Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Importing 1500 FLAC album files

Having just set up my MC200, I need to make an attempt to import the 1500 or so albums which were ripped by and stored on my Vortexbox.

If I just point Control:PC to the folder containing the ripped and tagged files, can I set it up to just import them without me having to hover over it at each one for checking/approval of all the tags/artwork ?

Basically, I would just like to get these files on to the MC200 so I can listen to them. I don't mind working my way through improving any additional tags over the course of time.

I'd consider using dBpoweramp and the new Meridian plug-in to do this. But I can't tell you how to do it (well not yet I've not experimented with it yet), but I'm sure others can chip in here.

Do have a read of Nick's Sooloos "ripping / importing" guide.
You will pick up some Sooloos import tips from there.

Regards,
Carl

The Vortexbox does all my ripping and serves as a NAS. It's dedicated to that task alone (which of course is what Vortexbox is all about really) and I'm comfortable with it. I've edited tags to my satisfaction (i.e. very basic level :)using MP3 tag and I'm happy with my artwork. I would like to keep it as my Ripping/NAS solution as I'm comfortable with it and at this stage it reduces the learning curve.

I'm not seeing where dBpoweramp comes into play for me really, although I have to confess that I've never looked at it. The Vortexbox files are stored as Artist-Album, not Artist/Album. Therefore, there is a folder for each album, rather than Artist folders with album sub-folders within them. The tags are written in a way which has best suited how I look at my music collection. I don't know whether the MC200 looks at filenames or tags to sort it's files out upon import, so I'm not sure of the implications of how the files are structured right now.

Clearly, the Meridian method involves additional tags and methods of using the collection to enhance the user experience. From what I've read, it seems that once I start an import process, I have to sit at a computer to manually manipulate every FLAC file as it imports. I'd prefer to just get the music in there and then work my way through it in due course.

There is a setting that will allow you to load your FLAC collection without being there but I highly recommend not doing it that way. When I first got my Sooloos I loaded my collection that way and it was a mess. It did a pretty good job on about 95 percent of the collection but the last 5 percent had major mistakes like incorrect track names, incorrect album covers, and it even got a few incorrect album names and incorrect artists. Once you load 1500 albums it's extremely difficult to figure these mistakes out. I had to delete everything then start all over when I tried doing what you want to do.

Just bite the bullet and check the metadata as you load.

If you import and try to keep your metadata, you may find Sooloos ignores it. There is/was a bug whereby "keep local metadata" was non-funcational (except for covers).

If dBpoweramp could do a batch convert from FLAC to the Sooloos format, you might have better luck getting your current metadata into Sooloos. This is a deduction. I haven't tried the plug in (and won't, most likely), so perhaps someone can confirm or deny my hopeful suggestion.

As I said, I don't recommend this, but if you want to try it:
In Control:PC select "Settings" at the top right then "check" "Automatically approve albums with complete metadata".

Good luck.

+1
That's what was I thinking too when I posted above.
My gut feeling is that using dBpoweramp to create the xml for a Sooloos 'restore' will yeild better long term results.

Like you not tried and don't have the time presently to experiment with it.

Regards,
Carl

Ugh...

Isn't this process supposed to be getting simpler?

Now a plug-in, dBpoweramp and who knows?

And what about the majority of us who use a MAC?

Windows is so yesterday...

My preferred OS is Linux but I digress.

The simple way:

With Control:PC or Control:Mac
Make sure prefere local metadata is checked (it might work now).
Select auto complete albums with complete metadata.
Select import and point it at the folder that contains the albums to import.
Click go.

Sort out later on Sooloos.

I'd be tempted to add "Don't import duplicate albums".

I've had problems in the past with importing like this (I still find missing albums from multidisc sets) and I think Carl's suggestion of using the plugin and XML file is very sensible as a result.

Does the plug in also work with the dBpoweramp batch converter? Would be OK with CDs only but I'd be worried about accidentally down sampling HDCDs and other hirez stuff.

Read the sticky thread and just pick up where it reads "Drag and Drop".

If you do chose to accept all completed items without any check then we will ban you as soon as you make a single moan that your data is wrong, that Sooloos doesn't work, or that you wish it had a composer field

Yes, I've seen that you can drag/drop at folder level, which is obviously a nice simple way to initiate the import of multiple files. It's what happens after that which concerns me.

As someone who uses a PC at a very basic level, I thought that if I dragged and dropped, then the folder/files would be moved from where they were and over to where they are dropped. I don't actually want to do that - I want them to stay where they are, but also get imported into the MC200. Should I be using copy/paste instead, or am I fundamentally misunderstanding something ?