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MPC Tutorial
Lossless Tutorial



rev. 1.00

How to transcode a Lossless album to MPC ?

Imagine, you have archived your albums in Lossless format according to this Guide.
The size of such an album is quite big (ca. 300 - 500 MB), compared to the same in MPC (ca. 100 MB). So you want to listen to your albums in perfect transparent quality on your laptop, too, but your laptop has only limited HD space.
The solution is very simple.
Transcode your Lossless album (e.g. the original wave files, or FLAC, Wavepack, Monkey's Ape, Optimfrog, Shorten) to an MPC album, which needs only a little space (comparison Lossless vs. MPC here), but is perfect listening quality.

Table of content:

1. Start & Configuration of Transcoding settings
6. CLI Encoder settings
7. Run Conversion
10. (Re-) Tagging in Foobar
11. ReplayGaining in Foobar
Comparison: examples of compression ratios of Lossless & mpc
12. optional: Create Playlist (foobar2000)
13. Copy additional files
14. Final: Create MD5


How To:

1. Start Foobar2000 , which needs the CLI encoder plugin, or this built ver. 0.8 made by Case
2. Foobar2000 -> Playlist ->Add directory with Lossless album
3. Mark all tracks (e.g. by Foobar2000 -> Playlist -> Selection -> Select all or by mouse-click on last track and then pressing Shift - Arrow up at same time)

Configuration of Transcoding settings:

4. Mouse right click -> convert -> settings 5. The Diskwriter settings window opens:

5.1 Specify an output directory.
5.2 Select from dropdown list of Output format : CLI encoder
5.3 Copy & Paste following line into Output file name formatting:
$num(%_diskwriter_index%)%_filename%
or even better, more convenient, if you want to mass-transcode a lot albums in 1 step by this action ! :
%_directoryname%\%_filename%
5.4 Uncheck 'Use DSP'
5.5 Uncheck 'Use replaygain'
5.6 Press CLI encoder -> Settings

Following window pops up:


6.1 Encoder: Specify the path for mppenc.exe
6.2 Extension: mpc
6.3 Parameters: --quality 7 --ms 15 --xlevel - %d
Look here for other MPC parameters, like --quality 7 --xlevel - %d.
6.4 Highest BPS mode supported: 24 & uncheck Dithered float -> PCM conversion
6.5 Tag: APEv2
6.6 Check setting 'Encoder requires accurate length', if this setting is offered (not in older foobar versions)
6.7 Save this Preset with a characteristic name like 'mpc q7 ms15 xl'
6.8 Press 'Close'

7. Mouse right click -> Convert -> Run conversion
You can follow the progress:



Because FLAC decoding is very fast and MPC encoding is also fast, the transcoding does not need too much time, like shown by example in these pictures.

After transcoding is finished:
8. Clear Playlist : Foobar2000 -> Playlist tab -> Clear
9. Foobar2000 -> Playlist -> Add directory with new transcoded mpc album
You will see, that Foobar2000 converted automatically the tags of the lossless album tracks (as example flac tags) to ape2 tags in the new mpc tracks. If you had labelled the lossless album tag with codec, like 'album name -flac', then you need to retag the album tag:

Tagging in Foobar

10. Mark all tracks -> Mouse right click -> Masstagger -> Edit tags
The masstagger window pops up:

10.1 Press add
10.2 Select action type 'set value'
10.3 Press OK


The set value window pops up.

10.4 Select Field name: Album - type in the album name, press OK
10.5 You should edit the comment tag, too, as previously there was included 'EAC secure..., Lossless ...', but after transcoding, you have now an MPC album with certain settings & encoder.

10.5.1. Masstagger -> Add
10.5.2. Select action type set value
10.5.3. press OK


10.6 Select Field name: Comment - type into Field value the new comment, press OK
10.7 Press Run
Re-Tagging is finished now.

11. ReplayGaining

11.1 Mark all tracks of the mpc album in foobar playlist

11.2 Mouse right click -> Replaygain -> Scan selection as album

Wait some time until finished.

See further background explanations about replaygain in Guide about replaygaining MPC or Lossless albums here.

Have a look at the result:
(Mouse right click on a track, Show file info or in newer foobar versions: Properties...)


Comparison: examples of compression ratios of Lossless & mpc

by album Abba (1992) Gold - Greatest Hits

Codec album size (MB) min. track bitrate (kbit/s) averaged album bitrate (kbit/s) max. track bitrate (kbit/s)
Lossless FLAC
500
 846 904 989
MPC 1.14 q8 ms15 xl
147
 243 264 281
MPC 1.14 q7 ms15 xl
131
 218 235 249
MPC 1.14 q7 xl
130
 215 233 248


12. optional: Create playlist for the transcoded album:

12.1 Mark all tracks.

12.2 Mouse right click -> Save selection as playlist -> as filetype *.m3u


13. Copy additional files

like


EAC log file(s),

cue sheet (optional)

www.allmusic.com.htm artist or album infos (optional)

booklet scans, jpegs (optional)

from Lossless album folder to MPC album directory.



14. Proceed with Finalizing album
Create an md5 file like described in link above. (You have already carried out the replaygaining in step 11. of this transcoding guide).
Done !

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