batch id3 editting? (query freedb based on disc id?)

subrama6 · 01-04-2006, 09:32 AM

i have a music collection that i'd like to retag with more complete information. i've scoured the forums and come up with a few potential solutions that i've tried, but none seem to suit my needs quite right. when i initially tagged my collection a few years ago, i did so with a pair of programs on windows. with the first, i renamed the files to be of a consistent format. then with the second, i entered artist and album, and then the tags were generated based on files selected, with the title being the filename. now i'd like to have this done the other way around - having the tags be set properly, and having the filenames generated from the tags. i'd like to have album art, year, genre...etc, and the prospect of going through and doing this all again by hand makes me queasy. as i use windows at work, a friend introduced me to foobar2k. this has a freedb lookup that gets the tag information based on track lengths (and probably some other information). it works great. then i can generate the filenames from the tags, direct from foobar. unfortunately, i don't have a windows machine at home anymore, and foobar only runs on wintel. so i've been looking for options on the os x side. here's what i've come up with so far.

media rage - does indeed have freedb support, but the user has to type in the name of the artist and album. this would still require quite a lot of work. the idea is to give an app a bunch of files and have it present you with guesses as to what album you've just given it (which foobar does).

ieatbrainz - will automatically get the tags from the musicbrainz database, but is fairly buggy, and there is no customization options for what tags i want to get or how i want the files to be named afterwords. further, the files need to be in the itunes library to be selectable in ieatbrainz. since my music collection is pretty scattered at this point (ie. on a few different harddrives on a few different machines) i haven't added everything to my itunes library, and have no desire to do so. i rarely use itunes.

id3x - does not have either freedb/musicbrainz support or the ability to customize the file rename settings, so far as i can tell.

i realize i'm being fairly picky, and if i'm unable to come up with any better solutions, i'll probably just buy media rage and go through the process of doing things the best i can. but before i did that, i was just wondering if anybody had any applications/scripts that they swore by for this sort of thing.

thanks in advance

subrama6 · 01-04-2006, 09:37 AM

i just read about IDInfiltr8 in another thread, and i'm going to try it when i get home tonight, but i'm still soliciting suggestions

CAlvarez · 01-04-2006, 09:39 AM

I used Brainz in a semi-manual way to at least get MOST of the tags right or close. Then I used Tri-Tag to fully customize in batches.

subrama6 · 01-04-2006, 09:52 AM

tritag looks interesting. thanks

i'll give that a shot if i wind up going the ieatbrainz route.

Bigc · 01-04-2006, 10:27 AM

I use the scripts from dougsapplescripts, first one, finds the album in CDDB data base based on artist name (or album or both if just need track numbers), next CDDB to iTunes (writes data from cdbb to itunes tracks), then rename to artist-album (year) Track#-songname...all with Hot Keys.

subrama6 · 01-04-2006, 12:05 PM

thanks for the response, bigc. i thought that applescripts might be the way to go with this too - i'll look into dougs

tlarkin · 01-04-2006, 01:23 PM

i use this

http://musicbrainz.org/

subrama6 · 01-04-2006, 01:44 PM

you use musicbrainz? does that mean you use ieatbrainz? or is there a different client. i haven't been too pleased with ieatbrainz.

tlarkin · 01-04-2006, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by subrama6


	you use musicbrainz? does that mean you use ieatbrainz? or is there a different client. i haven't been too pleased with ieatbrainz.

Yeah I used the newest client, and for a free database it is not bad. It will rename your MP3 file and then make you verify it, and it has a percentage based on how close the match is. There are some things it gets wrong, and I don't listen to a lot of newer mainstream music. However, it may not be perfect but it is free. If you find any errors you can submit it to the online database. It is community driven so the more that help out the better it will get.

I tried a paid application ID3 tagger that made just as much mistakes as musicbrainz did.

subrama6 · 03-07-2006, 11:43 AM

i had a thread related to this previously, but i finally figured out how to word exactly what i was asking:

my previous thread was here:

http://forums.macosxhints.com/showth...ghlight=freedb

basically, i'm wondering if anyone knows of an OS X app that'll let me query freedb based on calcuated disc id of a group of files.

regulus6633 · 03-07-2006, 12:06 PM

It sounds to me that Automator would be the way to do this. You can use finder, terminal scripts, apple scripts, safari etc. and join them into one application to accomplish your task.

subrama6 · 03-07-2006, 12:14 PM

that's not a bad idea - thanks

hayne · 03-07-2006, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by subrama6


	i had a thread related to this previously, but i finally figured out how to word exactly what i was asking: my previous thread was here: http://forums.macosxhints.com/showth...ghlight=freedb

I merged your two threads and modified the title.

subrama6 · 03-07-2006, 02:00 PM

thanks hayne

01-04-2006, 09:32 AM	#1
subrama6 Prospect Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 19	batch id3 editting? (query freedb based on disc id?) i have a music collection that i'd like to retag with more complete information. i've scoured the forums and come up with a few potential solutions that i've tried, but none seem to suit my needs quite right. when i initially tagged my collection a few years ago, i did so with a pair of programs on windows. with the first, i renamed the files to be of a consistent format. then with the second, i entered artist and album, and then the tags were generated based on files selected, with the title being the filename. now i'd like to have this done the other way around - having the tags be set properly, and having the filenames generated from the tags. i'd like to have album art, year, genre...etc, and the prospect of going through and doing this all again by hand makes me queasy. as i use windows at work, a friend introduced me to foobar2k. this has a freedb lookup that gets the tag information based on track lengths (and probably some other information). it works great. then i can generate the filenames from the tags, direct from foobar. unfortunately, i don't have a windows machine at home anymore, and foobar only runs on wintel. so i've been looking for options on the os x side. here's what i've come up with so far. media rage - does indeed have freedb support, but the user has to type in the name of the artist and album. this would still require quite a lot of work. the idea is to give an app a bunch of files and have it present you with guesses as to what album you've just given it (which foobar does). ieatbrainz - will automatically get the tags from the musicbrainz database, but is fairly buggy, and there is no customization options for what tags i want to get or how i want the files to be named afterwords. further, the files need to be in the itunes library to be selectable in ieatbrainz. since my music collection is pretty scattered at this point (ie. on a few different harddrives on a few different machines) i haven't added everything to my itunes library, and have no desire to do so. i rarely use itunes. id3x - does not have either freedb/musicbrainz support or the ability to customize the file rename settings, so far as i can tell. i realize i'm being fairly picky, and if i'm unable to come up with any better solutions, i'll probably just buy media rage and go through the process of doing things the best i can. but before i did that, i was just wondering if anybody had any applications/scripts that they swore by for this sort of thing. thanks in advance

01-04-2006, 09:39 AM	#3
CAlvarez Hall of Famer Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 4,975	I used Brainz in a semi-manual way to at least get MOST of the tags right or close. Then I used Tri-Tag to fully customize in batches. __________________ -- Carlos Alvarez, Phoenix, AZ "MacBook Nano" (Lenovo S10) Atom 1.6/2GB/160GB Mac OS X 10.5.6 Gigabyte Quad Core 2.83GHz Hackintosh 4GB/500GB Mac OS X 10.6 MacBook Air 1.8/2GB/64GB SSD http://www.televolve.com

03-07-2006, 11:43 AM	#10
subrama6 Prospect Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 19	freedb discid i had a thread related to this previously, but i finally figured out how to word exactly what i was asking: my previous thread was here: http://forums.macosxhints.com/showth...ghlight=freedb basically, i'm wondering if anyone knows of an OS X app that'll let me query freedb based on calcuated disc id of a group of files.

03-07-2006, 02:00 PM	#14
subrama6 Prospect Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 19	thanks thanks hayne

01-04-2006, 09:37 AM	#2
subrama6 Prospect Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 19	i just read about IDInfiltr8 in another thread, and i'm going to try it when i get home tonight, but i'm still soliciting suggestions

01-04-2006, 09:52 AM	#4
subrama6 Prospect Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 19	tritag looks interesting. thanks i'll give that a shot if i wind up going the ieatbrainz route.

01-04-2006, 10:27 AM	#5
Bigc All Star Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 552	I use the scripts from dougsapplescripts, first one, finds the album in CDDB data base based on artist name (or album or both if just need track numbers), next CDDB to iTunes (writes data from cdbb to itunes tracks), then rename to artist-album (year) Track#-songname...all with Hot Keys.

01-04-2006, 12:05 PM	#6
subrama6 Prospect Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 19	thanks for the response, bigc. i thought that applescripts might be the way to go with this too - i'll look into dougs

01-04-2006, 01:23 PM	#7
tlarkin League Commissioner Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 11,352	i use this http://musicbrainz.org/

01-04-2006, 01:44 PM	#8
subrama6 Prospect Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 19	you use musicbrainz? does that mean you use ieatbrainz? or is there a different client. i haven't been too pleased with ieatbrainz.

03-07-2006, 12:06 PM	#11
regulus6633 Major Leaguer Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 478	It sounds to me that Automator would be the way to do this. You can use finder, terminal scripts, apple scripts, safari etc. and join them into one application to accomplish your task.

03-07-2006, 12:14 PM	#12
subrama6 Prospect Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 19	that's not a bad idea - thanks