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[skirmash]

Hey folks - Happy Holidays to you all.

I spent the last 11 hours importing a 10,000+ track library (in FLAC format). Even though the Analyze Audio option was checked it did not do any analysis. When I woke up, the library had been successfully imported, but none of the Relpay Gain tags had been set.

I then tried to Analyze the Audio for the entire library and the software crashes with a memory fault. I then tried smaller and smaller quantities of the files and this works most of the time. About 250 tracks seems to be the cutoff between working and not working.

Can someone shoot some ideas my way about what the issue could be and how to resolve it.

Secondly, I did note on the import that Media Center seemed to read and then rewrite the entire 300 GB library. I assumed that the existing tags did not have enough padding for all the extra tags MC uses and therefore need to write out all the files again. Can someone please confirm this?

Kind regards,

Ash

[Matt]

Analyzing audio will update tags.  For FLAC files, this often requires a file rewrite.

I can't reproduce the Analyze Audio problem with APE files.  What happens if you run only one file at a time, instead of two?

[skirmash]

Analyzing audio will update tags.  For FLAC files, this often requires a file rewrite.

I can't reproduce the Analyze Audio problem with APE files.  What happens if you run only one file at a time, instead of two?

I would understand the rewrite had the import actually successfully written the Replay Gain tags. However, it didn't which is why I now need to analyze audio for the whole library.

The crash of the app happens regardless of whether 1,2,3 or 4 files are analyzed at the same time. It is the number of total files queued that appears to cause the crash.

I am now in a difficult spot since I now to need to analyze the library in very small chunks - which could take a long time sitting at the PC.

Ash

[Matt]

I would understand the rewrite had the import actually successfully written the Replay Gain tags. However, it didn't which is why I now need to analyze audio for the whole library.

Import does not run audio analysis.  They are different.

The crash of the app happens regardless of whether 1,2,3 or 4 files are analyzed at the same time. It is the number of total files queued that appears to cause the crash.

Do you have any MP3 or APE files you could test?  This isn't a problem I'm familiar with.  I'm wondering if it's FLAC specific.

[skirmash]

Import does not run audio analysis.  They are different.

I misunderstood - thanks for the clarity.

Do you have any MP3 or APE files you could test?  This isn't a problem I'm familiar with.  I'm wondering if it's FLAC specific.

I don't. I will run a conversion of a few files for testing purposes.

Ash

[Dirhael]

Import does not run audio analysis.  They are different.


Do you have any MP3 or APE files you could test?  This isn't a problem I'm familiar with.  I'm wondering if it's FLAC specific.

I experienced this problem a lot with both FLAC and mp3's in MC13 not to long ago, so it's not limited to FLAC. However, this problem is a bit strange because it appears to exclusively happen when using the right-click->analyze.. function that opens the queue window. Why I think this? Because when I initially tried importing my library of 20000+ tracks, all the files had replaygain tags and this meant that none of them were automatically analyzed on import. I then tried working trough the files scanning batches of various sizes at a time (everything from just a couple of files up to a few thousand), and it would always eventually crash. Sometimes it crashed when only analyzing a few files, sometimes it would keep working for hundreds of files, once even ~2000 tracks before crashing. When it happened, I'd start MC13 again and try scanning the same files again and no problems were encountered with them...but of course, it would eventually crash again with some other files (so it appears to have nothing to do with the files themselves). I tried rewriting the tags with another player, disabled DEP, removed my antivirus/antispyware programs, updated audio/video/chipset drivers, scanned the HDD for errors, defragmented both the system drive and the one holding my music, tried in both XP and Vista...all with the same result.

Frustrated, I fired up mp3tag and removed the RG track gain from all of the files (so that the auto-analyze function would get to work), cleared my MC13 library and let it import everything again. This time, many hours later, all supported files (mp3/flac) had been analyzed, had updated tags with BPM/RG++ and not a single crash was encountered during this process.

[skirmash]

Import does not run audio analysis.  They are different.

I acknowledged this statement assuming that I have made the mistake. However, I am now a little confused (nothing new there!). If I look to configure the auto-import feature, there is a list of options which include Analyze Audio. Does this not Analyze the Audio during the initial import?

Regards,

Ash

[Alex B]

Auto-import analyzes files for replay gain, BPM, etc if the "Analyze audio" option is enabled. This works when it is set to run in the background and also when the Import Now command is invoked. I don't know what Matt means.

However, I just tested it and noticed a possible bug (not the crash issue you are reporting). When Auto-Import was set to run in the background the resulting field values were added only in the library. MC didn't write any physical file tags. In addition, the Album Gain value was not created automatically. I was able to create the Album Gain values only by changing some of tags so that MC's album analyzer was "forced" to run. I tested this with a single previously unimported FLAC album.

[skirmash]

Auto-import analyzes files for replay gain, BPM, etc if the "Analyze audio" option is enabled. This works when it is set to run in the background and also when the Import Now command is invoked. I don't know what Matt means.

However, I just tested it and noticed a possible bug (not the crash issue you are reporting). When Auto-Import was set to run in the background the resulting field values were added only in the library. MC didn't write any physical file tags. In addition, the Album Gain value was not created automatically. I was able to create the Album Gain values only by changing some of tags so that MC's album analyzer was "forced" to run. I tested this with a single previously unimported FLAC album.

So, I cleared the library, un-checked the 'run in background' option and then restarted the import. So far, everything has imported successfully and the audio analysis is now openly taking place - something that did not happen when the 'run in background' option was checked.

Here is my next challenge. The drive I am using is usually in a NAS server and has an Ext 3 formatted partition. In order to avoid reading and writing files for a 300GB collection over the network, I installed the drive into my Windows machine along with a driver that allows Windows to natively read/write Ext 3 partitions. My import just completed (10517 files). However, I will then need to put the drive back into the NAS.

Question, can I update the location of the media without having to re-import the library? I was thinking that once I remove the drive from my Windows machine, I can then use the same drive letter that was used during the import and then map that drive to the NAS so that the file path to the media looks exactly the same. Any thoughts if this would work or any alternative?

[Alex B]

You can do that. MC cares only about the correct filename path. It does not care how the operating system provides it. It makes no difference if the drive is local or not.

However, you are not limited to using exactly identical paths. It has always been possible to fix file paths in MC, but it was a bit complex procedure. In MC13 it is extremely easy because the "Rename, Move, & Copy Files" tool has a new option for applying changes only to the database.

For instance:

1. Select all files.
2. Open the "Rename, Move, & Copy Files" tool
3. Select:
    "Update database to point to new location (no file rename, move, or copy)"
    and
    "Find & Replace" (tick only this)
4. type the change, e.g.:
    Find What: D:\My media files\
    Replace With: E:\Media\
5. Run the tool

Create a new library backup file and disable background importing before proceeding. Test the procedure with a few files before applying the changes to the complete library.

[skirmash]

You can do that. MC cares only about the correct filename path. It does not care how the operating system provides it. It makes no difference if the drive is local or not.

However, you are not limited to using exactly identical paths. It has always been possible to fix file paths in MC, but it was a bit complex procedure. In MC13 it is extremely easy because the "Rename, Move, & Copy Files" tool has a new option for applying changes only to the database.

For instance:

1. Select all files.
2. Open the "Rename, Move, & Copy Files" tool
3. Select:
    "Update database to point to new location (no file rename, move, or copy)"
    and
    "Find & Replace" (tick only this)
4. type the change, e.g.:
    Find What: D:\My media files\
    Replace With: E:\Media\
5. Run the tool

Create a new library backup file and disable background importing before proceeding. Test the procedure with a few files before applying the changes to the complete library.

Outstanding! Thanks so much for the support. My final question is going to be about syncing to an IPOD. It was suggested that I could choose a location for the cache used during a file conversion from FLAC to MP3, and then subsequent syncs to the IPOD would first attempt to use the cached MP3 before doing the conversion again - thus avoiding me needlessly storing and managing a separate set of MP3 media.

[JimH]

It's an option called "Conversion Cache".  It's in Tools/Options/Handhelds.