New User with FLAC and iTunes Questions

[bikerx]

Sorry for the long post. I am new to computer-based music storage as a whole, and I am jumping in head first. I am looking forward to receiving my SB3 for X-mas this year (I was good this year Santa!). I currently have Win 2000/XP boxes. I have been trying to make sense of the various ways of setting up SlimServer and have decided to use a Buffalo LinkStation for storage with the eventual goal of running SlimServer native on that box in order to avoid keeping a power hog PC running all the time. At the same time, I hope to buy an iPod in the near future.

I have also decided that FLAC is the way to go for my home listening, and that I will keep a separate version of each album in some lossy format (AAC or MP3 probably) for use on the iPod. I have started playing around with iTunes, and I like the concept of keeping a well organized file structure (FLAC/<artist>/<album>/<song title>) which iTunes does automatically. I would like to keep two separate file directories (AAC/..., and FLAC/...) to keep SlimServer from accessing the lossy format (by pointing SlimServer only to the FLAC directory). I also like the fact that iTunes seems to automatically capture the IP3 info.

I have tried using iTunes to copy the CD to WAV, then using FLAC Frontend. This seems like it would be a slow process, because it seems that I would have to select one album at a time in order to maintain the file structure and it doesn't seem like the data from the IP3 tag came over to the files.

So here is my question: what is the easiest way to get my music from CD to hard drive in FLAC and AAC while maintaining the data in the IP3 tag and the file structure. I would love to hear about a program that would allow me to batch convert the entire directory structure at once. I am reasonably computer savvy, but my DOS/UNIX days are LONG behind me. I do take direction well, though.

Thanks in advance for the help.

-Robert

[gorstk]

bikerx wrote:
> Sorry for the long post. I am new to computer-based music storage as a
> whole, and I am jumping in head first. I am looking forward to
> receiving my SB3 for X-mas this year (I was good this year Santa!). I
> currently have Win 2000/XP boxes. I have been trying to make sense of
> the various ways of setting up SlimServer and have decided to use a
> Buffalo LinkStation for storage with the eventual goal of running
> SlimServer native on that box in order to avoid keeping a power hog PC
> running all the time. At the same time, I hope to buy an iPod in the
> near future.
>
> I have also decided that FLAC is the way to go for my home listening,
> and that I will keep a separate version of each album in some lossy
> format (AAC or MP3 probably) for use on the iPod. I have started
> playing around with iTunes, and I like the concept of keeping a well
> organized file structure (FLAC/<artist>/<album>/<song title>) which
> iTunes does automatically. I would like to keep two separate file
> directories (AAC/..., and FLAC/...) to keep SlimServer from accessing
> the lossy format (by pointing SlimServer only to the FLAC directory).
> I also like the fact that iTunes seems to automatically capture the IP3
> info.
>
> I have tried using iTunes to copy the CD to WAV, then using FLAC
> Frontend. This seems like it would be a slow process, because it seems
> that I would have to select one album at a time in order to maintain the
> file structure and it doesn't seem like the data from the IP3 tag came
> over to the files.
>
> So here is my question: what is the easiest way to get my music from CD
> to hard drive in FLAC and AAC while maintaining the data in the IP3 tag
> and the file structure. I would love to hear about a program that
> would allow me to batch convert the entire directory structure at once.
> I am reasonably computer savvy, but my DOS/UNIX days are LONG behind
> me. I do take direction well, though.
>
> Thanks in advance for the help.
>
> -Robert

I rip directly to flac using EAC. I then use a script called flac2mp3
(search the forum for it) to convert my flac files to mp3 (this happens
automatically every night on my box)

The script will copy the directory structure that your flac directory
has to another location and convert the flac file to mp3. So if you set
up EAC similar to itune (i.e. /artist/album/song.flac) then you will get
what you want.

[ceejay]

Or, as another approach, use EAC with a separate program called MAREO (just google, or search thh hydrogenaudio forums) which pretends to EAC that it is a compressor program but which really fronts any number of separate compressors you want.

I use this to create 3 identical trees - one each for FLAC, MPP3 and AAC. Once you have it set up it just works...

Just have it put the AACs and FLACs where iTunes and Slimserver respectively want to see them.

Ceejay

[leping]

Script to Transfer iTunes CDDB CD tags to WAVE/AIFF/AAC/MP3 Library tracks:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25333&page=2