batch render mp3's

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 3/8/2024, 3:40 PM

Before I reinvent the wheel myself, does anyone have a batch render script that plugs song titles into the ID3 field as it renders mp3 clips for each region in a project? I would get the title from the region names. The Vegas mp3 render preset called by batch render has an ID3 field parameter but it would need to change for each region so it can't help with a batch render.

I've been doing this manually with the free mp3tag utility but it's very tedious. I have an entire CD collection from the car I just traded in. I'm in the process extracting audio for each CD into Vegas to move my music onto a thumb-drive for a new car that has no cd player.

Comments

jetdv wrote on 3/8/2024, 5:14 PM

I don't believe scripts have access to that field... It's definitely not part of the "RenderArgs". If it pulled from File - Properties, a script can change that but I'm not seeing an option to pull from the File - Properties and only a couple fields match anyway.

I definitely understand what you're saying/doing, though. Just did something similar to several "books on CD". I just rendered to regular MP3 with no additional info - the only important part is that they play in the right order so the files are simply named, 01, 02, 03... up to whatever (less than 99).

john_dennis wrote on 3/8/2024, 7:47 PM

What format are the files on the Vegas timeline?

I just did over three thousand songs for about the nth time.

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 3/8/2024, 10:59 PM

I don't believe scripts have access to that field... It's definitely not part of the "RenderArgs". If it pulled from File - Properties, a script can change that but I'm not seeing an option to pull from the File - Properties and only a couple fields match anyway.

@jetdv I didn't see it either but don't know if the docs are complete. Sometimes I find more stuff when I probe with Visual Studio. But I think there's another way. When I got into the exported mp3's Windows property details, editing the Album field seems to also affect ID3. I think if the Vegas script did that, it might work.

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 3/8/2024, 11:06 PM

What format are the files on the Vegas timeline?

I just did over three thousand songs for about the nth time.

@john_dennis The Vegas Extract from CD function pulls it out as a Wav file directly to the file system. Sound Forge is a little different... it pulls the extract into the app and you can save it from there... I usually do it that way so I can get Artist cd-text info and save it as a w64 clip. Then pull the w64 clip into Vegas. I'd do it all in Sound Forge if I had a batch render script for it.

john_dennis wrote on 3/9/2024, 12:25 AM

You should just use Windows Media Player to rip your CDs to WMA Lossless or FLAC. It will gather all the title information and save it in the files. WAV doesn't save enough information in the file to make it worth the trouble. WMP will save it in the database.

If/when you want to make a lossy USB drive use WMP SYNC.

It will produce files like these:

Complete name                            : H:\Music\Adele\25\01-Hello-Adele-25.wma
Format                                   : Windows Media
File size                                : 6.80 MiB
Duration                                 : 4 min 55 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Constant
Overall bit rate                         : 193 kb/s
Maximum Overall bit rate                 : 193 kb/s
Album                                    : 25
Track name                               : Hello
Track name/Position                      : 1
Performer                                : Adele
Composer                                 : Greg Kurstin
Publisher                                : XL Recordings/Columbia
Genre                                    : Indie / Alternative
Recorded date                            : 2015
Encoded date                             : 2024-03-03 21:06:25 UTC / 2024-02-20 03:43:22 UTC
Cover                                    : Y
AverageLevel                             : 9339
WM/Period                                : 2010s
MediaFoundationVersion                   : 2.112

Audio
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : WMA
Format version                           : Version 2
Codec ID                                 : 161
Codec ID/Info                            : Windows Media Audio
Duration                                 : 4 min 55 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 192 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 kHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 6.76 MiB (99%)
Language                                 : English (United States)

Or, you could use a standalone app like Lossless Audio Converter for batch conversion from lossless to lossy formats.

The properties can be edited with WIndows File Explorer for all the formats except WAV.

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 3/9/2024, 3:02 AM

@john_dennis The target is a thumb-drive plugged into the usbc port of a Toyota. I haven't checked to see if it might read wma, but I doubt it. I've been leaving the extracted wavs on the thumb for now and it doesn't even see them. 35 CD's loaded so far, 20.7 gb used, 218 gb free. I normally roll down the highway with a binder that holds 128. So I think I'll be fine. Ditching the wav extracts will probably get me close to 2,000.

ps: took your suggestion to try Windows Media Player. The legacy one wasn't very good. Just downloaded the Win11 version and it's great. Connects with Gracenote for the metadata. It supports mp3 320k and fills in all the tags. I'll check out whether the car sees any of the lossless formats.

jetdv wrote on 3/9/2024, 8:05 AM

@jetdv I didn't see it either but don't know if the docs are complete. Sometimes I find more stuff when I probe with Visual Studio. But I think there's another way. When I got into the exported mp3's Windows property details, editing the Album field seems to also affect ID3. I think if the Vegas script did that, it might work.


@Howard-Vigorita, that looks like it might be doable. See here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/windows.storage.fileproperties.musicproperties?view=winrt-22621

 

DMT3 wrote on 3/9/2024, 9:04 AM

I've used Cdex for years to rip from CDs and I believe it can do folders as well.
https://cdex.mu/features

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 3/9/2024, 9:54 AM

Gotta say the win11 MediaPlayer I downloaded from the Microsoft store is terrific on cd's registered with Gracenote. Haven't gotten to one yet that has only cd-text to go by so I might be back to my old tricks for them. Thanks @john_dennis for pointing me to Media Player. It follows the same convention I was using, prefixing clip names with a 2-digit track number so they order correctly. It leaves the prefix off the titles, however, so I might have to patch that.... easy enough with mp3tag. My car sees and plays both lossless formats but flac is the smaller of the 2 and sounds spectacular. Not sure if my home receiver will, so I'm ripping both flac and mp3 for now till I get back.