Foobar 2000 question

If it's any help, absolutely none of my .wav files carry any song tags, and thus show "? - ?" under the column "Artist/Album. 

Not having done the research, I would say that the fundamental .wav format does not feature IDtags or the like.  Your windows player is most likely taking the name of the file, and showing that as the title.

E.g.  File name: "Radiohead - Everything in its Right Place.wav"

Shown as: "Radiohead - Everything in its Right Place"

The file name will show under column "Title/track artist" in foobar.

As for ripping to .wav, there is no reason to rip your cd collection to .wav - simply put, the .flac format retains the audio fidelity of .wav 's whilst simultaneously allowing tags.  Furthermore the flac format uses less space on your storage medium.

As for ripping from CD using Roxio - use EAC (see: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ ).  It is fairly easy to use, light on computer memory (RAM) footprint, and is technically more advanced (ripping music bit-perfect IIRC, and allows for error correction).

Ultimately I would recommend re-ripping your CD collection using EAC to the .flac format (and thus your tags will be intact), otherwise you're going to be converting music files that have a chance that they are not true to the source and you'll have to manually edit each track to insert track title/album/artist/year/genre/etc.

Hope that helps!

HMMM...

ah yes, that's everything, good work nullzero, high five

Don't forget that foobar2000 also can rip files, verify rips with AccurateRip and convert your wav files to flac with two clicks.

Flac also has the benefit that it includes a "checksum" in the file header, so if the file's content is manipulated foobar will tell you that there's a checksum mismatch. Not that this is likely, but you don't have that certainty with plain wav files.

I want to try Foobar but for some reason I cannot figure it out for the life of me. I opted for Winamp instead. Seems pretty decent. Everyone raves about Foobar though so I figured there is something about it.

I have been ripping all my stuff to FLAC using EAC. I think it is a great ripping program and it finds album info and cover art and does so very easily and quickly. I like it because some of my CD's were given to me and not in the best of shape and EAC has ripped them all perfectly even though they were read with errors.

If someone could point me to a dummies guide to Foobar I would be much obliged.

Well, if you have EAC configured already then stick to it, it's a more advanced tool for ripping CDs, especially scratched ones.

But is there any advantage to using Foobar over Winamp as the player? 

In normal circumstances, as in only playing music without any DSP or fancy stuffs, there isn't any. I'm a foobar2000 user for nearly 10 years now BTW.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArmAndHammer 

If someone could point me to a dummies guide to Foobar I would be much obliged.

The fact that there isn't one is pretty much the reason foobar is well liked, it's so customizable it can look pretty much how you want it, not how someone else thinks you want it looking/functioning. Foobar comes nowadays as a download that is already a fully functioning program, a lot of display options, for example, are in the menus already. The largest/most comprehensive foobar forums are the ones hosted by hydrogen audio. http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?act=SF&s=&f=28 Also if you ask any specific questions on these boards there are many people who have been using foobar for years and have got round virtually any problem you have. I used to use winamp v.2 but switched to foobar for the better media library functions.

       Quote:

Originally Posted by ArmAndHammer 

But is there any advantage to using Foobar over Winamp as the player? 

It all comes down to personal preference and what you want your player to accomplish for your tasks.  I used Winamp for years, but once I started tweaking Foobar and adding components, configs and getting used to it years back, I have never looked back.  I have a lot of gapless albums (Mixed House, Trance, Live CDs etc.) that require perfect gapless playback once ripped.  Foobar does it flawlessly.  IIRC, Winamp only does it using DS (Direct Sound).  Any other output, it would give a small break (gap) between the tracks.  That is just one main reason I switched years ago.  Many tools to play with and organized, once you get the hang of it, it is a lot of fun.

In reference to WAVs.  They don't retain metadata (tags).  There is a way to retain the metadata if you use cues and a couple of programs.  I archive my CDs in this fashion as a single WAV file w/ cue for easy CD burning.  I also split the tracks (FLAC) for use with my Foobar library.  Whenever I want to listen to a quick album, I just click the single WAV cue and voila, I have tags to boot.

Here is an album I was just archiving.  Complete album, single file with cue (WAV) & album art.

I double click the cue and Foobar starts up and I have all my tags and album art.

Here is the same album in FLAC.  Tags, album art etc.

Lots of fun to explore....

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArmAndHammer 

But is there any advantage to using Foobar over Winamp as the player? 

I too have the same question. I like the Nero Showtime's sound signature. But, i face many problems with flac and it has very bad UI/playlist. VLC is my standard player. It can play dts, 5.1 albums with ease. Lately i am trying JetAudio's player and trying to see whether BBE makes any difference on mp3. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by matbhuvi 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArmAndHammer 

But is there any advantage to using Foobar over Winamp as the player? 

I too have the same question.

Read the answer above.

Besides the lack of features I couldn't imagine using winamp to manage my music library.

I for once, stop using foobar 2 times before picking it up the third time only to use it till now which has been nearly 10 years and I haven't looked back because I'm too used to it. Still I believe the what best question is highly personal and should not be evaluated by others. If you have tried it repeatedly and third time the charm doesn't work for you, then very likely it's not for you. And if winamp or any other player has enough features to satisfy you, no reason to consider foobar. Just enjoy music on your PC and forget about the player.

Personal preference again is the key.  There are many players out there and all accomplish the task of playing music.  It's what you need after that, where the decision matters most while maintaining the original task flawlessly.  When your library grows, that's one of the main reasons your player needs to respond accordingly.

A couple of months back I tried another player that was mentioned here on the boards- MusicBee....I like to try new things and having several players on your PC is not against the law....lol

I installed it and was surprised that it did gapless very well and also a couple of different outputs without a hitch.  So, I proceeded with my other tests that I do to see how it stacked up.  Overall, it did a very good job, except for two main points that I consider important- 1) The music library would take forever to update and  2) It would not play cue files very well.

These points to me are important because of my usage and needs and all my music is on a NAS.  Foobar does not skip a beat and keeps on trucking.  A lot of folks might not consider this a dealbreaker, however, it was for me.

Personal preferences.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by jakebake 

DIdn't know anyone responded! Thanks guys!

Now is there a reason to use EAC over roxio or only if a cd is scratched? Can you use EAC alone or it would used with roxio?

 

Yeah I didn't get that far burning my cd collection into wav so I just started over and ripped it to FLAC. Now when I right click in Foobar I can write the tags and get album art:)

 

Where do you guys find your themes and how do you get lyrics as well?

EAC is used alone.  It has many, many features and at first it could be a bit daunting, but get a guide and follow it step-by step to set it up then experiment.  Lots of fun.

The "Action" tab is just awesome.  Play with it, try different settings and when you find what works for you then you are set.  I usually just stick with image & cue.  But lots of fun to experiment nevertheless.