Creating a flac version of a Naim Server's .wav Store

Answering a few of my own questions . . .

It looks like the uServe cannot create a flac copy -- only change from wav to flac

XLD (I prefer a mac) created the right folder structures when converting wav to flac, but there were no tags.  I'd have to then go and tag with something like Jaikoz -- not the best result.

I've never used any of the popular music managers for Windows (like dbPoweramp) -- maybe it can create the right folder structure, convert, and tag all at once (?).  I can understand the tagging being problematic, as the Naim structure keeps tag info in a file that none of the third-party programs will be seeing.  I may only be able to tag either totally manually, or with a program that compares the files to an online database such as Discogs or Musicbrainz.

Hi Bart,

Great post and wish I could help. Just wanted to record that I too am extremely interested in this thread, future proofing the Naim .wav database without too much hassle. I haven't yet upgraded my Unitiserve beyond 1.6d,  so cannot experiment with what might or might not work with FLAC.

Best, Paul

dBpoweramps batchconvertor can do  a  batch convert from just about any format to any other with or without change of folder, so as long as your naim rips are visible somewhere on your network I can't see why it won't do a good job. 

XLD will do the conversions -- it's the tagging that I don't want to do manually for hundreds of cd's if at all possible.

Copy files to be converted to a new location. Or possibly use the backup function to create a remote copy? Batch convert (I use dBpoweramp) and delete the WAVs which were converted.

I can do this easily because my primary music stores sit on a NAS which I can access from my office PC across the network. As long as I'm copying and not making changes to my HDX ripped files in their primary location, all is well.

I've been FLACing (and AIFFing) a copy my WAVs over the W/E but have abandoned it because when played back to back FLAC, and AIFF sound inferior to WAV - to me.  On the lounge system the differences could be subtle to non existent. However, I want to play my music in the office on an Airplay enabled device and I didn't want to go through the hassle of doing it in iTunes because of tagging, cover art etc. But in the office, WAV sounds a lot snappier and articulate, so I've gone back to pulling teeth with WAVs.

Harry, how does dbPoweramp do with tagging the flacs that you're batch converting from the Naim .wav rips?  How are you taking care of that part?

Bart,

Again, I own no Naim server so take this with the appropriate amount of salt and patch where needed. But if I had one, I'd try something along these lines:

1. Create the destination folder on your NAS and give it the appropriate permissions so your UnitiServe can use it as a Music Store;
2. Set the new folder as the backup destination;
3. Backup your Music Store to the new folder;
4. Double check your backup; no, make it triple, and make an additional copy somewhere;
5. Demote your current Music Store;
6. Switch to ripping to FLAC;
7. Promote the new folder (backup location) to a Music Store (I don't know if backup has to be turned off before this step); there may be additonal steps needed, I don't know (rebuilding database ?);
8. If I understand properly, WAV files on your new folder should be starting to be converted to FLAC at this point;
9. Once all the conversion is done, demote the new Music Store;
10. Switch back to ripping to WAV;
11. Promote your initial location as a Music Store again;
12. You should be back to your initial configuration at this point (supposedly).
13. Move your FLAC files elsewhere and keep the folder created for this step as an active backup location; this way, you can promote it again as a Music Store when needed, but without changing the ripping to FLAC: instead, convert manually with the DTC the new albums that have been ripped since the initial conversion, copy them to the place where your FLAC files are and convert them back to WAV (so your backup location is all WAV and so can really be used as a backup of your main Music Store if needed).

I have no idea if that would work, or if it's totally insane. But that's what came to mind, so...

And please, quadruple check everything before attempting anything, I don't want to be responsible for a disaster ! And ask Phil !!!

HTH but I doubt it

Maurice

Maurice that's a nice idea -- THANK YOU! 

I think that one hangup is that a newly created music store must be EMPTY.  I don't think that I can convert a backup to a store . . . but this line of thought is worth pursuing.

I will see if Phil has some ideas as well.

WAVs tagged by the HDX, if copied and converted to another format, take the tags with them. Those I have downloaded I tag from scratch. If I want to change the tags or add them from scratch, dBpoweramp incorporates an Edit ID Tag into the right click menu and you can fiddle about to your heart's content.

It is possible to batch tag and this works very well.

Great to hear!  I used XLD on my mac and it didn't bring the tags with the files.  I'll try dbPoweramp with my PC.  Cheers!

You may be right, I forgot that part. But a backup can be promoted as a Music Store apparently, so maybe an internal folder that previously was a Music Store can be too ? I don't know if an internal folder can be demoted though...

I was inspired by the restore procuedure:

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...32#15927322095304532

If only they would provide a choice to shadow copy to FLAC as an alternative to MP3...

Uh ??? The HDX -- or UnitiServe for that matter -- puts tags inside the files in addition to using their external metadata ? That is new to me.

just to add another note to this topic. Be aware of the time needed for such conversions.

I use the HDX and currently converted all WAV files to FLAC.

After 2.5 months, its still converting !!

Do you honestly think so?

I am still waiting for The Honourable Michael Handsome, former Ambassador from Nigeria, to send me my misplaced Nigerian oil contracting money that he emailed me about.  That was much longer ago.  I did send him my bank info. as he requested . . .

Bart - another useful tool might be J River Media Center. This has a facility to "Fill properties from filename" which will use the folder structure or path to set tags. This might be useful for the WAVs that dBpoweramp cannot get the tags for, presuming that at the naim end there is some kind of meaningful folder structure  - Artist/Album for example. J River is also very good at mass tag edits and updates. Free for a month so you've not much to lose.

7000 albums is a lot of work !!

Thanks for that suggestion!  The Naim folder/name structure is probably fine.  And each .wav file is named with the name of the track.  I'll give it a free trial and see how it does.

You're welcome!

To save you hunting about, once you've loaded your library (pretty quick), the option you are looking for is in Tools > Library Tools > Fill properties from filename

You need to have some files selected first.

Notice that JRiver gives you the option of storing tags solely in it's own database  or in the FLACs themselves as well.

You might want to just store tags in the database until you are sure you are picking the tags up right - there is another option that allows you to write them back to the files.

Or just be bold and go for it!

The albums that can often give problems are compilation ones - depends how naim have treated them.

In any case, JRiver is very good for correcting tags and searching and viewing - you might even like it as a player!

Sorry. My bad. Track information will go over but album, artist and cover will have to be tagged. Plus anything else. It's very easy to do and I'm so used to clicking through the procedure that I forgot all the steps. Apologies for the poor communication Bart.

Harry can you briefly outline how you do the second part of the tagging -- for the tags that don't carry over?  Thanks!

I select the files in the album's directory, right click, select Edit ID Tag and type in the Album Title and Artist. I then add cover art, which is the folder.jpg file that resides in the directory for the album, hit OK and all the tracks are tagged. Track title and time are embedded already, no grinding of teeth necessary.

The right click -- Edit ID Tag menu is a dBpoweramp Windows add on. Also courtesy of a dBpoweramp embedded right click, you can convert the file format. Very handy, particularly for batch conversions.

That's consistent with my experience.  Remember that the UServe processor is by design low-powered, which helps it sound better, but makes it slow for huge batch operations like this.  Also, if you are using your UServe for UPnP Serving, or any other purpose, it will pause the batch conversion and pick it up again sometime after it idles.