Transcoding & Sync

Overview

This transcoding feature converts audio from one format/codec to another (for example, FLAC → Opus/MP3) and places it in an output folder. This can be useful when copying music to portable devices with limited storage.

Note

This feature creates a flattened file structure in the format of Artist - Album/filename.ext to the target folder. It does not preserve the original directory structure.

How to:

1. Set codec and bitrate settings in MENU > Settings... > Transcode

   Tip

   Try OPUS at 72kbps to really compress your music. For playback on iOS try foobar2000. For Android try AIMP. Enabling the write as .ogg extension setting will improve compatibility on Android to most players.

2. Right click a track and select Transcode Folder to transcode all the tracks in the folder/block where the track resides. Wait for it to finish. (It doesn’t matter which track of an album you click, it will still transcode the whole album/block.)

To see the resulting folders in your file manager, press F9. You can then copy these folders to your device using your file manager.

Additional settings

• You can have the source tracks deleted and replaced by new output tracks by enabling the setting Transcode files inplace. You should maybe back up your files first before using this option.
• You can transcode single tracks by right clicking a track, holding Shift, and selecting Transcode Single

Sync

The way this feature is intended to work is that you maintain a playlist of all the albums you want on your device. Then you can add and remove items and only the difference needs to be copied.

How to

1. Create a sync playlist First, we want to make a playlist of the albums we want on the device. You could use an existing playlist, or make a new playlist. You could for example name it something like Sync Playlist. To mark this playlist as the sync source playlist, right click its tab, then select “Misc…” > “Set as Sync Playlist”

2. Copy albums to that playlist One way to easily copy albums to a playlist is to use the Gallery Quick Add function by right clicking the target playlist tab, then selecting “Misc…” > “Engage Gallery Quick Add”.

   Then, you can right-click any album in the gallery view from any playlist to add it or remove it from that target playlist. Once done, click MENU and select “Disengage Gallery Quick Add”

3. Setup transcoder So now we have our playlist ready, let’s select transcode settings. Go to MENU > Settings... > Transcode, and select a lossy codec.

4. Setup sync Now click the “Sync…” button to switch to the sync page.

   At this point we will want our device connected and ready. The device filesystem must be mounted and contain a folder to sync music to.

   Android/MTP

   For an Android/MTP device connected by USB, try opening it in your file browser to trigger a mount. Then back in Tauon you can click the lightning bolt icon to automatically try to detect this location. If that failed, you will need to supply the path manually.

   iPhone

   For iPhone install an app such as foobar2000. Connect your iPhone via USB. In your desktop, trigger a mount of your iPhone documents drive in your file manager. Then use the terminal to locate the mounted location for that app. Under GNOME it looks something like /run/user/1000/gvfs/afc:host=???/com.foobar2000.mobile. Paste the full path into Tauon.

   Flatpak Note

   Don’t forget to add permission for the target path if using the Flatpak version of Tauon.

   There is an option named “Delete all other folders in target” which you can optionally enable. If enabled, any folders in the target path not in the playlist will be deleted.

5. Finally click “Transcode and Sync” to begin the process.

Tip

This function syncs based on the generated folder name. Clear both the encode output directory and target directory to fix incomplete albums or to update transcode codec/bitrate.

Tip

You can safely interrupt the process by clicking Stop... (or right click status bar text and select Cancel). Starting again will effectively resume where you left off.