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Importing FLAC files with their Tags?

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luka007be

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Hi,

I’m looking for a 'simple' way of transferring my music collection ripped into FLAC format and duly tagged (Vorbis Comment) to my Sony NW-HD.

I tried 3 different methods:

a) FLAC -–(dbpoweramp)--> MP3 –(SonicStage)--> NW-HD: works fine, with Tags but doesn’t allow a gapless playback. Quite annoying for live’s records, …

B) FLAC –(dbpoweramp)--> WAV –(SonicStage)--> OMA(Atrac) --> NW-HD: Gapless playback is fine but Tags are lost!

c) Using HI-MD Renderer Program from MarcNetSystem (www.marcnetsystem.co.uk) I was able to convert a FLAC file to an OMA (Atrac) file. However, I didn’t find the way of “importing” the oma file into the Walkman (with SonicStage) nor am I sure the tags were preserved.

Any better way?

Tx a lot for your input!

Luka.

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Hi Stuge,

Tx for your suggestion and your welcome ;)

I don't like very much the idea of a dual conversion. It won't help the sound quality, I think. Also, I guess the gaps due to the MP3 format won't be recovered by the MP3 to Atrac conversion.

Anyway I'll give it a try and report the results.

Luka.

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I am not up to par on file formats and quality, but wouldn't you just convert from FLAC straight to ATRAC ? Or is this something that cannot be done.

Would not the 1st option (FLAC->MP3->unit) already degrade your audio because your putting it in MP3 ?

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As expected the FLAC --> MP3 --> Atrac --> NW-HD is working at the Tag level but the gaps created by the MP3 format aren't recovered when converting MP3 to Atrac.

So the MP3 -> Atrac conversion doesn't help (exept for the power saving).

Luka.

I am not up to par on file formats and quality, but wouldn't you just convert from FLAC straight to ATRAC ? Or is this something that cannot be done.

Would not the 1st option (FLAC->MP3->unit) already degrade your audio because your putting it in MP3 ?

FLAc -> Atrac conversion is certainly the best solution. Unfortunatelly I'm still looking for a solution allowing this. (See my trial with Marcnet HIMDRenderer software).

Regarding the MP3 quality versus the Atrac quality, at the same bitrate for both (256kbps) it doesn't make a lot of differences to me considering how and where I'm listening to my NW-HD.

Luka.

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As SonicStage can import WMA files, I tried the following method:

FLAC --(dbpoweramp)--> WMA --(SonicStage)--> OMA (Atrac) --> NwHd

• WMA format allows lossless compression I selected (44khz, 16 bits: identical to original FLAC files).

• The tags are preserved.

• Unfortunately, whilst the WMA files are played without any gap in the Windows Media Player, a gap is introduced by the WMA --> Atrac conversion.

Am I missing something for a gapless WMA -> Atrac conversion?

Luka.

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Why not burn the FLAC files to an audio cd or iso then import it to ATRAC, then it should be gapless !

Absolutely. This is similar to my "method B)": FLAC –(dbpoweramp)--> WAV –(SonicStage)--> OMA(Atrac) --> NW-HD: Gapless playback is fine but Tags are lost!

Going through CDs will not resolve the tagging issue. And as I own the original CDs, I just don't want to rip again hundreds of them to store them on my NW-HD.

Luka.

Edited by luka007be
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Ufortunately, there is no easy way. I do this regularly, along with APE and SHN files. What I do is batch convert them using dbPowerAmp to wav. If the files are named as the track name, then the track info is brought over. What isn't brought over is the album, artist, and genre info.

Once you've imported the album (you must do them one at a time), right click on it and click properties. Here, you can set the album title, artist, genre, etc. When you click OK, the info is applied to all of the tracks in the album.

I wish there was an easier way. But this way ins't too awful once you get used to it. And gaps aren't introduced this way. And what would the point be of using ATRAC if you are introducing gaps!?!?

On the rare occasion that I import an mp3 file, I'm shocked about how all of the info is filled in automatically. That would be nice with FLAC as well. I think the only solution would be if Sony updated SonicStage to allow import of FLAC directly. Somehow, I don't think that feature will be coming any time soon.

Rich

Edited by maggior
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Ufortunately, there is no easy way. I do this regularly, along with APE and SHN files. What I do is batch convert them using dbPowerAmp to wav. If the files are named as the track name, then the track info is brought over. What isn't brought over is the album, artist, and genre info.

Once you've imported the album (you must do them one at a time), right click on it and click properties. Here, you can set the album title, artist, genre, etc. When you click OK, the info is applied to all of the tracks in the album.

I wish there was an easier way. But this way ins't too awful once you get used to it. And gaps aren't introduced this way. And what would the point be of using ATRAC if you are introducing gaps!?!?

On the rare occasion that I import an mp3 file, I'm shocked about how all of the info is filled in automatically. That would be nice with FLAC as well. I think the only solution would be if Sony updated SonicStage to allow import of FLAC directly. Somehow, I don't think that feature will be coming any time soon.

Rich

Hi Rich,

So we both came to the same conclusions and solutions. I also manually add the tags (artist, album) when importings wavs to my Atrac device... I just wish you're wrong on the plan of Sony regarding the Flac support ;)

Luka.

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