[ted_b]

Dan
Great quote! 

Phil posted it here yesterday too.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=49229.msg558814#new

[kenreau]

Under the umbrella of general information.... I posted this on the discless cirlce but it occured to me this may be a better venue as I imagine a number of the MWI Transporter fan club may have incountered similar issues getting up to speed and using all the SqueezeCenter capabilities.

Just providing a work in progress update on my Squeezecenter slow interface issues.  I plugged in the 2GB sticks of ram and experienced a reasonable increase in speed as noted earlier. 

I'm still a SC rookie and wanted to move on to getting my album folders organized, adding album art work, pandora, radio stations etc.  Another issue I've had, not mentioned previously, is that only a small fraction of my music files can be accessed directly from my Transporter.  IE - if it use my SC running on the desktop pc, I can see and select all 900+ music folders.  When in the listening room and operating from the TP, I can only see and select roughly 60 music folders.

I ended up calling slimdevices/logictech tech support to address some of these tasks and ended up learning the source of my slow processing & related issues is due to using WAV files and thier lack of information tags.  I currently have ~960 albums loaded. The tech said that the lack of music file tags with the wav. files is at the center of my frustrating issues.  Recommended solution was converting to FLAC files.
So, next task is to pursue converting my dedicated hard drive of wav files into FLAC files with tags.  Agghhh, another learning curve.

All my wav files were backed up to my hard drive via EAC.  I used the uncompressed format with the EAC associated database for album names.  I do keep an outboard backup drive that I plan to keep in wav format and just get the internal music drive migrated in to the FLAC format.

Any recommendations out there for making the FLAC file conversion?  Is there a means to automatically get the necessary file tags along with this process (I pray so...).


I browsed the SlimDevices forum a while back, but didn't really see an applicable thread.  Is there a concensus here as to going all FLAC files?  Is there a way around getting the neccessary tags for wav. files short of making the change to FLAC?  My main concern over going FLAC is from what I've read previously, not everyone is convinced the FLAC files are not compromising sonics.

Thanks,
Kenreau

[rydenfan]

I have never read anything about FLAC compressing files. I use a bit perfect ripper and am 100% FLAC. The TP plays it natively and it takes far less storage. It is the way to go IMO

[kenreau]

I have never read anything about FLAC compressing files. I use a bit perfect ripper and am 100% FLAC. The TP plays it natively and it takes far less storage. It is the way to go IMO

David - What ripper program do you use?

Thanks,
Ken

[WG]

You may want to investigate Easy CD-DA Extractor.  You can download a free trial version, http://www.poikosoft.com/  It has a converter feature that may be helpful for you.

Will   

[rydenfan]

I have never read anything about FLAC compressing files. I use a bit perfect ripper and am 100% FLAC. The TP plays it natively and it takes far less storage. It is the way to go IMO

David - What ripper program do you use?

Thanks,
Ken

Since I have a MAC I use a program called MAX. It also has an accompanying program called TAG and a script program to import album and track info from itunes if MAX happens not to recognize it. I can easily walk you through it if you are a MAC user. Pretty easy once you get the hang of the nuances of it. It also have an encoder where you could simply input your WAV files and turn them into FLAC files (most programs will have this)
http://sbooth.org/Max/

EAC seems to be the choice among PC's.

[TomS]

deleted

[ted_b]

I've used EAC for years, ripped 1000+ cd's and never had problems with FLAC.  I described my process a year ago or so.  I'll look  for the thread.  I do WAV and then FLAC cuz i want flexibility to first import to iPod, etc.

[ted_b]

I have never read anything about FLAC compressing files. I use a bit perfect ripper and am 100% FLAC. The TP plays it natively and it takes far less storage. It is the way to go IMO

Not sure exactly what you meant, but this is from the FLAC site: "FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, an audio format similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality".  It is lossless but does compress so the files are smaller.  I agree it's the way to go and have never looked back.

David (rydenfan) meant "compressing" the same way Kenreau used it in his post, as in "compressing sonics".  I think all are aware it is a compressed lossless format, just debating whether lossless means lossless. 

[funkmonkey]

Here is the wiki page for FLAC:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Lossless_Audio_Codec
worth a read if you have any doubts about it.

I use MAX as a ripper/file converter as well...  thanks to David  

Very smooth operation via wired ethernet connection to my TP.  I initially set up wireless, but ran into problems with my router dropping the signal (POS)

[TomS]

Gotcha.  In a hurry today so didn't read back.

[rydenfan]

Thanks Ted! Tough crowd 

[kenreau]

I've used EAC for years, ripped 1000+ cd's and never had problems with FLAC.  I described my process a year ago or so.  I'll look  for the thread.  I do WAV and then FLAC cuz i want flexibility to first import to iPod, etc.

Thanks Ted & David & Gang,

I'm on a PC and use EAC exclusively.  Ted - I'll look for your thread, this sounds like the same path I am on.  Are you able to get the info tags with all your wav files?  What process do you use to get into FLAC (with all necessary tags)?

Thanks,
Kenreau

[TomS]

Thanks Ted! Tough crowd 

Sorry about that...    deleted my post to not confuse those whose brains are working today (unlike mine).

[mikel51]

I started off using EAC and .wav.  I used JRiver media center which can psuedo tag .wav files.  It can also manage files for the ipod.  It has very good capabilities to transcode files from one format to another.  For a while I used (gulp) windows media player to rip .wma lossless files--super easy and it has a great database to recognize albums.  When I moved to the transporter I decided to switch to FLAC.  JRiver transcoded all the files to FLAC very nicely. Now I am using JRiver Media Center to rip files to FLAC.  It has a secure mode that is similar to what EAC does.  MediaCenter also can store "stacks" of the files that have been converted to mp3 or other format to manage an IPOD.  For me this is the winning combination because it allows me to use FLAC files for my transporter and 320kb mp3 files for my ipod.  If I ever want to switch formats, Media center will be up to the task.

[kenreau]

Thanks Mikel.

I think I hit pay dirt.  I combed the slimdevices forums and discovered the official term for what I am attempting is transcoding.  Holy mackerel,,, lots of threads and problems with tags posted there.  I can see now I need to change all future ripping to be sure and get the tags set up automatically.

Fwiw, this is where I'm looking into next.  http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/BeginnersGuideToRipping

DBpowerAmp seems to be the most recommended MS platform.

[NickS]

DBpowerAmp seems to be the most recommended MS platform.

After many an ungracious lurch and false start with a variety of ripping/management software, I finally arrived at dBpoweramp and never looked back.  Only wish that I would have discovered it much sooner.

I recommend licensing the "reference" version accompanied with a full read of its impressive features and functionality on the author's website.  Not sure of metadata capture of .wav -> flac but there is a batch processor that should save a ton of time with the basic file conversion.

Good luck with your project.  It can be a tedious and time consuming PITA, but very well worth it in the end.

[kenreau]

DBpowerAmp seems to be the most recommended MS platform.

After many an ungracious lurch and false start with a variety of ripping/management software, I finally arrived at dBpoweramp and never looked back.  Only wish that I would have discovered it much sooner.

I recommend licensing the "reference" version accompanied with a full read of its impressive features and functionality on the author's website.  Not sure of metadata capture of .wav -> flac but there is a batch processor that should save a ton of time with the basic file conversion.

Good luck with your project.  It can be a tedious and time consuming PITA, but very well worth it in the end.

Thanks Nick, I'm headed that direction.

At the SC forum there were a number of threads & confusion re: tag coding an album in its entirety or individually by song.  What do you recommend there?

Thanks again,
Kenreau

[NickS]

DBpowerAmp seems to be the most recommended MS platform.

After many an ungracious lurch and false start with a variety of ripping/management software, I finally arrived at dBpoweramp and never looked back.  Only wish that I would have discovered it much sooner.

I recommend licensing the "reference" version accompanied with a full read of its impressive features and functionality on the author's website.  Not sure of metadata capture of .wav -> flac but there is a batch processor that should save a ton of time with the basic file conversion.

Good luck with your project.  It can be a tedious and time consuming PITA, but very well worth it in the end.

At the SC forum there were a number of threads & confusion re: tag coding an album in its entirety or individually by song.  What do you recommend there?

Doing the tags by album has worked for me.  My preference has evolved for a simple directory hierachy of "artist - album - track number - track" in order to keep things as simple and comprehensible as possible.

My suggestion is to establish your discipline for files on the front end so as to eliminate having to go back and herd strays in perpetuity.  With that platitude articulated let me say that nobody could have guided me to "what I ultimately wanted".  There are simply too many variables of preference that, in the end, one must sort for himself (pretty much) by trial and error.

Again, I hope that your process is productive and mercifully brief!

[kenreau]

Thanks for the tips NickS