-Brading Software Message Board
+--Forum: Mp3/Tag Studio Suggestions
+---Topic: Cleaning up Artist names in huge MP3 collection. started by Patrick Schannong
Posted by: Patrick Schannong on Sep. 20 2003,05:16
I use Mp3/Tag Studio all the time and it's a great tool. There is one important function missing though. Now that I bought an udiotron, it is extra important that every artist's name are spelt exacly the same in all the files (as it groups songs according to the tag artist name). Since I have close to 40.000 files, it's impossible to go through every file separately.
The function I am looking for, first reads the whole library, then sort the files in groups according to the artist name in the tag. Then, in that list, I could just right-click on any misspelled artist name and change it in one go for all the files that have that spelling. I'm sure a lot of people would love this. Audiotrons 'Audiostation' should do this but it doesn't always change the tag, only 'Audiotrons' internal data.
Posted by: Magnus Brading on Sep. 20 2003,14:03
A simple way to do this would be to rename all the files to begin with the artist name, then browse through the list of files (which is then automatically sorted by artist) in the browse tool, and then change any wrong spellings from there, or from the mass set tags tool.
Alternatively, you could use the auto rename tool to sort the files down into directories of artist names, and then modify the files in these, for a possibly greater overview.
Posted by: unregisturd on Sep. 21 2003,01:00
or use the dos command:
dir /b/ >list.txt
s to get a list of all his files, then open that list in ms excel. why excel? well, with a bit of cut n pasting you can export it later to a tab delimited text file, rename it to a .bat and it will rename all your files for you..
and ms excel has a spell checker so you can teach it the names of all your artists.. and use replace all when doing a spell check
if more info is wanted on making bat files with excel, ask me..
Posted by: unregisturd on Sep. 21 2003,01:01
that should say dir /b/s >list.txt
note the S that i dropped... it means subdirectory.. wont get much of a result without it. b= bare format, no size/date junk
Posted by: Patrick Schannong on Sep. 21 2003,22:23
Thanks for your replies. But the reason I want this feature is because I don't want to have to rename the file names. That would take sooooo long to go through. I have my files already sorted in genre directories. All the file names start with the artist name, but unfortunately many are spellt differently, like 'Frank Zappa' and 'Zappa, Frank' or 'Beatles' or 'The Beatles'. Don't forget that I have 40.000 320kbps files. That's about 400Gb. It's very slow to browse through and make changes when working with this much data.
Any other suggestions what software may do it for me?
Posted by: TonyHughes on Sep. 22 2003,00:02
Winamp media library will do exactly what you want. Spend a few hours playing with it, it's quite incredible.
Might be a good idea to first use tag studio to export all tag data to a list, so you can get them back if necessary.
Also use Tag studio to save all filenames inside tag, field TOFN (original filename). Then you never have to worry about messing up filenames either, you can always get them back again.
2 superb programs.
Posted by: ggibby on Nov. 05 2003,08:38
While MP3 Tag Studio is an excellent filename manager, it isn't a database. If you've got a large volume of files, MP3 Collector from < Collectorz.com > is a true database. It maintains artist, album, genre, and other lists that can be edited, combined, or deleted.
What it can't do, and I wonder if MP3 Tag Studio could, is true concatenation of artists for filing. For example, Jean-Michel Jarre concatenates to jarrejeanmichel. The Beatles becomes beatlesthe, Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper is filed as nixonropermojoskid.
Haven't found the right app, but for big collections that need serious maintenance, MP3 Collector is very good.
Hope that helps,
-G
Posted by: RoyalEF on Nov. 24 2003,20:05
I-Tunes will help you a lot there. Winamp 5 (in beta) also will get you there.
Both ignore "THE" when alphabetizing artists. Both have quick searches. You type ZAPPA into the search field and every file with a ZAPPA somewhere in the tag is found. You can then select all the wrong ones and edit the TAG, and i-tunes/Winamp5 will correct just the artist field on all of them. This will also allow you to compare/sort by album titles/genre and eliminate variances there as well. Both programs are stable (even the beta) and run fast with my 11,000 song collection.
I just did this with most of my folders. After making certian that ARTIST and TITLE were fully populated throughout the database I used MP3Tag Studio to walk through the finished folders renaming everything to a consitent naming convention. This breaks the db you built in I-tunes/WInamp but you can rebuild them so they find the files again undr their new names.
Personally I-tunes is edging out WinAmp due to smart playlists (dyanmic db/sql searches), cover artwork support, db sharing on the LAN, and more suport for the composer field.
For instance I can create a Smart Playlist that looks for search for songs by "Diane Warren" in the COMPOSER, LYRICS or COMMENT fields. Warren is a favorite writer and never a performer. Each time I view the playlist is searches the db and displays all songs meeting the criterion. As I continue to populate the db fields the playlist will find new ones automatically.
I imagine for a 40,000 song collection that type of flexibility is wanted.
Posted by: Disposable Hero on Nov. 26 2003,23:39
This is why I use J River Media Center. Organization, filtering and searching are its major strong points. IIRC, it had smartlists well before iTunes
Posted by: RoyalEF on Nov. 28 2003,17:02
Just dowload Media Center. I'll have to try it out...although it doesn't share music that easily, which is a nice addition by I-Tunes. I'll have to see how it compares. Video/TV isn't important to me at all so those features are superfluous.
Posted by: Disposable Hero on Nov. 29 2003,00:55
Dunno specifically what you're referring to, but Media Center has a server component which allows streaming over LAN or internet connection to other MC clients, but I don't use that so I can't comment on how difficult it might be. Maybe that's not what you mean...?
Best bet to get things running and tweaked is to visit the Media Center 9 forums:
< http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3 >
I agree with you about the video stuff. There has been talk about an audio-only version, but I doubt that is realistic.
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