Clean-up Music Files

[Xiphoid]

Just curious what programs everyone is using to de-dup their mp3 files, correct the tags on mp3 files, etc.?

I've decided that I need to get this done otherwise the duplicate mp3's are going to drive me crazy. Any recommendations for a good app? Doesn't have to be free if it's good...

[SWKerr]

itunes has a Duplicate view. It works well for what you are talking about.

I Let iTunes manage my music library at this point. I converted all my mp3 file to m4a files as well. I maintain my playlist in itunes and export them out as m3u files for SageTV.

I also use Media Monkey. It is a great organizational and tagging tool. It will also de-dup but you may want to run a special script if you have a lot of file to clean up. At this point I use iTunes to manage the library and use Media Monkey to sync with non apple devices. It will even convert back to mp3 on the fly if the device does not support m4a files. Great software. There is a Free and Pay version. Can't remember exactly what extra features the pay version gets you but it was not very expensive.

I am slowly moving to Android devices and iTunes does not support them but iTunes is still the best tool for easily purchasing and managing a music Library. iTunes and Media Monkey work well together but let only one mange the Library.

[Xiphoid]

The built in iTunes de-dup feature won't work because I have 10,000 files and each one has a duplicate file...To use the iTunes feature I will need to click each one and delete it, talk about a tedious task! I've looked at Media Monkey but wondered whatbother ones people are using?

[pjpjpjpj]

There are several threads about this under the "Software" and "Media Extender" forums here. Search for topics regarding Sage's music handling and people having problems with extender lockups while playing music. Several of those threads devolved/evolved into discussions about MP3 tagging.

I really like MP3Tag (which you will see, many here do). It's free and very easy to use. It takes some manual work, but it's quick and simple. It gives you multiple sources from which to try to seek the album info (you pick a source, and if it doesn't find the right info, you can pick another source). It embeds the artwork in the file, so you don't have to worry about "folder.jpg" issues or all of those hidden album art files that some software creates when you rip CDs. It does not automatically fill in the "Album Artist" tag, but you can copy/paste from "artist" easily enough, or manually type in something different in the case of a compilation CD.

I also use MP3Gain, another freeware piece that normalizes your audio tracks. You select a volume level (or leave it at default), select your files, click to scan them (and leave the room a while depending on how many you scan), and then when they are all analyzed, click to normalize them and they will all normalize to the volume level selected. Unlike some normalizing software where you only get the normalization when you use that software, the files get saved at that volume permanently. That way you don't end up with a loud song followed by a really soft one when you play a playlist. It's a little bit of a bother, but now any time I buy some music or rip a new CD, I immediately clean it up with MP3Tag and then normalize it with MP3Gain before I put it into my MP3 folder for Sage, iTunes, my cellphone, etc.

[panteragstk]

If you are wanting some sort of auto tagging I use Jaikoz. It isn't free, but if your music is missing quite a bit of information it will populate the info for you. The cool thing is it uses a spreadsheet style so you can see if the information is correct. That paired with MP3Tag and you have everything you would need to organize your music perfectly.

[matt91]

I started using Picard recently and really like it:

http://musicbrainz.org/doc/MusicBrainz_Picard

it uses the same backend as Jaikoz (I believe). Not sure what the differences are, other than Picard is free.

edit: http://lifehacker.com/5511473/start-...ata-into-shape

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by matt91

I started using Picard recently and really like it:

http://musicbrainz.org/doc/MusicBrainz_Picard

it uses the same backend as Jaikoz (I believe). Not sure what the differences are, other than Picard is free.

edit: http://lifehacker.com/5511473/start-...ata-into-shape

Musicbrainz.org is one of the engines available for MP3Tag as well.

My only problem with complete auto-tagging (as I've stated in all those other threads, too), is that you invariably end up with most songs being tagged with some silly compilation CD ("Music Hits of 2005" or "Now that's What I call music #52,379"). I once had MP3 software that had auto-tagging and it would pull up like 20 albums for one song, and NONE of them would be the original album that the song came from. Does any auto-tagging software have a checkbox option to "find original album"? I like all of my songs tagged from their original albums, so that if I sort songs by year, I don't get Frank Sinatra from 2003 because there was song Greatest Hits album released that year. I want my Sinatra from 1958 and my Eagles from 1975 and my Aerosmith from 1977. I don't want them all from 2008, you know? I manually "disassemble" all of my Greatest Hits CDs that I rip, tagging every individual song from it's original album, referring to wikipedia and Amazon.com if needed to find the album track number, release year, and album art if needed. Tedious, yes. But I like it that way. And with MP3Tag, I was able to do it on my laptop while watching TV with my wife in the evening and not totally waste the time.

[jptheripper]

Right there with ya on the "orignal date" concept, this is why i bailed on alot of software.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Musicbrainz.org is one of the engines available for MP3Tag as well.

My only problem with complete auto-tagging (as I've stated in all those other threads, too), is that you invariably end up with most songs being tagged with some silly compilation CD ("Music Hits of 2005" or "Now that's What I call music #52,379"). I once had MP3 software that had auto-tagging and it would pull up like 20 albums for one song, and NONE of them would be the original album that the song came from. Does any auto-tagging software have a checkbox option to "find original album"? I like all of my songs tagged from their original albums, so that if I sort songs by year, I don't get Frank Sinatra from 2003 because there was song Greatest Hits album released that year. I want my Sinatra from 1958 and my Eagles from 1975 and my Aerosmith from 1977. I don't want them all from 2008, you know? I manually "disassemble" all of my Greatest Hits CDs that I rip, tagging every individual song from it's original album, referring to wikipedia and Amazon.com if needed to find the album track number, release year, and album art if needed. Tedious, yes. But I like it that way. And with MP3Tag, I was able to do it on my laptop while watching TV with my wife in the evening and not totally waste the time.

I let jaikoz do the autotagging and then I go in and make sure it didn't do anything odd before I save. Sometimes (keyword sometimes) jaikoz will do strange things to the id3 tags. To fix the issue, I just go into mp3tag and resave. For whatever reason that fixes the weirdness. Jaikoz does a really good job on the dates too. No other soft I've used does it better.