Anyone know WMA?

I'm a little confused, not sure whether you are talking about tagging or libraries...

EAC, as with most other rippers, use internet databases to look up song information--track, titles, genre, track number, album. If you look under "EAC Options" and click on the filename tab, you can specify a format for how EAC saves the ripped file. For example, I use:

%A\%C\%N-%T

This tells EAC to create and artist (%A) directory, unless one exists, a subdirectory for the album title (%C) and song names of the format Track Number (%N)-Track Name (%T).

If the format for the files you use supports tags, EAC will also write that information into tags in the file. What that means is that, no matter where you copy the file or move it, if the file is read by a program that understands the tags, it will know the album/artist/etc. information. If you use WMA, I believe those use standard tags. But, you would need some plug-in for EAC to write WMA Lossless. Its not good enough to, for example, write WAV files and use a standalone WMA conversion program unless that standalone program can recover tag information from the directory path of the file, because there are no tags written into WAV files.

The reason I use Apple Lossless (ALAC) is because it is a lossless format that is compatible with my range of devices, including my squeezeboxes and iPod, and supports tags. So, when EAC writes the files, the information gets embedded in the file itself.

Most media players recognize standard tags. iTunes, for example, will read the tags from a file and make a copy of those tags in something called a library file. The library file is what iTunes uses to quickly index your list of songs by artist, or genre, or title, or whatever. Its also what the program uses to display all of that information. But, if I import a WAV into iTunes, it has no tags, so iTunes can't write the tags to the library file for display. There are ways of shortcutting the retagging of files--in the Mac environment, there are premade AppleScripts that allow you to generate tag information from the directory structure. Alas, AppleScripts don't work in the PC environment. However, you can write/find some Javascripts that will do the same thing.

Foobar works the same way, except that the "library" is called the "database." So, Foobar will read and create database entries for common standardized tags. This, obviously, doesn't work for WAV files. But, foobar comes standard with a plug-in called "masstagger," which is very powerful. You can use masstagger, for example, to recover tag information from the directory structure.

So, its really the library or database in a player that allows you to easily index things and find albums. But, the library/database is computer-specific. So, if I have a common library of WAV songs on a server used by more than one computers running foobar, I have to use masstagger at each computer. If the library of songs is mp3, ALAC, WMA, or someother format that supports file tags in a conventional way, on the other hand, each computer will automatically read and use the tag information associated with the files.

Hope this isn't too incoherent--I'm sitting at home with a vicious head cold, so my explanations may be a bit rambling.

Good luck!

Edelsiva,

I am just really impressed with all this information. First of all, I hope you feel better from your cold. In NY, temperature is just crazy. We are over 50 degrees these days. What an odd winter.

I "think" I understand what you are saying. But I feel I have to put it in place. For now, I only used two players (Windows Media Player and Meedio). None of them recognized the tags from EAC. Well, they did, they recognized the track name, artist and all in each file, but they didn't input the file in their libraries so searching would be easier. The truth is that I didn't set up EAC as you explained it. I will try these coming days.

Again, thanks for the info! I am really really impressed.

Josep

One last question, do PCs read ALAC format? I am not sure I will end up using the tagging scripts you mentioned and maybe in the future I go Mac. (Still deciding...)

Hmm... I'm suddenly wondering... Did you fire up Meedio/WMP and then "open" a song in your collection to play or double click on the song file itself and have that launch Meedio or WMP?

For most players, and this applies to both foobar and iTunes as well, you need to use some form of "add to library." For example, in iTunes I can tell it to search for new songs in a specified directory and it will run through that directory--and all subdirectories--looking for songs not already in the library. When it finds such a song, it will read the tag data, and add the song to its own library file. Then, I never need to do that again to access the song--it will automatically show up in the library when I open iTunes the next time...

I have used my ALAC files in a PC environment and in a Mac environment--they are stored on a network server and I've access those files from both a Mac Mini and several Windows XP computers. The question is usually whether the software player you are running is compatible with the format--slimserver (used in conjunction with Squeezebox devices) will understand ALAC files and play them. However, my old Turtle Beach audiotron network players (basically, dedicated player software in a network box) would not play ALAC files. There is a plug in for foobar that will allow foobar to play ALAC files, but I gather it is a bit flakey.

this is great! thanks! I have tried what you told me. And eventhough WMP or Meedio recognize the file name (with album artist in it) and add it to My Libraries, they do not add it to the internal library of the program (the one that lets you search for Album/Artist, etc.)

Now, I am curious what should I do. Whether using ALAC or FLAC. (I am about to rip my entire collection and I don't know what to do.) Eventually I might use an iPod but it's somewhat unlikely that I move to Mac. (Used PC all my life and I am very familiar with it).

How can I rip to ALAC using EAC?

thanks, Josep