Request for a new feature - Add sequential track numbers to splits

Sound recording software. Support MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG and APE formats
Pete
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jun 28, 2006 1:51 am

Post by Pete »

I just finished evaluating eleven MP3/WMA recorders and found i-sound to be the best of them, so I registered it yesterday.

Please consider an option to add sequential track number tags in the recorded output files. This would be especially helpful when the splitter is producing multiple track files from a single input source. The feature should allow user to preset a starting track number of at least three digits.

Here's why I'd like to have this feature. Many public libraries offer downloadable audio books to their cardholders. The books are delivered as a single, very long protected .WMA file - maybe 20 hours or more for a long unabridged book. This file and its license can be transferred to some late model flash players, but almost none of these are able to accommodate fast-forward positioning for a track that long.

There are several MP3 splitters available, but they cannot accommodate these protected files. So the only solution I can find is to re-record the file with something like i-sound, using the splitter function to break the output into individual tracks about 6 minutes long. But after this it is necessary to manually edit these several hundred tracks to add sequential track numbers, being very careful to keep them in the proper order.

An average book might yield a hundred or more individual tracks, therefore the track numbers must be at least 3 digits. Flash players will compile a playlist based on the sequential track numbers and play them in the proper order, but they do not understand leading zeros, either expressed or implied. Therefore the number sequence must start with a 3-digit number such as 101.

The flash player will display the title of the current track, so it would be nice if this could be a simple name, such as "Track nnn". This can be batch added by bringing the files into Windows Media Player, which will create a track title from the filename. So it helps a lot of the filenames are also something like "Track nnn" instead of "Track yy-mm-dd-hh-mm-ss". Several of the MP3 recorders I evaluated offered the option to use sequence numbers for naming the split files instead of using the appended date/time, and it would be nice if i-sound could also do this.

This problem has confounded audio book buffs for years now, and a solution would be welcomed by them. I think it would also be valuable for playback of other long recorded sessions whose listeners would like to play back the files on their personal players instead of being tied to the computer.

Thank you for considering this request.

Pete
Oleg Tsheglov
Site Admin
Posts: 307
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 5:55 pm

Post by Oleg Tsheglov »

Dear Pete,

Did you mean VOX system instead Splitter? VOX always create filename from current date/time,
but Splitter create files as "filename"+"_part"+"some digits here starting from zero"
I think we can change it to "filename"+"xxx" (xxx will start from 000)

Regards,
Oleg
Pete
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jun 28, 2006 1:51 am

Post by Pete »

I referred to the splitter, although I had also set the VOX active so I could have the recorder ready and scanning to catch the first syllable of the recorded book when started.

The filename and therefore the Title are not difficult to batch-derive using IrfanView and Windows Media Player. The really important need is for the automatic inclusion of a sequential Track number tag as each file is created.

I hope I can interest you in doing this. I have included some more comments below. And thanks for discussing it with me.

Pete

Continuing comments ----------------------

Selecting "Enter file name manually . . ." introduces a minor issue in that the first filename created by i-Sound Recorder does not include a "_part0" suffix, and is therefore non-uniform with the filenames of the split segments. So I used "Generate auto names from date/time" which produces uniform file names that can be sorted for post-process renaming.

I used the "Batch conversion/rename..." feature of IrfanView to rename the files to "Track nnn", starting with 101.

Next the entire batch of files is added to the Windows Media Player library, which automatically derives a title for each track to match the filename. This avoids the intense task of having to manually enter a name for each track.

It is important for the filenames to have non-zero leading digits so the automatically-generated track name tags will also have non-zero leading digits, otherwise the MP3/WMA player will play the album tracks out of sequence - a disaster for an audio book.

Example

Track 1
Track 10
Track 100
Track 101
Track 102
. . .
Track 2
Track 20
Track 200
Track 201
...


The more important need, however, is that the Track Number tags be sequential throughout the album - which could be several hundred tracks for an average audio book. For the same reason these must be uniform numbers with no leading zeros.

The ideal situation would be for the extension number in the filename and Title to be identical to the Track number. These must be 3-digit numbers to accommodate several hundred tracks, and must start with 100 or higher. Probably 101 would be the best starting point.