[Flac] [Flac-dev] Cue sheets/Tagging question

Mon Nov 15 16:36:01 PST 2010

Hi Neil,

I think you have a misunderstanding or two.  What you want to do does  
not require "code."  In fact, you might want to move your question  
from the FLAC-Dev list to the FLAC (User) list.  I'm on both lists,  
so I did not realize that you were basically asking in the wrong  
place.  No "coding" skills whatsoever are required to create  
seekpoint markers in a FLAC file.

Anyway, FLAC has a command-line program for maximum portability  
across multiple platforms.  While it may seem almost as complicated  
as "coding," using the command-line is not nearly the same level of  
difficulty, although it is not familiar to the average computer  
user.  On Mac OS X or Linux, you access the flac command-line from  
Terminal.app or some other shell program.  I'm not sure about  
Windows, but you would probably use Command.com for access.

Again, if you read the documentation for the command-line program  
that is the core of all FLAC support, then you will find argument  
options to specify --seekpoint markers, and you should be able to  
easily create one per "track."  Unfortunately, I do not know of any  
fancy GUI front ends for FLAC which offer this feature, but none of  
the GUI front ends come from the main FLAC project anyway.  Most of  
the FLAC GUI programs are based on an out-of-date version of the flac  
command-line, and they do not offer access to all features.  For that  
reason, I use the command-line flac program exclusively, because I'd  
rather not bother with learning the deficiencies of the GUI programs.

In order to get full access to all FLAC features, you need to learn  
how to access a command-line on your computer, and run the flac  
command-line tools.  Once you learn how to do this, adding your own  
custom seekpoint markers should be dead simple.  All command-line  
FLAC options can be discovered on the command line by using the -- 
help option.  On the Mac, you might even be able to use Apple events  
to script this so that creating each new album will be fairly easy.

Brian Willoughby
Sound Consulting

On Nov 15, 2010, at 08:09, Neil Wilkes wrote:
> Hi Brian
>
> Sorry to be so dense, but I am a mere mix engineer, and am not very  
> good at all with code.
> Hence I am still having trouble here, as everything I can find  
> seems to relate to content extracted from CD-DA and to  Red Book  
> standards - this is not what I am looking for, although it is of  
> course highly possible I have my terms mixed up.
>
> Sorry also if I seem ignorant or stupid to you - when it comes to  
> this, I am afraid I am about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.
> I suspect that many people would have difficulty re-authoring a  
> DVD, or creating a 5.1 surround mix too.
>
> If you cannot help any further, then that is fine - I appreciate  
> the pointers you have given me thus far and will try to find  
> someone who speaks code talk to explain it to the dumb sound  
> engineer......but if it is at all possible, what I really need to  
> know is how I take a 24-bit Wave file on my DAW, and encode to FLAC  
> with track points embedded.
> I cannot seem to find a way to add the timings to the encoded file,  
> no matter where I look - all I can find are ways to create CUE  
> sheets and lots of individual files from a CD rip.
>
> Sorry to be dense.
>
> Neil
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Willoughby"  
> <brianw at sounds.wa.com>
>> You should read the manual for the FLAC command line utilities.    
>> There are many options that would probably achieve what you  
>> desire.   In particular, one of the links that I sent below  
>> clearly leads you  to a page describing how cuesheets are related  
>> to the SEEKTABLE, and  you can create a --seekpoint= marker for  
>> each track.
>>
>> Sometimes you really need to take the time to read everything   
>> available to you, especially when you have been waiting for  
>> months  for someone else to read it to you.
>>
>> Brian Willoughby
>> Sound Consulting
>>
>>
>> On Nov 11, 2010, at 01:44, Neil Wilkes wrote:
>>> I still cannot see how to embed this within a long file.
>>> The documentation talksabout preserving tracklistings from Audio  
>>> CD  - this is *not* what I need.
>>> I have a series of 24-bit Wave files, not on Audio CD.
>>> I need to find a way to encode to FLAC and add track points  
>>> within  the stream.
>>> Is this possible, and how do I do it please?
>>>
>>> I have been trying to find this info for months now, and nobody   
>>> seems to even know if it is possible.
>>>
>>> Sincerely
>>>
>>> Neil Wilkes
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Willoughby"  
>>> <brianw at sounds.wa.com>
>>>> On Nov 10, 2010, at 12:14, Neil Wilkes wrote:
>>>>> Is it possible to place track markers that will be reflected  
>>>>> in  a  cue sheet within a long FLAC file?
>>>>> I have a label who want to offer FLAC downloads of complete   
>>>>> albums  - but there have to be track points designated within  
>>>>> the  FLAC file
>>>>>
>>>>> How can I do this please?
>>>>
>>>> I have not yet started using cue sheets, but I have excerpted  
>>>> what  I found in my archive of the FLAC-dev list.  It looks like  
>>>> there  are features to preserve a cue sheet.  It may require   
>>>> uncompressing to WAV, but C. Brown has a player which works   
>>>> directly from the FLAC.
>>>>
>>>> Brian
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, 2007-06-23 at 20:55 -0700, Josh Coalson wrote:
>>>>> it embeds everything except the tags, see
>>>>> http://flac.sourceforge.net/faq.html#general__no_cuesheet_tags
>>>>> http://flac.sourceforge.net/  
>>>>> documentation_tools_flac.html#flac_options_cuesheet
>>>>> http://flac.sourceforge.net/format.html#def_CUESHEET
>>>>>
>>>>> Josh