Saved our LPs to computer as wav files. When transferred, the file folder data is lost

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Saved our LPs to computer as wav files. When transferred, the file folder data is lost

We are converting our LPs to digital format. The USB turntable converts the tracks to wav files. Each album is in it's own folder named with the title and artist. The contents of the folder are the individual tracks on the album. Given the volume (over 600 LPs) I tried adding 'folders' to library. It converts everything to MP3 but when I click to play, it sez it can't find the original. It's right there, as a duplicate file! Further, it doesn't keep the tracks in their folders, it splits them all out, so I have a bazillion tracks and nothing cohesive to sort with. I have the name of the track, but the artist is unknown, album is unknown, and every file is marked with ! The help directory just keeps me running in circles, with no resolution to the problem.

Windows 7, null

Posted on Feb 4, 2016 8:36 PM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

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Feb 5, 2016 2:31 AM in response to tyaughton

Files in .wav format don't contain any metadata. If you import them into iTunes it reads the filename up to the extension as the track name, including any digits that would represent the track number. It ignores the potential information in the parent folder names that would normally represent the artist and album. This makes .wav a poor choice for storing your media. AIFF is much the same as .wav but can hold metadata in a tag. Apple Lossless supports more tag fields and uses a lossless compression format to store the original data in a smaller file.

In iTunes enable the menu bar with Ctrl+B if currently hidden. Under Edit > Preferences > Advanced turn off the options for Keep... and Copy... Now when you add media to iTunes it won't be copied into the media folder and/or automatically moved to reflect the tag information, or lack thereof. You can then use a script called TagFromFilename to read in the data that is encoded in the file path.

I'm not sure what your process is for converting to .mp3. It shouldn't happen automatically. Another script called ConvertFormat could be used to convert the .wavs losslessly into Apple Lossless for better use of storage without creating duplicates that then have to be manually deleted.

See also Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy.

tt2

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Answer 2

tyaughton Author

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Feb 5, 2016 11:07 AM in response to turingtest2

This is what happens when you read and follow the instructions. 😕 I will try deleting everything from the library, although I tried that once already and it didn't seem to go away. There are still close to 1000 miscellaneous items in iTunes. I want to start from scratch. Change my settings as you've suggested above, but I have no clue how to use the script.

When I set up iTunes, I changed import using preferences to create new version, so when it imports the wav file it changes it to mp3 automatically.

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Answer 3

turingtest2

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Feb 6, 2016 10:39 AM in response to tyaughton

tyaughton wrote:

When I set up iTunes, I changed import using preferences to create new version, so when it imports the wav file it changes it to mp3 automatically.

I'm not sure I understand what you've said here. Import settings control what format is used for tracks ripped from CD, or converted from an existing format. When files are added to the library there is another option that controls whether iTunes makes copies of them in the media folder or connects to them on the original paths.

If your vinyl ripping software can do it you may be better off ripping to AIFF or Apple Lossless since it should probably be able to embed metadata in those. Otherwise make sure the options for Keep & Copy are turned off in iTunes so you can use the script to read the data from the filepath.

tt2

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Answer 4

tyaughton Author

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Feb 9, 2016 12:19 PM in response to turingtest2

The vinyl ripping software saves wav files. I've actually found a program suite that does a pretty fine job of ripping CDs and converting .wav files to MP3 without littering my computer with multiple copies of the same file all over everywhere. It's very user friendly. I already have two 'media players' (Windows and HP) built into my computer so I think I'll skip iTunes and K.I.S.S. (keep it simple) Thanks for the information though. It helped in the decision making process.

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Answer 5

turingtest2

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Feb 9, 2016 3:25 PM in response to tyaughton

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

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