Problems with mp3 tags
Discussion
Given that the Computer forum seems down I'll post it here to see if I can get any bites and hopefully it will get moved when it's back up again!
MP3ed all my CDs over the last few years using CD-DA Extractor which pulls down track names, etc. from the internet. Has always worked flawlessly.
I have always sorted my MP3s by file structure, finding it much easier to keep them uniform and correctly sorted than using the tags.
Recently I got an MP3 player and have been copying them on - however, I seem to have a problem whereby several albums (so far) seem to have slightly corrupt Artist fields (none of the other fields are affected).
For example, I have several albums by Porcupine Tree. If I look up Porcupine Tree under artists, I see:
Porcupine Tree
Porcupine TreeX
Porcupine TreeY
Porcupine TreeZ
Where X, Y, & Z are weird chinese looking characters or square bracketty things.
If I select the first Porcupine Tree, I have all their albums listed with all tracks listed in each, except for one album: "Signify" where there are 3 or 4 tracks missing. If I look through the other corrupted Porcupine Tree entries, they each have the "Signify" album only listed, with one of the missing tracks under it. The MP3 player obviously thinks they are buy a different artist due to the extra character!
What's weird is that with only about 30 albums copied on by 5 or 6 artists, there are 3 or 4 examples of this already.
Even stranger, not all of them were even ripped & encoded by me so there is not really a common factor!
Has anybody seen this before? I have used MP3tag to fix one album but I really can't face doing it to all of them.
I can't understand how it might have happened
MP3ed all my CDs over the last few years using CD-DA Extractor which pulls down track names, etc. from the internet. Has always worked flawlessly.
I have always sorted my MP3s by file structure, finding it much easier to keep them uniform and correctly sorted than using the tags.
Recently I got an MP3 player and have been copying them on - however, I seem to have a problem whereby several albums (so far) seem to have slightly corrupt Artist fields (none of the other fields are affected).
For example, I have several albums by Porcupine Tree. If I look up Porcupine Tree under artists, I see:
Porcupine Tree
Porcupine TreeX
Porcupine TreeY
Porcupine TreeZ
Where X, Y, & Z are weird chinese looking characters or square bracketty things.
If I select the first Porcupine Tree, I have all their albums listed with all tracks listed in each, except for one album: "Signify" where there are 3 or 4 tracks missing. If I look through the other corrupted Porcupine Tree entries, they each have the "Signify" album only listed, with one of the missing tracks under it. The MP3 player obviously thinks they are buy a different artist due to the extra character!
What's weird is that with only about 30 albums copied on by 5 or 6 artists, there are 3 or 4 examples of this already.
Even stranger, not all of them were even ripped & encoded by me so there is not really a common factor!
Has anybody seen this before? I have used MP3tag to fix one album but I really can't face doing it to all of them.
I can't understand how it might have happened
Edited by NiceCupOfTea on Saturday 16th October 00:38
Edited by NiceCupOfTea on Saturday 16th October 00:40
Egg Chaser said:
Not too sure what you mean.
Do you just mean that you need to change the artist's name on some tracks so they're together on the MP3 player?
Basically, the artist name on each track has got a different random character at the end of it on some of the tracks.Do you just mean that you need to change the artist's name on some tracks so they're together on the MP3 player?
This makes the MP3 player think they are by a different artist so it groups them differently...
You need to get some tagging software to change the metadata that the mp3's have. That should really have been done automatically when you ripped them. I use iTunes for that, but I don't think you like iTunes, so maybe there is another free bit of software you can use. Mediamonkey can edit the tags.
Blue Meanie said:
You need to get some tagging software to change the metadata that the mp3's have. That should really have been done automatically when you ripped them. I use iTunes for that, but I don't think you like iTunes, so maybe there is another free bit of software you can use. Mediamonkey can edit the tags.
I've downloaded MP3tag but heard good things about MediaMonkey so will look into that.Any idea why/how it might have happened? A one off I could understant, but like I say it's happened on quite a few from different sources.
Did it happen during the ripping process? If so, were any of those songs different? Maybe they were band A featuring Dave, and then Band A featuring Margaret, or something. maybe it was having issues with those sort of differences, so just labelled them oddly? Feck knows. I know on iTunes it will tag the artist separately if there is a guest artist on the song, which I have to change.
Someone has used mp3tag which is free software to batch edit tags...but it adds random letters. The music industry released it this way so they can track illegal downloads because they can prove a track on a computer is downloaded because the incorrect tag is like an identifier.
You need some software like mp3mage or Dr Tag that will do the job properly.
You need some software like mp3mage or Dr Tag that will do the job properly.
otherman said:
Someone has used mp3tag which is free software to batch edit tags...but it adds random letters. The music industry released it this way so they can track illegal downloads because they can prove a track on a computer is downloaded because the incorrect tag is like an identifier.
You need some software like mp3mage or Dr Tag that will do the job properly.
How bizarre! It makes it totally useless for use on an MP3 player though!You need some software like mp3mage or Dr Tag that will do the job properly.
I have ripped all my music with CD-DA Extractor and never noticed a problem before... Only installed MP3tag to try and sort this stuff out!
otherman said:
Someone has used mp3tag which is free software to batch edit tags...but it adds random letters. The music industry released it this way so they can track illegal downloads because they can prove a track on a computer is downloaded because the incorrect tag is like an identifier.
hmmmmmm .... I don't think I'm buying this ... My Documents >> right-click on MP3 file >> properties >> summary >> advanced
You can edit the MP3 tags from there without using any software.
You can select multiple files at the same time (hold Ctrl and click whichever files) and change the artist name for all of the selected tracks at the same time instead of changing them all seperately.
HTH
You can edit the MP3 tags from there without using any software.
You can select multiple files at the same time (hold Ctrl and click whichever files) and change the artist name for all of the selected tracks at the same time instead of changing them all seperately.
HTH
Thanks guys. No idea how/why it has happened by I sorted it manually in the end with MediaMonkey.
Related question:
The reason I have always used the directory structure to arrange my music is because I prefer to keep some separate.
For example I have:
No comments on music tastes please
Now, your typical MP3 player / media organiser will let you sort by album title/artist etc.
Artist sorting works really well for Rock albums, and it's my preferred way to sort them.
However, it doesn't work for classical stuff as there are so many different ways that people tag them (artist is sometimes the composer, sometimes the performer, names sometimes have correct accents or initials, other times don't so you end up with 5 different artists (W.A.Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WA Mozart, Mozart, etc.). Likewise, I like to keep Classical Soundtracks in a separate directory as above.
Compilations present another problem, as the artists appear interspersed in the artist list, one line representing 1 song as opposed to 5 or 6 albums for example! Makes it rather unrepresentative when looking for music to listen to!
"Other" is stuff I would rather keep separate too.
I can't be the only person with issues like this... Any ways to get it the way I want?
Is it possible to create giant playlists (Rock, Classical, Classical Soundtracks, Other, Compilations) and then use Artist / Album search within that in the normal way?
Or how about if I recatalogued all the genres and kept them simple and searched within that? ETA - this will work I'm sure, but not sure I want to lose all the more detailed genres (Prog Rock, Classic Rock, Metal, Soft Rock etc)
All my CDs are tagged, but the way they came down from the net ie completely inconsistently!
Related question:
The reason I have always used the directory structure to arrange my music is because I prefer to keep some separate.
For example I have:
Music -> Classical -> Beethoven -> Symphonies
Piano Concerto No.5
Brahms -> Symphonies
Horn Trio
etc.
Soundtracks -> John Williams -> Star Wars
Jurassic Park
James Horner -> Star Trek 2
etc.
Rock -> Aerosmith -> Big Ones
Def Leppard -> Adrenalize
Hysteria
etc.
Compilations -> Best Rock Album in the World Evarrr!!!1!
Now Dance '91
etc.
Other -> Scissor Sisters
Derek & Clive
etc.
No comments on music tastes please
Now, your typical MP3 player / media organiser will let you sort by album title/artist etc.
Artist sorting works really well for Rock albums, and it's my preferred way to sort them.
However, it doesn't work for classical stuff as there are so many different ways that people tag them (artist is sometimes the composer, sometimes the performer, names sometimes have correct accents or initials, other times don't so you end up with 5 different artists (W.A.Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WA Mozart, Mozart, etc.). Likewise, I like to keep Classical Soundtracks in a separate directory as above.
Compilations present another problem, as the artists appear interspersed in the artist list, one line representing 1 song as opposed to 5 or 6 albums for example! Makes it rather unrepresentative when looking for music to listen to!
"Other" is stuff I would rather keep separate too.
I can't be the only person with issues like this... Any ways to get it the way I want?
Is it possible to create giant playlists (Rock, Classical, Classical Soundtracks, Other, Compilations) and then use Artist / Album search within that in the normal way?
Or how about if I recatalogued all the genres and kept them simple and searched within that? ETA - this will work I'm sure, but not sure I want to lose all the more detailed genres (Prog Rock, Classic Rock, Metal, Soft Rock etc)
All my CDs are tagged, but the way they came down from the net ie completely inconsistently!
Edited by NiceCupOfTea on Sunday 17th October 14:28
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