Tidying up random and messy tags on live, radio or studio DJ mixes and live rave PAs

An MB release is very specific in what it is: A music release/package in the exact way it and the contents were released. There’s not much wiggle room for ‘fan improvement’ to a release unfortunately (like rearranging the track order) - though if you released your edits as bootlegs you might be able to add those :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:*

But the starting point is to add the existing as-is releases to MB anyway, maybe add an event and see how linking them to recordings and releases goes. Once you’ve done a bit you’ll get an idea of what data you can pull for scripting and how you might want to do it.

*If it’s widespread enough. This would be a good example of how MB represents releases quite specifically - your bootleg release date would be 2021. Then you’d have to set Picard to pull the original recording date or script something to take another value.

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3 posts were split to a new topic: Recommendation for media player to replace iTunes

MB guidlelines are fairly strict as they aim to bring such a wide area of media types together. They will be different to your current layout. And much of your info will end up in Annotations of the Release and Release Groups. But the core Releases - the Casettes, CDs, the MP3s - these will have a good structured home here. And your added data will fit along side for other people to extract and expand upon.

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Any idea what I’m doing wrong here?
I’ve ticked all the ‘i don’t know tracklist’ boxes available.

I had that same weird error the other day. Can’t remember what I did. Have you been deleting or shuffling Mediums? Or maybe try shuffling a Medium up and down the list?

I know it didn’t make sense at the time, but I managed to ignore it some how or other.

I’m literally messing with as little as possible to see how far I can get with the least effort because it will still take years just to get the info I do know up, let alone all the other details most people can cope without for these type release groups… If I do have to tick ‘I don’t know the tracklist’ for every single file, this is already a daunting task TBH

Replied over here as I think something is “odd”: Why won't it let me proceed? - #3 by IvanDobsky

Obsession - XCLUSIV - The Rave Masters - Live 6 Pack Mixes
Here’s another tricky example as this is a 6 x cassette collection from at least two different gigs.

Release Artist is: Ellis-Dee, Jack Smooth, DJ SY and Easy Groove.
Then the separate tracks get the artist relevant to that gig.

They seem to be the main four names on the release. Or it would be a Various Artists.

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Here’s an example where the tagged files aren’t adding to the database properly using the Add Cluster As Release plugin…



I think this was released as a ZIP and there are no track numbers or indication of the order the sets and often the event flyer sets times change at the last minute at these kinda parties but you can see that MB doesn’t want to take the data from the Contributing Artist field and instead takes it from the Album Artist (all except the last file). Am I missing something? Thanks!

Maybe try massaging the data a bit in notepad++ or MP3tag. Could be that extra chars are confusing it. Can’t tell due to not being able to see the full text.

I don’t know what Notepad++ is but MP3Tag reads full tags including art.

Notepad++ is a better text editor for Windows. If you run a Windows VM on that Apple, it is worth checking. It has some pretty decent text manipulation tools over and above the average text editor.

Otherwise I’d be using MP3tag to massage the tags a bit before Picard gets at them.

Paste some of the text you’re getting from this duff album. maybe a pattern with stand out. Something is being misread by the text parser.

Sorry bro, you’ve lost me a bit there but this is all the tags already embedded. I just wondered why the plug-in isn’t handling it.

You need to “think like the plugin”. If you do a COPY CLUSTER TO CLIPBOARD and paste that in a post it may be easier to guess where it is making an error in the parsing.

I am guessing the missing track numbers won’t help. (Something MP3TAG is great at doing a quick fix on with that 1/2 button on the toolbar)

Not sure what’s happening - have you played with the track parser on the Edit > Tracklist page @DerekFerric? It can also automate filling out the tracklist for you, it’s great.

Depending on your programme (beets, foobar2000, MusicBee, MP3Tag) you can use one of these methods to copy and paste into the parser: Guide: Quickly Importing Releases/Tracklists from Files

Then you can see exactly what’s being copied in, and change your text/export code to match. That sounds more complicated than it is, it really is worth a quick look :stuck_out_tongue:

btw my offer to run you through any questions you have (maybe on Twitch?) still stands if you have any other that remain unanswered/confusing, PM me any time.