FLAC Library Management

[John Duncan]

Looking at ripping some albums to FLAC (so that they can be played directly by the Uniti rather than via UPnP). Any recommendations for a library manager that can a) use AccurateRip and b) is good at managing directory structures and filenames automatically - eg in the form: - Artist - Album - Track 1 - Track 2 - etc I just downloaded XLD which ripped fine (accuraterip confidence 7!), but as far as I can tell I need to manage libraries myself. Furthermore, if I rename the tracks to get rid of the digits at the beginning of the filename (01, 02, 03...) the files show up on the UNiti in alphabetical order. Any ideas how I rectify that or am I just stuck with the numbers (that's not such a big deal I think). Furthermore, I want to manage album art, which XLD doesn't appear to do either. Note that Mac or Windows is fine - this should be a one-off, don't think I'm that fussed about managing it or using it as a player after I've ripped the core of my collection.

 

[nads]

I rip in EAC and manage in media monkey. ( Art work/names/etc etc)

 

[Gerrardasnails]

JohnDuncan:Looking at ripping some albums to FLAC (so that they can be played directly by the Uniti rather than via UPnP). Any recommendations for a library manager that can a) use AccurateRip and b) is good at managing directory structures and filenames automatically - eg in the form:

- Artist
- Album
- Track 1
- Track 2
- etc

I just downloaded XLD which ripped fine (accuraterip confidence 7!), but as far as I can tell I need to manage libraries myself. Furthermore, if I rename the tracks to get rid of the digits at the beginning of the filename (01, 02, 03...) the files show up on the UNiti in alphabetical order. Any ideas how I rectify that or am I just stuck with the numbers (that's not such a big deal I think).

Furthermore, I want to manage album art, which XLD doesn't appear to do either. Note that Mac or Windows is fine - this should be a one-off, don't think I'm that fussed about managing it or using it as a player after I've ripped the core of my collection.

I use dBpoweramp to rip and J River to manage (however, JR is not Macable).

 

[John Duncan]

Non-macability not so much of a problem, as I think I'm going to fork my libraries - smaller, lower quality on the Mac, FLAC on the NAS - and I have a Vaio laptop I can use for the exercise if needs be.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

JohnDuncan:Non-macability not so much of a problem, as I think I'm going to fork my libraries - smaller, lower quality on the Mac, FLAC on the NAS - and I have a Vaio laptop I can use for the exercise if needs be.

Then checkout J River jukebox. I paid for the media player but the music only jukebox is free. Album artwork, tagging and all is a dream. The theatre view is great too. And ASIO and WASAPI come installed too.

 

[Fisherking 145]

I've been using dBpoweramp for the last week or so to rip my collection to FLAC. Wasn't cheap, but I believe I've got what I paid for. It's a breeze to use, anddead easy to change artwork & tags if need be. Now just need something to play them. Not getting on with Foobar at the minute. I'm ripping everything to an HP DataVault.

 

[amcluesent]

Maybe old skool, but EAC, mp3tag and foobar2000 are my tools of choice for ripping, tagging and any transcoding and replaygain duties.

I also like Orange CD Catalogue is it a) can understand FLAC and b) has support for classical music and c) can send playlists to Squeezebox.

 

[kena]

Would agree EAC , MP3TAG and Foobar''s steep learning curve wouldn't be an issue for an IT person.

Edit - Don't use MP3TAG that much as EAC tags fine -

 

[Anonymous]

there are many tools for ripping and these are covered above, as far as file management goes i would suggest media monkey, not only does it do everything else (other than EAC) its flexibility in managing files is legendary,

having "allowed" a number of media players to attemt to exert some intelligence over my collection over a number of years (with drastic consequences) i found media monkey was the best and only tool for the job, i use flac or mp3 so both formats store tags as well as embed album art so if your library should ever get corrupt a simple rescan will bring everything back in without having to worry about tracks missing artwork etc etc.

In addition to this media monkey can auto organise your whole collection to any file structure you wish, i have music filed by artists/albums at the folder level (seperate folders for artists, soundtracks, audio books, classical music etc etc) and then each and every file within any folder is named as "Album Artist - Album - Track # - Track Name" . this approach is easy with media monkey and provides a safeguard in case you ever get a corrupt library file, i have regularly deleted my whole library and just done a rescan safe in the knowledge that it will rebuild my library into exactly how i want it, no stray tracks, no missing album artwork, no messy album art lurking in empty folders, just a perfectly filed music collection that can be reconfigured with a few clicks into any file structure you want,

Media monkey was designed for managing large collections of music, its not the prettiest user interface but itsflexibility is awesome,

 

[PJPro]

Has to be EAC & F2K.

 

[Zarn_Smith]

I use, dbPoweramp for ripping. Musicbrainz Picard for tagging. mp3tag for general tagging maintenance.

I manage the physical folder names and locations myself.

 

[Lee H]

I use mediamonkey for ripping to FLAC. It'll sync up my iPhone in whatever format I choose, converting on the fly and is quite adept at managing my library. I tried several free versions of different packages before settling on this and paying for the gold upgrade. I've honestly never looked back. CD arrives, gets ripped straight away, add the artwork and you're done. Very good, very simple and well priced.

 

[DIB]

dbPoweramp for ripping into FLAC files, and Foobar2000 for playback. I used to be a MediaMonkey person but prefer the SQ of the Foobar with WASAPI enabled better.Toslink from PC into Uniti and I'm one happy bunny. I've got the Foobar UPnP too but never use it, in fact I never use the Uniti's UPnP function. Much prefer controlling everything from the PC.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong but when I've tried to rip using EAC it takes forever, hence dbPoweramp useage. However, I find dbPoweramp dead easy to use, quick and accurate. Well worth the money.

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