encode to m4a (aac) with correct tags & 192k bitrate

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Here's an interesting article from a FFmpeg developer: Why Lossless Audio Codecs generally suck.

[mc4man]

One way w/ neroAacEnc and tags (at least some

#!/bin/bash
for f in *.flac
do
OUTF=`echo "$f" | sed s/\.flac$/.m4a/g`

ARTIST=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=ARTIST | sed s/.*=//g`
TITLE=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=TITLE | sed s/.*=//g`
ALBUM=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=ALBUM | sed s/.*=//g`
GENRE=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=GENRE | sed s/.*=//g`
TRACKTOTAL=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=TRACKTOTAL | sed s/.*=//g`
DATE=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=DATE | sed s/.*=//g`
TRACKNUMBER=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=TRACKNUMBER | sed s/.*=//g`

flac -c -d "$f" - | neroAacEnc -if -  -q 0.65 -of  "$OUTF"
neroAacTag "$OUTF"  -meta:artist="$ARTIST" -meta:title="$TITLE" -meta:album="$ALBUM" -meta:genre="$GENRE" -meta:year="$DATE" -meta:track="$TRACKNUMBER" -meta:totaltracks="$TRACKTOTAL"
done
mkdir "$ALBUM" && mv *.m4a "$ALBUM"

Blue is adjustable, for a br then adjust as such

neroAacEnc -if -  -br 192000

see neroAacEnc -help

Assumes neroAacEnc and neroAacTag in path and executable

[shantiq]

Here's an interesting article from a FFmpeg developer: Why Lossless Audio Codecs generally suck.

thanx for that bloody hilarious

==============================================

mc4man that is astounding

[mc4man]

shantiq -
because i know you like such things, a couple of varitions of above for alac
The ffmpeg tagging one won't do tracktotal correct, ffmpeg seems to have an issue, varied the save location method in both so you can see ...

Also am attaching an interesting one I came across, forget if it workedright or needed some adjustment.

(have a couple of mp3hd ones lying about (wmal2mp3hd and flac2mp3hd..

#!/bin/bash
for f in *.flac
do
OUTF=`echo "$f" | sed s/\.flac$/.m4a/g`

ARTIST=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=ARTIST | sed s/.*=//g`
TITLE=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=TITLE | sed s/.*=//g`
ALBUM=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=ALBUM | sed s/.*=//g`
GENRE=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=GENRE | sed s/.*=//g`
TRACKTOTAL=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=TRACKTOTAL | sed s/.*=//g`
DATE=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=DATE | sed s/.*=//g`
TRACKNUMBER=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=TRACKNUMBER | sed s/.*=//g`

mkdir "$ALBUM" 

flac -c -d "$f" - | ffmpeg -i -  -acodec alac  ./"$ALBUM/$OUTF"
neroAacTag ./"$ALBUM/$OUTF"  -meta:artist="$ARTIST" -meta:title="$TITLE" -meta:album="$ALBUM" -meta:genre="$GENRE" -meta:year="$DATE" -meta:track="$TRACKNUMBER" -meta:totaltracks="$TRACKTOTAL"
done

#!/bin/bash
for f in *.flac
do
   ARTIST=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=ARTIST | sed s/.*=//g`
   ALBUM=`metaflac "$f" --show-tag=ALBUM | sed s/.*=//g`
mkdir "$ARTIST-$ALBUM"

 ffmpeg  -i "$f" -acodec alac \
	-metadata title="$(metaflac --show-tag=TITLE "$f" | sed 's/TITLE=//g')" \
	-metadata artist="$(metaflac --show-tag=ARTIST "$f" | sed 's/ARTIST=//g')" \
	-metadata album="$(metaflac --show-tag=ALBUM "$f" | sed 's/ALBUM=//g')" \
	-metadata date="$(metaflac --show-tag=DATE "$f" | sed 's/DATE=//g')" \
	-metadata genre="$(metaflac --show-tag=GENRE "$f" | sed 's/GENRE=//g')" \
	-metadata track="$(metaflac --show-tag=TRACKNUMBER "$f" | sed 's/TRACKNUMBER=//g')" \
	"./$ARTIST-$ALBUM/${f%.flac}.m4a"
done

[shantiq]

thank you

[piedro]

Wow! Ok ...

Shantiq@
First of all about fatfree slimline audio:
What's wrong about that. Please trust me in asking question with some thought on it beforehand. I see your point in lossless formats,
I prefer wavpack & FLAC btw, but I have about 45 000 tracks on a server fed by 7 persons in a living association. While everyone should have access (without necessarily owning the lossless original) using linux, MAC & Windows boxes (plus three laptops) and a variety of mobile devices, 4 of them being iPods, I had to find a compromise in a format and in choosing a bitrate. Filesize does matter in our scenario and bandwidth of the WLAN does also! (Forgot to mention 2 wireless PS3s ...)

So fatfree slimline is a good thing. Most of the music ripped by itunes does enter the server in 192k m4a, a lot of music seems to be in 128k mp3 which doesn't make too much sense to me. But: I can't re-rip all the albums neither can I use wavpack on some files (everyone has to recode for mobiles by him/herself) while leaving the majority in other formats. I have my music in FLAC but I re-rip the tracks with an apple laptop via itunes to 192k m4a which seems to be a good way to go for most of our uses ...

I like to avoid this because my ubuntu desktop box is much faster in encoding. But I want to assure I get it right. Correct bitrate, correct tags. I won't accept files messing up the server due to formating and tagging by the other guys, so I have to get it right myself.

BTW: 192k quality seems to be alright to listen to. I can't hear any significant difference in quality to FLACs. Maybe it's my sound hardware is too bad ...

Long answer? Yes. But it's a bit like posing a problem as "How to walk from here to the university?" to get answers like "Don't walk - take a cab!" or "Why would you want to study?" ...

But still: Thanks a lot for your efforts and discussing.

@mc4man: Thanks so much for your solutions! I will thoroughly test the Neroenc script alternatives asap. They sound like a good solution. Though I probably still have to use musicbrainz afterwards to fill the missing tags. I really appreciate.

thx for reading and discussing the topic everyone,
piedro

[shantiq]

Piedro if you have to share so many tracks and load ipods then aac might be cool for your needs here

but it is very little info 192kbps and PERSONALLY i feel i am listening to the skeleton of a track with all the flesh and muscle removed


wav/cda is 1411kbps lossless typically in the 500-1000 range so we can see what is left with 192 a fraction of the original



by the way fine for mp3players i have tried 320mp3 and wav on a player and no difference i could hear

on a laptop speakers some difference is heard but not huge



or if you plug your computer into a stereo system ( my most likely setup ) then it really matters i then favour 24-bit flac or wavpack or any of the lossless formats



so it depends what you want your music for not everybody needs audiophile quality and in your case you have so many trax your choice might be right for you

matter of of taste in the end