Help! Music Conversion
Discussion
Hi
I have extracted all my CDs onto my HDD in WAV format using CDex, the intention being to have an easily accessible high-quality version of all my music from which I can rip MP3s or play in full quality over my internal network. The file structure is organised as follows:
My CDs -> Artist Name -> Album Name
I would like to put all the songs I have ripped on my iPod in AAC format. However, when I use iTunes to do this, it ignores the folder structure and hence associates no artist and album name with the songs, meaning they would be all mixed-up on my iPod.
Can anyone recommend a way of getting the WAV files onto my iPod in AAC format without me having to enter all the artist and album data (e.g. it infers this data from the file structure) - CDDB in iTunes doesn't seem to work on WAV files already extracted from CDs.
Cheers. :)
roadie.
I have extracted all my CDs onto my HDD in WAV format using CDex, the intention being to have an easily accessible high-quality version of all my music from which I can rip MP3s or play in full quality over my internal network. The file structure is organised as follows:
My CDs -> Artist Name -> Album Name
I would like to put all the songs I have ripped on my iPod in AAC format. However, when I use iTunes to do this, it ignores the folder structure and hence associates no artist and album name with the songs, meaning they would be all mixed-up on my iPod.
Can anyone recommend a way of getting the WAV files onto my iPod in AAC format without me having to enter all the artist and album data (e.g. it infers this data from the file structure) - CDDB in iTunes doesn't seem to work on WAV files already extracted from CDs.
Cheers. :)
roadie.
Someone, please help!
I have used Winamp and imported my WAV files into the Media Library after setting the Media Library Metadata Reading Settings to Simple which detects 'ArtistAlbumTitle' which is exactly what I need. However, although this issue is now sorted in Winamp it doesn't help me to get the AAC files onto my iPod with the same metadata in the file header. Any suggestions would be most welcome!
I have used Winamp and imported my WAV files into the Media Library after setting the Media Library Metadata Reading Settings to Simple which detects 'ArtistAlbumTitle' which is exactly what I need. However, although this issue is now sorted in Winamp it doesn't help me to get the AAC files onto my iPod with the same metadata in the file header. Any suggestions would be most welcome!
Jinx said:
Roadsweeper: I'll have a go this evening as I have ripped cds using media player and successfully imported into itunes. Must be a method from CDex.
Hi Jinx
Did you manage to get the Artist and Album information in the iTunes file then when you converted from the WAV files on your Hard Disk Drive? As I mention, Winamp infers this information from the file structure but iTunes doesn't seem to have this capability.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Cheers.
roadie.
SlidingSideways said:
It *might* actually be quicker to re-rip the CDs using iTunes to import them as AAC.
Hi
In the short term you're probably right. However, I ripped the CDs in WAV format onto my HDD as I want the highest quality source file I can get accessible on my LAN. The plan then is that whatever music formats come out, or I need, I can simply rip from the WAV to them, ensuring mimimal losses. Equally, I can play the WAV files through my networked HiFi that would expose the problems with, say, MP3s.
So, if I resample all my CDs again using iTunes it means that I haven't solved the fundamental problem of how to rip from my HDD music repository into other formats. Plus, I would have to keep doing this in the future and I plan to have over hundreds of my CDs ripped evetually.
Thanks for posting.
roadie.
Ok, I sort of missed the point.
iTunes uses the ID tags in the MP3/AAC file to store and display the info. AKAIK, .wav doesn't have these tags embedded within it.
CDDB works by taking a hash of the CD and comparing it to all those in the database to find a match, so it won't work on .wav files.
Does it have to be AAC on your iPod? I only ask as there are frequent posts from people who don't think that they can play MP3's.
One (roundabout) way - can CDex convert your .wav files to high quality MP3's with the artist/album data included? You could then use iTunes to convert these to AAC? It's a bit of a long winded way of doing it, but all I can come up with at the moment.
iTunes uses the ID tags in the MP3/AAC file to store and display the info. AKAIK, .wav doesn't have these tags embedded within it.
CDDB works by taking a hash of the CD and comparing it to all those in the database to find a match, so it won't work on .wav files.
Does it have to be AAC on your iPod? I only ask as there are frequent posts from people who don't think that they can play MP3's.
One (roundabout) way - can CDex convert your .wav files to high quality MP3's with the artist/album data included? You could then use iTunes to convert these to AAC? It's a bit of a long winded way of doing it, but all I can come up with at the moment.
SlidingSideways said:
Ok, I sort of missed the point.
iTunes uses the ID tags in the MP3/AAC file to store and display the info. AKAIK, .wav doesn't have these tags embedded within it.
CDDB works by taking a hash of the CD and comparing it to all those in the database to find a match, so it won't work on .wav files.
Does it have to be AAC on your iPod? I only ask as there are frequent posts from people who don't think that they can play MP3's.
One (roundabout) way - can CDex convert your .wav files to high quality MP3's with the artist/album data included? You could then use iTunes to convert these to AAC? It's a bit of a long winded way of doing it, but all I can come up with at the moment.
You're right, my iPod can play MP3, but I prefer AAC because it's better quality and produces smaller files. This is important because I have various accessories for my iPod which allow me to play the music on it through various speaker systems.
If I converted the WAVs to MP3s then to AACs I'm likely to lose quality unless I convert to a very high quality MP3 as the intermediate step. This would take a while and require a fair amount of storage space.
Regarding the CDDB and header data, you're quite right, that is how it works. I'm hoping there is some program out there sensible enough to just use the file structure in the same vein as Winamp to do the conversion as I'm not bothered about year and genre data, etc.
After a quick google, the only other AAC encoder I can find which doesn't get slagged off as being cr@p is NeroDigital (www.nerodigital.com/eng/Nero_Digital_Audio_Features.html).
Don't know if it'll grab the artist/title stuff from the path, but might be worth a shot?
Don't know if it'll grab the artist/title stuff from the path, but might be worth a shot?
There are various lossless formats that will approximately halve your storage requirements (e.g. shorten and flac), and CDEx can probably rip direct to them. I just noticed my CDEx appears to have an AAC encoder built in - maybe that will add the tags needed.
Failing that, iTunes is scriptable (even on Windoze), so the import + tag process could be automated.
Failing that, iTunes is scriptable (even on Windoze), so the import + tag process could be automated.
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