[Thump553]

I'm looking for software that will load music files (mostly flac, some mp3) from a large playlist (scattered over many directories) and then convert the files to normalized mp3s in a different directory (preserving the originals unmodified). 

I can do this in two stages if need be (conversion then normalization) but reading the files from a playlist is essential.

Any ideas?

[quietdragon]

I'm looking for software that will load music files (mostly flac, some mp3) from a large playlist (scattered over many directories) and then convert the files to normalized mp3s in a different directory (preserving the originals unmodified). 

I can do this in two stages if need be (conversion then normalization) but reading the files from a playlist is essential.

Any ideas?

I do something like this. I split my audio library into two:

• Reference in /audio/library/
• Transcoded to MP3 for car and mobile use in /audio/car

I mostly use Robin Bowe's FLAC to MP3 conversion script but customised for my own needs:

• Non-Latin text conversion
• Volume normalisation

For my needs, I don't bother with a playlist. I just convert the entire library since disk space is relatively cheap, and the converter is smart enough to only convert new and changed material.

[Thump553]

I don't want to convert everything, the library is gigantic and the playlists themselves are pretty big (50-100 tracks each from the same number of artists/albums).

[ted_b]

DBPoweramp's batch converter will allow for bit rate, file type and folder filters across multiple directories...but I don't think it will read playlist (text) files and try to find files that way. ?

[JRace]

I believe Foobar does this.

Have you ever used foobar? If not it can be a initially daunting and confusing task as the software is completely user configured.

[jopagi]

MediaMonkey's pretty good about converting from different formats.
MM provides a lot of flexibility on where to put the converted file, and you can set up rules for criteria on how to convert -- what bitrates to use, etc.   You can level the volume during conversion if you like.
It doesn't have a built-in way to do this in a batch script if that's what you're looking for, though, but it does do the conversion in a background process so you could have multiple playlists being converted at the same time if you wish.

[Thump553]

Thanks for the tips.  I probably end up using Foobar.  It's funny, I've used it for probably hundreds of hours of playback and didn't have the slighest idea it had that capability.