Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

Can you recommend a good metadata editor?

Yup....just did.

I think you'd find a good metadata editor handy when these situations arise. It makes much quicker work of all that after-the-fact editing. (Which raises one more tip: go ahead and bring your issues here first!....we would have recommended mp3tag, and all that clean-up could have been much faster.)

[prpixel]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

So, I downloaded Mp3tag, and it seams that every album I look at has the tracks in the wrong order. It would take me weeks to straighten everything out. It would be easier to just re-run the convert. So, how do I "insert" that script that was posted earlier to sort to sort by album first, then artist? So far, it's been a colossal waste of time and I'm a little bit frustrated. If this doesn't work out, then I'll just re-rip everything.

On a side note, both my Play-FI devices and Sonos are chocking on the large size of my library. They just don't have the memory to index so many files. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of doing this.

Thanks again for all the help,

[garym]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

do your WMA files not have the tag that contains track number? As long as you had that correct, anything can be done automatically. Are the track numbers wrong in the files (that make them of order) *or* is it the listing of the tracks in something like windows explorer (where they may be listed alphebetically)? Maybe describe an example to clarify.

[prpixel]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

So, it seams like they are out of order in the directory. If I re-order them in Mp3Tag, then it makes me go through the processes of manually aligning the track with the correct title. Moving files up and down a list is a PITA. I've attached a screen capture showing the files open in Windows explorer and also how the display in FooBar.

[prpixel]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

BTW - they were in the right order on the Hard Drive originality.

[garym]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

aha. this is trivial. the track numbers are there but the naming string is listing them alphabetically. I suspect the WMA file names had track number at beginning (which is what I do on all my files). In mp3tag, do this.

1. load up files (as big a batch as you want, but test things first).
2. select files in active window
3. in menu, select CONVERT, then tag to filename. Then in the "format string" use this:
$num(%track%,2) - %title%

this will name the files themselves as:

01 - Something
etc.

if you want filenames to be something else (include artist?), you could use this:
$num(%track%,2) - %title% - %artist%

edit: and in the future in dbpa, in your dynamic naming string you should put track number in the filename before the title.

[track] - [title]

[prpixel]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

If you put the track number in the title, won't it display twice in the title on playback? In Squeezeserver, I can tell it not to display the track number, but on other devices, no. I just did your Convert string, and while it ran in under 20 seconds to process over 60K files, it errored on over 600. At this point, there's just too much damage to a lot of albums. I think over 200-300 are actually missing tracks. I don't know if I should just run Batch Converter again, with the correct string, or re-rip. Also, it seams like a lot of the tags are just plain wrong; thanks Windows Media Player.

Once again, thanks for all the help,

[prpixel]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

I just ran a test in Batch Converter using your string. It turned the top list of directories into the bottom list.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

If you put the track number in the title, won't it display twice in the title on playback? In Squeezeserver, I can tell it not to display the track number, but on other devices, no. I just did your Convert string, and while it ran in under 20 seconds to process over 60K files, it errored on over 600. At this point, there's just too much damage to a lot of albums. I think over 200-300 are actually missing tracks. I don't know if I should just run Batch Converter again, with the correct string, or re-rip. Also, it seams like a lot of the tags are just plain wrong; thanks Windows Media Player.

Once again, thanks for all the help,

I think you're confusing file organization with metadata. When your players access your library, they couldn't care less how the tracks are listed in Windows Explorer, what folders they're in, what the file names are, or what order they are in. Players use the metadata embedded in the files. So let's assume my Annie Lennox album Diva has all the appropriate metadata in each file....TRACK, TITLE, ALBUM, etc. File names can be virtually anything....

Why.flac
01 - Why.flac
Annie Lennox - 01 - Why.flac
The first song on the album.flac

So long as the internal metadata is correct, Sonos will read, navigate, and display the track info exactly the same. And because it orders tracks by the TRACK tag, that song will be listed first, regardless of file name. How files look on your hard drive is just for your

I recognize that you're really frustrated (I remember this stage :(), but re-ripping or re-converting really isn't necessary. If it feels like there's a lot of metadata messiness or file disorganization, this can be cleaned up with mp3tag. Work in smaller batches....it's faster to experiment and find the right solution before running possible fixes on the whole library at once.

Is the problem you're trying to address more about about how the files look in Windows Explorer? Or are they not appearing as expected in your players? It's important to figure out which problem you're dealing with.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

On a side note, both my Play-FI devices and Sonos are chocking on the large size of my library. They just don't have the memory to index so many files. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of doing this.

If I recall, you said you have about 2800 albums? That shouldn't be anywhere near enough tracks to run into Sonos' file limit. (I don't know anything about Play-FI.) For the purposes of diagnosing metadata issues and testing solutions, should you need to do that, it can be helpful to create a much smaller "temporary library" on your local computer. In Sonos's options, set this as your music library location. Then it won't take so long to re-index as you test metadata changes.

[garym]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

I just ran a test in Batch Converter using your string. It turned the top list of directories into the bottom list.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]580[/ATTACH]

Have you clicked on NAME at top of column so that windows explorer then lists the directories alphebetically by name order?

also re showing track number twice? No, it shouldn't, as BrodyBoy explains very well, the file name is irrelevant to what your player shows (at least for most players). They use metdata (tags) NOT the filename itself.

Are your total tracks 60,000 or so? If true, this very well could be a problem with SONOS. It has a 65,000 track limit, but depending on the tag data in the files, the number could actually be much less. There is no such limit on the Squeezebox/LMS system as it works very differently. Not sure about the other system you mentioned.

[prpixel]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

Have you clicked on NAME at top of column so that windows explorer then lists the directories alphebetically by name order?

also re showing track number twice? No, it shouldn't, as BrodyBoy explains very well, the file name is irrelevant to what your player shows (at least for most players). They use metdata (tags) NOT the filename itself.

Are your total tracks 60,000 or so? If true, this very well could be a problem with SONOS. It has a 65,000 track limit, but depending on the tag data in the files, the number could actually be much less. There is no such limit on the Squeezebox/LMS system as it works very differently. Not sure about the other system you mentioned.

No, not having files listed by name in Windows Explorer. Since I ran the Mp3Tag string to include the track number in the file name, when I open them in Mp3Tag, they are now in order. Before, the files would be scrambled and I would have to match them up, which was a PITA. While I have 2800+ complete albums, I have a lot of stuff where I only purchased a one or two tracks. I went back and looked through my library, and I have a lot of duplicates, under different directories, that need to be cleaned up.

I spoke with Sonos, and I think once I get everything cleaned up, I should be fine. Running that Batch Convert, with the wrong string, really ripped some albums apart. Also, some tracks have gone missing and I need to track them down. Pun intended. I was hoping this would be a lot easier, but like most things in life, you have to work at it.

As far as Play-Fi is concerned, it's a freaking nightmare. Play-Fi has a very low limit on the number of tracks it can index. I set up a small temporary library and whenever I got above about 40-50 albums, the App just locked up. I spoke to them about it, and they are aware of the indexing problem. They said that a fix should be coming in the Fall. So, it's going to take them a year to straighten it out; not good. Well, it least it can play Pandora and internet radio; yeah.

Question: In Mp3Tag, should the album art display when I click on every track? Album art does display on the Squeezeboxes during playback.

Sorry for all the "issues." Even though I've been doing this for 15 years, I've been using WMP which was pretty easy. Rip a CD, sync it over to my Server, re-index the library and play away. Hopefully, once I get everything straightened out, it will become easy (familiar) again.

Thanks,

[garym]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

yes, in mp3tag, you should click on a track and see artwork. Do you have the artwork "pane" turned on in mp3tag? That is:

1. VIEW > tick tag panel
2. TOOLS > OPTIONS > Tag Panel and to the right under tag panel items, 'tick' "Display Cover Art"

[prpixel]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

yes, in mp3tag, you should click on a track and see artwork. Do you have the artwork "pane" turned on in mp3tag? That is:

1. VIEW > tick tag panel
2. TOOLS > OPTIONS > Tag Panel and to the right under tag panel items, 'tick' "Display Cover Art"

Yes, I have the artwork pane turned on.

If I take the check out of "Don't display first image from directory as cover art" on the "Tags" page, then the artwork displays.

Should I be "embedding" artwork in every track?

Thanks,

[mville]

Re: Batch conversions of WMA lossless to Flac - preserve tags

If I take the check out of "Don't display first image from directory as cover art" on the "Tags" page, then the artwork displays.

Yes, that is correct. As long as you have the cover art in the album folder, it will now display in MP3Tag.

Should I be "embedding" artwork in every track?

It is not necessary (most of the time).