Could someone please point me links to guides or suggestions on this as I cannot read large amounts of text due to some vision impairment due to a stroke.
I wish to be able to somehow appropriately categorise my files so that I can search them for specific themes (think of radio special - Live Tracks only or #1’s or only OzRock or only themed about Money or Cars or People’s Names etc
I hope that makes sense?
I wish to tag my library so that I can easily filter out such tracks or group them but without destroying my Year/Artist/Album/Track#/Title structure.
If there is a better folder structure that would make it easier for a large library (which will ultimately be used for an online radio station) please guide me
My library is of about 50-60k tracks at a guess
Any links or guidance that I can follow and read up on would be greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance
It sounds like you want to group your files into multiple, possibly-overlapping groups, which you probably won’t be able to do using only filesystem paths.
It’s hard to offer more guidance without knowing what you’re using to play the files, but it looks like macOS and (maybe) Windows 10 support adding tags (e.g. live, #1, or ozrock) to files and then searching for files by tags:
You may want to try Quod Libet. It’s a player/tagger designed for searching and organizing large libraries. You can use it to add custom tags or comments, search for files using those tags and other criteria, and then (if it’s useful to you) generate playlists from the search results. It’s free software for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The search features are good.
@sibilant “Quod Libet” looks interesting. Will it leave the file creation dates untouched?
I’ve been wondering about a tool that will just tweak the genre tags. I want a tool to “Add xyz to genre” without changing anything else. Like the OP here I am looking at genres to categorise in a custom way. MP3TAG is hard to add multiple genres. And Picard wants to change too many other tags.
@DJ_Filthy One of the problems\advantages of Picard is it will want to totally retag your files. Attempting to match an exact release. If you are already well organised you may find Picard is OTT in detail.
Before doing anything with Picard make sure you have a backup. Don’t throw your whole collection at it. Just a small section you can manually check.
Picard is brilliant at details… but can also make mistakes. Nothing is perfect. So start in small batches and learn the quirks.
If you have well tagged files, use “lookup” and avoid “scan”.
If all you want to do is categorise (change genre tags) your current music you may find problems. Picard may want to change too much for you.
If you have time to check, Picard will give you way more details than you ever thought possible. Spend the time to learn to tweak things and your music files will hold so much more detail.
Personally I use KODI to play my music. So genre tags are great. Picard will use Musicbrainz to fill in some good tags, and I then add more of my own.
Note - Picard \ Options \ Metadata \ Genres. You want to tweak this. I let Picard add up to 10 genres, but also set a 50% on it to try and file out some of the carp.
Sorry, @IvanDobsky I can’t test for changes to file creation date as my file system doesn’t set that.
One nice thing about Quod Libet is that you can search or filter your collection, then batch-edit some or all of the search results. In your case, you could add the string by replacing “My Genre” with “My Genre Added String”.
You can also browse by genre, selecting from a menu of all the values of the “Genre” tag in your collection. The genre menu made it much easier for me to normalize genre tags in my library, since it reveals every misspelling etc.
@DJ_Filthy, two of Quod Libet’s built-in tags are Mood and Grouping. You could repurpose one of those, or create your own.
I may well throw Quod Libet on the system and have a poke around with it. A selective editing tool sounds pretty useful to me. Easier that trying to give Picard a “don’t touch this list of tags” script.
I’ve been doing this from KODI’s genre page. It is kind of what started me on the mission. Spotting some junky old genres or variations on how the same thing was entered.
A while back Picard expanded how many genres it could add. So have been using it to go adjust older rips. Just can be slow work as I can have my own customised naming tags in album titles, etc. I don’t like to disrupt.
To achieve what the OP is trying to do I often add my own genres due to how I group certain albums. Maybe adding a label like “Ministry of Sound”. Or a series. Or “concert tour” to the bootlegs.
The search tools of Quod Libet sound interesting. Especially if it can throw out playlists of the search result.
Great suggestions - Thanks
I went hammer and tongs into a large group of files in a small library of a few thousand tracks and it became burdonsome - so now I am staging in much smaller segments which seems to be working so far. Fortunately, I’m only working with MP3’s which I have personally ripped from my original CDs.
Stage 1 - Rip and basic tag and filename using either EAC (Especially for albums that are continuous eg Pink Floyd MOS etc and this allows me to rip the range of tracks into a single MP3) and Fairstars CD Ripper which is really fast but Quick and Dirty and auto reads the tracks album artist etc. Each CD drops into its own folder
Stage 2: I drop these folder by folder back into MBPicard and add Cover Art either auto from the release or manually by scanning the original cover (which I also add to MBPicard online if missing) and save with all the general tags suggested
Stage 3 Modifying Tags if needed or adding using MBPicard eg Genre: OxRock etc - that way I can save it so that it adds the additional tags for me but not pollute the MBPicard databases.
Stage 4 Add Lyrics where possible, if missing or desired etc I also double check the spelling and idiosyncrasies of names so they match eg Blue Öyster Cult V Blue Oyster Cult etc
Stage 5 Double Check everything and Fully Rename each file using the Tags (I use MP3Tag which I find very handy and then I use Bulk Rename Utilitywhich is amazing!!! It can quickly and accurately rename files in huge quantities and very fast and can change all the key attributes of the files - twek the settings to suit and it shows you the original and the proposed new name and you can filter and skip or select and bulk preview and change hundreds of files at a time which is great for quick work and consistency
I was using OTS Playing radio software but am looking for alternatives that will enable me to stream an automated radio station online.
Stage 6 Final Stage to play finalised tracks and confirm no issues and move to my Final Radio Library with Standardised File Creation Date and Time so that I can tell that it has been finalised - This can be done using Bulk Rename Utility which can also change extentions, append/prepend filesnames, set file attributes change filestamps, replace filter, number sequentially, move and save, and revert filenames.
With an estimated 90k MP3s I really have to be methodical… But I am open to any suggestions!
Thanks
I have Mac and mostly Windows and various Linux on my network but focus on Windows for simplicity and power of controlling the tedium of tagging the music library.
I’ve been using MBPicard and MP3Tag to add modify tags in groups or bulk rather than the Windows File properties which is useless and tedious and one 1 at a time
Your processes are similar to mine. The reason I like KODI is it works really well with the tags from Picard. With a little massaging on either side.
I also like KODI as it integrates to other things I do with it.
Note that EAC can rip Dark Side of the Moon correctly to separate tracks. It is more about the software that plays back. KODI and Winamp can easily do gapless playback. Whereas VLC still can’t do this.
I like the separate files as it is quicker to find one track to play and tagging works better. KODI can handle cue sheets, but there is no accepted method for the taggers to do so.
The only thing that did concern me with your work flow is “MP3” instead of “FLAC”. A little story from experience. Many years back I made a decision to rip all my CDs to the best quality MP3 possible… and just as I was getting towards the end of this mission I upgraded my HiFi system. Nothing too fancy, something like £2K dropped on a surround sound amp and speakers. Trouble is I now heard the compression of the MP3 and ended up binning the lot and returning to re-rip as FLAC.
Good to know. I like the fact that EAC has the ability to take a continuous track (gapless) album like Pink Floyd or Ministry Of Sound and can rip them as individual tracks and create an M3U playlist file but you can also rip the entire album into a single MP3 file so that is is totally gapless - I tend to do both - gapless for the car and the individual tracks for the library
VLC is is great but limited
I’m ripping at 192k but keeping the original CDs - I don’t have a high end stereo and for the live streaming will be using a compression limiter in any case - I do normalize all the music though
DJ_Filthy and IvanDobsky, if you guys try out Quod Libet, let me know what you think. I like it better in dark mode plus a few plug-ins. Once I started tweaking genres and giving star-ratings I was having fun.
I wasn’t going to post this, but now I have been asked…
Quod Libet - first look. Interesting. What a handy toolbox of tricks.
Laughed when I recognise the old Winamp simple three window setup. (Actually a lot of Winamp in here)
It gets a little confused with a SMB network, but pasted the URL in and I could do a scan. Fast scan too!
Quickly found the plugin to link with Musicbrainz data. And themes. Also needed it Dark.
Some interesting other plugins there… especially for people who just want any old artwork.
Loved the fact that straight away it read all the Performer data I have been embedding in files for years. Now I can filter on a person and instrument. Nice.
I can literally ask it “show me the sax players”
Search looks pretty powerful
Easy ability to do what the OP wanted and add extra genres into subsets of tracks.
Also means I can shove the missing artists into tracks. Many albums don’t have performers in MusicBrainz at a track level due to being unsure of the data. This lets me just quickly add “usual suspects” for various bands.
Glad to see the quick access to full filenames\paths and “Show in File Manager”. Important for me as my collection is distributed in folders all over the place due to “reasons”.
Wish this was a plugin for KODI
Would have been nice if I could have had a “play on” option to throw things at the main house audio system, but being able to kick out a playlist that KODI can use would get round that. (After looking in helpfiles maybe this is possible?)
BurnCD - nice
That search is simple and fast. Like the way it can also search on folder names as well as genre and everything else on screen.
The ability to spit out a playlist based on many different filters is REALLY neat. Could get the OP so interesting radio show playlists.
Apps like this show why spending time getting good tags from something like Picard pays off. Straight away this app is REALLY useful. Now I just got to work out a way I can drop playlists into a folder that is monitored by my home automation system for instant playback…
The killer for me is it changes the file dates. So I can’t use it as a tagging tool as those dates are important to me to freeze as a record of when I ripped an album. So close, but so far. Tools like Picard and MP3TAG preserve these dates.
Doesn’t matter. I’ll work a way around that. I can see other uses for this app. Certainly added to the toolbox.
I don’t think alternative track lists should be used to fix this. Instead Picard needs some kind of agreed method to tag a Release ripped as a single entity as a lump.
For my single rip + CUE file albums I have thought of setting track number as track 0, but that then doesn’t work as I have some albums with a pre-track ripped that is track zero. Currently go with 999 as that is impossible for a CD player.
It is also the apps that playback a CUE file that needs to help on a standard. Currently both KODI and Picard just say “split the file up into separate tracks”. though KODI does a good job of supporting CUE files even though the current devs don’t like them.
CUE files are just not fashionable enough to get the love they need.
I also confused as to how @DJ_Filthy uses whole album rips + CUE files on a radio station. Doesn’t this make it hard for the playback software to process a playlist? I don’t know of playlists that can understand how to index a large file?
Thanks for your write-up, @IvanDobsky! I enjoyed reading your impressions.
Well said. That’s exactly what my impression was.
Actually, someone requested an option for this in January 2024. It was only three months before a volunteer added the feature, but the devs haven’t incorporated it. The main problem appears to be that it relies on a questionable change to the same backend library that Picard uses, and the submitter hasn’t responded to objections about it.
Oh yes. Especially since not only can it export playlist files (M3U, PLS), it can optionally copy the actual media files. Combined with the “Export to HTML” plugin, OP could make portable sets accompanied by human-readable setlists.
The search, filter, and playlist functions are among the best I’ve seen. I’ve been wondering how other people make use of the “Conditional Query” plugin. I’m guessing that you already have uses for dynamic playlists (which are more or less the same thing as smart playlists in Kodi).
I didn’t realise it could also copy out blocks of tracks… but I guess it can burn a CD, so why not copy them to a folder\USB stick. Same idea.
The search reminds me of Winamp a lot. A little bit of a read of the manual and I can see some clever searches could be made up. Then used to either to add a genre tag, a custom tag, or spit out a playlist. “Today’s radio show features Candy Dulfer on Sax…”
But just simple things like being able to sort the WHOLE collection by artist, by track name, by album name allows one to quickly flush out the untagged data. A trick I used to do with Winamp.
I’d still use Picard to find and match up whole albums I have freshly ripped, but Quod Libet lets me look at where the mistakes are. What is still missing data in my library? Lets me add the MusicBrainz-AlbumID tag as a column and see what I have not fed through Picard yet. (As a test I just dived in to see if that was possible… took me all of two mins to work out).
So I can’t use it as a tagging tool as those dates are important to me to freeze as a record of when I ripped an album. So close, but so far. Tools like Picard and MP3TAG preserve these dates.