[Nels Ferre]

Hi All,

I'm just starting to explore the whole music server idea, and have been playing with it a bit.  I want to make sure everything works right before I commit fully to it.  I have not yet purchased extra hard drives, an outboard USB DAC or anything, as I'm still trying to grasp file structures at the present time. If I can get the library function working correctly, then I will proceed.

I've been using EAC to copy a dozen or so discs to my hard drive in my laptop. I did follow all of the advice in the sticky. Then, I use Windows Media Player 9.0 to search for album artwork. Then I want to use Foobar 2000 as my interface, but when it pulls up the album, the track order is all wrong.  Also, the album artwork is missing.  I'd like the GUI to look and sort like it does in Windows Media Player, but it doesn't.

Do I even need Foobar 2000?  Everyone says iTunes won't work, but iTunes seems to play the FLAC files I compressed as a test.

What am I doing wrong?   

Thanks,
Nels

[lcrim]

I'm only guessing but  EAC, out of the box, is set to use Lame as its compression utility.   IIRC  iTunes can play the resulting MP3 w/o transcoding.  If you change the compression path in EAC to use flac.exe then iTunes can't play these but foobar can.  Tagging during the rip process should maintain track order but first check which utility is doing the compression.  High rate MP3's sound better than low rate but not nearly as good as a lossless format.
The tipoff is that iTunes can play your ripped files.

[Nels Ferre]

You were right, EAC was associated with LAME, not FLAC.  I changed it.  Hopefully, with FLAC doing the compression, it won't change the track order.

I had to go to work, so I will mess with it more later on when I get home.

[lcrim]

Nels:
The metadata tags can, among other pieces of info, keep track of the playback order.  I can PM you the tagging I use and you can start from there.  Original order on the CD is one of the things I keep track of.

[Nels Ferre]

Larry,

Yes please, PM any tips/advice you have.

Thanks,
Nels

[Nels Ferre]

I have things working better now. Almost there in fact.

I still have a problem with correct CD order when converting.  The correct order shows in Windows Media Player. FLAC and Foobar 2000 put the tracks in abphabetical order.   

Any ideas?

[boead]

Hi All,

I'm just starting to explore the whole music server idea, and have been playing with it a bit.  I want to make sure everything works right before I commit fully to it.  I have not yet purchased extra hard drives, an outboard USB DAC or anything, as I'm still trying to grasp file structures at the present time. If I can get the library function working correctly, then I will proceed.

I've been using EAC to copy a dozen or so discs to my hard drive in my laptop. I did follow all of the advice in the sticky. Then, I use Windows Media Player 9.0 to search for album artwork. Then I want to use Foobar 2000 as my interface, but when it pulls up the album, the track order is all wrong.  Also, the album artwork is missing.  I'd like the GUI to look and sort like it does in Windows Media Player, but it doesn't.

Do I even need Foobar 2000?  Everyone says iTunes won't work, but iTunes seems to play the FLAC files I compressed as a test.

What am I doing wrong?   

Thanks,
Nels

iTunes will NOT play FLAC natively so the files you think are FLAC aren’t.



In EAC you need to have it set to name the files with the track numbers.


FLAC as External Compressor for EAC

*.flac

C:\Program Files\FLAC\flac.exe

-5 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s


you can change the -5 to whatever flac compression level you choose (5 is generally regarded to have the best time spent/compression ratio).

[boead]

I have things working better now. Almost there in fact.

I still have a problem with correct CD order when converting.  The correct order shows in Windows Media Player. FLAC and Foobar 2000 put the tracks in abphabetical order.   

Any ideas?

The actual file names don’t include the track number. This is BAD!

The track number is in the tag but not the file name. Most music library apps (Media Player, iTunes, MusicMatch) will read and organize via tags. This is fine for music that can be tagged but not for music like WAV or AIFF which can NOT be tagged.
Foobar2000 lists by file name, not tagged information.


Example:

Beatles, The
  Revolver
    01 Taxman.mp3
    02 Eleanor Rigby.mp3
    03 I'm Only Sleeping.mp3

Or

The Beatles
  Revolver
    Eleanor Rigby.mp3
    I'm Only Sleeping.mp3
    Taxman.mp3

Which do you prefer?

In this way The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Doors will all fall under “T” Most want to name and tag as Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The and so on…


I don’t include the Artist name and album in the file name but you can, it can look like this:
Beatles, The
  Revolver
    01 Beatles, The – Revolver - Taxman.mp3
    02 Beatles, The – Revolver - Eleanor Rigby.mp3
    03 Beatles, The – Revolver - I'm Only Sleeping.mp3

[lcrim]

There is a dropdown in foobar that will allow you to change to the tagged order.  It will start off alphabetically when it starts building a playlist.   Yes, it is inconvenient to have to go back and tell the software to arrange by track number but it can be done.  This is only workable if you used the tagging while ripping that I PM'ed you which included track number.
I haven't used foobar for a while as I went to all Squeezeboxes a short while ago.  The thing is that foobar especially using DSP's, can use an awful lot of resources on the PC.  Slimserver is a very small resource footprint in comparison.  Foobar can really sound terrific but if you are using it, it generally means that you have a device connected via USB and unless you dedicate and optimize the PC involved you get a lot of unwanted noise from the PC (pops and such),  not to mention the extra dough and complexity to make the PC quiet.  I had a USB setup and changed to SB's to get the noise away from the listening environment. 
Let us know how you're coming along.

[Nels Ferre]

I did the command string that Larry PM'd me. no dice. Now everything is in alphabetical order.  Before it is even compressed, the order is messed up in Foobar 2000. Its correct in Windows Media Player 9, though.

I realize everyone is using Slimserver with their Squeezeboxes, but I figured I could give it a try with a USB DAC plugged straight into my laptop. (Dell Inspiron 2200, Celeron 1.4, 1.2 GB RAM, 120 GB HD)   The idea was to get 2 outboard USB Harddrives (500GB ea.) using one for backup.  I'm not seeing why I really need the Squeezebox as the laptop is always in the same room as my system (very small condo.)  I don't have a problem with noisy fans, etc. The laptop is quiet.

I'd like my library sorted like this:

Beatles, The
  Revolver
    01 Beatles, The – Revolver - Taxman.flac
    02 Beatles, The – Revolver - Eleanor Rigby.flac
    03 Beatles, The – Revolver - I'm Only Sleeping.flac

Which brings up another question:  Will my file structure get foobard (pun intended) when the artist title and album title are the same (i.e. The Beatles-The Beatles a.k.a. The White Album) ?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

[Scott F.]

Nels,

You may have tried this already but your tagging commands in EAC have an order to them. In other words, if you want the track number to be read first by Foobar, you need to move it up in the command line.

boead's example was this....

-5 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

Which would read like... Beatles, Revolver, 1966, Taxman, Track 1, Rock. That is likely why Foobar is putting everything in alpha order.


If you want the Foobar to read the track number first, you will need to move it up in the command line.

-5 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "album=%g" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "date=%y" -T "genre=%m" %s

Which should read like this....Beatles, Revolver, 1966, Track 1, Taxman, Rock.

In EAC, I don't remember what the "title" tag was for so I omitted it from the string above. Also, I (personally) would move the "date" field to the end of the string. the only time you would use that field is if you wanted to do a random play of all the music from 1966.

I think I've got the tagging right but I would be all wet.

[Nels Ferre]

OK, I now have track numbers, but it is still reassigning the track numbers to alphabetical order.

I know for sure I am using FLAC: Windows Media Player cannot play the files.

Maybe i should just stick with WAV files....this is irritating to say the least.

[lcrim]

In foobar version 0.8.3 there is a menu called playlist.  After choosing a directory or a file to add to the present playlist, you could reopen the playlist menu and select sort.  Then it was possible to sort by track number.
I downloaded foobar version 0.9.4.3 and that playlist menu has become library and while I didn't have any ripped music on my work PC and didn't see the sort selection.
I don't know if the newest versions have abandoned this functionality but you can get foobar 0.8.3 @  http://www.filehippo.com/download_foobar2000/?55
and I know that it works in that version.  Frankly, I think that the new version is a step backwards.

[Nels Ferre]

Larry,

I am using the newest release of Foobar. I will uninstall it and install the earlier release. Hopefully, this, along with the other help, will fix my problems.

Thanks,
Nels

[Nels Ferre]

Thanks to everyone for the help.

The command lines that were provided were a help, but the real fix was reverting to an older version of Foobar2000. The new version flat out sucks.

Thanks again!!   

[lcrim]

Nels:
Happy to hear it is working.  In order to take KMixer out of the signal path, it is usually necessary to use an ASIO driver and unmap the device.  KMixer is a part of WIN2K and WINXP that uses a funky algorithm to upsample 44.1 to 48 KHZ and in changing the sample rate something is lost.

[JEaton]

You may have tried this already but your tagging commands in EAC have an order to them. In other words, if you want the track number to be read first by Foobar, you need to move it up in the command line.

No, this is incorrect.  The order of the tags passed from EAC to Flac when encoding the file makes no difference at all.  Tag data has no order to it.

You may be thinking of the construction of the filename, so that it has the tracknumber first, followed by other information.  That setting in EAC is at EAC Options > Filename > Naming scheme.