Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

[TonyPf]

I have all my WAV files for my music collection on my hard drive in the following folder format: Z:\Music\<Artist>\<Album>\<Songs>

Is there a way for the "Edit ID-Tag for Multiple Files" window to iterate through all my folders and sub folders starting from my "Z:\Music" folder and set the ID-Tags for my WAV files so when I am ready to convert them to FLAC, they'll be already populated and should carry over to the FLAC file?

What I was successfully able to do for one folder as a test, is to select all the song titles in a folder and set the "Album", "Year", "Genre", "Album Artist" and "Album Art" for all those files by entering the values once in the fields on the form, and when I clicked the "OK" button, it set them for ALL the files in that folder that were selected. However, the "Title" did not get set as that I was hoping would be taken from the file name of the .WAV file, but it didn't.

So how can I get the "Title" to populate as well?

But the bigger question is, can this program iterate through all my folders/sub-folders and set the ID-Tags automatically by looking up the values from the Internet, and how?

[Spoon]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

Look at Tag From Filename:

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-utility.htm

[TonyPf]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

I downloaded the EXE and ran the installation. It completed. So now what do I do? No icon was created. No instructions. I'm at a loss here as to my next steps on how to use it. :-(

[Spoon]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

Choose the encoder as [Tag From Filename] then click ? to get help on it.

[TonyPf]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

Choose the encoder as [Tag From Filename] then click ? to get help on it.

Where exactly do I do this from? I don't see any option like this from the "dbpoweramp Control Center" screen.

Are there any step by step instructions for this? I am really struggling trying to find any detailed step by step instructions for any of this.

Also, with regards to my initial question, do you have answer for this:

Can this program iterate through all my folders/sub-folders and set the ID-Tags automatically by looking up the values from the Internet, and how?

[Spoon]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

It will not tag from the internet, it will tag from the file and folder name. As a test select one file >> right click >> Convert To

Choose the encoder as 'Tag From Filename' and click the '?' button in the encoder section to view the tag from filename help. It will guide you the rest of the way.

[TonyPf]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

It will not tag from the internet, it will tag from the file and folder name. As a test select one file >> right click >> Convert To

Choose the encoder as 'Tag From Filename' and click the '?' button in the encoder section to view the tag from filename help. It will guide you the rest of the way.

Unfortunately I don't see any options like that. Is this within the "dBpoweramp Batch Converter" form where you select the songs within a folder? Because the only options I get if I right-click are: Check All/Uncheck All/Invert Selection/Edit ID Tags/Explore To File Location

Can you send a screen shot of where this is?

[GBrown]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

Unfortunately I don't see any options like that. Is this within the "dBpoweramp Batch Converter" form where you select the songs within a folder? Because the only options I get if I right-click are: Check All/Uncheck All/Invert Selection/Edit ID Tags/Explore To File Location

Can you send a screen shot of where this is?

You can use the Music Converter or Batch Converter programs from the dBpoweramp Control Center window. Once you have selected the files, you will get a popup window for the settings to be used. In the very top drop-down list, you can select this [Tag From Filename] option, then you will need to confirm how you want the tags to be recognized in the box below that. In your case it appears it is [artist]\[album]\[title].

[TonyPf]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

Thank you GBrown, that seemed to do it. I didn't realize I needed to change the "Encoding" drop down from FLAC to "[Tag From Filename]" as shown in my screen shot attached.

(Sorry, I could not get the "Inline" option to work to display the image directly in this post)

With regards to this, if I wanted to have it convert the WAV file directly to FLAC while also adding the Tags to each FLAC file, am I not able to do this in one step from this form, since I am now changing the Encoding option from "FLAC" to "[Tag From Filename]", to where this would be a 2-step process: 1st, set the Tags and then 2nd, convert to FLAC?

I am also not able to get it to update a single track's Tag Information. Using the "[Tag From Filename]", it incorrectly identified the Artist and Song Title from one of the tracks, and I right-clicked on the file from the list of songs and selected "Edit ID Tags" and then went in and manually set the Artist, Title and Album Artist, clicked the OK button, and the one song I just updated, did not reflect my changes I made. What am I doing wrong?

One more Tag that is not updating is, "Album Artist". The "Contributing Artist" is being set correctly from the folder path, but not the "Album Artist". How can that be set? My folder structure is: G:\Music_WAV\<Artist>\<Album>\<Songs>

[GBrown]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

One more Tag that is not updating is, "Album Artist". The "Contributing Artist" is being set correctly from the folder path, but not the "Album Artist". How can that be set? My folder structure is: G:\Music_WAV\<Artist>\<Album>\<Songs>

The question depends on what you have indicated here:
G:\Music_WAV\<Artist>\<Album>\<Songs>

Is <artist> actually <albumartist> in this case? If so then make that change. If not, where does the information come from?

Regarding converting to FLAC and converting the tags from filename in one process, you can try using the Multi-Encoder option. This is selected in the same place where you first chose the [Tag From Filename]. Once you confirm, a new window opens and allows you to choose multiple encoders. BUT I am not sure if the order can ensure the tags are first added to the original WAV file, prior to then converting these with those tags into FLAC. You'll have to try it yourself.

[TonyPf]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

The question depends on what you have indicated here:
G:\Music_WAV\<Artist>\<Album>\<Songs>

Is <artist> actually <albumartist> in this case? If so then make that change. If not, where does the information come from?

This would be the Album Artist. So what exactly is the difference in the tags <artist> vs <albumartist>? What about "Contributing Artists"? What is that tag? Essentially, I'd want "Contributing Artists" to be at least the same as the Album Artist. I am assuming "Contributing Artists" is a tag that can hold multiple artists for each song?

[TonyPf]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

So I tried changing the "Tag Recognition" to: [albumartist]\[album]\[track] [title]

However, the "Album Artist" is still blank for all the WAV files. An example of a song path that is blank is: G:\Music_WAV\10,000 Maniacs\Hope Chest- The Fredonia Recordings 1982&*8211;1983\01 Planned Obsolescence.wav

Did I not code the "Tag Recognition" correctly? If I replace "[albumartist]" with "[artist]" it picks up "10,000 Maniacs" just fine.

[GBrown]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

This would be the Album Artist. So what exactly is the difference in the tags <artist> vs <albumartist>? What about "Contributing Artists"? What is that tag? Essentially, I'd want "Contributing Artists" to be at least the same as the Album Artist. I am assuming "Contributing Artists" is a tag that can hold multiple artists for each song?

Sorry for the poor advice, dBpoweramp uses a space in the Album Artist field, so it should be <Album Artist> in this case.

The Album Artist is the performer for the entire Album. In cases for a Compilation, this is traditionally set to Various Artists, but your needs may suggest otherwise.

The Artist field is the performer for each individual track, regardless of the Album Artist or Album. For a Compilation every track could in fact have a different Artist. But even on an Album by a single Album Artist, you may have one or more tracks performed by a different Artist, or a combination of Artists. (BTW - Contributing Artist is the term Windows uses for the Artist field, almost all other software simply refers to this same field as Artist)

Note that it is the combination of the Album Artist and Album tags that is used by most players to differentiate between Albums of the same name. Greatest Hits is a common one for example.

[TonyPf]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

Regarding converting to FLAC and converting the tags from filename in one process, you can try using the Multi-Encoder option. This is selected in the same place where you first chose the [Tag From Filename]. Once you confirm, a new window opens and allows you to choose multiple encoders. BUT I am not sure if the order can ensure the tags are first added to the original WAV file, prior to then converting these with those tags into FLAC. You'll have to try it yourself.

I set this up for 3 parts:
1. [Tag From Filename] - where this will set the artist and this is done by: [artist]\[album]\[track] [title]
2. [Tag From Filename] - where this will set the album artist and this is done by: [album artist]\[album]\[track] [title]
3. FLAC - where this will convert the WAV file to FLAC.

With regards to *3, how can I specify a specific Folder to start in, and then create the FLAC files in folders starting with only the Artist's name?
For example, my source location is: G:\Music_WAV\<Artist>\<Album>\<Songs>
I want the FLAC files to be created in the following folder structure: G:\Music_FLAC\<Artist>\<Album>\<Songs>

However, from all the options I have available to choose from in the FLAC "Output To" drop down list box, which I have tried all the possible options, when it converts them to FLAC they are being placed in the following structure: G:\Music_FLAC\Music_WAV\<Artist>\<Album>\<Songs>

From what I can tell, it's taking the source folder "Music_WAV" and starting with that in the "Music_FLAC" folder and creating the subfolders.

[TonyPf]

Re: Batch Converter - Edit ID Tags how to autoset all folders and subfolders

My folder structure is: G:\Music_WAV\<Artist>\<Album>\<Songs>
Example of a song path and my song file naming convention: G:\Music_WAV\10,000 Maniacs\In My Tribe\02 Hey Jack Kerouac.wav

Looks like this Tag Recognition is not working to get the Album Artist property set for the WAV file: \[Album artist]\[album]\[track] [title]

However, this will work for the Artist, or Contributing Artists (Windows): \[artist]\[album]\[track] [title].

What is wrong with the "Album Artist" tag? Why can't I get it to set that property?