How to use MM to write tags, gold n00b needs help

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hfam
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Oct 13, 2019 7:49 pm

How to use MM to write tags, gold n00b needs help

Post by hfam »

Hey all,

To be frank, I'm overwhelmed by MMs functions, so I'm hoping I can get a kind soul or a few to point me in the right direction to get specifics. Any help would be appreciated.

Problem:. Using Kodi on a Vero4K and an Xbox. Either instance is used to serve up my mp3s to my living room home theatre from a Windows share. When Kodi wants to index my music into it's library, like any other similar software, it indexes it using the tags (and album art in some cases?) within the mp3 files. What I wind up with is a jumbled mess with a large portion showing up as "Various Artists" and 1000s of "track1.mp3, etc" in a folder called "Unknown Album". You get the picture. The folder structure becomes mostly meaningless.

That said, I purchased a Gold lifetime license back in 2013 as someone told me MM would be a good tool to get these tags updated correctly. Family and career took priority, and here I am 6 years later wanting to tackle this. MM has so many functions, but I really want to use it to just edit/update my massive mp3 collection tags so they can be used in other streaming systems and be cataloged correctly and the library is accurate.

I have an immense mp3 library that goes way back, many of these files have missing tags, or generic tags (track1, etc). These are sorted into folders:.

\Music
--\Artist
---\Album
----\disk1 (if there are multiple disks, i.e. a box set)

..and the tracks are of course in their album folder.

(Sorry for the novel, wanted to be clear)

Questions:

Can I use MM to achieve this goal?

Is there a place which documents this specific need and how to do this, or can I get pointed to where or how to begin? The online documentation is great but I don't even know where to start. It appears MM is far more than I want from it, but also understand that MM is supposed to achieve my goal very well. I just can't find documentation that specifically referral to the steps I need to take or even get started.

Again, I'm so sorry for the long post, just trying to be clear in hopes of a bit of help to get me started in the right direction.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide, I sure appreciate any you have to offer.
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: How to use MM to write tags, gold n00b needs help

Post by Lowlander »

To organize files (tags need to be correct): https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index. ... enames/4.0

For tagging you can use the Discogs Tagger to help out: https://www.mediamonkey.com/broken-auto-tag.htm?l=en, do manual tagging or use the folder/filename to tag the files: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index. ... lename/4.0
NoPlayBack
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Sep 09, 2019 6:57 am

Re: How to use MM to write tags, gold n00b needs help

Post by NoPlayBack »

I did setup my auto organize to use this destination:

G:\Media\Music\<Album Interpret>\<Album>\<Song#:2> <Titel>

Now, what's funny: Checking with MP3Tag i have recognized that most of my tracks do not have Album-Interpret populated, only Interpret is populated. Nevertheless, the files are organized into a folder... one example is

G:\Media\Music\Foreigner\The Definitive\00 Cold As Ice.mp3

(... and yes, tracknumber is also missing ;-))

So, how come i have this behaviour?
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: How to use MM to write tags, gold n00b needs help

Post by Lowlander »

Album Artist can get auto-assigned in MediaMonkey, but won't be saved to the tags until the Properties are edited. Do the files have Track# assigned?
Peke
Posts: 17457
Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2003 7:21 pm
Location: Earth
Contact:

Re: How to use MM to write tags, gold n00b needs help

Post by Peke »

Hi,
I guess you should first Scann all your folder into MMW library (File -> Add/Rescan Files) and then use your collections (Music/Classicals) -> Location Tree node and do an Auto Tag From Filename.

HINT: Based on your Last MSG it looks that tag Mask "<Artist>\<Album>\<Track#:2> <Title>" should work to populate missing info.
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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NoPlayBack
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Sep 09, 2019 6:57 am

Re: How to use MM to write tags, gold n00b needs help

Post by NoPlayBack »

Thanks for the replies and answer... my question is: Why are the tracks, where <Album-Interpret> is empty, stored in the directory with <Album-Interpret> in the file name? Does MM use <Interpret> when <Album-Interpret> is empty?
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: How to use MM to write tags, gold n00b needs help

Post by Lowlander »

No, if MediaMonkey has no Album Artist value it won't use Artist when using Auto-Organize (Files). Are you sure Album Artist is unknown in MediaMonkey itself?
NoPlayBack
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Sep 09, 2019 6:57 am

Re: How to use MM to write tags, gold n00b needs help

Post by NoPlayBack »

Now we are getting closer: In the properties of that file, both, the Artist and the Album-Artist are populated with the same value.
So from where does MM fetch the data for Album-Artist?

In MP3Tag the Album-Artist is shown as blank. Also in properties of windows-fileexplorer that field is shown as blank.
I did not import the data from iTunes.... the only thing was to let MM scan the folder where all my tracks are stored, and the tracks were stored in appropriate folderstructure... but nowhere did i ask MM to interpret file- or folder-name in order to populate fields in database or in tags.
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: How to use MM to write tags, gold n00b needs help

Post by Lowlander »

That's what I said. When Artist and Album is known MediaMonkey will auto-fill Album Artist with Artist. This isn't saved to the tags till you edit any of the Properties of the file, thus MP3Tag doesn't see it. However as MediaMonkey uses it's own info it will be used with Auto-Organize (Files).
NoPlayBack
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Sep 09, 2019 6:57 am

Re: How to use MM to write tags, gold n00b needs help

Post by NoPlayBack »

Great, thanks. Now i understand what MM is doing, and the logic build in makes sense.

Is there somewhere a knowledgebase in the internet where i could search for behaviours like that (in case similar questions like that pop up), or has my approach, to use the forum, been the only chance?
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