Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

[GaryG45]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Paul,
Just my thoughts. I don't think I'd risk making a mistake and messing up some tags in my collection to remove some that I don't plan to use in the future. If the player doesn't display or use them, it is like they aren't there. Nothing says you have to do anything for these tags with your future rips. Two years from now if you decide you want to use one of the tags again, it will be very easy to use Foobar to find the tracks/albums that don't have them and add them with Mp3tag. Instead of taking the time to delete the tags you could be using that time to rip your new CDs. As I said, just some thoughts.

[garym]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Paul,
Just my thoughts. I don't think I'd risk making a mistake and messing up some tags in my collection to remove some that I don't plan to use in the future. If the player doesn't display or use them, it is like they aren't there. Nothing says you have to do anything for these tags with your future rips. Two years from now if you decide you want to use one of the tags again, it will be very easy to use Foobar to find the tracks/albums that don't have them and add them with Mp3tag. Instead of taking the time to delete the tags you could be using that time to rip your new CDs. As I said, just some thoughts.

Agree. Just because you have these tag fields in your prior rips, doesn't mean you have to add them to your new rips.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Hi Gary45/Garym,

I have noticed quite a lot of inconsistencies ('mistakes' - call them what you may!) within my earlier taggings. This will partly be because I was sitting at my PC for long stretches trying to get all of the work done in as short amount of time as possible. Hence, when your eyes/brain get tired the typos sneakily work their way in...

The bulk of these errors reside in the very fields I am considering eliminating.

Cheers.

[garym]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Hi Gary45/Garym,

I have noticed quite a lot of inconsistencies ('mistakes' - call them what you may!) within my earlier taggings. This will partly be because I was sitting at my PC for long stretches trying to get all of the work done in as short amount of time as possible. Hence, when your eyes/brain get tired the typos sneakily work their way in...

The bulk of these errors reside in the very fields I am considering eliminating.

Cheers.

When it comes to tagging, there is no "correct" answer. Lots of different approaches. And for me, it's a never ending job. I'm always tweaking things. Lately I've been thinking about reducing my genres to about 6 or 7 in total. Good thing is that tag tweaking can typically be done in a batch manner and is not nearly as effortful as ripping CDs.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

When it comes to tagging, there is no "correct" answer. Lots of different approaches. And for me, it's a never ending job. I'm always tweaking things. Lately I've been thinking about reducing my genres to about 6 or 7 in total. Good thing is that tag tweaking can typically be done in a batch manner and is not nearly as effortful as ripping CDs.

Hi Garym,

Yes, but what about when you have done stupid things like spelling mistakes; or, in the case of ARTIST SORT, made inadvertent variants such as:

Ellington, Duke, Orchestra

Orchestra, Duke Ellington

Ellington Orchestra, Duke

lol!

[garym]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Hi Garym,

Yes, but what about when you have done stupid things like spelling mistakes; or, in the case of ARTIST SORT, made inadvertent variants such as:

Ellington, Duke, Orchestra

Orchestra, Duke Ellington

Ellington Orchestra, Duke

lol!

I'm always finding errors in my tags. When I do, I quickly edit the ones I found on my main machine, then these changes get propagated to my backups at that location the next time I do backups. I just fixed an album yesterday that had a genre of "Pop/Rocki" (last "i" was a typo).

[garym]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

And you wouldn't believe the number of inconsistencies, like:

Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Neil Young And Crazy Horse

etc.

I have about 600 or 700 CDs left to re-rip to FLAC from my old days (where I ripped everything to mp3 before I knew any better, sadly). My goal after those are ripped is to go in and once and for all (or at least mostly) clean up things like that in all my tags. PerfectTunes will be very useful for this task.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

I'm always finding errors in my tags. When I do, I quickly edit the ones I found on my main machine, then these changes get propagated to my backups at that location the next time I do backups. I just fixed an album yesterday that had a genre of "Pop/Rocki" (last "i" was a typo).

Oh wow!, really? That's very interesting to hear as I always considered you to be something of an expert. I literally thought that I was the ONLY one who made cock-ups here.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

I have about 600 or 700 CDs left to re-rip to FLAC from my old days (where I ripped everything to mp3 before I knew any better, sadly). My goal after those are ripped is to go in and once and for all (or at least mostly) clean up things like that in all my tags. PerfectTunes will be very useful for this task.

600 or 700 discs LEFT! lol That's my entire library, period!

Similarly, I ripped everything to Windoze WMA format some 15 years ago. A complete waste of time and a fatal error on my part. I just went along with the default suggestions of my Win_XP PC.

[schmidj]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

I used to use the multi-encoder, to FLAC and m4a, the m4a for portable devices. I now just rip to FLAC. Then I use TuneFusion to semi-automatically make the m4a's (I still run it manually not automatically.) The advantages of not using the multi-encoder: The biggest one is when I'd see an error (usually in the metadata 30 seconds after the rip ended, or even while it is still ripping!!!) with the multi-encoder I'd have to fix the metadata in two places. When using TuneFUSION, if I fix it in the FLAC copy, the next time I run TuneFUSION, it is good in the m4a copy. Also (and this may have been dealt with in version 17 of the ripper) it did not warn you if you were going to overwrite a file with the multi-encoder, like it does when ripping to a single format.

There are a couple of issues you may have with TuneFUSION: If you manually delete a directory entry in the source library, and the destination library entry has non-audio files (like folder.jpg) only the audio files get automatically deleted (if you have chosen the option to delete files no longer in the source). You will be left with the old directory containing folder.jpg and no audio files. And finding those folders in Windows is next to impossible. They don't do a lot of harm, but cause storage issues and possibly other problems on portable devices. The only solution I have found is to erase the entire destination directory and let TuneFusion create it from scratch. Time consuming for my large library, but it does work. This issue typically comes up for me when I'm re-ripping some of the 700+ CDs that are left from when I originally ripped to m4a only and now rerip to FLAC. Quite often the new metadata I enter for the artist or title (or both) is different than the old m4a copy had. I manually delete the old m4a copy from my old master library when I rerip the CD to FLAC, but I depend on TuneFUSION to delete the copy in the folder I use for my portable devices. And it leaves this "debris" behind there if the filenames (or directory name) are different for the replacement rip.

The other issue, and this problem may be rather unique to me, is, as of yet, I've been unable to make the sync via wifi to my Android phone work. It runs for a few entries, then hangs and times out and keeps crashing and restarting. A lot of troubleshooting has yet to come up with a solution. But if I take the SDXC card out of the phone, plug it into a USB adapter and set up a sync to the MUSIC directory on the SD card via the USB path, it runs without a hiccup.

But I'd use the TuneFusion method rather than the multi-encoder, just because it cuts the time fixing metadata typos etc. in half.

And, yes, no matter how careful I am, my metadata is riddled with errors and inconsistencies. Metadata is the bane of my life. Some day, after I get those last few hundred CDs reripped, I'll try using Perfectunes to clean it up.

Right now I've used perfectunes to find duplicates, but it seems to work a little too well, it flags some cover versions as dupes. This may be me not reading the instructions, but I don't see how to easily differentiate between complete duplicate CD rips (which I want to remove) and a duplicate which, for instance is in the original release album, and then is also on a "best of", or various artist album, where I want it to remain.

[garym]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Oh wow!, really? That's very interesting to hear as I always considered you to be something of an expert. I literally thought that I was the ONLY one who made cock-ups here.

I'd call it experience--sometimes earned the hard way--rather than expertise.

[garym]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Metadata is the bane of my life.

Yep, I feel your pain schmidj. I think all of us generally tell the same story. New folks at this forum, just starting the ripping journey, think the hard part is the actual bit perfect ripping. Turns out that's the mechanical part. Metadata....that's the hard part.

Good point about TuneFusion and orphan folders. In my case, for the mp3 files I create for my iThings, I embed a smaller album art into each file, so there are no files other than audio in the folders.

[mville]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

I tried out your kind advice of testing the water with a few CDs and removing the SORT tags made zero difference (as far as I could tell). I do think I will remove the tags in all honestly. There is definitely someone on here (it may be Mville) who does not use any SORT tags whatsoever.?)

Definitely NOT me. I use all available sort tags and I do not consider them extraneous data , rather for me, they are essential

[GaryG45]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Hi Gary45/Garym,

I have noticed quite a lot of inconsistencies ('mistakes' - call them what you may!) within my earlier taggings. This will partly be because I was sitting at my PC for long stretches trying to get all of the work done in as short amount of time as possible. Hence, when your eyes/brain get tired the typos sneakily work their way in...

The bulk of these errors reside in the very fields I am considering eliminating.

Cheers.

I think most of us have inconsistencies that we find and correct for the tags we are using. For the tags that you want to delete as long as you aren't displaying or using them, you won't see them so do the inconsistencies matter? My concern is if in the future you want to start using one of the sort tags again, you'll just have to correct the inconsistencies and not reenter the data for all of your files. I can also understand your desire to get rid of what you're not using. Just remember to have one or two backups before you start the deletions.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Definitely NOT me. I use all available sort tags and I do not consider them extraneous data , rather for me, they are essential

Hi Mville,

OK, lol - maybe it's Oggy then!?

Paul