Tag Entry for MP3 App's in W7

[WSC3]

I have just upgraded to Windows 7 and I lost a couple of mp3 apps in the process that helped me with entering mp3 tag information. One was MusicMatch 10.x which allowed me to enter lyrics, album reviews, band info, etc. by tab. There was a tab for each type of tag info; seamless and easy. I could also update these data for an entire album at a time if I needed to. (Yes, I know this app was way out of date and I grieve MMJB's death.)

The other was MP3 Collector which permitted me to make the mp3 file name the tag name of the song. That is, it would replace the song title in the mp3 metadata with the filename, a useful option for books on tape. Oh, and I could make this change for any number of files in a single pass.

I need suggestions for an application that will permit this kind of metadata/tag entry for mp3 files. I don't need a player per se. I use WinAmp and I have iTunes, but neither offers these features.

Thanks.

[Roderunner]

wsc3 This is my fav. app

[WSC3]

Roderunner:

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check it out when I get home. It doesn't seem to go out to tagging with lyrics or other commentary. Am I missing that on the screenshots?

[Roderunner]

Its a feature I don't use.

[Doc Brown]

You want Media Monkey. Its free, and does everything you are asking. However, I can tell you that when it comes to setting up renaming and the Auto Organize feature (which is what I would recommend), it takes a little fiddling around to make it do what you want. Its essentially a little script. However, once its done, it'll work flawlessly.

[WSC3]

Chuck,

Thanks for the tip. I like configurability. I don't want any app just launching and taking over my system, renaming, updating, etc. w/o my express direction. Media Monkey is like this, right?

[Doc Brown]

Yes, very much so. That's why I like it. I'll give you an idea on how I use it, and I think that may help you. One of the .mp3 players I use can't be synced in the normal way as it is a mass storage device. So it doesn't read the metadata to organize albums, genres, etc. It does read .m3u playlists, which is OK, but I've found over time that its just a pain to use them on the players I have. My solution is to rename the files to use the track number at the front of the file name.

When I rip a CD with MM, the dialog box has a ton of options, not the least of which is to create a script which names and locates the files on the hard drive based on a pattern you configure. It will also tag all the files from data. At this point I still keep it simple and rip using defaults to a predetermined directory. Once there, I highlight all the songs in an album and go to properties to set the genre and artist name to my liking. This is the part you asked about. There are more tagging options than I know what to do with.

Then I select AutoOrganize, which allow me to configure the naming, and organization scheme. For example, The pattern I use is "C:\My Music\<Genre>\<Artist>\<Album>\<Track#:2> - <Title>", which results in C:\My Music\Rock\Alan Parsons\I Robot\02 - I wouldn't Want to Be Like You.mp3. Note the 2 after track #. It forces a 2 digit number, hence the 02 in the file name. Using no number after Track# results in single digits for the numbers below 10. You know how well that works in a file system. There are at least 30 options, some with operators, to make it do what ever you like with the files. Once this is setup, its sticks as a default, so its just a matter of highlighting all the tracks you want to organize, right click, and selecting AutoOrganize.

EDIT: I misspoke. AutoOrganize is only available with the Gold version. $20 for the 3.x version.

[Roderunner]

There's one thing that has not been stated. Before using, make a copy of one of your files and use it to practice on, then you won't lose anything.