converting wav to flac - acquiring tags
Posted by: Walt on 10 July 2016
I have finally bit the bullet and decided to convert my wav files to flac in order that I can use Asset pnp to stream my music. Future rips will contain the required metadata to show tags album art etc. Can anyone explain the best way to convert from wav to flac and acquire the necessary tags. I'm guessing it will require another piece of software, but at what stage of the process is it best to acquire the tags ?
Where did you get the WAVs from? The issue usually causes problems if you use a Naim ripper (Unitiserve, HDX, NS01) as the way it stores metadata makes it more or less impossible to read by other devices. In this case, it's essential to convert to FLAC on the Naim device before moving the files elsewhere, which is simple to do, if a little time consuming with a large library.
Wav files are from ripped CD's etc done on a Mac, and stored on a QNAP which I was previously streaming using Twonky
You should have less to worry about with metadata as you've used a non-Naim ripper. If you want to do the conversion, there are plenty of ways to do it. You could try XLD, which is free and pretty simple to use, and will convert many different formats.
ChrisSU posted:You should have less to worry about with metadata as you've used a non-Naim ripper. If you want to do the conversion, there are plenty of ways to do it. You could try XLD, which is free and pretty simple to use, and will convert many different formats.
Just for general info . . . If one uses a Naim ripper (HDX, UnitiServe) and allows the Naim device to do the conversion of wav > flac, basic metadata will be embedded within the flac files (ARTIST, ALBUM, DATE).
Hi Bart,
When you convert to FLAC, I assume the WAVs are wiped and the FLACs are put onto the Unitiserve Store?
Keith
KRM posted:Hi Bart,
When you convert to FLAC, I assume the WAVs are wiped and the FLACs are put onto the Unitiserve Store?
Keith
Yes I seem to recall that's how it goes. The MQ folder in the store then contains flac files and not wav files.
This is different than what happens when you let the UServe create a lossy (MP3) library; it adds the lossy files, but does not delete or otherwise change the lossless files in your store.
Bart posted:KRM posted:Hi Bart,
When you convert to FLAC, I assume the WAVs are wiped and the FLACs are put onto the Unitiserve Store?
Keith
Yes I seem to recall that's how it goes. The MQ folder in the store then contains flac files and not wav files.
This is different than what happens when you let the UServe create a lossy (MP3) library; it adds the lossy files, but does not delete or otherwise change the lossless files in your store.
And the nice thing is that the information used by Naim to tag the wav files are preserved, so if you want to convert back to wav in the future tags are preserved.
If the server firmware and software is ever developed a again, it would be cool to be able to use wav files in the store, but have the backup to nas converted into flac.
Claus
Many thanks, I will be in touch with KRM next week to resolve some other issues !!!!!
I suppose, if/when I ever want to move on from the Unitiserve, I could covert to FLAC, backup the the results and then convert back to to WAV. I can then use the resulting FLAC files in an Asset-based NAS solution at some point in the future.
KRM posted:I suppose, if/when I ever want to move on from the Unitiserve, I could covert to FLAC, backup the the results and then convert back to to WAV. I can then use the resulting FLAC files in an Asset-based NAS solution at some point in the future.
Yes, as long as you remember that in order to keep the metadata, you need to convert to FLAC on the Unitiserve. Moving the files to another (backup?) device then converting doesn't work, you need to do it before yourUS hard drive dies!!