Hey guys, I think it's been a long time since I posted my last topic.

Here's the deal. i downloaded foobar to transcode my vbr mp3s to 192 cbr for my portable. Everything's ok about the output preset. The thing is that foobar doesn't save the mp3s along with their tags. How can I do that?

And sth else. Can I, for instance insert lot's of files, transcode them (in a different dir) and foobar automatically put them in the same directory structure as the originals?

The main idea is; I insert 2 albums in the playlist. Soulfly's Dar Ages and Virgin Steele's Guardians of the Flame. I transcode them in the dir of my choice.
When I go into that directory, I want to have two folders (each one with the name of the album) and within them the files of each album.

I'm pretty sure this is done easily but I'm not familiar with foobar (even if I tried to use it the previous summer).

When you say "foobar doesn't save the mp3s along with their tags" do you mean that it does save the MP3, but that they are not tagged? In 0.9 I don't see how this could be the case. In 0.8.3 I would choose to edit the preset and check the Tag dropdown is not set to "none".

I would just set up your output formatting string to use %album% as part of the path. Are you sure that you don't want the artist name as well?

E.g.: If you are transcoding to "X:\Music", and you know the files are tagged properly, I would set the string to:

%artist%\$num(%tracknumber%, 2) - %title%

In 0.8.3 ensure that you have "Create subdiretories" checked.

Then simply choose to Convert, pointing foobar to X:\Music. You should end up with:

X:\Music\Artist One\01 - Track 01
X:\Music\Artist One\02 - Track 02
...
X:\Music\Artist Two\01 - Track 01
...

If you are using 0.8.3 my guide may be of a little more help.

That's exactly what I mean. I read your guide and I decided to use the %album%\%tracknumber% - %artist% - %title% output filename and also checking Create Subdirectories.

The thing is that it still doesn't do what it was supposed to do. It creates a _-_.mp3 file. Why's that ???

All of my mp3s are tagged properly. If I replace %tracknumber% - %artist% - %title% with %_filename% then the filename is ok, but not the tags.....

When I add a file into foobar, right click it and then Properties, there's nothing there. So it doesn's handle the tags at all.

Do you use MP3Gain?

If you believe that your files are tagged I can only assume that you have used MP3Gain, and the APEv2 tag that MP3Gain writes has confused foobar. foobar looks for APEv2 tags first, so by finding the MP3Gain APEv2 tag it then ignores any ID3 tags you may have.

I'm not sure what the suggested resolve is. You need to clear the APEv2 tag that MP3Gain writes. I would be tempted to load the MP3s into MP3Gain and choose "Options" > "Tags" > "Remove Tags from files". Edit: Be warned that this means that you won't be able to undo your previous MP3Gain actions (this undo info is what MP3Gain stores in the APEv2 tag).

There may be a better resolve - possibly using Tag with --force. Not sure.

Well yes, the truth is that I use MP3Gain on every album I rip so the "damage" must have been done from it. I'll try what you say and post later.

I can't think of a better approach than using MP3Gain.

You purely need to removed the APEv2 tag, and MP3Gain will do just that.

Tag would either remove everything, or convert everything to APEv2 I think. This would then work in foobar, but if you want ID3 you want ID3. It would take a second step to convert from APEv2 to ID3v1 - and you may want ID3v2.

I guess MP3Gain will be fine for mass processing, as you can just use "Add Folder", and ensure that "Options" > "Add Subfolders" is checked beforehand.

NB: I use MP3Gain with "Options" > "Tags" > "Ignore (don't read or write tags)" checked. However, I only process copies of my files that I then burn to CD for use in my car.

What I do is let MP3gain write the tags. Then in Foobar I select the same files and rewrite file tags. Done. As long as your prefs in Foobar are set to remove APE and write ID3v1 & 2, it will copy the RG values from the APE to the ID3v2 then delete the APE tags. But remember to only load the files into Foobar after they've been MP3gained, otherwise you'll have to reload info from files, then rewrite file tags.

And this works on Foobar 0.9beta, I don't think it works on 0.8.3.