I´m looking for a program, script or a batch that can run several tasks in one go for "overnight"-conversion after ripping a bunch of CDs with EAC, CDex or whatever. I like to place the ripped files into the same same folder, named with all necessary informations for tagging like:

Counting Crows - August And Everything After - 04 - Perfect Blue Buildings - Rock - 1993.wav

And that´s what it should do:
Convert all songs one by one with the following scheme...

* run LAME with parameters (for car and portable use)
* create a folder structure from the file name: .....\MP3\GENRE\ARTIST\ALBUM\
like: (D:\music\)mp3\Rock\Counting Crows\August And Everything After\
* place the output file into the folder structure
* tag the file and add a comment like „EAC+LAME3.90.3APS“
* rename the file (like „04 – Perfect Blue Buildings“)
* (optional apply mp3gain if possible but not absolutely necessary)

* run Musepack with parameters (for DVD-archiving backup purpose)
* create a folder structure from the file
* name: .....\MUSEPACK\GENRE\ARTIST\ALBUM\
like: (D:\music\)MPC\Rock\Counting Crows\August And Everything After\
* place the output file into the folder structure
* tag the file and add a comment (like „mppenc1.14 q8xl“)
* rename the file (like „04 – Perfect Blue Buildings“)
* (optional apply replaygain if possible but not absolutely necessary)

* run FLAC with parameters (for HD-archiving and PC-listening purpose)
* create a folder structure from the file name: .....\FLAC\GENRE\ARTIST\ALBUM\
* like: (D:\music\)MPC\Rock\Counting Crows\August And Everything After\
* place the output file into the folder structure
* tag the file and add a comment (like „best“)
* keep the filename (like „Counting Crows - August And Everything After - 04 - Perfect Blue Buildings - Rock - 1993.flac“)
* (optional apply replaygain if possible but not absolutely necessary)

* delete the source
* take the next title
..........................


OK, there are tools like MAR or MAREO available, that can run several tasks
with EAC, but that´s not really what I have in mind. With these tools you have to stay near to your PC to change the next CD. During the conversion time the PC is blocked and you´re not able to work because the encoder needs the CPU power.

I´d be really happy if I could write a program as described above, but I´m not able to code.
So if sth. like this is not existing, I pass the idea to anyone who is able and maybe looking for a idea what to program next

Anyone else who would like such a program or is that a sh.. idea?

EAC can do all those things, just not all at the same time...

So here's an idea: rip your discs to uncompressed wav + cue with EAC. Then make a batch script that mounts them one by one as virtual cdroms. Then, you can use any command line ripper / encoder that recognizes the discs and gets the tags right.

Having read your post quickly and not having tried the program I think UniversalFront might be useable.

Thanks folks for the clues.

@Patsoe
Maybe worth a try...

@Jan S.
Just downloaded UniversalFront.
I had a first look to it, but I did not understand yet how to run several different tasks in a batch.
If that should not work, I think a combination of:

* UniversalFront or Speek´s Batchenc
* MAREO
* Case´s Tag
* replaygain

and some suited scrips could do it.
But I have to understand the syntax of the different programs first.
Unfortunately the examples in MAREO and UniversalFront are not really what I need to have as example, but I´ll try.

This would be a trivial task to do in Perl.

Unfortunately, it's been too many years since I've written anything in Perl, and since I've never wrote a perl script on a windows box, I'm really not much help to you. That said, depending on how much effort you want to put into this, it might be a route to look into.

Well first of all, let me tell you that I would settle for two formats only: MP3 for portable use and PC listening (have you actuallly tried to ABX, using your computer listening hardware any difference between MP3 and FLAC for that purpose? Just a suggestion) and FLAC or MPC for Archiving.

Having said that, if I understand correctly you want to only ENCODE overnight, right? Well, if that's the case I would try with foobar2000. I understand that its CLI encoder can batch encode and of course, foobar has excellent Masstarger (using TAG) and ReplayGain support.

Maybe that could do it. Altough I suspect it would take at least 2 overnight sessions