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Topic: how best to use F2K to convert FLAC to MP3? (Read 3314 times) previous topic - next topic
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how best to use F2K to convert FLAC to MP3?

a couple of years ago I used EAC to rip my CD collection to FLAC.  Now I'd like to convert it to MP3 so that I could upload it to my phone for playing (an Android phone using PowerAmp for playback).

I've installed the recent version of Foobar2000, version 1.2, on my Windows 7 PC.  So what is the best way to do the conversion process?  Of course I want to keep my original FLAC but just have an MP3 copy for MP3 players.

Also I've got my folder naming convention for the most part named the same way, but some are not.  What would be the best way to organize my folders and albums.  I'm thinking Artist/Artist - Album Name - (date)/01 - Song.mp3

And what tagging and picture art should be included?  For album art, in the past I've just copied to the album folder a cover.jpg that I downloaded, usually about 300x300 from a wiki page.

Since I ripped everything with EAC it includes in the album folder the TEXT file and an M3U file.  The CUE was left out of the folder and deposited into the main directory folder by itself, by EAC, if I remember correctly.

If I do this conversion I'd like my collection to be up-loadable and playable with correct tagging and cover art for any mp3 player in the future.

how best to use F2K to convert FLAC to MP3?

Reply #1
I use "Artist/Year - Album/Disc.Track - Song.ext" but the naming doesn't really matter as long as you have the correct metadata in the tags.

The Android media tracker is really buggy, at least on my Droid Incredible; I'm not sure if it's better on newer devices, or if PowerAmp even uses the system media tracker, but here are a couple things I've found that help keep things working smoothly:

1) Make sure every file has the Album Artist field filled in. For most albums this means just copying and pasting from the Artist field. If it's not filled in, the Android media tracker will randomly decide that some or all of the album's tracks are not part of an album at all.

2) Embed album art in the files themselves. I personally don't like doing this, and feel it's a waste of space, especially since all of my album art is at least 500x500, and most are around 1000x1000. Adding 1 MB to every MP3 file doesn't seem like much, but it adds up. Anyway, if you don't embed the album art, the Android media tracker *will* read folder.jpg files, *but* it will randomly decide that the folder.jpg file in Folder A now applies to the MP3 files in Folder A *and* in Folder Q, even though the two albums aren't even by the same artist or anywhere near each other in any possible sorting order (artist name, album title, date, etc.).

3) Install MP3Edit or another MP3 tag editor on your phone. When the metadata for an album (or part of an album) disappears, load the album folder in MP3Edit, add a random character in some field and delete it (so that the Save button becomes active) and save. This will force the media tracker to re-scan the metadata. You may be able to find an app that will just let you force the media tracker to refresh, but since sometimes the phone *actually* screws up the metadata, it's nice to be able to edit it on the go instead of having to plug into a PC and fix it.

As for format, I usually encode to MP3 V1 (~225 kbps VBR) which is pretty much compatible with everything.

how best to use F2K to convert FLAC to MP3?

Reply #2
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?ti...ds#ALBUM_ARTIST


After converting to MP3, open all of your MP3s in MP3Tag and save the tags as is. The default settings in MP3Tag are optimized for compatibility- it will read the current tags and save them in whatever tag version and text encoding is considered universally compatible (can't remember off the top of my head).

Despite the name, MP3Tag works on flacs, ape, ogg, etc... even videos if you want to tag them. Works on everything, I use it for everything. I've had a few phones not read tags correctly, but those same tags rewritten by MP3Tag suddenly worked. PowerAmp shouldn't give you trouble in the first place though.

I'm pretty sure you can get flacs to play on android. I think as of v4 they're supported out of the box, no? But MP3s are considerably more portable if storage space is an issue.

My folder hierarchy is simply "Album Artist\Album\## title.ext" (or "Artist\Album\## title.ext" if Album Artist doesn't exist). If there are two discs, then I change the track numbers. If there are 10 tracks on disc 1, the first track on disc 2 will be 11. There's no need to divide by disc on the computer- the only reason there would be a second disc is because they ran out of room on disc 1. On a computer, folders don't run out of room.

I will never understand the cluttered naming conventions people use... tuntematon, why so complicated? What purpose is there for including the year? And the disc number? And the [Space]-[Space] between number and title? Why not just [space]? Trying to maneuvering around that in a command line (especially if you have to escape the spaces) is going to be a pain.

how best to use F2K to convert FLAC to MP3?

Reply #3
Is there a good tutorial somewhere on how to setup and use Foobay2000 to convert my FLAC collection to MP3?

how best to use F2K to convert FLAC to MP3?

Reply #4
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?ti...ds#ALBUM_ARTIST


I assume you meant for me to see this part:
Quote
- tag should only exist if an album contains various artists. It should NOT be created when an album does not contain various artists.


I'm aware of that, but my Android phone seems to prefer the field be set anyway, and it doesn't hurt anything, and it's incredibly trivial to set (select all, properties, select the artist field, copy, select the album artist field, paste), so I set it. The OP is asking about tags that should be used on his Android phone, so I shared my experience. I thought I explained that pretty clearly in my first post.

I will never understand the cluttered naming conventions people use... tuntematon, why so complicated? What purpose is there for including the year? And the disc number? And the [Space]-[Space] between number and title? Why not just [space]? Trying to maneuvering around that in a command line (especially if you have to escape the spaces) is going to be a pain.


Why would I ever browse my music collection via the command line? GUIs are much better suited to that kind of thing. I don't think I've used the command line for basic file browsing since the 1980s...

Anyway, I use such a "cluttered" naming convention because I browse my music collection using Windows Explorer in list or icon mode; I have not yet found any specialized "music library" that I like better, fb2k's library viewer included. The year is included so that within each artist, their albums are displayed in chronological order. The disc number is included because most of the multi-disc albums I own have the actual album on the first disc, and then remixes on the second disc; most of the time I only want to listen to the actual album, and having the disc number in the file name makes it easy to play only the tracks I want. The dashes are used so it is immediately obvious which part of the file path represents which information; for mixed-artist albums, the file name is "track number - track artist - track name.ext" which would be pretty unreadable without the dashes.

Consider an album named "2146". Which is more readable, "2012 - 2146" or "2012 2146"? What about "04 Sinke Dus Dawnchasm" versus "04 - Sinke Dus - Dawnchasm"? I find the dashes improve readability by a huge amount, so I use them, simple as that. You're free to use whatever naming convention meets your needs and pleases your aesthetic sense. The OP asked for opinions, and I gave mine. There's no need to bash my opinion, especially on a subject as trivial as personal file naming.

Also, the frequency with which my Android phone fails to read metadata, or actually erases metadata, is another good argument for me to have all the relevant info in the filenames.

Is there a good tutorial somewhere on how to setup and use Foobay2000 to convert my FLAC collection to MP3?


I'm not sure, but here's how I'd do it:
  • Add all the albums/tracks you want to convert to a playlist
  • Select all the contents of the playlist
  • Right-click > Convert > ...
  • Click on "Output format"
    • Select "MP3 (LAME)"
    • Click Edit
    • Move the slider toward "Best quality" until it shows "~225kbps (*), V1" in the value box
    • Click "OK"
    • Click "Back"
  • Click on "Destination"
    • Under "Output path", select "Ask me later"
    • Under "Output style and file name formattin", select "Convert each track to an individual file" and enter the file naming format to use
    • For example, I use %albumartist%/[%date% - ]%album%/[Disc %discnumber%]/%tracknumber% -[%trackartist% - ]%title%
    • Click "Back"
  • If you want to apply ReplayGain info to the MP3 data (altering the audio data) rather than just including it in a tag (in case your player doesn't support ReplayGain) or you have any DSPs you want to apply, click "Processing" and configure the settings you want. I don't use this section.
  • If you want to copy album art files, click "Other", and enter "*.jpg" in the "Copy other files to the destination folder" box at the bottom.
  • Click "Convert"
  • Select the folder to place the files in. For example, I put all my FLAC->MP3 conversions in "D:\MusicTranscode", so a file might end up as "D:\MusicTranscode\Front 242\1988 - Front by Front\04 - Felines.mp3"
  • Click "Select Folder" and wait.


I'd recommend doing a single album first, to make sure you have everything set up how you like, before doing your whole collection.