artwork somewhere - I always use my own.

Many thanks.

[mville]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

Please confirm, the original flac files have no embedded artwork and the flac folders do not contain any .jpg files?

[Spoon]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

It is likely that you added a 2nd art to the files, try select one track >> right click >> edit id tags

what art is shown at the bottom?

[AR48]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

Hi, it has placed folder.jpg files in the flac folders, but not the ones I selected from my own files. It's put in the internet sourced ones. Really annoying when I've selected my own file.

I'm now going through iTunes correcting the album art which is taking hours. I still have to correct the album art in the flac library. Any tips on doing this quickly? Also how do I stop dbpa downloading album art?

[mville]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

Hi, it has placed folder.jpg files in the flac folders, but not the ones I selected from my own files. It's put in the internet sourced ones. Really annoying when I've selected my own file.

When inserting a CD in CD Ripper, the software will retrieve artwork. This defaults to Art 1: Front Album Cover. For most users this is the preferred method of working, so this is why it is the default.

If you then add your own artwork file, this then becomes Art 2: Back Album Cover. If this is not how you want the artwork, you simply have to edit the artwork, using the Album Art Menu e.g. delete Art 1 and set your artwork to Front Album Cover. Sadly, it seems this is something you did not do.

It is possible that all is not lost, yet. Do your flac files have embedded artwork i.e. can you answer Spoons post no. 3?

[AR48]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

So I'm using a Mac. When I select a track and then "Edit tags with dbpoweramp" I can see there is my artwork as well as the downloaded artwork. So, what next? Do I really have to go through each folder and select all the files and right click, then delete the unwanted artwork? This will take days!! Plus there is still a Folder.jpg in each folder which is incorrect i.e. from the internet, not my file, so presumably I have to change that as well?

[AR48]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

P.S. Now going through my iTunes library to correct all the artwork and I see I have loads of missing tracks. I imported the library from Apple Lossless files which I created with Batch converter from my FLAC library. Does anyone know what might have caused this?

Many thanks for all your help.

[Spoon]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

Look for the missing apple lossless files manually, iTunes has a 'Cannot Add to iTunes' folder, perhaps look there first.

There is no automated way to remove the first art. Once you have removed the first artwork (PerfectTUNES can help you as it will show art for each album, no need to go into folders). Then enable the extended codecs option in dBpoweramp Control Center, then run batch converter >> choose folder containing all your music >> convert all to ID Tag Update, with the option to export 'folder.jpg' set.

[AR48]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

Thanks Spoon.

When you say "enable the extended codecs" option - I can see an option to enable utility codecs - is that what you mean? I don't quite get what I'm doing here by exporting the folder.jpg set. What is that jpg doing in the folders anyway?

Perfect Tunes is currently listening to my library, which is taking hours, is this normal?

I have a hunch that something went wrong when I was batch converting the FLAC library to the ALAC library. Unfortunately I've deleted the ALAC files after importing them into iTunes as I was running out of storage space, so I can't check. Would batch converter have left a report anywhere?

[mville]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

So I'm using a Mac. When I select a track and then "Edit tags with dbpoweramp" I can see there is my artwork as well as the downloaded artwork. So, what next? Do I really have to go through each folder and select all the files and right click, then delete the unwanted artwork? This will take days!! Plus there is still a Folder.jpg in each folder which is incorrect i.e. from the internet, not my file, so presumably I have to change that as well?

FYI, if you can copy your flac library to a Windows PC, I can help you to remove the embedded downloaded artwork and make your Back Cover artwork, the Front Cover artwork. This can be automated in MP3Tag, but requires a windows PC.

[AR48]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

mville - many thanks. The library is on my network drive, so I might be able to use a windows pc, or windows on my mac.

[Spoon]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

Folder.jpg is used by some programs (not apple) to display art, or when browsing the folders. You perhaps do not need it on OS X.

enable utility codecs is the option.

[AR48]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

mville - Hi there, I've downloaded Mp3tag - any pointers gratefully received.

[AR48]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

Using Mp3tag I've tried to delete the "cover" but it deletes all the artwork. So I've undone that. I could do with some pointers as to what to do. To confirm - where I have been adding my own artwork when ripping the cds it's ended up with my artwork saved as the back cover, internet sourced artwork saved as the front cover. I need to get rid of the front covers. About 10,000 times!

Many thanks.

[mville]

Re: Having a bit of bother......!

mville - Hi there, I've downloaded Mp3tag - any pointers gratefully received.

I'm not sure that forum etiquette allows me to discuss the use of MP3Tag in detail. I'll PM you.