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Topic: Matroska mka single album file (Read 15686 times) previous topic - next topic
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Matroska mka single album file

Hey there!

I have an Image.flac and Image.cue file + my front.jpg cover art in a folder and create my mka file like this:

Code: [Select]
mkvmerge Image.flac --cuesheet Image.cue --attach-file front.jpg -o Image.mka


It works like a charm and I can tag everything with foobar, from discnumber to album artist, titles and genre.

But I have a question: WHERE does foobar save the tags? If I extract the chapters file and the cuesheet from the mka again and take a look, there is no info whatsoever of the following: discnumber, total tracks, genre (iirc).
Does foobar alter the mka file itself instead of only the embedded cuesheet?
It DOES alter the cuesheet file, because I embedded a blank on (just the INDEX infos), and now (extracted) it contains tagged infos I entered in foobar. But not all as said before.

Any ideas?

Matroska mka single album file

Reply #1
I'd assume the "--cuesheet" option converts the cuesheet to proper matroska chapers. Foobar in turn uses the facilities for editing metadata provided by matroska. When you extract the chapters as CUE it probably writes a compliant CUE instead of one containing all the extra information. In short, matroska doesn't use the cue file, only mkvmerge uses it to define the matroska chapters.
It's only audiophile if it's inconvenient.

Matroska mka single album file

Reply #2
Thanks for your help.

The --cuesheet option is indeed used to create the matroska chapters. But that's not the problem.


My mka file has 3 parts inside:
- the audio file "Image.flac"
- the cuesheet file "Image.cue"
- the chapters (created by matroska, not me)

The chapters were created automatically by matroska and looks like this:

Code: [Select]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!-- <!DOCTYPE Tags SYSTEM "matroskatags.dtd"> -->

<Chapters>
  <EditionEntry>
<EditionFlagHidden>0</EditionFlagHidden>
<EditionFlagDefault>0</EditionFlagDefault>
<EditionUID>550544517</EditionUID>
<ChapterAtom>
  <ChapterUID>1693127076</ChapterUID>
  <ChapterTimeStart>00:00:00.000000000</ChapterTimeStart>
  <ChapterFlagHidden>0</ChapterFlagHidden>
  <ChapterFlagEnabled>1</ChapterFlagEnabled>
  <ChapterPhysicalEquiv>20</ChapterPhysicalEquiv>
  <ChapterDisplay>
<ChapterString> - </ChapterString>
<ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
  </ChapterDisplay>
  <ChapterAtom>
<ChapterUID>1791353234</ChapterUID>
<ChapterTimeStart>00:00:00.000000000</ChapterTimeStart>
<ChapterFlagHidden>1</ChapterFlagHidden>
<ChapterFlagEnabled>1</ChapterFlagEnabled>
<ChapterPhysicalEquiv>10</ChapterPhysicalEquiv>
<ChapterDisplay>
  <ChapterString>INDEX 01</ChapterString>
  <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
</ChapterDisplay>
  </ChapterAtom>
</ChapterAtom>
<ChapterAtom>
  <ChapterUID>2545736877</ChapterUID>
  <ChapterTimeStart>00:04:18.666666666</ChapterTimeStart>
  <ChapterFlagHidden>0</ChapterFlagHidden>
  <ChapterFlagEnabled>1</ChapterFlagEnabled>
  <ChapterPhysicalEquiv>20</ChapterPhysicalEquiv>
  <ChapterDisplay>
<ChapterString> - </ChapterString>
<ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
  </ChapterDisplay>
  <ChapterAtom>
<ChapterUID>721132165</ChapterUID>
<ChapterTimeStart>00:04:18.666666666</ChapterTimeStart>
<ChapterFlagHidden>1</ChapterFlagHidden>
<ChapterFlagEnabled>1</ChapterFlagEnabled>
<ChapterPhysicalEquiv>10</ChapterPhysicalEquiv>
<ChapterDisplay>
  <ChapterString>INDEX 01</ChapterString>
  <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
</ChapterDisplay>
  </ChapterAtom>
</ChapterAtom>
<ChapterAtom>
  <ChapterUID>1325760386</ChapterUID>
  <ChapterTimeStart>00:08:06.133333333</ChapterTimeStart>
  <ChapterFlagHidden>0</ChapterFlagHidden>
  <ChapterFlagEnabled>1</ChapterFlagEnabled>
  <ChapterPhysicalEquiv>20</ChapterPhysicalEquiv>
  <ChapterDisplay>
<ChapterString> - </ChapterString>
<ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
  </ChapterDisplay>
  <ChapterAtom>
<ChapterUID>2241010850</ChapterUID>
<ChapterTimeStart>00:08:06.133333333</ChapterTimeStart>
<ChapterFlagHidden>1</ChapterFlagHidden>
<ChapterFlagEnabled>1</ChapterFlagEnabled>
<ChapterPhysicalEquiv>10</ChapterPhysicalEquiv>
<ChapterDisplay>
  <ChapterString>INDEX 01</ChapterString>
  <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
</ChapterDisplay>
  </ChapterAtom>
</ChapterAtom>
<ChapterAtom>
  <ChapterUID>3133706427</ChapterUID>
  <ChapterTimeStart>00:12:01.960000000</ChapterTimeStart>
  <ChapterFlagHidden>0</ChapterFlagHidden>
  <ChapterFlagEnabled>1</ChapterFlagEnabled>
  <ChapterPhysicalEquiv>20</ChapterPhysicalEquiv>
  <ChapterDisplay>
<ChapterString> - </ChapterString>
<ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
  </ChapterDisplay>
  <ChapterAtom>
<ChapterUID>2576452256</ChapterUID>
<ChapterTimeStart>00:12:01.960000000</ChapterTimeStart>
<ChapterFlagHidden>1</ChapterFlagHidden>
<ChapterFlagEnabled>1</ChapterFlagEnabled>
<ChapterPhysicalEquiv>10</ChapterPhysicalEquiv>
<ChapterDisplay>
  <ChapterString>INDEX 01</ChapterString>
  <ChapterLanguage>eng</ChapterLanguage>
</ChapterDisplay>
  </ChapterAtom>
</ChapterAtom>
  </EditionEntry>
</Chapters>

My "Image.cue" BEFORE the merging (outside of the mka):

Code: [Select]
FILE "Image.mka" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 04:18:50
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 08:06:10
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 12:01:72

and AFTER the merging (inside the mka) and tagging via foobar:

Code: [Select]
PERFORMER "Artist"
TITLE "AlbumTitle"
FILE "Image.mka" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "song1"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "song2"
    INDEX 01 04:18:50
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    TITLE "song3"
    INDEX 01 08:06:10
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    TITLE "song4"
    INDEX 01 12:01:72

But I tagged more: genre, album artist, discnumber, total discnumber, total tracks, year.
Where the heck does foobar save this?


Matroska mka single album file

Reply #4
Thanks again, that helped me out! 

I completely forgot about matroskas tags.
Doing a: "mkvextract tags Image.mka > tags.txt" and looking into the file showed me all the information I saved in the mka with foobar.

It's fine that the cuesheet file is altered at the same time when tagging with foobar. That way one can extract the cuesheet without losing (most of) the tags.

Really starting to love the matroska format for music archiving: One file to keep the music with cuesheet and all of the pictures inside.
Just renaming the front picture to cover.[jpg/png] inside the file attachements is enough to let it appear in foobar.

 

Matroska mka single album file

Reply #5
Really starting to love the matroska format for music archiving: One file to keep the music with cuesheet and all of the pictures inside.
Just renaming the front picture to cover.[jpg/png] inside the file attachements is enough to let it appear in foobar.

Just curious... but why is this necessary to store the flac file inside the matroska container? I use React to do my ripping and it stores the cuesheet and cover art inside the flac file already. Everything stored into the single flac image file which foobar handles without any problem.

What is the point of then storing the flac file in a matroska container? Am I missing something?

Matroska mka single album file

Reply #6
What is the point of then storing the flac file in a matroska container? Am I missing something?

As long as you only store cover art and CUE sheet you are right, the FLAC container is sufficient. But Matroska can store any amount of additional files or even multiple streams, and is especially designed to do so.
It's only audiophile if it's inconvenient.

Matroska mka single album file

Reply #7
As long as you only store cover art and CUE sheet you are right, the FLAC container is sufficient. But Matroska can store any amount of additional files or even multiple streams, and is especially designed to do so.

Sure, the Matroska container is very nice, no debate about that at all. But the OP specifically was interested in storing the flac, the cuesheet and the cover art into a single file which the flac container is already capable of doing without requiring the use of any of the other Matroska features. Of course, other content can also be stored in the flac tags as well such as the EAC log file in my case so you are not restricted to just a cuesheet and the cover art.

Matroska mka single album file

Reply #8
With mka I have all the album art scans in one file, not just the front cover art. Maybe flac can handle that too, not quite sure.
Also I added the original cuesheet (the unmodified Image.cue) to the attachments. That way I can be sure to easily demux an untouched flac and untouched cuesheet if I want to.
Guess it's kind of a personal preference too. For example all my movies are in mkv containers. Matroska all the way.

Matroska mka single album file

Reply #9
With mka I have all the album art scans in one file, not just the front cover art. Maybe flac can handle that too, not quite sure.

Yes, a flac container can handle that without a problem.

Quote
Also I added the original cuesheet (the unmodified Image.cue) to the attachments. That way I can be sure to easily demux an untouched flac and untouched cuesheet if I want to.

Yes, the flac container can handle this without a problem. All of my flacs have my original cuesheets embedded in them as well as the EAC rip log file, tags and cover art. If you are interested you can read the manual pages to determine the capabilities of the flac container.

Quote
Guess it's kind of a personal preference too. For example all my movies are in mkv containers. Matroska all the way.

Can't quarrel with your personal preference. Just don't want any misunderstanding that one must use a matroska container to do what your original post described. A flac container is perfectly capable of storing everything you were interested in within a single file as well. You can use the metaflac program to list, add, remove, or edit metadata in one or more flac files similar to mkvmerge or mkvextract.

Not trying to change your personal preference but there is no technical reason why the flac container can't meet the needs you have identified here directly.

Matroska mka single album file

Reply #10
Hm, that's nice to know. FLAC is more versatile than I thought.

Well, in the end it really just is preference I guess. The mkvtoolnix (especially mkvmerge GUI) is really nice to handle. There are also batch extractors if I want to easily get all the content from a matroska file.

Do you know a nice GUI for creating such flac images (with pictures and original cue sheet + embedded cue sheet inside)?
How do you do it?

Re: Matroska mka single album file

Reply #11
With mka I have all the album art scans in one file, not just the front cover art. Maybe flac can handle that too, not quite sure.
Also I added the original cuesheet (the unmodified Image.cue) to the attachments. That way I can be sure to easily demux an untouched flac and untouched cuesheet if I want to.
Guess it's kind of a personal preference too. For example all my movies are in mkv containers. Matroska all the way.

Hi, detto87.
How did you attach back cover art to mka? My foobar2000 shows only front cover, i tried different filenames and descriptions for back cover file but without any success.

Re: Matroska mka single album file

Reply #12
This thread will turn ten years old in a week, and the user you are asking hasn't been active since April 2011 ...

As for foobar2000: what shows in file properties and the album art tab?

Re: Matroska mka single album file

Reply #13
Foobar Album art Tab shows only front cover (same as Artwork View). Mkvmerge shows front and back covers as attachments. Audiobook Android app "Voice" shows back cover (i think, because it has 01 index). I think foobar2000 has lack of compatibility with *.mka.
I use MKA container because foobar2000 can't DLNA streaming (UPNP DLNA) mp3s with embedded cue, it plays only last of embedded tracks. MKA works well, but back covers absence made me crazy.