Converting CUE (and APE) to individual tracks

HI there

Some of you might have some .CUE files where you wish to recover the original individual tracks. This method will also work if you have .APE files too. You need the image file (.APE or .FLAC plus the associated CUE file). I've some old music in .CUE and less but some in .APE where I want to get back into tracks -- I've enough HDD space to create proper music libraries and have settled on only TWO formats -- where possible .FLAC (I always like the highest possible quality for my music -- I can temporarily make smaller .mp3 files if I need them from the "Master FLAC" Lossless files) and .MP3 where I can't or haven't been able to get the original UNCOMPRESSED versions.

FLAC plays on most devices and software players these days without difficulty including the ubiquitious VLC media player and any number of decent smartphones while .mp3 -- nothing more needs to be said.

I still use some ATRAC3 Lossless with some Minidiscs when making live recordings - but I extract and convert these to FLAC anyway so the ATRAC3 only reside on Minidisc blanks - otherwise I've standardized on the two formats suggested. - It's a lot easier than keeping zillions of different formats around - and I'm not keen on proprietary stuff like APPLE / Ms (WMA) etc. I NEVER keep DRM'ed music either.

Things like Spotify are OK for background but it's still nice to have your OWN music libraries -- I don't think people will ever get rid of those -- although the ways of "acquiring" music content will definitely change -- who ever buys Audio CD's any more for example. !!

So on the Hydrogen Audio site download CUETOOLS - it runs as a "portable" - no need to install anything and works fine on W8.1. Download the 2.1.5 (.zip) version rather than the 2.1.4 .rar one.

CUETools versions 1.9.5 through 2.1.5 (current) - Hydrogenaudio Forums



screenshots showed of converting .CUE back into tracks (with track info / tags too).

Note the Output file name must be xxxx.cue (xxx your choice) - a bit counter intuitive but the music gets converted back into all the tracks.

(Note if you are crazy enough to want to do it -- it can convert tracks into a single .cue file too -- but I wouldn't do that any more -- HDD space isn't at a premium - and it's cheap).

Cheers
jimbo