Share Experience with Various Music Tagging Software

moonmoon · Post by **moonmoon** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 3:30 am

Thanks for sharing.

Aphex_Twin77 · Post by **Aphex_Twin77** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 9:36 am

Mahtee wrote:I would like to jump in and thank you all for the tagging discussion. I am also surprised this isn't a larger topic. I would very much look forward to any reviews of tagging software, as any other credible information seems to be lacking.
So- if I only want to shell $ out for one product, do you recommend Tagrunner or Jaikoz?

Hi Mahtee,

the problem is that, until now, I haven't found any one complete solution for tagging untagged mp3s as each has it's advantages and disadvantages. The best software depends on the individual users habits and expectations . That is, the type of music you have, the information already available in your tags, what tags you want to be filled and how automated you want the software to be.
I have a very large variety of music with a lot of stuff that isn't mainstream. So, at the moment I put my mp3s through Tagrunner 1st, then I use MusicBrainz Picard on the remaining files and finally FixTunes on the last files. Using this method I have about an 90% success rate.
That is approx. 70% tagged with Tagrunner a further 15% with Picard and then another 5% with Fixtunes.

Anyway to get back to your question.
For me TagRunner is more automated than Jaikoz because when you set it up to only find tags that very closely match the current information it picks the best match and is usually very accurate. Jaikoz normally suggests several different possibilities and you have to choose which one you prefer manually. Some people prefer this option, for example if it appears on several different compilations you can choose which one to use for tagging. TagRunner looks up lyrics, Jaikoz doesn't, this is unimportant to me but is important for other users.
TagRunner has several different sources so it tags more files with album covers than Jaikoz. Tagrunner generally has more success with older muisc from the 60's and 70's because Jaikoz uses a the musicbrainz database which is based on information which is submitted by the users, who seem to be more into modern music.
TagRunner does it's search based on the Artist and Title so you have lots of file with unknown artist or title it's better to use Jaikoz because when it submits it to the Musicbrainz server and acoustical fingerprint from a section of the file if produced and it can try guess what it is. It also identifies the file using the IPMusic database of acoustical fingerprints.
Jaikoz is better for finding rare or not very popular music than Tagrunner.

This has been my general experience with these two programs. Someone else might have a different opinion depending on which music type they have tried to tag and their tagging behavior.

So my verdict is that if want the most success for the least money you should buy TagRunner and download a free copy of the latest Picard Music. First run the files through TagRunner and then the remaining untagged files through Picard. From what I can see the results from Jaicoz are not much better than Picard except for it can identify tracks with no names and give you other suggestions for tracks that have a different acoustical fingerprint than the current information in the tag.

Aphex_Twin77 · Post by **Aphex_Twin77** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 9:47 am

Here's a handy tool for when you have a music file and you have no idea what it is.
http://www.wildbits.com/tunatic/
You play the music and this software listens to it and compares it to a database of acoustical fingerprints and suggests what song it is.
It's a bit hit and miss but it's an extra help.

Unfortunately you can only do one track at a time and it only tells you the artist and title. You have to tag your file then manually. It would be sweet if someone would produce a software that could use this to automatically tag files

Aphex_Twin77 · Post by **Aphex_Twin77** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:00 am

Just to let you know the software that I recommended earlier in the thread "Music Library" appears to no longer support CDDB and Gracenote searching for individual files. Some users have posted on their forum and sent emails to support but there has been no official responce

This sucks because it was the only software that I found where I could search for one file from a CD in the CDDB database. Any other software that I have tried you must have every track on th CD before you can submit a search to CCDB (Gracenote.)
Of course if you do a search for a software that supports CDDB lookup it doesn't say if it does single files or just the whole CD. You need to download it and try it before you know

I would really, really appreciate it if someone out there could suggest something that performs this type of search. It's OK if I have to manually search one file at a time but an automated search of a batch of files would be even better

Aphex_Twin77 · Post by **Aphex_Twin77** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:52 am

Sometimes the answer is staring you directly in the face

Just did another search and found this http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?postid=2301505

I might be missing for a few days now that I need to run a few 1000 files through Winamp :p

DazB · Post by **DazB** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:41 am

Hi,

It is unfortunate that you currently have to use multiple programs to tag your files. There is however a light of hope, but it would be inappropriate to mention the program developer here.

It is perfectly possible to add the kind of functionality described above to MediaMonkey, but as it is limited to a set number of tags, you would have to use either Custom tags or modify the database.

Daz

Aphex_Twin77 · Post by **Aphex_Twin77** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:46 pm

DazB wrote:Hi,

It is unfortunate that you currently have to use multiple programs to tag your files. There is however a light of hope, but it would be inappropriate to mention the program developer here.

It is perfectly possible to add the kind of functionality described above to MediaMonkey, but as it is limited to a set number of tags, you would have to use either Custom tags or modify the database.

Daz

Cheers Daz, that all sounds a bit complicated

for a script novice like me.

In reference to the ray of light maybe I should read the forum rules but if it's not generally accepted to add links to competitor products on here the mods can gladly send me a PM or delete any links. I'm just looking for a program(s) to complete my tags so I can enjoy using MM even more. However, I would understand the developers concerns that this thread might result in other users converting to alternative music management software.

Aphex_Twin77 · Post by **Aphex_Twin77** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:52 pm

Another popular program is Magic-MP3 tagger. I used it and didn't like it because it tries to re-organise your music and it didn't seem to have anymore success than MusicBrains, which is free.

However, there is something very interesting in "development".
http://www.magic-tagger.com/eng/index.php

sallyxi · Post by **sallyxi** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:36 am

but i thought all of players have some seemly devices which can automaticly tag the songs. as for mine,it does have this fuction.

phanmo · Post by **phanmo** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:51 am

I've always used Mp3 Tag/Studio from Magnus Brading Software: http://www.magnusbrading.com/mp3ts/ . You can do pretty much anything with it including tagging from a text file or even an HTML list, taging from a combination of folder structure and filename etc etc. You can make your own macros and case fix rules, filters, and string replacement settings. It's pretty easy to use and there's an excellent help file. Best of all, it's free(but it's nice to donate a little). I've only done album art for a little while and have only used MM3 for it so I don't know if it supports art or not but for everything else I find that it's the best out there. The only thing is that I've noticed a few bugs in the right-click menu since I've switched over to Vista, but since using Vista, bugs have become a fact of life.

spacefish · Post by **spacefish** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:37 am

Ack. This forum really needs a report spam button.

nohitter151 · Post by **nohitter151** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:20 pm

spacefish wrote:Ack. This forum really needs a report spam button.

Best you can do for now is to PM a moderator and ask them to remove it (and link to the thread). I'm sure they'll be happy to remove it for you!

spacefish · Post by **spacefish** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:25 pm

nohitter151 wrote:
spacefish wrote:Ack. This forum really needs a report spam button.
Best you can do for now is to PM a moderator and ask them to remove it (and link to the thread). I'm sure they'll be happy to remove it for you!

Oh, I'm far too lazy for that!

I just noticed that this forum gets quite a bit of spam as opposed to others I frequent. It would be nice if there was a report post button.

Post by **jiri** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 6:29 am

I removed the spam.

I just noticed that this forum gets quite a bit of spam as opposed to others I frequent. It would be nice if there was a report post button.

We try to remove spam, there shouldn't remain any for longer than a couple of hours. If it does, please PM a moderator.

Jiri

Nonreality · Post by **Nonreality** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 1:54 am

Give mp3tag a try. I use it quite a bit and really like it. It uses Amazon both here in the states and in Denmark (great for imports), freedb and discogs. It will tag and download album art and you can manually edit on the fly. Best thing is that it's free. Donations are welcome I think.

You can also auto number with choices and rename the files from tag info.
http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

Share Experience with Various Music Tagging Software

Most versatile(in my opinion)