Tagging for Squeezebox

[Stratmangler]

The single file for an album & cue sheet is something that arose from CD burning programs in the early days being incapable of gapless burning, which is certainly not the case now.

My library is not structured in this way, although SBS will quite happily still play material in this format.

You can get the same to work for flac rips by using "Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet - Compressed"

You won't be able to write CDs using these files and cue sheets because EAC will not decompress flac for a burn.

[Clive]

I rather like the single files from an IT perspective, having loads of unnecessary directories with their associated pointers seems so pointless. The last thing I want to do is shuffle individual tracks as I only listen to albums....anyway that's my logic.

Presumably the benefit of 1 file per track is reduced network latency.

[Stratmangler]

Reduced network latency is an advantage of 1 file per track.
It also makes it easier to retag multiple disc sets, for example The Beatles "White" album.
I do not like to see CD1/CD2 appearing in the library, so I retag the tracks to run in order from start to finish. As a result The White Album has tracks 1 - 30 instead of CD1 tracks 1 -17/CD2 tracks 1 - 13.

[Clive]

I half buy that logic. It depends on the album. The White Album was originally structured as 2 discs so it makes sense to me to keep it that way. With double LPs I will often pull out the 2nd LP to listen to that on it's own. This is all down to personal listening habits built up over years.

[Clive]

Thinking more about 1 file per track vs 1 file per album.....network latency isn't helped with 1 file per track as SB Server streams data with around 16 sec of music being buffered on the players so whether there is a 30k file or 300k file containing music on the server isn't an issue.

The more I think about it the more it seems that 1 file per track is there for the majority of people far younger than me who listen to tracks, not albums. I don't need playlists either as I play albums. I know I'm old fashioned and my main source is vinyl so this says a lot about me!

[Stratmangler]

We're probably not too far apart in age, Clive, and I too tend to listen to albums from start to finish.

On occasion though I will just set my Squeezebox to random play, and often hear things that I've not played in a good while, and maybe never would have selected them to play otherwise.
So I end up rediscovering music in my collection that I'd forgotten about.
I've certainly been prompted to revisit albums I otherwise might not have bothered with.

That leads to something my entire collection does have - tags for replaygain.
If you play random selections you have to have them.

[Clive]

Chris, I wasn't suggesting you were a young'un and therefore prefer individual files......though you would no doubt be happy to loose a few years, I would anyway!

I appreciate what you're saying about random. I found that even just by using Foobar to list and play my albums means I play music I've not listened to for years. With CDs and records I find I always pick the same favourites, when it's a list on the computer I seem to make more random choices