Tagging information using Mp3tag

[Ikabob]

no, 1 is 1. the tracks are probably just displaying in alpha order. Click on that column with the track numbers and it will reorder the tracks by track number (either highest to lowest or lowest to highest).

Oh...IC...yes I clicked on filename and it did reorder! How simple. TY

[Ikabob]

Must I enter manually the same info from track to track?

[aubuti]

Must I enter manually the same info from track to track?

No. For things that are the same across tracks (YEAR, ALBUM, possibly ARTIST and GENRE) what I do is select all the tracks, then press Alt-T. Then I click on the new tag icon (see the wiki pictures), choose a tag name such as ALBUM, and then type in the name of the album. I repeat that for other tags that are the same across all selected tracks, and then click save.

Obviously, for tags that vary across tracks (such as the track TITLE), you need to enter them manually for each track.

[garym]

So do you mean that an album may rip as unknown one time and then known another time?

possible, but that's not what I mean. What I mean is that at the time you rip the UKNOWN album you have the CD cover in your hands. So you can immediately after the rip edit the tracks to add info (and copy the files into a new ARTIST/ALUBM/tracks subdirectory (you don't want to leave all these unknown items in the same "unknown" folder. (this of course is a benefit of dbpoweramp....if it is unknown (rarely), you can make the edits/changes right on your PC screen BEFORE the ripping starts and you're done....mp3tag not needed). Once you have several CDs all listed as unknown in the same directory you have no idea which track came from which CD without listening to them. That's not a good work flow!

[Ikabob]

possible, but that's not what I mean. What I mean is that at the time you rip the UKNOWN album you have the CD cover in your hands. So you can immediately after the rip edit the tracks to add info (and copy the files into a new ARTIST/ALUBM/tracks subdirectory (you don't want to leave all these unknown items in the same "unknown" folder. (this of course is a benefit of dbpoweramp....if it is unknown (rarely), you can make the edits/changes right on your PC screen BEFORE the ripping starts and you're done....mp3tag not needed). Once you have several CDs all listed as unknown in the same directory you have no idea which track came from which CD without listening to them. That's not a good work flow!

Got it! TY

[Ikabob]

No. For things that are the same across tracks (YEAR, ALBUM, possibly ARTIST and GENRE) what I do is select all the tracks, then press Alt-T. Then I click on the new tag icon (see the wiki pictures), choose a tag name such as ALBUM, and then type in the name of the album. I repeat that for other tags that are the same across all selected tracks, and then click save.

Obviously, for tags that vary across tracks (such as the track TITLE), you need to enter them manually for each track.

So....I did all that and saved the tag for each track. I then went to Albums of the Squeezebox in VBA...and it's not listed...still unknown.

Just another question...did you guys breeze thru this when you 1st started? I feel so ....well...you know. It is very complicated. But I think I'm getting close...This will be a great thread for a beginner (dummy)like me. My contribution to the community.

So, I even looked in the music folders and the folder is still labeled "unknown"....when will it change? I saved it, etc. I even pulled up the mp3tag file on that folder and it's like nothing has changed. Like I didn't do anything even though I saved it.

[garym]

So....I did all that and saved the tag for each track. I then went to Albums of the Squeezebox in VBA...and it's not listed...still unknown.

Just another question...did you guys breeze thru this when you 1st started? I feel so ....well...you know. It is very complicated. But I think I'm getting close...This will be a great thread for a beginner (dummy)like me. My contribution to the community.

So, I even looked in the music folders and the folder is still labeled "unknown"....when will it change? I saved it, etc. I even pulled up the mp3tag file on that folder and it's like nothing has changed. Like I didn't do anything even though I saved it.

A few thoughts:

1. First, after making tag changes, LMS will not pick up the changes in its internal database until you do a full "clear and rescan" of your music library in LMS. A check for new and changed typically won't pick up tag changes.

2. Make sure you understand the difference between folder names and file names versus the metadata contained in the tags. These can be very different. Just because you changed the metadata (tags) doesn't mean you did anything to change the file names or locations. I suggest you do the latter and the good news is that mp3tag can automatically do this for you. Here's a bit of a primer:

a. in mp3tag, open the files from the single album you want to fix.
b. So with only the tracks from that album in your active window, make all your tag changes until you're happy with them. Then
o right click (with all files selected
o choose CONVERT from top menu
o select "tag - Filename" (copy and paste the following in the format string box in the popup)

.\%artist%\%album%\$num(%track%,2) - %title%

(note that there is a "." in front of the first backslash)
o Then say OK. Not sure if you have to then hit the save button too.
What this does is rename the files (and move them to appropriate new directories) based on the correct tag data. And the "." up front means that the new directories will be created underneath the already existing /files/music/flac directories.
o When all done, go back into LMS > Settings and do a full "clear and rescan" of your music library.

So now you have correct tag data, the file names and directories match your tag info, etc. And LMS should show things listed under the correct artist, album, etc.

[garym]

Just another question...did you guys breeze thru this when you 1st started? I feel so ....well...you know. It is very complicated.

When I started to move to digitizing my CDs, I had no clue. I installed the program that came with my original iPOD (musicmatch), inserted CD into computer, and like magic I had digital files with metadata. I diligently ripped about 6,000 albums and then later learned I did it all wrong. That's why I warned you earlier to go slow. There is a learning curve but very quickly it will all become obvious and then you'll probably wish you had paid more attention to tagging, album art, file type, etc. But not to worry, if you're starting by ripping to FLAC, and you get the basic metadata right, you can always easily go back and fix/edit/add tags, better art, etc. (at least you started with lossless files vs lossy mp3 files, which can't be fixed without reripping).

[Ikabob]

"1. First, after making tag changes, LMS will not pick up the changes in its internal database until you do a full "clear and rescan" of your music library in LMS. A check for new and changed typically won't pick up tag changes."



Oh....I forgot about the rescan thing. And....once again thanks for the tips! I'll try that when I get back home from an errand.

[Ikabob]

OK!!! Success! I tagged my 1st album. Thank you very much GaryM! More questions: What is the difference between Artist and Album artist. Also, I wanted to enter Composer but It didnt show up. Time for my errands. Oh yes I tried that convert action but it didn't really enter identifiable tracks. ..but it did change things in that column.