command line to convert

2018-05-15 04:05:01

I have 100s of folders - each one an album
For each folder, I want to combine all tracks into one song using a batch program
So, I am looking for the command line to do this
Please help. I tried the following but it does not seem to work

foobar2000.exe /command:Convert
foobar2000.exe /playlist_command:Convert
foobar2000.exe /context_command:Convert

Thanks

Re: command line to convert

Reply #1 – 2018-05-15 06:35:31

Foobar is only front-end for conversion. All "real job" is done by execs related to certain audio formats and containers. Why not just go directly to those (like flac.exe, lame.exe, ffmpeg.exe) and use their command line switches?

Re: command line to convert

Reply #2 – 2018-05-16 04:15:17

Thanks for the tip.
2 issues
(1)how to concatenate mp3s using lame on windows ? and
(2) how to create the new metadata tags and preserve the picture of the album cover
Any help on these is appreciated
Thanks

Re: command line to convert

Reply #3 – 2018-05-16 06:42:18

Just to be clear:  Do you want image+cue for each album? (Even with cuesheet embedded, perhaps?)
I would have used CUETools - but  you can also use foobar2000 (from within the GUI).

However, you say "concatenate mp3s". Then you should remux, not convert. You can do this with ffmpeg, e.g. ffmpeg -f concat -i list.txt -c copy out.mp3 will take all files from list.txt and make one mp3 of them. I don't know whether gapless info will be preserved - and where did you want your metadata?

Re: command line to convert

Reply #4 – 2018-05-17 19:13:55

Hi, yes, from the GUI, it works great, This is what i do:
I load the 10-15 songs from the album into foobar2000,  select all songs -> right-click -> convert -> ... -> Destination -> click radio button to "merge all tracks into one output file"

When i click on this output file it has the tags (what i was calling meta data): 
Title (inherits the title of the 1st song in the selection),
contributing artists,
length,
bitrate
and the picture of the album

But to do this manually on 100s of albums is a bit much so wanted some command line based util. I dont know much about the structure of mp3 (like what you mean by CUEsheet) - will have to google it to learn more.
Thanks for your tips

Re: command line to convert

Reply #5 – 2018-05-17 20:54:44

Don't do that. Select all files, Convert -> Generate multi track files and use pattern "$directory(%path%)" or if the files have proper tags something like "%album artist% - %album%".

Re: command line to convert

Reply #6 – 2018-05-20 22:38:02

Great! that works Thanks or your tip