[daddydoom]

Over the years between my teenagers  and I. We have collected several hard drives full of music. There is every type of file you can think of. I have over 1T of music

I am looking for a file organizer that would at least handle most of them. It doesn't have to be free. As long as it does the job.

Thanks in advance

Matt

[chip]

I recall this one being recommended  - http://www.firetongue.com/

[RJ]

I agree with Chip. OrangeCD is the best. (firetongue.com)

[daddydoom]

Thanks for the link.

I will look into this weekend.

Matt

[mcgsxr]

Any update on this?

I am pushing all my music onto a recently purchased 1TB external drive, and could use a program to go in and properly tag all the tunes.  The naming convention is not all the same etc.

Is this my solution?

[whanafi]

MediaMonkey is a popular choice - it handles all formats and does both ripping and tagging. There is a free version and a pay version with more features - http://www.mediamonkey.com


Another choice is Squeezebox Server from Logitech - it is free as well and can be used standalone or with streaming devices.

[mcgsxr]

Thanks for the reply, I am using the Logitech SB3.

My issue is that I have a collection that has been assembled from a couple of different sources, with differing naming conventions - is there a s/w solution to rename everything to a specific format and tag it all etc?

[whanafi]

Thanks for the reply, I am using the Logitech SB3.

My issue is that I have a collection that has been assembled from a couple of different sources, with differing naming conventions - is there a s/w solution to rename everything to a specific format and tag it all etc?

MediaMonkey has options to rename files from tags, tags from files, and online look up.  Should cover all the combinations.

[skunark]

iTunes will build a directory structure and rename the files like the following:

Music/Album/Track-TrackName.extension

All you have to do is ask iTunes to "consolidate" the library and it will copy all songs listed in the library to the location that you selected (or the default). 

It's by no means advanced or provides any options to change how files are arranged nor does it complete any missing tag data.  But it will look up the album art. 

If you have a Mac then you can check out
http://sbooth.org/Tag/

[BobC]

Another choice is Squeezebox Server from Logitech - it is free as well and can be used standalone or with streaming devices.

How exactly does Squeezeserver function standalone?  I have a Duet in another room, but sometimes want to play music while sitting at my computer.  I can't figure out a way to use the Squeezeserver program on my desktop to play music on my computer.  I've been told that it's impossible and that I need to buy another SB Receive - which seems kind of silly.

[Bill@LakeGeorge]

How exactly does Squeezeserver function standalone?  I have a Duet in another room, but sometimes want to play music while sitting at my computer.  I can't figure out a way to use the Squeezeserver program on my desktop to play music on my computer.  I've been told that it's impossible and that I need to buy another SB Receive - which seems kind of silly.

You need to download SqueezePlay

[JEaton]

Any update on this?

I am pushing all my music onto a recently purchased 1TB external drive, and could use a program to go in and properly tag all the tunes.  The naming convention is not all the same etc.

Is this my solution?

File naming is generally a secondary issue.  It's the internal metadata tagging that is most important, and is what most playback software uses.  After you get tagging such as artist names, track numbers, song and album titles correct, you can easily use software to rename files and directories as you like, based on the tags.

Try Mp3tag.  A fantastic tagging program that can be scripted to do a million different things.  If needed, it can also retrieve tagging info from a couple of different web sources, but I'd reserve that for files that either have no tagging at all or are totally wrong.  It can rename files from tags, or populate tags by parsing the file names.

[BobC]

You need to download SqueezePlay

Ooo, news to me.  I'll look into it when I get a few minutes.  Thanks! 

[JEaton]

Ooo, news to me.  I'll look into it when I get a few minutes.  Thanks! 

Download link: http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.5

SqueezePlay is the most recent 'software' player for Squeezebox Server, that can be run on a computer to play back music streamed from Squeezebox Server.  It's essentially a Squeezebox Touch (or Radio) emulator.  It's beta software, but it works well enough.

Be aware that one thing that none of the software players do very well is maintain synchronization with other hardware Squeezebox players.  Sometimes it works OK, not always.

Of course, you don't have to use Squeezebox Server at all if you just want to play music from your local network.  You can just browse to the files on the server and play them through Winamp or foobar or some other music player.

[MaxCast]

File naming is generally a secondary issue.  It's the internal metadata tagging that is most important, and is what most playback software uses.  After you get tagging such as artist names, track numbers, song and album titles correct, you can easily use software to rename files and directories as you like, based on the tags.

Try Mp3tag.  A fantastic tagging program that can be scripted to do a million different things.  If needed, it can also retrieve tagging info from a couple of different web sources, but I'd reserve that for files that either have no tagging at all or are totally wrong.  It can rename files from tags, or populate tags by parsing the file names.

I am using mp3tag but find I have to do each cd individually and it takes quite a few minuets.  when I select the cds tracks I just ripped it will then provide a list of cd versions for me to pick from.  Is this the only way to do it or will it do say 10 selected cds all in a row by itself overnite?

[JEaton]

I am using mp3tag but find I have to do each cd individually and it takes quite a few minuets.  when I select the cds tracks I just ripped it will then provide a list of cd versions for me to pick from.  Is this the only way to do it or will it do say 10 selected cds all in a row by itself overnite?

To tell you the truth, I've been using Mp3tag for many years and have never used the ability to download CD data from the web.  When I rip a CD I use EAC, which pulls basic tagging data from the freedb online database.  I try to make sure it's correct and spelling is OK before ripping, but I still miss the occasional wrong track title or some misspelling.

After ripping, I use Mp3tag and simply make any corrections by hand.  I also add things like ALBUMARTIST fields, additional artists, ARTISTSORT fields ("Monk, Thelonious"), and additional genres.  Things like adding ARTISTSORT are automated by Action Group scripts, so the process usually takes less than 1/2 a minute per CD.

The process of fixing up a badly tagged and organized library is going to be a lot different.  You can either approach it as a long term project (a little like the process of ripping a large library of CDs itself) and pick away at it a little bit each night, or try to use the automated methods and hope for the best.

[mgalusha]

I am using mp3tag but find I have to do each cd individually and it takes quite a few minuets.  when I select the cds tracks I just ripped it will then provide a list of cd versions for me to pick from.  Is this the only way to do it or will it do say 10 selected cds all in a row by itself overnite?

If you want accuracy, having any of them do things by themselves won't work well. MP3tag is pretty fast, when you say minutes are you running it on the machine where the files are stored or across a network? It is slow across the network. Another reason for slow performance is if you are adding tags to a track that did not previously have them, especially if one of them is the cover art. The reason for this is a new file has to be created with extra space at the end to contain the meta data. Not too bad on a local drive but pretty awful on a network drive.

As for doing a batch, you can, sort of. If you have a directory with say 6 sub directories, one for each album by an artist and right click on the parent and chose MP3Tag it will parse all of the files below into the window. What I do if I'm updating a bunch of them is just select the tracks for a particular album, set the tags to what I want and hit save. If renaming, it has the ability to go from tags to filename or filename to tag. Very handy for stuff downloaded from archive.org. If you name the files using something like <trackno> <songtitle>.ext then it can read that and write the correct meta data for the track. Did a bunch of Leftover Salmon tracks that way last weekend. Even though you still have to do one disk at a time, it goes quickly if they are all on display at once. MP3Tag can also grab the data from Amazon, which includes the cover art.

Of course like any other tagger, you need to check the meta data before hitting save. What you might consider Jazz someone else might have labeled Avant-garde.

[MaxCast]

thanks for the replies guys.
JEaton, yes the Monk, Thelonious / Thelonious, Monk thing has been an issue.  Where do you check and correct this?  Top left box in mp3tag?  Are you adding cover art in less than a minute?

I use EAC which finds the titles of the tracks and start a rip. EAC used to compress to flac after each ripped track.  Now it rips all the tracks and the compression software starts and catches up after the cd has been ripped.  I must have changed something.  This takes 10-15 minutes.

I then go to mp3tag (after a scan but I only scan after about 5 cds have been ripped) and locate a cd that has not been updated.  I select the tracks, find the correct album/version via amazon and start the tag. This takes another 10-15 minutes.  I am apparently doing it for cover art only (which I want) because I can see the album tracks on my itouch controlling a SB3 but no cover art when I don't do a mp3tag tag of the tracks.  This seems to go along with what MikeG wrote.  I was guessing it had to associate the art with each track, slow computer and ripping, compressing, and tagging all at the same time.  Although, I haven't noticed much speed improvement when I only tag.


system info
all done on one system
Files are on an external drive.
Laptop xp 1.7 processor
512 RAM

Unless you see anything wrong with what I am doing it is a fact of life...but it's getting done. 

[MerlinWerks]

I've used J. River's Media Center for the last 10 years or so, never found anything I've liked better.

There is also a free "music only version, Media Jukebox...

[BobC]

Download link: http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.5

SqueezePlay is the most recent 'software' player for Squeezebox Server, that can be run on a computer to play back music streamed from Squeezebox Server.  It's essentially a Squeezebox Touch (or Radio) emulator.  It's beta software, but it works well enough.

Be aware that one thing that none of the software players do very well is maintain synchronization with other hardware Squeezebox players.  Sometimes it works OK, not always.

Of course, you don't have to use Squeezebox Server at all if you just want to play music from your local network.  You can just browse to the files on the server and play them through Winamp or foobar or some other music player.

Tried to download the Windows version, but got an error saying the file is corrupt.  Please advise.