Posted by Technobarbarian on 01/03/06 04:46

"dadiOH" <dadiOH@wherever.com> wrote in message
news:sLkuf.5014$7f7.1361@trnddc08...
> RyeTronics wrote:
>> I'm trying to modify a TON of ID3 tags using this freeware program ID3
>> TagIT. I'm having difficulty figuring out how to customize my set of
>> parameters to make bulk changes (i'm talking 500 files at once).
>>
>> Here is an example of a file name I'm attemping to pull the tags
>> from...
>>
>> 2005-08-17 Bob Green -Employee Assistance With Shipping Costs.mp3
>>
>> So from there I want to make,,,
>>
>> "Bob Green" the Album Tag.
>> "Employee Assistance With Shipping Costs" the Title Tag.
>> "2005-08-17" the Year Tag.
>>
>> I want to set up some parameters to apply this to every file in my
>> list, which are structured identically.
>>
>> I understand that it's possible to do this with this program, but I
>> haven't had any luck finding any tutorials or even a help file on how
>> to do this. I've played around with the ID3 Funcitons / Filename - >
>> Tag Ver.2 menu function, but have come up empty so far.
>>
>> Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!
>
> I don't use the program but I'd think you'd have problems with most any
> tagger. The problem is in the filename...it has no (useful) delimiters.
> If, instead of...
> 2005-08-17 Bob Green -Employee Assistance With Shipping Costs.mp3
> it was...
> 2005-08-17 - Bob Green - Employee Assistance With Shipping Costs.mp3
> It would be easier. The differences are:
>
> 1. dash and leading space added before "Bob"
> 2. leading space inserted after dash before "Employee".
>
> Now a <space><dash><space> can be used to separate filename components
> (you could use any delimeter, just has to be consistent and not normally
> used as part of the filename text).
>
> Another problem is your desire to use "2005-08-17" as the year
> field....it isn't a year, it's a date. Year has four digits. However,
> you could stick your date into the comment field.
>
> Assuming your filenames were properly delimited and that the comment
> field was OK for the date you want to include, the id3tagit template
> would be...
> <B> - <T> - <C>
>
> Maybe id3tagit can do what you want without changing your file names.
> Dunno, don't use it, doubt it can. If not, maybe there is another. I
> doubt that too. IMO, what you need initially is a file renamer...one
> that lets you insert/remove characters according to their position in
> the name. Magic FIle Renamer is good, should do what you need IIRC.
> http://www.finebytes.com/

MP3Tag will handle all of this just fine without the extra step; but,
you're right, I don't use the year tag and missed that it's only a 4 digit
field. As you note his date tag could be put in the comments field. MP3Tag
could also strip out the year and put that in the year field. In one pass
with the Filename - Tag tool you could use the parameter %year%-%dummy%
%album% -%title%. On another pass you could use %comment% %dummy% -%dummy%.
This would give you the year in the year field and the whole date in the
comments field. Of course a lot of variations on this are possible. As long
as the file names are consistent you can write a parameter to use them for
tagging. I often get MP3s with three (or four) digit track numbers. For
example the first track on the first CD of a two disc set will sometimes be
written 101. I get a two digit track number by writting the parameter
1%track%.

TB

[Back to original message]