After ripping some 400 cd’s (a couple of years ago) with software that didn’t add tags unless you entered them, I discovered that my new mp3 used only tags while my earlier 1 gig player used folders. Tech support suggested adding tags via the file properties (advanced) tab by highlight all the songs in an album. I didn’t really care about song names at this point but just artist, album title, and genre. This approach worked fine for this 30 gig HD player with only a few bugs. It also works fine for WMP 11 and a 4 gig Sony player that also provides for folder searching, which I think should always be included as an alternative search method…even though it lacks glitz. I bought the 4 gig Fuze and an 8 gig microSD card, but I have a mess of unknowns plus works fine. Genres on the card only are even listed. What to do? I read posts about tag formats and editors…confusing stuff, and I don’t want to re-edit 400+ folders. Also, genre goes to artist, which creates chaos when an artist has a track or two on many CD’s. I would greatly prefer genre go to album…is this possible? Thanks for suggestions, tips, etc.
There are some programs that claim to scan your library and automatically identify and tag your MP3s. Google “mp3 tagger”.
If that doesn’t produce satisfactory results, have you considered re-ripping all the CDs with software that will properly tag them? It would certainly be time-consuming, but less so than manual editing.
I would consider re-ripping but the CD’s are in storage, out of state, while I am on a long term assignment. I don’t understand why WMP 11 can make sense of the tags, 2 other different brand MP3 players but the Fuze seems partially confused. I also don’t understand how the files (folders) on the microSD are incorporated or not with the main memory data. The best imperfect solution seems to just browse by albums where everything seems to be listed by title in alpha order. I still strongly support a folder-subfolder option because it is fool proof. Just my .02 worth
The best ID3 tag utility I’ve tried to date is MP3Tag. Be sure to set it to write your tags as ID3v2.3 ISO 8859-1.
MP3Tag makes the task of correcting tags much easier.
WiMP 11 does a good job of finding tag information, but it will go berserk at times trying to find classical CD information. I’ve caught it in the act, just yesterday, trying to patch a London / Decca CD: it found the closest one, and inserted the wrong artist and track information.
Apparently, London 417 199-2 (Joaquin Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez featuring Eduardo Fernandez and the English Chamber Orchestra) doesn’t exist. I had some fun looking up Mr. Fernandez (excellent guitar work, incidentally!), and on his web page, the target Decca CD is missing information- and it’s the only one missing in his list! I’ll make a run down the e-mail trail.
Try MP3Tag to see if you can get those blank fields figured out, and no more unknowns.
For this use, I would primarily use Media Monkey instead of mp3tag because folder navigation is easier in MM. In MM, move to a folder, select All to get all tracks in the folder (assuming one folder per CD, otherwise select all tracks on a CD), then use “auto tag from web” feature. This generally gives good results for commercial CDs issued within, say, the last 10 years. Older classical CDs are often a problem though.
I’ve retagged many hundreds of tracks this way and the process wasn’t difficult.
