Managing simultaneous MP3 and FLAC versions of library in Media Monkey

[Skirmash]

Firstly, I am a long time lurker/reader and as a new member wanted to thank Chris and everyone else for a fantastically informative website.

 

Now onto my challenge. I have a 10,000+ track library in FLAC format that I currently manage in MM. I have a desire to keep an MP3 version of my FLAC library in parallel for use on my IPOD.

 

I am unsure of the most effective way to keep my FLAC and MP3 libraries in synch and minimize unnecessary file format conversions (my PC is not that fast) to a minimum. Of course I have a desire to keep my unadulterated FLAC files unchanged by any processing that I might apply to the MP3s when preparing them for my IPOD.

 

I used a commercial service to rip my CDs and I am constantly going through my library updating art and metadata, and occasionally re-ripping CDs where there are clicks and skips.

 

Ideally there would be a way to manage both collections in MM, keeping them in synch and then genuinely only converting and synching those files to my IPOD that have changed.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts/experience on the best way to approach handling this kind of process?

 

Kind regards,

 

Ash

 

[DaveMan]

I'm in a similar situation and have a couple of thoughts on this.

 

1. Do not convert to MP3 until you are satisfied that the tags and cover art, etc. are correct in the FLAC files. This will save an enormous amount of work later on.

 

2. Keep MP3's in a different directory than the FLAC files. This will make it easier when you want to access only FLAC files to play at home or MP3's for the portable device.

 

Just my 2 cents worth and others may have other preferences, but that's why we call it a discussion! Enjoy!

 

[krikor]

Would love to find a solution for this as well... I'm in the same boat and haven't figured out a solution other than getting my FLAC library to a relatively static and finished state and then doing a batch conversion. Any new titles I'll have to make sure to rip to both FLAC and MP3 when adding to my library. Kind of a pain, a program that syncs the two would be great.

 

[phofman]

In linux it is trivial - mp3fs http://khenriks.github.com/mp3fs/ . Works as advertised :-)

 

mp3fs -b 128 /mnt/data/Hudba/ /mnt/mp3 -o allow_other,ro

pavel@htpc:~$ mount

...

mp3fs on /mnt/mp3 type fuse.mp3fs (ro,allow_other)

...

 

 

[68rustang]

What is the point of trying to maintain what amounts to two separate libraries? MediaMonkey will do on the fly file conversions based on player filetype compatibility. The computer doesn't even need to be all that fast. It is the closest you will be able to get to having one set of playlists for use on either the computer or the iDevice without going through iTunes. I have a large library that is a 50/50 split of *.mp3 and *.flac files and been using it for a while with great results.