Specify file path in format converter, settings ml_transcode.ini
 

Hi,

I tried and search the forums in order to find and answer for my Q without any luck.
So now I'm posting it here at tech support.

I've my whole library in wav and now want to convert to flac.

My Q is if there is any possibility to use a "combination" of the 2 different "naming schemes" or is my only option to use what's in the filename format help?

IE, I would like to have the exact same folder structure for the files but still add some more info from my library to the filename than the converter do automatically. I tried all sorts of combinations in the "specify the naming scheme" mode without any luck, like ; <path>/<genre> - <filename>, <directory>/<genre> - <filename>
but converter simple does'nt buy it. And when using the "use old filename and path (just change the extension) " option, the converter does'nt add the extra info to the filenames that I want. The reason for asking for this is for saving huge amount of time when I'll import back the newly created flac files. The whole idea is to add the "genre" and " year" info to the filename and then use a tag-program and add the info from the filename to the tags and then remove the info from the filename so the files goes back to the original name. And then I could just use notepad++ and change the *.wav extension to *.flac in all the hundreds of hundreds playlists I have. And voila!, then I could also reuse all of the old playlists.

What do U guys reckon? any chance? all the best, D.G

Yes - it should be possible. I think a lot of your confusion could be caused by that comma in your example. That will not be a valid character. Also stop trying to add <path> and <filename> into the path.

I think you'd need something more like:

<Artist>\<Album>\## - <Trackartist> - <Title>

<Artist>\[<year>] <Album>\## - <Trackartist> - <Title>

<genre>\<Artist>\[<year>] <Album>\## - <Trackartist> - <Title>


BUT... if you want to do your playlist trick, you will need use the "use old filename and path (just change the extension)" option. Then notepad++ just needs to swap .WAV to .FLAC

Remember - unlike your WAV files, the FLAC files can keep embeded data in the file tags. This can usually be filled via send to -> auto-tag (Though always double check the results - I find it 99% accurate)

Or the program MP3TAG gives more flexible tagging options.

hi,

sorry about the the comma! It was meant to be read as 2 differrent examples of me trying.
Ie 1; <path>/<genre> - <filename>

2; <directory>/<genre> - <filename>

And yeah, I totally understand that the <path> and <filename> thing I tried does'nt work.
Also I'm totally aware of the autotag option, was hoping there would be an easier way thou since I have > 2500 albums in my library!

So from looking at your answer I take it as my example of what I want is'nt possible?

I was hoping maybe there would be a chance to get converter to understand any other keywords (or "strings") than what is mentioned in the "filename format help"?
What happens exactly when I click the "use old filename and path (just change the extension)" option?
I was thinkin maybe if one knew how the keyword / string looked for that, maybe it could be used, and then converter could "understand" how to name / place the files?
Or if it somehow is possible to configure the "ml_transcode.ini" , or configure / modify any other file for that matter?

If this is not possible I reckon it would be a perfect thing to put on "wantlist" for future version of winamp? Or whatdoya reckon?

cheers for your time answering, :up:

I think those filename options were built with a CD and auto-tagging in mind. So not designed to do what you are trying to do.

There is a simple way of doing it. Just use the "Use old filename and path (just change the extension)" option. This will scatter the new FLAC files in among your WAV files. Keeping the same directory structure.

Next - COPY everything to a new folder. ALL of it. WAVs and FLACs duplicated into a new location.

Now, in this new location, just use Windows Search to locate the "*.wav" files and delete them from the new location.


That is simple and does not need any special tools. And will achieve what you are after. Maintaining a directory structure. It just needs lots of spare disk space.


A more elegant solution should be possible with various scripts which could walk the tree of combined WAV and FLAC files and move the FLACs to a new location. I don't have time to write that though.


One thing that does confuse me. Are you not going to have to use Auto-tag at the end to fill in the tags? Or does format converter do the gracenote lookups?

hi,

Re ; "One thing that does confuse me. Are you not going to have to use Auto-tag at the end to fill in the tags? Or does format converter do the gracenote lookups?

That's kind of the whole thing why I use winamp thru the years. The good thing with winamps library is that files does'nt need to be tagged. And I have kept my library in very good order, always completing albums with "genre", "year", "comments" etc.

And no, it does'nt look up gracenote. but converter will tag the files with "artist", "album" and "title" !

And that leads me into what really confuses me btw :weird:, why the heck the guy who wrote "converter" did'nt include "genre" and "year" to what converter automatically tags the files with!??!!!...

I mean "artist", "album", "title","genre" and "year" is the absolute minimum of info that a music lover needs. And hence, that's why I was to add "genre" and "year" to the filename. And afterwards use the fantastic program MP3tag (as U also mentioned) to add the info to the tags instead.

I can see your confusion. But I can also see why the developer used the "minimum" details. We all have different needs.

Personally, I never use Genre as I find them too random. What I do see as important is "Track Number" as I like to play my albums in the order the artist created them. That seems to be missing both from the converted tags and your suggested minimum.

I never fully trust Gracenote anyway. Always double check what it wants to fill in. And then there is the artwork that needs locating. So when I am ripping or converting albums I always find I do some manual work to clean them up.

Are U what U call a "developer?

Me, I'm just a huge music fan. Electrical engineer by proffession, so I do have "some" analytical skills, ;)

And ofcourse you're right regarding tracknumber, it's obvious.

I assume you are talking to me? No - I don't work for Winamp in any shape or forum. Just a fan of the product and like helping people.

By trade I run my own IT Support Company, and did used to be a developer back at the turn of the century. In the past few weeks I have actually picked up the old programmer's toolbox again so can say I AM now a developer again.

As an Electrical Engineer you have all the skills you need to get this to work. We can find a solution that minimises the work needed to do that mass conversion.


With the choice of tags, I do agree that it is a little odd only filling in so few of them. Especially when your Winamp database is already filled with the relevant data, it should just copy that out to the newly created FLAC.

I do find that Send To -> Auto Tag does do a pretty good job. I will often just sling it ten albums at a time and then read down the list of results it finds and check each one to see if it is better tagging. This can be fairly quick to do (especially if I am multi-tasking on other jobs while waiting for the list to be filled)

Do you already have cover art sorted for all of your wav'd albums?

nah, really don't care about cover art. I listen to the music, :)
I guess from your post that U like me grew up with vinyl?
So me I get back to them if I wanna check cover art, I've a huge collection.

Not so convinient thou! ;)
But I already hated it when the shiny shitty little things called CD's came about, "cover art" on the computer? Bah, even worse!!

But over to the tagging Q, seems like there is'nt much happening develop winamp these days? I had another tagging "issue" a year ago or so, U could check my thread in : http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=156198
if U bother.
Nice to C that U agree with me regarding converter "that it is a little odd only filling in so few of them." And as U say, I have done the "dirty work" filling in all the relevant data in my library. Really don't wanna spend time doing kind of the same thing all over again. Heck, is'nt that the whole point with computers; doing boring manual repeatedly work automatically instead?? The things we've discussed doing manually are all things I already kind of thought about, but could'nt be bothered. I think I'll put my plans on ice for a while, I thank U for a nice conversation.

Yes, fellow vinyl junkie here too. Though I also have an extensive CD collection and now FLAC. The FLAC is for carrying in the car or on my phone.

Have you ever looked at the program MP3TAG http://www.mp3tag.de/en/ ? This is a clever little tool that may well be able to do the job you require on the tags. It can follow all kinds of complex patterns for renaming and sorting out the tags in many different types of audio files.

This should be able to follow your folder and file naming schemes and then transfer that to the FLAC files. There is a lot of control over what it will and will not update.


As to the bulk conversion of WAV to FLAC, I think my suggestion up there takes very little work and comes up with the answer you need. Do I guess you will have two directory structures - one for WAV and one for FLAC?

\WAV\artist name\year - album name\artist name - track# - title
ex. \WAV\Kiss\1976 - Destroyer\Kiss - 01 - Detroit Rock City.wav

\FLAC\artist name\year - album name\artist name - track# - title
ex. \FLAC\Kiss\1976 - Destroyer\Kiss - 01 - Detroit Rock City.flac

Once Winamp has converted the tracks to FLAC and filled in what little information it does, you then hand over to MP3TAG to "finish" the details you require.


The advantage of having real tags in the digital files, unlike WAV, will mean that with a little thought you should be able to get this all to work a lot easier for you than with the WAVs. And most certainly there will be a way to make the computer do all the donkey work. :)



Oh - and using "C" and "U" looks really odd when the rest of your message using correct English. That is one thing I never got used to - text speak. :)

i've not properly read the full thread (meant to and then ended up fixing a quirk with ml_transcoder handling when the last encoder used is no longer there).

one thing i think i'm taking is that you're saying the genre and year are not being populated into the tags when doing a conversion? as i've just tried it with a file (mp3) which has the information to start with to m4a and flac and it worked.

if coming from a wav file then seeing as there is generally no / minimal tag support then it not working out the genre / year wouldn't surprise me. are the wav's in the library or just in the playlist editor? asking as the library can try to guess some of the metadata based on the name and should then try to use that (can be verified in the library). otherwise i don't really see much which is wrong since you cannot create information from what isn't there.

or am i completely missing the point / issue?

-daz

@DrO: I think that doggod has an audio collection stored as WAVs as he ripped with quality in mind. He then carefully names the files on the hard disk to hold the relevant metadata as he could not store that in the actual tags. Winamp then displays this in the Media Library.

It is this detail that he wants to transfer across to the new FLAC rips. He can see that Winamp can interpret his file naming scheme to display in the Media Library. So he wants to be able to pass more of that information on to his FLAC TAGs.


One thing confusing me is I think doggod thinks that Winamp's Media Library is actually holding the data from the tracks because he entered it in. As I understand it, Winamp is holding this data, but just derived from the file and folder names. As far as I know the RIGHT CLICK \ FILE INFO option is not available for a wav file. (This could be where some of the confusion is)

correct, there is no alt+3 info viewable for wav files.

yes, the ml will attempt to guess the values from the filename on import, though the transcoder should then be grabbing that (at least from what i believe it's meant to do - haven't actually checked code due to doing other things), since it should try to port as much tag info as possible over to the new file unless there's a) a bug in that handling or b) it's seeing it's a wav file and just ignoring things.

a full example of one of the file paths being converted might be useful if i can find a chance to test it further...

-daz

Thanks DrO, everything you describe there makes sense. And answering on behalf of doggod, I nicked an example of his file paths from a different post. So I believe he names them in the following pattern.

artist name\year - album name\artist name - track# - title
ex. Kiss\1976 - Destroyer\Kiss - 01 - Detroit Rock City.wav

(Hopefully doggod can confirm that)


And what do you mean "if you find the time"? Have you used up your quota of "27 hour days" this year already? :D

hi guys,

ah, finally lots of interest here :).
Ok i'll try clear things out;
I'll try not confuse things on getting into my old thread regarding importing wav's to the library.
First DrO, the files are imported into the library and from there sent to converter.
So if we use the example ;
Kiss\1976 - Destroyer\01 - Kiss - Detroit Rock City.wav

When I've imported a file named like that the library automatically guess "artist", "album", "track#" and finally "title. I then manually have added "year" and "genre" (or whatever other info I would like to add) in the "Edit file info" (Ctr+E) mode (I do understand the difference between Ctrl+E and Alt+3). And from reading DrO's posts I know realise he might be on the right track there, talking about a possible bug? I'm not sure but it seems like there must be some sort of priority of how converter automatically tags the new file? From DrO's test it seems to work ok, but mine does'nt, so it must be that if the source file is one that includes a tag it passes that over but if not, it passes info from ml. Thing is that it only passes those 4 "tags" over earlier mentioned that the ml manage to guess when importing a file, anything else added afterwards in "Ctrl+E" it skips! I don't know about you guys but for me that seems really odd and awkward? Would'nt it make more sense that it passes all the info that you actually can add in the "Crt+E" option? Otherwise what's the point of having the option of "edit file info"? I can't be bothered testing now, but one might could see a problem here, say even if the source is a "taggable" file. Say if U have .mp3 files and you do some sort of re-tagging and miss to click the "update file tag(s) if supported" then ml won't write your newly edited tag info to the actual files, what will then happen if convert them to another format? Will it write your new info from within your library or not? For me the most obvious thing to automatically pass on to the newly converted files would be all info written in your ml and not in the tagged files.

ok, so it's custom metadata against an imported file with no true metadata which is then not being re-read correctly on conversion - most likely it's something silly which is causing it (if i can get a bit of free time to look into it - though that's not guaranteed as i'm not meant to be working on such things currently).

i've always been led to believe that if the file is in the ml, then the information stored from that is the preferred source of data in other parts of the player, so as you've noted, it should be following the same for wav files, etc.

-daz

Hi,

would be fantastic if you or someone else in the team could get this to work!

I actually just tested what I could see as a possible problem and it works just as i thought:
ie.

I imported som flac files to ml and then removed (with Ctrl+E) what was in the comments tag but did'nt click the "update file tag(s) if supported" with the suspected result.

The written tag data disappeared in ml but when sent to converter it was there in the new mp3 files! I used flac to mp3. Hopefully you guys agree that is not that great? As I said earlier, I reckon the proper way of doing it should be that it writes whats in winamps ml and not the files metadata.

the preference should be use ml data first, if not there then revert to the in-tag options (if present or guessing). tbh until / if i can look into things (which is not guaranteed though i will try), i'm not entirely sure what's going on with the order of data acquisition.

i don't disagree that it does seem inconsistent with how it is working on things, though changing anything would need to be evaluated first to ensure it doesn't cause other issues (as then i'd get lumped with fixing that if i do the initial fix, heh).

-daz

yeah I know what you mean, believe it or not.
working as a electrical engineer I quite often have what I first think is a tiny easy fixed problem, but ends up with 5 new ones trying to fix the first one.
The "dear" Mr. Murphy at work.....;)

well hopefully it gets solved easily sooner or later, how can I get updated if it gets solved?

Hi again "DrO" / Daz,

What do you think about the issue? Is it realistic to think / hope that it will be solved in a near future? "Near future" for me would be in 1 - 3 months time. If a novice like me could do anything for help, please just let me know.