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[Viktorus]

Hello everybody,

I'm considering buying JRiver Mediacenter to organize my music collection.
I've downloaded MC trial version and my first impression was quite positive.
I've checked the forum regarding my questions and I found a lot of topics, but not quite exact.
So I venture to post new topic with my exact questions.

I have a big lossless music collection (1000+ albums).
The majority of this albums are in flac image with embedded CUE, or flac + cue  file in one folder,
so I don't have tracks as a separate files.

I've tried to import my albums into library and it looks like my cue files are not recognized.
All my albums I see as single file per entire album, and I can't see individual tracks, even though I have proper file name, extension and tags in the cue files.

I have two questions:

1) How I have to organize my flac image albums on the disk so it will go to Mediacenter smoothly and I will be able to see individual tracks?

   I want to keep my albums as flac images (most of them are non-stop mixes).
   I don't want to re-code my collection, I don't have that time.
   
   Currently I have a folder per album structure like this:

   Folder Name:     Artist name [Year] - Album Name (label)

   Folder contents: Artist name - Album Name.flac
                    Artist name - Album Name.cue

Could you recommend the optimal folder structure for MC so it can use my cues and show individual tracks?
   

2) Ability to recognize cue files and play individual tracks from them - is my defining buying factor.
Pls tell me if MC is a right tool for this job, I can't spend a lot of time reconverting existing collection.
BTW - do I have to buy MC or I can use JukeBox, because I'm interested in audio ONLY. Where I can see functionality matrix for both programs ?


Thank you very much for your time.

[JimH]

In the options for import, did you check the CUE file type?

[Alex B]

Embedded cue sheets are not supported. Separate cue files work fine with MJ and MC. As Jim said, you need to enable the "cue" file type in Auto-Import's advanced folder options. Alternatively you can simply drag & drop cue files from Windows Explorer or, for instance, from a Windows search window.

Naturally the cue files need to contain correct filename references. If the filename extensions are .wav instead of .flac the cue files are invalid for FLAC files.

If you want to keep also the referenced disc image files in the library you can configure view schemes with rules that keep them out of sight when they are not needed.

EDIT

Rergarding the folder structure I think your current structure is fine. Just keep each album in a separate folder. Normally cue files do NOT contain any path info and they must be in the same folder with the referenced file.

EDIT2

Added the missing NOT word.

[Viktorus]

Thanks a lot guys, I didn't know cue setting exist in import. I'll give it a try. Thanks!

[JimH]

Thanks, Alex.  I've stolen your instructions for a new Wiki entry on Cue Files.

[Viktorus]

Thanks, Alex.  I've stolen your instructions for a new Wiki entry on Cue Files.

Thanks guys, I've tried, works the way it was expected.
Solved!

[mdf]

If you want to keep also the referenced disc image files in the library you can configure view schemes with rules that keep them out of sight when they are not needed.

Can someone give a bit more detail on how to hide the whole album flac, and only show the individual tracks described in the .CUE file?

Thanks

[Alex B]

If you don't tag the FLAC source files separately you could exclude files that are in FLAC format and have an empty value in the Name field. You can add exclusion rules in the view scheme's options.

I have tagged the source files, but I always tag "disc image" in the Name field so i can use that value in a rule in views that I use for playback and browsing. You could also use some other field like Comment or a custom field and tag a certain value like "hide". In the rule you can exclude files with that field value. Alternatively you could simply not import the source FLAC files or remove them from the library.

I have some other views that show all files. I use them for tagging and file operations.

[hit_ny]

I've noticed a bug with total time duration of CUE tracks in MC.

Note the duration of the image file. Then select all its corresponding cue tracks and compare.

Finding the total duration of the cue tracks to be slightly less (upto 5s), with mp3s.

Should it not be the same ?

Not sure when this bug crept up or if it was always there.

It should be noted this does not mean playback is affected in any way whatsoever, its all sample perfect, so wondering if its just a display bug.

[ile]

If I didn't have cue files checked in import options (it could be a default?), is there a way do make it parse the cue file later on - like a re-import of sort? "Import" doesn't seem to import the cue file now if I do it from the menu.

Sorry, seems like it did it automatically!

(Can't delete this message I think)

[ile]

A feature request/idea:

When I'm sync'ing my Sansa Fuze from MJ, and my flac are in one image file, could the MJ/MC unpack the image file into single track files?

Seems like the sync'ing doen't work now if I'm trying to send there an image file - it breaks in a random way (there will be 0 byte files or many big image files etc).