Tools for library management?

[Charlemagne]

Yes, sorry should have said: I rip everything to ALAC.

lucky u i am stuck with a huge Flac library now and it is a tall order to encode everything to ALAC

Yate seems promising, thanks for the tip!

I do use dbPowerAmp on a Windows7 laptop for the ripping. It's also possible to edit the ID-tags or adding/changing albumart later on with the same software.

@amabrok:for your interest: the dbPowerAmp software suite does have a possibility of conversion in a batch, e.g. change your hole flac's library in an alac library. I did use that once, when I changed from iTunes to JRiver (alac's in flac's). It took all night before the job was done, but there where no mistakes at all.

[Confused]

An interesting subject, I was a really early adopter of iTunes, and have many years worth of playlists, rated tracks etc. I use JRiver for quality and serious listening, but I just can't get away from iTunes, so much legacy effort invested and it just does what I want, I wish I could transfer this to JRiver, or just as good get truly optimum sound quality from iTunes. Maybe I need an audio optimised Mac with the right software tweaks?

[Jwg1749]

I use dbPowerAmp for ripping.

There's no better library system than JRiver, especially if you have a large collection of classical music that's meticulously tagged. But I'm not really interested in tagging beyond the most basic: composers, conductors, performers.

Matt

[Confused]

I use dbPowerAmp for ripping.

There's no better library system than JRiver, especially if you have a large collection of classical music that's meticulously tagged. But I'm not really interested in tagging beyond the most basic: composers, conductors, performers.

Matt

Yes, maybe, but no good if you can't transfer all your legacy ratings from iTunes. I even posted a query about this on the JRiver forum, the only suggestion was to make a folder of all 5 rated tunes, load the lot into JRiver, rate all 5, then repeat for 4, 3, 2, 1. And I thought computers should be able to do the graft!

[amabrok]

I use dbPowerAmp for ripping.

There's no better library system than JRiver, especially if you have a large collection of classical music that's meticulously tagged. But I'm not really interested in tagging beyond the most basic: composers, conductors, performers.

Matt

Yes, maybe, but no good if you can't transfer all your legacy ratings from iTunes. I even posted a query about this on the JRiver forum, the only suggestion was to make a folder of all 5 rated tunes, load the lot into JRiver, rate all 5, then repeat for 4, 3, 2, 1. And I thought computers should be able to do the graft!

Hi Confused

Thanks to @thumb5 earlier tip, I noticed that Yate can link to iTunes library and get additional data like rating. Could this be your answer? See how can you use. YATE to update the tagging of your library with iTunes rating before migrating it to another software.

I'm not sure how to do it but I would give it a try. You can download the trial version which is fully functioning for 14 days

---

Another vote for the excellent XLD for ripping and transcoding. I use Datamatics for editing tags.

Hi PhilP, are you on PC or Mac?

[amabrok]

Another vote for the excellent XLD for ripping and transcoding. I use Datamatics for editing tags.

Hi PhilP

i can see now from your signature that you are indeed a Mac user. i searched for Datamatics but could not find it, can you please share a link.

thanks

[Haas]

I use XLD for ripping my CD's to AIFF.

For library management I use iTunes and Amarra 3.0

[PhilP]

Another vote for the excellent XLD for ripping and transcoding. I use Datamatics for editing tags.

Hi PhilP

i can see now from your signature that you are indeed a Mac user. i searched for Datamatics but could not find it, can you please share a link.

thanks

Sorry, I meant Metadatics (brain fade) . Its available on the Apps Store

[amabrok]

Another vote for the excellent XLD for ripping and transcoding. I use Datamatics for editing tags.

Hi PhilP

i can see now from your signature that you are indeed a Mac user. i searched for Datamatics but could not find it, can you please share a link.

thanks

Sorry, I meant Metadatics (brain fade) . Its available on the Apps Store

no worries

i frequently get "brain fades" especially when i am high on music

thanks for sharing though. i will check it now

[GRC]

I know it's an old thread but I thought I'd add my ten cents . . .

Everything is currently on Windows 7 with a mixture of 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

I used iTunes for years but got fed up with no FLAC support so moved to MediaMonkey Gold which I now use for management and basic tagging (usually fixing errors).  I converted my ALAC files to FLAC with dBpoweramp Music Converter in batch mode - took me a couple of days but no real issues.  However, I never used the ratings options in iTunes, nor any other "useage" tags (e.g. number of plays etc.) so whether they get carried across or not was never an issue for me.

I really wanted FLAC because of cross-platform support plus I've been a big Squeezebox user since the early days and they have native FLAC support whereas ALAC has to transcoded on the fly by the server, which is only a little EeePC with an Atom processor and a 1GB drive stuffed inside (by me).

Ripping I also do via dBpoweramp.  It goes into my main desktop PC where any errors are fixed (ditto downloads) by MediaMonkey.  I occasionally use MP3Tag if I have problems with MP3 files.  I then run FreeFileSync on the netbook server which copies new files and changes from the "master" PC to its disk (both it and the main PC are hard-wired to the router so it's quite quick) and finally tell LMS (Logitech Media Server) to add the updates to its library (which is read-only by design) for use by my various Squeezeboxes.  It all sounds harder than it actually is . . . 

MediaMonkey is also good IMHO for putting stuff on iPads, iPhones etc. because it converts FLAC content to MP3 on the fly during the copying process.

Currently at 32,795 tracks and no real issues with any of the above.  But happy to hear about alternatives . . .