Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Duplicate Song Titles (Read 3367 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Duplicate Song Titles

I have just found Foobar! I am trying to convert a very large collection of m4a tunes to mp3.  Using Foobar has made this an easy, albeit rather a long exercise as I have well over 4,500 songs to convert.

My problem is as follows. Around 400 of these songs have duplicate titles i.e. they are the same song sung by different artists or they are different songs with the same title.  When I start the conversion process I am told there are files with the same title and do I wish to Overwrite/Overwrite All or Skip.  The first 2 options are of no use as I will simply get one of the versions converted.  I do not know what Skip does, but if it lets me convert all versions I need to stay by the PC to press Skip each time.  The conversion process for such a large collection can take up to 20 hours which makes the sitting by the PC pressing Skip a very dubiuos option to say the least!  I suspect, however, that Skip means exactly what it says and no version will be converted.

Am I missing a trick here?  Is there somewhere in the initial setup that will help. As a total novice in terms of Foobar I do not know what options, if any, I have to resolve this.

Any guidance very welcome.

Thanks

Gareth

Duplicate Song Titles

Reply #1 –
Well, first of all why do you converting from m4a to mp3? Lossy to lossy or Lossless to lossy?

Then in Converter you have option to define "name format": in you case someting like %tracknumber% - %artist% - %title% probably will solve the problem with duplicate tracks

Duplicate Song Titles

Reply #2 –
I am transferring music from my iPod to a Sony Gigajuke.  The Sony will not accept m4a format so I have to convert to mp3.  I know it is a loss of quality, but there is no option in this case.  I will try your solution.

Many thanks

Gareth

Sorry to come back again, but I cannot find where exactly I should be entering your suggestion. I am totally new to Foobar so this is a learning curve.  The simpler the guidance the better!!

Thanks

Gareth

Duplicate Song Titles

Reply #4 –
I can now confirm a successful transfer - many thanks for the advice. Worked perfectly. My only commnet is that the replies did not really give an exact location for the Name Format so I still had to hunt around.  I always assume total ignorance when I give advice to computer users as it saves a lot of time and reposting.  So for anyone who strays onto this posting this is the exact location of Name Format.

1. When you have compiled your list for conversion highlight the listing by selecting on one them use Control A to highlight the rest.
2. Right click on the list and you will see Convert
3. Select Convert which gives you two options.  On my version of Foobar there are 2 options - Last Used and ...
4. Select ... (which is actually the Converter Setup)
5. In the Converter Setup under Output Files you will find Name Format.

Again my thanks

Gareth

Duplicate Song Titles

Reply #5 –
Quote from: morrig47 on
3. Select Convert which gives you two options.  On my version of Foobar there are 2 options - Last Used and ...
There is always "...", which goes to the setup dialog above, then "Last used" and any other Converter presets you have stored previously, so they can be accessed directly.
Full-quoting makes you scroll past the same junk over and over.

Duplicate Song Titles

Reply #6 –
Quote from: morrig47 on
I can now confirm a successful transfer - many thanks for the advice. Worked perfectly. My only commnet is that the replies did not really give an exact location for the Name Format so I still had to hunt around.  I always assume total ignorance when I give advice to computer users as it saves a lot of time and reposting.

Well, I thought you had already shown an ability to find the conversion setup dialog:
Quote from: morrig47 on
When I start the conversion process I am told there are files with the same title and do I wish to Overwrite/Overwrite All or Skip.  The first 2 options are of no use as I will simply get one of the versions converted.
no?
elevatorladylevitateme