Breaking down long FLAC files with XLD?

[B&W Driver]

Hi All!

We don't have access to a PC, so all of the following discussion pertains to macOS.

I've never done it before, but I used TextEdit to create a CUE sheet in plain text format. After some trial and error, the CUE file looks like this (please see below).

The plan is to convert the single long FLAC file that I have - which is to say one FLAC file for the entire album - into individual track files (one FLAC file for each track). I placed the CUE sheet into the same folder as the long "Bloodshot.flac" file, but when I open XLD and press the Transcode button, I end up with the (9) tracks specified in the CUE sheet, which is wonderful, but the problem is that each track ends up being a copy of the entire album. In other words, each track is created and named properly, but XLD is not using the INDEX times specified in the CUE sheet and, instead, is creating (9) copies of the original album (the one long single FLAC file for the entire album). Thank you kindly for any help with this, folks.

 

[par4ken]

I use Foobar to split files (as well as to play them). You just drop the cue sheet (from the same folder) into foobar and it will load the album showing the separate tracks. You can then select "convert" to save as individual files in flac or any other format that you want.

foobar2000 for Mac is available here.

 

[B&W Driver]

Thank you kindly for the post, par4ken, but I never really go the hang of Foobar2000 for Mac. For example, I've looked around through the menus in the Foobar utility and I've never seen anything that looks like a Convert function. Are there separate add-on plug-ins that should be added to Fubar2000 for Mac?

 

[par4ken]

In Foobar, right click on the selection and a menu will pop up select convert from there.
Foobar2000:Converter

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Thank you kindly for the post, par4ken, but I never really go the hang of Foobar2000 for Mac. For example, I've looked around through the menus in the Foobar utility and I've never seen anything that looks like a Convert function. Are there separate add-on plug-ins that should be added to Fubar2000 for Mac?

I dont think it comes with a flac converter installed.

And its Foobar. FUBAR is something else entirely.

 

[par4ken]

I dont think it comes with a flac converter installed.

And its Foobar. FUBAR is something else entirely.

But it does, it would be rather useless without as that is the most popular file type! File types not included can easily be added.

"The Converter component is included with foobar2000 installers, and allows you to convert your audio files to other file formats."

"Natively supported ("out-of-the-box"):

MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4, Musepack, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC / Ogg FLAC, Speex, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, AU/SND, CDDA, WMA, Matroska, ALAC, MMS, RTSP, Opus, Monkey's Audio, AC3, DTS, TAK."

 

[B&W Driver]

In Foobar, right click on the selection and a menu will pop up select convert from there.
Foobar2000:Converter

By "right-click on the selection...," do you mean that I open the long (full album) FLAC file, select that file and right-click on it to access the Convert function?

 

[paligap]

By "right-click on the selection...," do you mean that I open the long (full album) FLAC file, select that file and right-click on it to access the Convert function?

No, you open the CUE file in Foobar, and if the file is created correctly, the individual songs will load in the player window. At that point, you select them all, right click, and the Convert dialog box should appear.

I'm not familiar with XLD, but if one little thing is wrong with the CUE file, you'll either get no results or, as in your case, unexpected results. I'll leave it to the CUE file experts to point out any potential problems with your CUE file.

 

[JulesRules]

So I've not used a cue sheet for this particular purpose before but something that jumped out at me are the two indices (indexes). When I burn a CD from a cue sheet, I always only use one index. What happens if you leave off the INDEX 02 lines?

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

With reference to your .cue navigation file, any track cutting tool only uses the 'INDEX 01' times. Indeed, I'm not aware of any software application (including software players) that makes use of the 'INDEX 02' times.

Plus, your INDEX times are not correct. The first two digits should refer the minutes, the second two digits should refer to the seconds and the third two digits should refer to the milliseconds/frame times.

Meaning, where you have the second track as being INDEX 01 00:04:45, it should be 04:45:00.

I have amended your .Cue sheet file for you below: -

PERFORMER "J Geils Band"
TITLE "Bloodshot"
REM GENRE Rock
REM DATE 1973 [2024]

FILE "Bloodshot.flac" WAVE

  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "Party House"
    PERFORMER "J Geils Band"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "Make Up Your Mind"
    PERFORMER "J Geils Band"
    INDEX 01 04:45:00
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    TITLE "Back To Get Ya"
    PERFORMER "J Geils Band"
    INDEX 01 08:14:00
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    TITLE "Struttin' With My Baby"
    PERFORMER "J Geils Band"
    INDEX 01 13:45:00
  TRACK 05 AUDIO
    TITLE "Don't Try To Hide It"
    PERFORMER "J Geils Band"
    INDEX 01 17:02:00
  TRACK 06 AUDIO
    TITLE "Southside Shuffle"
    PERFORMER "J Geils Band"
    INDEX 01 19:43:00
  TRACK 07 AUDIO
    TITLE "Hold Your Loving"
    PERFORMER "J Geils Band"
    INDEX 01 23:32:00
  TRACK 08 AUDIO
    TITLE "Start All Over Again"
    PERFORMER "J Geils Band"
    INDEX 01 26:06:00
  TRACK 09 AUDIO
    TITLE "Give It To Me"
    PERFORMER "J Geils Band"
    INDEX 01 30:19:00

And for anyone who requires 'OGM' style chapters for use with MKVToolNix GUI, the OGM file looks like this: -

CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER01NAME=Party House
CHAPTER02=00:04:45.000
CHAPTER02NAME=Make Up Your Mind
CHAPTER03=00:08:14.000
CHAPTER03NAME=Back To Get Ya
CHAPTER04=00:13:45.000
CHAPTER04NAME=Struttin' With My Baby
CHAPTER05=00:17:02.000
CHAPTER05NAME=Don't Try To Hide It
CHAPTER06=00:19:43.000
CHAPTER06NAME=Southside Shuffle
CHAPTER07=00:23:32.000
CHAPTER07NAME=Hold Your Loving
CHAPTER08=00:26:06.000
CHAPTER08NAME=Start All Over Again
CHAPTER09=00:30:19.000

Cheers

 

[JulesRules]

Oh yes, I forgot about the time format!

For some reason, though, you changed "Geils" to "Geiles", which is especially funny to me as a German speaker

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

For some reason, though, you changed "Geils" to "Geiles", which is especially funny to me as a German speaker

Oh ja... My bad. I will correct this!

 

[mandrix]

He still needs to convert to minutes:seconds:frames for a "CD" cue sheet though. (75 frames/second for CD style cue sheets, or frames = (milliseconds / 1000) * 75)
I believe he wants to actually build a cue sheet for an album long track. There may be, but I'm unaware, of any utils that will do that for you. Easy enough when you have separate files.

Don' t know what is out there that works on Mac's anyway.

Problem is without a DAW or other utility you don't really know the actual length of songs, as when listed don't typically include milliseconds or frames.

 

[JulesRules]

You can drag the .cue file into foobar2000, and it'll show and play all the tracks as if they were already separated - that's one way of checking whether the splits are in good enough spots.

 

[mandrix]

You can drag the .cue file into foobar2000, and it'll show and play all the tracks as if they were already separated - that's one way of checking whether the splits are in good enough spots.

Sure. But first one must compose the cue file manually, for an album length file, I think is the crux of it.
I have made dozens by hand, but not in recent years as I don't have a need.
Just don't know anything about Mac's or what utils are available for this...I don't know of any Windows apps that will either though there may be. I used to load an album length file in Audition (for upmixing) and construct a cue sheet manually based on what I picked out for length of each track, setting Audition to display times in CD format.
Or....rip into individual tracks with EAC, note the track lengths, then concatenate all the files together.

 

[B&W Driver]

No, you open the CUE file in Foobar, and if the file is created correctly, the individual songs will load in the player window. At that point, you select them all, right click, and the Convert dialog box should appear.

I'm not familiar with XLD, but if one little thing is wrong with the CUE file, you'll either get no results or, as in your case, unexpected results. I'll leave it to the CUE file experts to point out any potential problems with your CUE file.

I followed your instructions, paligap, and, sadly, I never saw the word "convert" anywhere. Perhaps LuvMyQuad is correct. It doesn't seem like the Convert utility comes with Foobar2000 for Mac.

The revised/edited CUE sheet that I created did work, however. When I opened it in Foobar2000 for Mac, the playlist window did indeed populate the individual album tracks.

 

[mandrix]

I followed your instructions, paligap, and, sadly, I never saw the word "convert" anywhere. Perhaps LuvMyQuad is correct. It doesn't seem like the Convert utility comes with Foobar2000 for Mac.

The CUE sheet that I created did work, however. When I opened it in Foobar2000 for Mac, the playlist window did indeed populate the individual album tracks.

Highlight all the files, right click and choose convert, and go through the options
Choose the "3 dots" at the bottom after choosing convert to select output format and destination folder, etc.
Well for the Windows version anyway.....