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Topic: Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files (Read 17000 times) previous topic - next topic
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Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

I have a pretty big collection right now and used the single large flac +cue file method for the first half of my collection, and the multiple flac file method for the second half of it ala AutoFLAC (by the way, there isn't anything majorly wrong with AutoFLAC with the way it stores file information or anything, is there? Or is there a better alternative? I noticed that it hasn't been updated in a while, so I always get nervous when that happens).

What I am wondering, is if loading all of the .cue files into foobar2000 and converting to flac files (thus giving me multiple files instead of one large one) is a valid way of splitting up flac files in .cue form. Will I use anything super-important (gaps, etc) from my music if I split everything up that way? Or is there a better way to do this? Thanks guys, I love it every time I come back to these forums.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #1 –
Quote from: TheSpeedoBeast on
What I am wondering, is if loading all of the .cue files into foobar2000 and converting to flac files (thus giving me multiple files instead of one large one) is a valid way of splitting up flac files in .cue form.

The conversion would be 1:1 lossless, if that's what you're wondering.

Quote from: TheSpeedoBeast on
Will I [lose] anything super-important (gaps, etc) from my music if I split everything up that way? Or is there a better way to do this?

CUE Tools will definitely retain all gap +etc. information. I'm not sure if foobar can do a proper cue sheet conversion.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #2 –
Thanks for the reply. Anyone have any insight as to  if foobar is able to retain gaps, as cuetools does?

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #3 –
Also, I don't know how I feel about Cue Tools, because I would have to add silence to every one of my FLAC files just to make it compatible with the program (it needs to be a multiple of 588 samples in length). Not only would that change my files from the original, but it would take HOURS to do. Thanks for the input so far, keep it coming. Thanks guys.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #5 –
Quote from: TheSpeedoBeast on
Thanks for the reply. Anyone have any insight as to  if foobar is able to retain gaps, as cuetools does?
foobar will split on the INDEX 01 entries, essentially leaving you with gaps appended to the previous track.
I'm on a horse.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #7 –
No, they are from actual cds.... you think something is not right with the audio files themselves then? Any way to check? I am really paranoid about my music files' integrity.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #8 –
Quote from: TheSpeedoBeast on
No, they are from actual cds.... you think something is not right with the audio files themselves then? Any way to check? I am really paranoid about my music files' integrity.
No, if the images were correctly extracted from CDs then your assumption that you would have to add silence to them just to make it compatible with CUE Tools is what is not right here. 

I wrote a batch file that converts single image CUE sheets into noncompliant ones (and corrected gaps as well), BTW...
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=436081

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #9 –
Sounds like missing offset samples were not filled up with silence during the ripping process.* (This doesn't mean there's something necessarily wrong with your files. They simply aren't padded)

CUE Tools gives an error when attempting to convert such a FLAC image, if the image was not encoded with the "--sector-align" option. Though you can still use it to convert the cue sheet only, if you wish. (Output Style= Gaps Appended)

*edit:
If you have EAC logs, check:
Code: [Select]
Other options      : 
    Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #10 –
Good point!

There's also the possiblity that he ripped to a compressed image and EAC was configured with a compression offset.

Hopefully neither were the case or TheSpeedoBeast will have some work on his hands if he wants to use CUE Tools.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #11 –
I will post a log from that series of rips as soon as I get home... I used WACK to help me in creating this series of rips: http://www.freewebs.com/ponchorage/wack/docs.html

Which told me to use Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet --> Compressed to rip the CD. Which it looks like you said is not a good thing. Let me know what you think about this one...

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #12 –
No... a compression offset is bad if used in this case. There's nothing wrong with using an external compressor per se.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #13 –
Ahhhh, I read greynol's post wrong. Sorry for the confusion. I will post my log (do you need anything else to help me troubleshoot this?) from those rips later. Thanks guys, you are all a huge help!

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #14 –
EAC extraction logfile from 17. August 2005, 23:37 for CD
Eve 6 / Eve 6

Used drive  : _NEC    DVD_RW ND-3520AW  Adapter: 0  ID: 0
Read mode  : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, NO disable cache
Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No

Used output format : C:\eac\wack\Wack.exe  (User Defined Encoder)
                    128 kBit/s
                    Additional command line options :  %s %o %d "%a" "%g" "%y" "%m"
                    Use compression offset : 0

Other options      :
    Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
    Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
    Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000


Range status and errors
Selected range
    Filename C:\Documents and Settings\Shook\Desktop\iuh.wack.wav

    Peak level 100.0 %
    Range quality 99.9 %
    CRC 352E783A
    Copy OK

No errors occured

End of status report

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #15 –
Quote from: greynol on
There's also the possiblity that he ripped to a compressed image and EAC was configured with a compression offset.

Quote from: Cosmo on
No... a compression offset is bad if used in this case. There's nothing wrong with using an external compressor per se.

Quote from: TheSpeedoBeast on
Use compression offset : 0
...and there it is.

Having it selected means that it's configured, regardless of the fact that it's set to zero.

Every rip you've done to flac with this setting enabled has had 4608 samples of silence added at the end.

Bummer!

The good news is they're easily removed by decoding with flac using the following command-line option:
--until=-4608

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #16 –
Do you mean reencoding with flac? You scared me with the 'bummer', but the 'good news' really improved the moment : -)

Thanks so much, I will let you know how goes it.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #17 –
All right, I ran a test run of flac on one of my files, and it gave me some errors. Is that ignorable, or should I be concerned? (Ignore the scripting stuff, just look at the flac options: [flac -1Vf --until=-4608 (Filename.flac)]

shook@shook-desktop:~/Desktop$ find /home/shook/Desktop/ -name '*.flac' -exec flac -1Vf --until=-4608 {} \;

flac 1.1.4, Copyright © 2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007  Josh Coalson
flac comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.  This is free software, and you are
welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.  Type `flac' for details.

Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind.flac: WARNING, can't use existing seektable in input FLAC since the input size is changing or unknown, dropping existing SEEKTABLE block...
Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind.flac: Verify OK, wrote 430134668 bytes, ratio=1.039

Also, can anyone confirm or deny that foobar2000 can make perfect transitions to multiple-file setups instead of monolithic? And whether I do monolithic or not, should I reencode my files with the --until=-4608 flag? Sorry for all the ?'s, I can make a new thread if necessary.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #18 –
There's probably a way to go from flac to flac, but I'm suggesting you go from flac to wave:

flac -d --until=-4608 <file.flac>

If you want to go from flac to flac, check with Synthetic Soul.  I'm sure there are plenty of others who can help, but he's the guy who regularly gives consistently good advice.

EDIT: I did try the following:

flac --until=-4608 -o "file(re-encode).flac" "file.flac"

It gave be the same warning that you got, but still transcoded ok.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #19 –
I wouldn't suggest anything better than greynol's:

Code: [Select]
FLAC --until=-4608 -o out.flac in.flac

One of the beauties of 1.1.3 I think.

I would say that the warning FLAC is giving should not be a concern; it states that it is due to the length changing, which we know about, as we are specifying it.

I assume that FLAC would write a new seektable.  If not, the only other suggestion I can make is to also use METAFLAC to rebuild the seektable.  The default, when encoding, is a seekpoint every 10 seconds, so:

Code: [Select]
FLAC --until=-4608 -o out.flac in.flac & METAFLAC --add-seekpoint=10s out.flac

Best to just use FLAC to re-encode a file and then use METAFLAC to check that a seektable exists.  I very much expect it will.
I'm on a horse.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #20 –
Thanks for all your help guys, I really appreciate it. Seriously. I just have two more (hopefully) questions about all this before I let you go.

Would you suggest reencoding those files with the --until=-4608 flag regardless if I use CUE tools or not? In other words, would that make my files more 'accurate'?

Also, back to foobar2000, it seems like that is the 'easiest' method (but not necessarily the 'best'), since it automatically preserves tags and everything, and it seems like gaps also get preserved. Can anyone confirm that foobar2000 is a good way of converting between files, or should I stick with CUE Tools? Thanks in advance everyone.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #21 –
Quote from: TheSpeedoBeast on
Would you suggest reencoding those files with the --until=-4608 flag regardless if I use CUE tools or not? In other words, would that make my files more 'accurate'?
It's only extra silence at the end, but if you're interested in having them as accurate as possible then I'd say yes.  This is much more dire of a problem when people rip as individual tracks (especially when gapless playback is needed).

I absolutely trust foobar2000 to split images, but be aware that any data before the 01 index of the first track that is not null will not be preserved.  This is true for any other program that is instructed to split with gaps appended to the previous track.  EAC can split images too, btw; they just need to be in wave format.

What prompted you to enable the compression offset?  Did you find this in an online guide?  If so I would raise hell over it!

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #22 –
All right, so I have the potential of losing some information if I use foobar... is there any way to circumvent this? Or is CUE Tools the only way? If I keep the old cuesheet around, would that suffice? Sorry for all the questions, but I spend DAYS building up my collection, and I don't want to put it in an early grave.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #23 –
Quote from: TheSpeedoBeast on
All right, so I have the potential of losing some information if I use foobar... is there any way to circumvent this? Or is CUE Tools the only way? If I keep the old cuesheet around, would that suffice? Sorry for all the questions, but I spend DAYS building up my collection, and I don't want to put it in an early grave.
foobar2000 won't be able to do this unless you trick it by providing a modified cue sheet.  When using an original unmodified cue sheet, you'll need to use a program that is capable of splitting index-based or with gaps prepended to the next track.

Usually the index before the first track which is commonly referred to as HTOA (hidden track one audio) is just digital silence (null samples) and can be preserved with a simple pregap line in the cue sheet.  When it isn't digital silence, you won't be able to retain it by keeping the old cue sheet around; the data must be extracted.

Splitting large flac+cue into mutiple flac files

Reply #24 –
Haha, so much to think about : -)

I guess that I will open this thread to this: "what would you guys personally do?"