Re-encoding mp3 files

Hi all,

I have a serious issue with an old music library that I use. It's about 25gigs in size and for some reason in the last while, every track in Serato DJ is coming up as corrupt. The tracks play fine about 90% of the time, but that other 10% it causes a dropout of a few seconds. I ran it by Serato help, and they did what I had already done, and used iTunes to re-encode. The issue with that is iTunes changes the file names (applies the Apple naming convention, putting the files in a folder (artist name) and then the file (track name) within.) When you search for a file using finder, you'll then only find the track name and not the artist name bla bla bla.

Basically, I want to re-encode folders of tracks at a time without changing the filename at all so that I can perform a recover tracks, and serato with find the new tracks as replacements since they will be the exact same name.

I hope this makes sense. I have no way of getting new collections as these were inherited over the last 10yrs and sifting throughout them to find the ones that I actually use, and repurchasing them, would take for ever.

Thx

You didn't mention Win -v- Mac.

On Windows, MediaMonkey would be my go-to tool for this kind of work. On Mac I do not have a good recommendation.

I'm sorry, yes I'm on a Mac, but I suppose I could transfer all the corrupt files to a PC, run the process, and then copy back??

Re-encoding is a terrible idea.

If its an old library the files are probably not 320k mp3, and even if they are then re-encoding them is just going to degrade the sound further.

Rebuy them, support the artists.

There should be a "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" checkbox somewhere in iTunes. If you uncheck that iTunes won't change the file name.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by imnodj

re-encoding is a terrible idea.

If its an old library the files are probably not 320k mp3, and even if they are then re-encoding them is just going to degrade the sound further.

Rebuy them, support the artists.

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this.

As a one-time "Get out of hell free" card, re-encoding is not the worst option. It would never be my "Plan A." This is referred to as "transcoding" and it does introduce errors into the re-encoded mp3. This mostly manifests as a slightly increased noise floor. Re-encoding once or twice is not a big deal (but should still be avoided when possible).

Be sure that this will actually resolve the issue by testing with a COPY of a couple directories worth of songs you know to be corrupt now. Then...once you have a working collection....BACK IT UP!!!!

Longer term, I'd report the !@#$ out of this to Serato and find out how tracks get into this state and the avoid doing that ever again.

I found this link in my never-ending search for a solution to the "flushing background tasks" error in Traktor, it claims to repair mp3 files:

http://triq.net/mp3sar (Mac only)

I have no idea if it will work for you, if it works at all. It's free, so it might worth a try anyway. I'll be running some tests in the near future, I'm really hoping it works and eliminates that damn Traktor errror.

I've suggested this several times on different forums, it's a great & legal way of "laundering" your old low quality tracks.

Subscribe to iTunes match. Upload your old low bitrate library, then download matched 256 kbps AAC versions.