Ots albums

[DJ B-rad]

I'm sure one of you guys have the answer to this.  The first couple of years I used the ots mp3 converter to convert my ots files individually.  I didn't realize that you could make ots albums until ots studio started to do the conversion.  My question is is there a way to combine the ots files into a single album (almost all my files are in folder stucture by cd) without losing all my beat info that i've spent roughly 400 days working on?  I do still have all my copies of ots converter on my pcs. 

[Dr.J]

There isn't a batch converter from individual .ots files to .ots albums, yet (there is a grayed out option in Studio).

What beat info is it you are worried about? If you are talking about the BPM info generated for beatmixing you shouldn't have any problems; But, if you are talking about manually entered BPM info in the media library you will have problems. Additionally, you will loose all your lastplay, genre, etc. information in the media library as you can't relink the converted albums with the previous songs.

Try an album or two to see what happens.

[DJ B-rad]

I swear i read somewhere, either on the ots help documentation or jeff, that you can open a file in studio and add other songs to it.  I wouldn't mind losing the genre, lastplay info, and songs that I haven't edited can easily be redone with a batch auto-detect bpm in studio.  There are thousands of songs I have edited and set up the beat info and aci points that I wouldn't want to lose the info from.

[Gadget]

Hi DJ B-rad,

You can create a new single Ots file from numerous other Ots files, and keep all of the information within your Ots file (ACI, ABM, Genre, etc.) as they were.

Based on what you have said, you have folders of individual Ots files (1 song per Ots file) that reflect a full album. If this is the case, the following will do the job.

1. Open Windows Explorer, and navigate to the first folder of Ots files.
2. Open the folder, so you can see all of the Ots files within it.
3. Highlight all files (or press Ctrl+A).
4. Right-click your mouse and select "Convert to Ots Album file"
5. When Ots Studio opens, click on the "Import" button.
6. Wait until completed.
7. Add an Album name to the Ots file, and Save it.
8. Check that the file saved correctly, by opening it in Ots Player.
9. If successful, delete the folder containing the individual Ots files.
10. Repeat for other folders.
11. After removing all singular Ots files from your hard drive that are now in multi-item Ots files, run OtsAV (or OtsDJ).
12. Perform a Re-Link
13. Save your Media Library (via the File -> Media Library menu, or upon exit).

As Dr.J stated, there isn't a Batch Convert Ots to Ots feature yet, so you'll need to do one folder at a time.

Hope this helps.

Glen

[DJ B-rad]

I'm going to start this tonight but i'm sure glen hit it on the nose.  It's been such a pain adding album art and such to each individual file.  Having to open each one and save and refresh and repeat.  Even doing them one folder at a time will be much quicker overall.  Thanks guys.

[Dr.J]

12. Perform a Re-Link

Hey Glen,

What's the point of re-linking the files? I've tried several ways and I can't get the individual songs to re-link to the songs in the new album. Am I missing something?

[Jigger]

You need the re-link because you would of saved the Ots album to a new location usually Ots labs Ots files. But I am sure Ots Glen will explain better.

[DJ B-rad]

Do an easy scan first then do the re-link.  I took Glen's list and went one step further.  You can actually combine single ots files and ots albums the same way Glen discribed doing just individual files.  I added remixes, radio edits and instrumentals with the full CD's.  Almost like creating your own deluxe edition of the cd.  Then I added the album art to like 30 files at once.  Saved much time.  You got to do the easy scan first so Ots recognizes that there are new files along with the old files "missing" from it's original place on the hd.  Re-linked and they were good to go.  Thanks again Glen.