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Topic: Flac tagging / renaming VS MP3/OGG tagging renaming (Read 2706 times) previous topic - next topic
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Flac tagging / renaming VS MP3/OGG tagging renaming


Hi everyone,

Please bear with me - I'm new at this though I've been doing a lot of reading up, still very confused.

I'm trying to learn how to use mp3tag to rename and tag some flac files. It's taken forever thus far, me copying and pasting each individual song but I know theres gotta be an easier way. I know mp3 files are different than FLAC files but as far as tagging goes - I am a certified idiot. Reading IDE, VO, V1, V2, vorbis, I'm out of my league at this point..but trying to learn. So a few questions if you could spare a minute as none of my friends are able to help and all the tutorials I've read are above my level.

1) Is mp3tag the best tool to use?

2)I have some flac files that right now read as:

CD Track 01.flac
CD Track 02.flac
CD Track 03.flac
etc...-> CD Track 27.flac

I have a list of the tunes, is there an easier way than manually renaming the FILENAMES of the 27 files in the folder (at least I think I mean filenames and not tag here)?

I also want to rename the tag, but first things first right (or is it all the same thing) so that will be number 2?

3) Tags are different from filenames right, as they are what show up in Itunes data etc. Can anyone help me to understand the easy way to group-tag an entire batch of files. For ex, with Mp3tag I am able to see the filenames (CD track 01, etc) and thats it, there isn't any other data. I don't want to manually copy / paste the group name or album...but I can't figure out the proper way to go about it. I read the help file for mp3tag and know that I can highlight a group of songs, but as soon as I start to
type in the left side of screen (say album for ex) I don't know what to do next to make all tracks have that as a label.

Everyone says 'Mp3tag is great', so easy...and maybe with another example it would be (say if I had songs with tags that just needed to be rearranged maybe) but what about when you have to start from scratch? Am I just screwed, the "tag-filename", "filename-filename" & "textfile-tag" are obviously supposed to help somehow but I sure don't know.

For ex, say that I do manually enter the filename (track # then song title), and want to have those transferred to the tag, how would I go about doing that? Or should I just have the tag only be artist & album and not include that other info (since the track and title are already included in the filename)?

HELP PLEASE : (

I apologize for my ignorance, all I can say is I've put this off for a long time and now I'm trying to learn from anyone who will help.

Flac tagging / renaming VS MP3/OGG tagging renaming

Reply #1 –
Quote from: Honeyslide on
1) Is mp3tag the best tool to use?

If you want to do it manually, then, yes, I think Mp3tag is the best tagger available. If you want to take a more automated, hands-off approach, you can try Musicbrainz Picard. Picard uses the MusicDNS service to fingerprint tracks and fill in meta data automagically. I'm not the guy to talk to about Picard, however -- I only know what it is and basically what it does, not how to do anything with it (at all).

Quote from: Honeyslide on
2) I have a list of the tunes, is there an easier way than manually renaming the FILENAMES of the 27 files in the folder (at least I think I mean filenames and not tag here)?

In Mp3tag? Not that I'm aware of, no. If you select the song title field for the first track, enter it and press enter, Mp3tag will jump to the song title field of the next track, which means song titling can go by pretty quickly. Just make sure you've sorted the files correctly (they should be sorted in ascending order based on the filename if there is no other meta by default).

You can use the Filename - Tag function or the Auto-numbering wizard to get track numbers. Again, just make your files are sorted correctly by filename in ascending order before attempting to get track numbers with the Auto-numbering wizard.

Quote from: Honeyslide on
I also want to rename the tag, but first things first right (or is it all the same thing) so that will be number 2?

Yes. The idea is to build up enough information in the tags to generate an appropriate filename or vice versa. If you want a "## Title.flac" filename format, for example, you'll need the song title and track number tags filled so that Mp3tag can generate a filename based on the values of those tags.

Quote from: Honeyslide on
3) Tags are different from filenames right, as they are what show up in Itunes data etc.

Yes. Tags are metadata embedded in the files, whereas the filenames are just used for the operating system to allow it to identify files (and allow you to identify files yourself).

Quote from: Honeyslide on
I read the help file for mp3tag and know that I can highlight a group of songs, but as soon as I start to type in the left side of screen (say album for ex) I don't know what to do next to make all tracks have that as a label.

Just press Ctrl+S. This saves the tag information you've entered and applies it to all tracks. So, if you have a twelve track album selected, enter in the artist, album title, year and whatever other tags apply globally to that album and go to File->Save or simply press Ctrl+S to save the tags. Then you can focus your attention on tags that differ from track to track (i.e. track title, track number, disc number, etc.)

Quote from: Honeyslide on
...the "tag-filename", "filename-filename" & "textfile-tag" are obviously supposed to help somehow but I sure don't know.

They're useful if you have "cross meta". In other words, if you have a lot of information in the filename itself, you can use Mp3tag to simply derive the tags based on that information. Conversely, if you have meta in the tags but not in the filenames, you can use Mp3tag to derive filenames based on the information in the tags.

Quote from: Honeyslide on
For ex, say that I do manually enter the filename (track # then song title), and want to have those transferred to the tag, how would I go about doing that? Or should I just have the tag only be artist & album and not include that other info (since the track and title are already included in the filename)?

If you enter the track number and title in the song fields, use the Tag - Filename function to generate the filename based on those tags. In this case, the format string would be: $num(%track%,2) %title%. This will yield a filename of 05 Echoplex.flac, for example. Fairly simple.

Flac tagging / renaming VS MP3/OGG tagging renaming

Reply #2 –
I suggest you to fix the tags first, and then generate filenames from the tags.

You can try to use the online databases to fill the tags for you.

Do your music files make up a CD / Album? If so, you may try to use freedb/TrackType. Mp3tag can do this in the "Tag Sources" menu. It can also search Amazon and Discogs.

MusicBrainz as stated by Ron helps as well.

After that, you can rename files based on tags.

Flac tagging / renaming VS MP3/OGG tagging renaming

Reply #3 –
Hi,

For this type of task I currently use a combination of MP3Tag and MusicBrainz Picard (MBP). I work on one album at a time and the general flow is roughly: 1. Populate Album tag using MP3Tag. 2. Use MBP to get all the rest of the tag data.  3. Use MP3Tag to rename files using the data in the tags.

WARNING: This very detailed post makes the process sound long and labourious, but in reality it can take me under 2mins to do all the following steps.

1. In MP3Tag, navigate to the folder that contains all the tracks from an album (To open the folder browser, click the icon with the green tick over a folder - in the toolbar).

2. In MP3Tag, highlight all the tracks in the album.

3. In MP3Tag, enter the name of the Album in the left hand panel

4. In MP3Tag, click the disk icon at the top left (or Ron says Ctrl+S) to save name of the album in the appropriate tag of all those files.

5. In MBP, Navigate to the same folder using the left hand folder tree.

6. In MBP, drag all the tracks (or just the folder) from the left hand folder tree to the middle pane, where they should appear under the 'Unclassified' folder.

7. In MBP, Highlight the 'Unclassified' folder and click the 'Cluster' button on the toolbar. this should group the tracks in the middle pane under one folder named with the title of the album (that you entered in step 3).

8. In MBP, higlight the album folder that appeared in step 7.

9. In MBP, click the 'Lookup' button on the tool bar (It has a picture of a wand on it). This searches the online MB database for the closest match to your album (taking into consideration things like the name of the artist, the number of tracks, the length of the tracks).
[blockquote][/indent]9a. If a match to the album is found, details of the album will appear in the right hand pane, and your tracks will hopefully automatically go from the middle pane to the right-hand pane. Expand the name of the album in the right hand pane to see all the tracks listed. **This is a bit buggy - sometimes clicking on the album does not expand the list of tracks. If this happens, click on a folder in the middle pane, and then click on the album in the right hand pane again to expand it**. MBP should be able to automatically associate each of your tracks with its corresponding track in the right hand pane. If this is the case, each track in the right hand pane should have a little coloured bar next to it indicating the confidence in the match - green being very confident, red being not very confident. In your case it will never be green because your track names (e.g. CD Track 1) won't match with the real track name.
[blockquote][/blockquote]9b. If a match to the album is found, but your tracks have not automatically been associated with their corresponding tracks in the right hand pane, then drag and drop each one of your tracks over the corresponding track in the right hand pane. (Unassociated tracks will either remain in the middle pane or in a folder at the bottom of the list of tracks in the right hand pane - drag each of these to their corresponding track).
[indent][/blockquote]9c. If no match to the album is found, then you can search the MB website for your album using the search box at the top right of the MBP application. Choose either 'Album' or 'Artist' in the drop down next to the search box in the MBP application and enter the search text. If you find the album on the MB website, just click the green 'Tagger' button at the right hand side of the album title on the website to load the details into your tagger and then follow step 9b.

10. In MBP, Check that the tracks have been associated correctly. Eg. click on the first track in the list in the right hand pane and then look at the text boxes at the bottom of the application - your current data (track name etc) will be shown in the left hand boxes and the corresponding track data will be shown in the right hand boxes. Check that your Track 01 has been associated with the first track on the album and then press the down cursor to check for Track 2 etc. Also check that Track times correspond. The coloured bars at the side of each track in the right hand pane can also give you a visual clue.

11. In MBP, highlight the name of the album at the top of the right hand pane by clicking on it and then click the save button on the toolbar - next to the lookup wand if memory serves correct - to save the tags to the files. The coloured bars next to the tracks in the right hand pane should change to green ticks.

12. Back in MP3Tag, click the refresh button on the tool bar or navigate once more to the same album folder that you've been working on.

13. In MP3 Tag, I tend to add the 'Album Artist' tag, which I think is not a standard tag. (Hmm - I need to check that I'm not damaging my flac files by doing this). Anyway - if you want to do that, you need to tinker with MP3Tags options - it's not difficult, but I can't remember how to do it because I don't have the application in front of me.

14. In MP3Tag, highlight all the tracks and then click 'Tag to Filename' button to rename all your files. Use an appropriate file structure (I do something like album artist / album / track no - track name, but I can't remember the exact string to use).  BEWARE that if you adjust the location of the file by this type of renaming, then all the required tags must be populated. For example, if you haven't populated the 'band' or 'artist album' tag and then ask MP3Tag to put the tracks in a folder that uses this metadata, then you could find that your files disappear! Also note that if you have moved the location of the files, then associated files (cover art/ cue lists/ EAC log files) will have to be moved manually using windows explorer or what ever to keep them with their audio files.

Other notes:
* You can also add a plugin to MBP to download cover art as part of this process. You would then need to choose the appropriate options to either embedd cover art and/or save it in the same directory as your audio files. (I think I best check that I'm not doing my flac files any harm by embedding cover art too)
* You can use MBP to do the renaming of your files in step 14. But I use MP3Tag because I want to add the album artist tag. (EDIT: In fact, you could avoid using MP3Tag in steps 1-4 too if you use the search feature in the top right hand corner of the MBP application. That opens the possibility for having a one-application solution. Personally I find it quicker and easier to do steps 1-4 than using the search and waiting for a web page to open!)
* I'm don't tend to use the PUID identification (scan) feature of MusicBrainz that another poster mentioned, because I want absolute control. Although the feature is quite good, it can't identify a significant number of tunes and it can throw up unwanted results if exactly the same track appears on more than one album. Anyway, you probably know what your music is, so you don't need this facility.

I'm a big fan of the MusicBrainz database - not least because it's data is very clean - but I have no affiliation to it.


Good luck!