This program won't solve Joel's problem, but it may be
useful to some.
I recently delivered a batch of about 1000 WAV files to a
client. The files were live concert recordings delivered as
one WAV file per tape reel. Marker data was embedded in the
file header to designate tracks (files were created in
Wavelab 6), and the files were named as
(Artist)-(Date)-(Reel #). The client wanted to put the
recordings into iTunes as individual tracks converted to
mp3, with song titles and artist information.
So the problem was how to split 1000 files into individual
mp3s, rename each mp3 as (Song Name) with a track number at
the beginning of the song name, and populate the "Artist"
field.
Wavelab has a utility for splitting single files by track
markers, and can name the files according to the marker
names, but the function is not available for batch
processing, so that would mean processing all 1000 files
individually. Another problem was that the resulting files
would end up sorted alphabetically, rather than by running
order, which would upset the flow of the concert. Also some
of the marker names had characters that are illegal in
filenames (quotation marks, for instance). Wavelab's
auto-split has an option to name the split files by filename
and sequential numbers, but not by track name + sequential
number.
Once the files had been split and renamed, they could be
batch-encoded to mp3 in Wavelab, but artist information has
to be entered manually, requiring a seperate batch for each
artist.
To deal with these problems, my client's IT guy created a
little program calles WME (WAV Marker Extractor). With this
program, you can specify a source and destination directory,
choose the type of files to export, and the program will
split the files according to the marker data in the file
header. There are options (which need to be set prior to
choosing the source) to "use file name for artist" (with the
option to trim the file name after a designated character),
"clean illegal characters" and "append chapter position in
file name". If you place a copy of LAME.exe (freely
available on the web) into the install directory, the
program can export as 128 kbps mp3 files (with an option to
save the intermediate WAV files) with Track Number, Track
Name, Author and Album filled out (Currently 128k is the
only option).
Obviously, this will only work with files that have marker
information embedded in the file header. I know several, but
not all DAW programs can do this, but have only tested WME
with files created in Wavelab (note that saving marker data
in the file header is an option in Wavelab that must be
checked in options/preferences/file).
This program solved the problem my client had, and the
author has made it available as donation-ware at:
http://www.jonathanhardison.com/index.php/wme/
Personally, I plan to use it to add the vinyl I've digitized
from my personal collection to my iPod, something I've
avoided due to the hassle of manually entering the info into
iTunes.
Hopefully it will be of use to some on this list. It's a
beta, and I'm sure the author would appreciate any comments
or suggestions for further development.
-Matt Sohn
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