need some help with J River and a new pc

I'm not sure what you mean by "import the library" - if you mean scan the drive and find music files, I don't think it will pick up the WAV files as they have no tag info. If your directory structure on the new PC w/ external drive is identical to your old PC, then you should be able to open a backup file of your library and everything would be there. If the directory structure is not identical, there are probably still ways to start in this manner and get all the files "reconnected".

I'm assuming you've already posted over on the JRiver forum for help. If not, you should - very helpful and knowledgeable.

Yes, WAV files are a problem because they are not tagged with information. What program were you using to manage music on your old PC? Kthomas is right - if you were using Jriver and you employ the exact same directory struture, and if you can copy the old library file over to your new PC, it should operate just like the old Jriver. The same is true for iTunes. One option, if you still have your old PC, is to convert all your WAV files to something tagged, like AIFF or FLAC or ALAC, and then bring them into your new PC. Then your music management software will be able to get at the song information for each track.

thanks for the input guys. have no idea what file structure even means so i'm assuming they are different from old pc to new pc.

peter: just started converting to FLAC on the old pc. will move them over and see what happens. looks like it's gonna take a long time to get them all converted (using j river. hoping your conversion idea works. i'd rather stick a rusty knife in my eye then re-rip all those disc's.

was using the same J River program (MC-15) on the old pc so i didn't foresee the WAV file problem. didn't know WAV files were tagless. could have easily ripped to FLAC had i known.

thanks again
cheers
Lev

Lev - if you don't want to get into what file structure (or actually directory structure) is, you're doing the right thing by converting to FLAC. Just make sure you have enough space on your hard drive to make the full conversion.

But - if you are comfortable with files and folders, you would need to find the library file that Jriver maintains, and just copy that over to your new machine. And everything on your new machine needs to be in the same folders as your old machine. Anyhow - unless you have a computer savy buddy - you'll be fine ripping to FLAC.

Best, Peter

When you import into JRiver, you can use the file structure to define artist, album track #, track name. A typical file structure is defined by the order of the folders and what is in each folder. A typical structure is

Artist
Album 1
1 First Track name
2 Second Track name
etc.
Album 2
1 First Track name
2 Second Track name

where artist and album are folder names. Album is a subfolder to artist. Then in each album folder, the tracks are named as Track Number Track Name. In J River, look at Tools, Options and File Locations. Under Audio, it defines the file structure with Folder Rule and Filename Rule. From above structure Folder Rule would be [Artist] [Album] and Filename Rule would be [Track #] [Name] These options define how J River reads your folder names and file names. You can change the Folder Rule and Filename Rule to correspond to your structure. Try deleting a couple of albums and them re-import them after changing the Folder and Filename rules.

Minor change - Folder Rule should be [Artist]\[Album] The \ indicates a sub directory. Sorry for leaving that out.

thanks for the advice Dtc. am learning alot as i muck through all this computer stuff. it's not as bad as i thought it would be(as long as i have you guys around when something goes south =) ).

all is well and flac files are showing as they should in MC-15. streaming as i type this and in a much happier place now. you guys are the best!

thank you again

cheers
Lev

Glad it is working. J River is a great player, but it does take some getting used to. It is very flexible, but that also makes it somewhat complicated to use. Once set up, you will be rewarded with great sound. Enjoy.