MMH - Split Side Long or Album Length FLACs to Song Files?

[timbre4]

@J. PUPSTER New beta version (same link as previous).

You can split from an existing CUE by using 'Add Cue' button, then 'Split'
You can split from a large FLAC or WAV without a cue by using 'Browse' at bottom to load a auto detect silence. Then 'Split' at any time to use the times in the grid. Although you should add the tracks details via a Musicbrainz tag lookup or manually prior to the split to get nice file names and tags.

Updated to 4.2.6 today and giving this a whirl. Didn't make sense until I came back and read this again. Below I can see my first results with Roberta Flack Side 1 and I'm thrilled to see some tracks. But I'm afraid I'm going to lose these when I switch to side 2. These are split points that I believe to be valid. How do I get tracks to result into that album folder?

Big thanks for these continued improvements!

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Updated to 4.2.6 today and giving this a whirl. Didn't make sense until I came back and read this again. Below I can see my first results with Roberta Flack Side 1 and I'm thrilled to see some tracks. But I'm afraid I'm going to lose these when I switch to side 2. These are split points that I believe to be valid. How do I get tracks to result into that album folder?

Big thanks for these continued improvements!

View attachment 68150

Not exactly sure what you mean. Just to be safe when I did mine, I also created a separate sub-folder and copied the main Side 1 file into it and proceeded from there, but I believe it just outputs into the same folder as the input (Just make sure you FIRST highlight each songs filename and edit to the actual song title) or have a cue file do it for you (Roberta Flack – Killing Me Softly (1973, Vinyl)) -doubtfull MusicBrainz has the actual CD-4 data, but if MusicBrainz has the regular LP info, you can use it instead because it looks like the same song order.
I haven't had time to check out the newest 4.2.6 yet, but I will soon. Hope that answers your question, and usually they are two files-right side 1 & side 2 (ABB)?

 

[timbre4]

Yes 2 files, one per side. Never worry about quad/stereo song titles as they are the same. I didn't want to lose side 1 results so I stopped before putting in side 2 cue / flac files. I was expecting song files back to the same album folder since it didn't ask me for destination. Also it's not letting me re-name the files so I think Ill wait here for a while. Working on other machines at the same time...

EDIT - I was able to use MusicBrainz and paste the titles (1st one is weirdly incorrect like a reference #) but still don't know how to proceed.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Yes 2 files, one per side. Never worry about quad/stereo song titles as they are the same. I didn't want to lose side 1 results so I stopped before putting in side 2 cue / flac files. I was expecting song files back to the same album folder since it didn't ask me for destination. Also it's not letting me re-name the files so I think Ill wait here for a while. Working on other machines at the same time...

EDIT - I was able to use MusicBrainz and paste the titles (1st one is weirdly incorrect like a reference #) but still don't know how to proceed.

View attachment 68151

Yes I just used the newest 4.2.6 to try my Loggins & Messina out again, and I'm still getting the same issues; I believe Garry has some more fine tuning to do on this; but I'm confident working together we can get 'er nocked out and working well.

In the meantime here are some more pics for folks about the MusicBrainz (and I was incorrect previously about the filename changes, it changes the file name it looks like from the "Title (Tag) column.

Hit "Get Track Tags from MusicBrainz" and input the search lines for Album Artist and Album Name; my exact version is the 1971 LP that came up first, so select the correct version. Then you typically have to start at the bottom of the "Track List" and delete off the included side 2 extra songs as you're usually just doing one side or the other ripped. Once that's done you can Hit "Copy Tags" at the bottom to fill in file names.

Then you'll probably still need to clear that last song off, as it's only the quiet closing space at the end of the side; so click on that track and hit "Remove Selected"
Then when everything looks correct you can hit the "Save Cue" button at the lower right.

 

[HomerJAU]

For side 1, You don’t need to delete the songs at end of the MusicBrainz track list as MMH only tags the records in the grid. It won’t create new records for the extra tracks.

For side 2, you will need to delete the songs at beginning of the MusicBrainz list so MMH starts at the correct track name (First track on side 2).

For two LP sides create two CUE files you can merge them together manually, by copying all the track info and FILE line (the file name) from the 2nd CUE to bottom of the first CUE.

I think that will work. Maybe I can add merging of two cue files.

Or you can split each cue (Add CUE command) after saving each one first to create split FLAC or wav files that are tagged.

 

[HomerJAU]

I was expecting song files back to the same album folder since it didn't ask me for destination.

‘Save CUE‘ saves a CUE file with all your track names, times and album info
’Split’ Uses the info in the grid, times and track names to split the original wav or cue into tagged song files

Get Tracks from MusicBrainz has a Track Editor tool where you can copy and paste the track list, like The other MMH tools that tag.

Paste from Clipboard can accept a copying track tags from a Discogs web page. You can copy the entire page in one go. See the MMH PDF docs.

Any questions or suggestions, please fire away.

 

[HomerJAU]

New MMH version 4.2.7 just uploaded to fix the issue reported by @J. PUPSTER

 

[timbre4]

Thanks I’ll circle back tomorrow

 

[timbre4]

Okay, I've tried this 3 more times without results. Can't seem to work this out, it's unclear to me where I am in the process. I end up with "tracks" that are full side FLACs or something implausible by file size.
The Side 2 cue file had already been edited to include both sides 1+2. It had WAV in there twice and I replaced these with FLAC just now.

I'm going to clean the pool filter (!) and try this again later.

 

[HomerJAU]

Hey Tim.

You‘ll need to change the Preference settings to experiment a bit with what works best for you and each specific album.

The MMH default settings are based of 3 test albums did (Duration: 1.2 sec and Noise Level: -40db but @J. PUPSTER is using 0.8 sec and -44db I think. Basically if no silence is found your preferences are set too high. But of course, you may have a gapless album (no silence between tracks, although those are pretty rare).

 

[HomerJAU]

BTW: This is the official CUE file format for a FLAC (note WAVE on end to denote a PCM file)

PERFORMER "Bloc Party"
TITLE "Silent Alarm"
FILE "Bloc Party - Silent Alarm.flac" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Like Eating Glass"
PERFORMER "Bloc Party"
INDEX 00 00:00:00
TRACK ...

 

[J. PUPSTER]

BTW: This is the official CUE file format for a FLAC (note WAVE on end to denote a PCM file)

PERFORMER "Bloc Party"
TITLE "Silent Alarm"
FILE "Bloc Party - Silent Alarm.flac" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Like Eating Glass"
PERFORMER "Bloc Party"
INDEX 00 00:00:00
TRACK ...

Yes, I see that does work with WAVE at the end of a flac file in the cue, sorry for my misstep on this, must have been some other problem I ran into in the past, not sure what it was.
Did this one manually, and it worked in FB2K just fine (FLAC also worked for me, but WAVE should do it!)

REM GENRE ROCK
REM DATE 1976
TITLE "Private Eyes"
PERFORMER "Tommy Bolin"
FILE ".\PRIVATE EYES - SMv2 4.1 Side 1 All.flac" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Bustin' Out For Rosey"
PERFORMER "Tommy Bolin"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Sweet Burgundy"
PERFORMER "Tommy Bolin"
INDEX 01 04:25:00
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Post Toastee"
PERFORMER "Tommy Bolin"
INDEX 01 08:41:00

 

[HomerJAU]

New MMH just uploaded which fixes the split file duration (length) tag after a Split and tagging Track No fix

 

[HomerJAU]

Okay, I've tried this 3 more times without results. Can't seem to work this out, it's unclear to me where I am in the process. I end up with "tracks" that are full side FLACs or something implausible by file size.

I'm happy to help work this out Tim.

Please post further questions (if any). You need to work on one long FLAC or WAV at a time, using the 'Browse' button to load the file to detect the silent song transitions.

After you change the Duration and Level preferences you must re-load the long FLAC or WAV to get MMH to re-read/detect using your new preferences,

BTW: Please update to today's release as it fixes another couple of issues.

 

[himey]

I'm happy to help work this out Tim.

Please post further questions (if any). You need to work on one long FLAC or WAV at a time, using the 'Browse' button to load the file to detect the silent song transitions.

After you change the Duration and Level preferences you must re-load the long FLAC or WAV to get MMH to re-read/detect using your new preferences,

BTW: Please update to today's release as it fixes another couple of issues.

If nothing shows up in the grid after loading the long flac file, what does that mean?

The first album I tried loaded fine and other than the track durations are the same, it worked great. Second one, nothing shows up in the grid.

 

[HomerJAU]

Change the two silence detection preferences and reload

 

[timbre4]

Hey Tim.

You‘ll need to change the Preference settings to experiment a bit with what works best for you and each specific album.

The MMH default settings are based of 3 test albums did (Duration: 1.2 sec and Noise Level: -40db but @J. PUPSTER is using 0.8 sec and -44db I think. Basically if no silence is found your preferences are set too high. But of course, you may have a gapless album (no silence between tracks, although those are pretty rare).

Thanks. In one of the earlier attempts [see post #43], I was able to get a split 4 of 5 tracks okay, so I think the detection was fine. Just a title wrong in #1 which I think you fixed but the last track was 655KB or something implausible. I will correct the WAVE omission in the Cue file. It had WAV before is that legit as WAVE?

Maybe I just have the sequence wrong? Is it (1) load Cue file, then (2) browse for the long FLAC file, then (3) click Split, then (4) save Cue?

 

[timbre4]

I'm happy to help work this out Tim.
Please post further questions (if any). You need to work on one long FLAC or WAV at a time, using the 'Browse' button to load the file to detect the silent song transitions.
After you change the Duration and Level preferences you must re-load the long FLAC or WAV to get MMH to re-read/detect using your new preferences,
BTW: Please update to today's release as it fixes another couple of issues.

Your support is very much appreciated! I will try again after work.

 

[himey]

If nothing shows up in the grid after loading the long flac file, what does that mean?

The first album I tried loaded fine and other than the track durations are the same, it worked great. Second one, nothing shows up in the grid.

I re-did the album with the messed up track durations and now they are correct with the newest release.
It played back fine but the track durations on all the songs were the length of the album side. New release fixed that.

I was able to do two other albums but I had to get creative with the workflow. Mostly that involved doing one side at a time and splitting tracks that weren't detected in the process. I still need a better understanding of exactly how cue files detect the flac files because some cues looked correct but would give errors. I was able to work around my limitation by manually splitting the missed track timing. MMH still saved me time even on the ones I had to manually split.

A couple album sides that MMH didn't detect any silence, even with the detection preferences changed, did not work. I will check them out again later and get a visual of what may be the problem, using Audacity.

 

[himey]

Thanks. In one of the earlier attempts [see post #43], I was able to get a split 4 of 5 tracks okay, so I think the detection was fine. Just a title wrong in #1 which I think you fixed but the last track was 655KB or something implausible. I will correct the WAVE omission in the Cue file. It had WAV before is that legit as WAVE?

Maybe I just have the sequence wrong? Is it (1) load Cue file, then (2) browse for the long FLAC file, then (3) click Split, then (4) save Cue?

My advice is to not get caught up in trying to create a perfect cue. The cue is just a tool to get the tracks split at the correct time. Focus on each song getting split, and correctly tagging that song with the basic tags, Artist, Album, Track Title, and Track number. I recommend Mp3Tag for the tagging part due to the sorting, numbering, look up features, and file rename all in the same interface.

The perfect cue can be made AFTER all the tracks are split and tagged, if you really want one. Personally, I only keep cue files for formats like MKA that some media players/organizers don't handle the tags well. FLAC tags seem to be completely universal today.