Need Help in having Itunes Tag 1 Tb of lssless Wav


..I just got a mac mini and had over 1 tb of lossless wav files that play thue itunes but i can not get the files organized thru itunes...ie artist song and album all mixed as one on itunes..triedto you us tuneup but that didnt work .. Seems I itunes can not tag these files correctily as media monkey did on my windows computer. Also i converted a few files to apple lossless but they transcribed as mp4 and also the file size was almost in half..any aideas?
zugisland

Showing 3 responses by blindjim

WAV files do have some problems.

iTunes can’t organize tracks if it does not see the track ID tags which get embedded into them during the encoding. – ripping process. The ripping software has that info only fo wAVs

Usually WAVs are temp files. Uncompressed tracks used to produce albums songs etc. into other more manageable file formats. The main reason for this is the WAV or wAVE formats do not retain or have embedded into them any meta data . Such as title info, track #, album art work, album release date, etc.

All of that info for those formats resides in the data base of the software you originally chose to rip them into WAVE or wAVs. Not in the tracks themselves . So long as you keep using the database of the orig ripper, you’re ok

But if you start moving them onto some other pc, or drive, the new media player then has none of the orig track and title info available to it as it remains in the previous media players database only.

This is why folks choose to use FLAC, AIFF, WAV PAK, or even apple Lossless (ALAC/M4A), or if going the compressed route, aAC or AAC protected as with older iTunes downloads (m4p), or merely MP3s.

There are marginal sonic diffs from wAV to these other lossless formats but the metadata stays with the tracks, normally regardless the media player you use to replay them with in the future. Metadata is increasingly a quite sought after aspect of musical enjoyment, and a must for continuedd cataloging or archiving.

Maybe your orig media player.. the one you used to rip all those WAV files with can convert them into FLAC, AIFF, Wav Pack, or Appl;e Lossless thereby adding the track info within it’s database into the new file which will contain and keep that info into each track.

Past that it’s going to have to be done all by hand typing in each track, album, artist.. etc. and if you do not convert at some point to file types which maintain the albums pertinent info you can count on doing the renaming process again at some point by hand.

Of course there might be some new whiz bang software out there will do it all for you. Good luck with that.

There’s nothing wrong with the file size being less than that of WAV or WAVE file sizes in fact nearly every other format, AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, or WAVE pack, will reduce the file size a bit. Some more than others. With FLAC, you can actually choose the reduction algorythym by levels or steps. You can wind up with a quite small FLAC file that is entirely lossless!

Regardless, if the file you choose is a lossless type. Every item in the song or track will be exactly as represented by the orig WAV file. No compression or ommissions occur as with Mp3, or AAC OGG Vorbis, etc.

Whatever the media player or confusre applies in it’s view of the folder tree too is not a big deal. One of my pcs the Vista, I think, calls M4A (apple lossless) as M4P. My XP machines do a better more consistent job revealing the file extensions as they should be . But so what? File extensions are the least thinhg to worry about right now.

The hard drive acreage has plummeted as quickly as has actual real estate. So using file types that eat up significant gulps of HD disc space is of less consequence now. So, for the uninitiated, or inflexible the WAV format affords a fine sonic presentation but that particular type of file has meta data issues once you start tossing them from one pc to another, or onto a NAS and then into some other even if you adore random play 100% of the time!

There will come a time when you will want to demo a certain cut for someone, or yourself. Wanna sit around and wait till it comes up if you have thousands of albums on file? Of course not.

Especially if you have thousands of discs on the drive you need manageability. Seeking and searching functionality. If for no reason than when you go shopping, to know you already have that Lp on hand! I’ve bought and rebought the same disc a couple times perusing CDs in a record store! Online, I have no such problems. I just peek at my library by a quick search to see if it’s already on hand, in part or completely and what format.

There are third party apps which can use online data bases to tag untagged files . BUT it is a user intensive app you gotta select the album at least, and ordinarily you begin by inputing the album info, then telling them/it to seek/search for the info iTunes will allow for this too. But man! A couple thousand CDs is gonna take a while. So get started. These 3rd party apps also cost $$$. And usually require the file to be one supporting tagging!

OR as I said initially use your orig media player that ripped the files into some new format which contains ID Tags, and MetaData. Just see what formats Monkey supports and pick a lossless sort, and let the software convert them . But do get one more drive close to the 1TB size you are converting from unless that drive is like a 2TB drive and has plenty of space for this conversion effort. Then get to converting!

You’ll wind up initially with some redundancy naturally, but then you can simply delete those unwanted ones as you go.

You may also wish to experiment along the way and do a bit of A/B – ing, of the new file type vs your existing WAVs.

Some media players like some sorts over some others. FUBAR for instance likes FLAC more so than AIF IMHO..

Your no brainer pick if iTunes will be the media player should be AIF. Or AIFF. Or Apple Lossless ALAC (M4a). Most other media players support all the file types iTunes does, and MORE!

But if Amara or another iTunes dependant player is ahead for you, stick to the Apple OEM files as stated above in my post. BTW... do your A/Bing, the day after the conversion process is accomplished. somehow, things sound more honest after a little while of residing on the disc, and a shut down and start up. It's wierd but I've noticed this time and time again.

Good luck.

Wloeb

Nice! How many files at once will or did you enable power amp to convert for you? Same with applying ID3 TAGS?