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[pjcentral]

After a lot of searching I can't seem to solve this problem. Please assist -
I successfully ripped almost 10,000 songs to FLAC. I made several playlists for my portable player which I converted to MP3 to save space. Every song I converted is now a duplicate of the FLAC. When I try to play an album, both files of the song appear on the list and each plays so I hear each song twice. Any idea how I can play only the FLAC files? Obviously I can go to the main file pane to selct FLAC, but in the album or artist panes I can't seem to select. Thanks in advance for helping a "newbie" on my first post!

[JimH]

Welcome.  Check your autoimport settings.  You can edit folders to tell MC which filetypes to import.  You can also add a folder and exclude it.

Search for MP3 and delete them.  Use the "soft" delete (DEL key, not Shift DEL) and read carefully.

[-JK-]

You don't even need to delete the MP3s from your library. I for myself have set up Library Views for Lossless, Lossy, 24-Bit and Surround audio files. You can do that and much more by right-clicking on "Audio", then selecting "Add Library View", picking a view that you like and then right-clicking the view and going to "Customize View...". There you can select which files you want to see by clicking on "Set rules for file display" and adding "File Type is FLAC" or something like that.

[Vincent Kars]

I successfully ripped almost 10,000 songs to FLAC. I made several playlists for my portable player which I converted to MP3 to save space.

Don’t convert, you will get duplicates
Sync to your portable.
You can set JRiver to convert to e.g. high bit rate MP3 and all MP3’s will be in a separate conversion cache so don’t clutter your library with duplicates.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=81248.0

[pjcentral]

Thanks for the ideas! I'll try them next time.

[icstm]

I am naughty and sometimes convert rather than sync, especially with old Creative Zen mp3 players that refuse to die (and thus I cannot bring myself to replace, hey a 30 or 40Gb player is still quite a good size)

So what I do is use a brilliant feature in JRiver, called "Stacks".
I Stack the files so that the mp3 sits behind the FLAC, in the library. You can create a smartlist, or view that will hunt for likely duplicates (ie files that look the same, bar in this case their filetype).

[Vocalpoint]

Sync to your portable. You can set JRiver to convert to e.g. high bit rate MP3 and all MP3’s will be in a separate conversion cache so don’t clutter your library with duplicates.

The only problem with this plan is that if there is a lot to sync and convert - your sync could take an hour...

I used to do it that way - used out main FLAC library as the source - connect up my iPod...and had it using a specific "sync iPod" smartlist - with MC converting on the fly to MP3 - until I found out that if you have a ton of playlists - which I do - and any of those tracks are not on the device already - MC has to convert new tracks every time. And all my playlists are Smart lists - so this can end up taking tons of time...

In the end - it was way easier to simply set up a local "lossy" library - fill it with preconverted MP3 and use that as an exclusive sync repository. The sync is two minutes tops....

VP

[Trumpetguy]

Welcome.  Check your autoimport settings.  You can edit folders to tell MC which filetypes to import.  You can also add a folder and exclude it.

Search for MP3 and delete them.  Use the "soft" delete (DEL key, not Shift DEL) and read carefully.

Had the same issue, with duplicates of all synced files. Now I excluded the cache folder, but how do I get rid of the already imported files in my library? Will it remove the cached files by itself, after some time?

[-JK-]

Had the same issue, with duplicates of all synced files. Now I excluded the cache folder, but how do I get rid of the already imported files in my library? Will it remove the cached files by itself, after some time?

It should (if you have "Update library for external changes" checked), but I had problems with it in the last build(s?). I just fixed them by checking "Fix or Remove broken links" as well.

[icstm]

As I said, you can always just stack the lossy files. That way you do not forget about them, if you make changes to your library (or tags).

[pjcentral]

You don't even need to delete the MP3s from your library. I for myself have set up Library Views for Lossless, Lossy, 24-Bit and Surround audio files. You can do that and much more by right-clicking on "Audio", then selecting "Add Library View", picking a view that you like and then right-clicking the view and going to "Customize View...". There you can select which files you want to see by clicking on "Set rules for file display" and adding "File Type is FLAC" or something like that.

Thanks JK. For me this was the correct way to handle it since I wanted to keep the MP3 files I had already converted and not do anything on the fly. Amazing how simple and powerful this software is. Now all I have to do is use it more and explore the features. Thanks for all the posts and various ideas!

[Trumpetguy]

It should (if you have "Update library for external changes" checked), but I had problems with it in the last build(s?). I just fixed them by checking "Fix or Remove broken links" as well.

This worked after I deleted the cache files. Excluding the cache folders from auto-import didn't remove already imported cache files, and so there were no broken links to fix initially.

[Ferdi]

So if you keep both FLAC and the mp3 files (and set up different views for them) - how do you keep the tagging between the two files in sync?
If you want to make changes to any field - genre, comment, add a new cover art image, lyrics - you'd had to do that for both files, and do that manually, right?
Or is there a way (stacks?) to make sure metadata is synced automatically?
Worse, for some of the tagging I use external tools like BrainzPicard, MediaMonkey with plugins.

thanks!

[MrC]

With a collapsed stack item, changes to the top item propagate downwards.

I'm not sure what happens with external changes have been made to the top item.  MC will by default catch these changes and update the library.  Certainly changes to the lower items do not propagate upwards, ever.

I tend to use virtual handheld syncing to maintain a lossy copy.  It does require manual initiation of the sync, and it can occasionally hiccup when certain tags change (causing a copy of a lossy item instead of replacing it).  But I've found these niggles to be easier to manage than stacks.  Others find the opposite.  Experiment to see which suits your work style.

[Ferdi]

thanks MRC!
if using stacks, i'd just apply changes to one of the file types (probably mp3 as that collection is more complete), and will have that file type as the top item. never worked with stacks, so that will take some playing around.

I will also start research on what virtual handheld sync is and play around with it!
(that is, once i find a solution to why MC18 latest build freezes when my iPod is connected - other forum discussion)

[JustinChase]

if using stacks, i'd just apply changes to one of the file types (probably mp3 as that collection is more complete), and will have that file type as the top item.

i think most people prefer to have the highest quality file at the top of the stack, since that's the file that will actually play when selected.  you are, of course, free to do it however works best for you, but in case you prefer to normally listen to the highest quality file, i'd put that version on top.

[Ferdi]

That makes all sense of the world for listening, yes!

But how will that work when tags are changed via the device (rating on ipod, play count) - the tag changes of the cache-copy are synced to the flac file, even if flac is on top of the stack? Is that the only excpetion when tag changes are propogated upward inside the stack?
Sorry - guess i could simply try this out instead of bothering everyone.

[MrC]

I don't think the play stats or ratings on stack members are synched when changed across devices.

Think of stacks in this way.  When you write a tag in MC, the changes are pushed downwards only.

Once you push files to another device, you'll need to use other methods to bring tag changes back into MC, and then, they would only affect the specific file (and not other stack members).

See also the iTunesSynchronizer in the 3rd party forums for its capabilities.

[icstm]

i think most people prefer to have the highest quality file at the top of the stack, since that's the file that will actually play when selected.  you are, of course, free to do it however works best for you, but in case you prefer to normally listen to the highest quality file, i'd put that version on top.

But the problem I have is that almost always when I stack albums, I fine JRiver wants to stack the mp3 ontop of the flac. I have the type "flac" in the box.
Can I change a default somewhere?

[RonJeffries]

I have 7000+ files, with these main options:

Some are mp3 only.
Some are flac and mp3.
Some are flac and m4a lossless.

To make things more complicated, I have a "complete" set of these files, in mp3, in a folder that I've not scanned. I suspect there are some file there that do not appear in the fist batch. I'd like to wind up with all the files, and to see only the "best" version, whatever that is.

I gather from this discussion that I can "stack" them in my favorite order, probably m4a, flac, mp3. However, I don't understand the process for making these stacks. Could someone give me a bit more info?

Also ... I really wouldn't mind actually deleting the inferior ones, or moving them off to a folder that isn't scanned.

Advise me, please.

[MrC]

Have you reviewed the Stacks article?

[RonJeffries]

I would love to read a stacks article. Where is it please? Thanks!
R

[MrC]

Click the link in the word Stacks above in my reply.

[RonJeffries]

Great, thanks, couldn't see it was blue. Better change my link colors.
Based on that article, I clicked the Files under Audio, then selected all 7900 files, then selected Stacks and Autostack on Artist, Album, Track, Name. I then asked it to select m4a as the top of the stack.

It seems to have done that. (Also I know I can make MC display only flac and m4a with the check boxes, and probably with other view things that I've not yet discovered. But suppose I want to do more stacking.

If a track has m4a, flac, mp3, or m4a, mp3, the above stacking will work fine.

If, however, it has flac, mp3, it'll still build a stack but there's no direct control over what's on top. Ah, but the stacks page says it'll pick the largest file. So that means if there's all three, it'll pick m4a unconditionally, if there's m4a / flac, ditto, but if there's flac / mp3 it'll pick mp3 because it's larger.

Do I gots it? If not, correct me, please. If so, thanks!

[MrC]

It should pick the FLAC as a FLAC should always be larger than the same encoded mp3.

[RonJeffries]

Thanks, I tried it and it looks good. Now to formulate my questions about volume control Thanks!