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Thread: mp3/id3 tagging with easyTag, best working practise?

  1. #1
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    mp3/id3 tagging with easyTag, best working practise?

    Since there seems little sign of rhythmbox's broken handling of "comment" tags being fixed (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2188626)
    I am looking round for an alternative solution. EasyTag seems widely recommended, so I downloaded it.

    I am struggling to find good documentation, but I am also confused as to the intended "mode of use".

    START SIDEBAR
    My rhythmbox working practice was to put "new" mp3 files, with some basic tags assigned using a perl script + eyeD3,
    into the root of my Music directory. The mp3 files are mainly capture spoken word comedy, with metadata coming
    from the EPG files.

    I would then edit the tags in rhythmbox, assigning episodes to "albums" (actually series), setting years and so on.

    Finally, I would use fileorganizer plugin to move/make a nice filename.
    Sadly, Rhythmbox tends to corrupt comment tags (where I was storing episode synopses) and fileorganizer
    needs a different python version, and no long works in 13.10.
    END SIDEBAR


    So - I tried opening up easytag at the root of my tree, and it "took a while" to gather the existing tags. Around 20
    seconds (and I only have around 1400 files so far).

    This is not very nice when I just wish to add-and-tag 4 or 5 new files.

    Can anyone recommend a working practise? Should I put new files in a separate sub directory to tag them?

    BugBear

  2. #2
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    Re: mp3/id3 tagging with easyTag, best working practise?

    I use EasyTag. I put new files in a separate directory (I named it "Pending"), tag files, fix up filenames as required, (I like my MP3s tagged "Title - Artist"), then move to the desired directory. Yes, EasyTag can be a little slow if you have a lot of files in a directory.

  3. #3
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    Re: mp3/id3 tagging with easyTag, best working practise?

    Give puddletag a try; it's in the repos.

    I have looked at audio tagtool, easytag and puddletag, and find it difficult to decide which I like most; they all seem to have their odd idiosyncrasies, so try them all to see which you think does what you want.

  4. #4
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    Re: mp3/id3 tagging with easyTag, best working practise?

    Quote Originally Posted by echotech2 View Post
    I use EasyTag. I put new files in a separate directory (I named it "Pending"), tag files, fix up filenames as required, (I like my MP3s tagged "Title - Artist"), then move to the desired directory. Yes, EasyTag can be a little slow if you have a lot of files in a directory.
    That sounds most plausible, and is what I'd guessed at.

    It reminds me of "old school" Unix, where the documentation told you exactly what each command did
    but not how the (rather clever and thoughtful) authors intended the commands (and features thereof)
    to combine as a functional set.

    BugBear

  5. #5
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    Re: mp3/id3 tagging with easyTag, best working practise?

    You need to turn off automatic scanning in easytag. Look in preferences. Modified or new tracks show up in red and require saving before you quit easytag.
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  6. #6
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    Re: mp3/id3 tagging with easyTag, best working practise?

    Quote Originally Posted by tgalati4 View Post
    You need to turn off automatic scanning in easytag. Look in preferences. Modified or new tracks show up in red and require saving before you quit easytag.

    I'm still very hazy on the Browser/Scanner relationship, and also the fact that the (important) rename function
    seems to occupy a tiny dialog, a bit like "save as" in most software.

    Where's the "automatic scanning" setting (just looked, can't find it), and what does it do?

    Browser seems to have a file mode and a tree mode, but the file mode is a file tree, whilst
    the tree mode navigates via the very data that you're editing.

    I feel I'm missing an "overview" that would place all these pieces into a coherent (and easy to use) framework.

    I'm sure easytag is convenient to use, simply because so many people say so!

    BugBear

  7. #7
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    Re: mp3/id3 tagging with easyTag, best working practise?

    Settings==>Preferences==>Uncheck "Load on startup the default directory"

    Because your home directory is the default directory and the load is usually set as default, it scans your entire home directory and that can take a long time. Now you can browse to a specific music directory that needs work and any files in Red have not been recently resaved with correct ID3 tags. It's a handy system for keeping tabs on which tracks have been fixed and which need fixing.
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  8. #8
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    Re: mp3/id3 tagging with easyTag, best working practise?

    OK, I'm nearly where I need to be; one last (hopefully) question on selection.


    Is there any way to select ALL the songs from either a sub-set of albums (say 2 of 6) or a subset
    of artists (for scanning/editing)

    BugBear

  9. #9
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    Re: mp3/id3 tagging with easyTag, best working practise?

    Not really. You can use the search filter and check "Tag Only" and put in the Album name and a bunch of tracks will show up. Unfortunately, there is no way to rank the Album names (alphabetical or reverse alphabetical), so you have to use the mouse to click on the tracks or shift-click to select blocks of tracks. Once you have a bunch of tracks selected, you can modify the ID3 tags and save them with the new information. You could add a special keyword in the comments and then use that for future searching or to keep track of which tracks have been marked up.
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  10. #10
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    Re: mp3/id3 tagging with easyTag, best working practise?

    Quote Originally Posted by ajgreeny View Post
    Give puddletag a try; it's in the repos.

    I have looked at audio tagtool, easytag and puddletag, and find it difficult to decide which I like most; they all seem to have their odd idiosyncrasies, so try them all to see which you think does what you want.
    I've been using the tag editor built-into Clementine (music player). It has a simple, multi-select interface. Wish that titles could automatically sequence following the track no. Anyway, it is another option to try out, but hardly a best solution.

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