Cd to MP3 - variuos artists Tags

Fairwinds

When converting a various Artists CD to MP3 ( yes I have lots of now music cd's), does anybody know if its possible to get the artist to be listed as the actual artist rather than various - I am using Nero and accessing the internet database.

The tracks always get listed like :

Track
Queen/Bohemian Rap

Artist
Various

I then have to manually go through each track using MP3 tag editor and adjust.

Can't help thinking there must be an easier way

DrSmutt

have you tried ripping with windows media player

Fairwinds

I have never got Windows media to work before, but persevered with it and it does the trick.

impy78

I use windows media player (and also evil i-tunes, which I find the easier to use, although it isn't really rocket science in either case!)

amcluesent

>Can't help thinking there must be an easier way<

If the track title is consistently artist/song, them mp3tag can split the name apart and write the artist and title tags. With this program I very, very rarely have to resort to manually editing tags.

Fairwinds

I've been using mptag, but manaully cuuting and pasting each track - how do you split the tracks en masse

amcluesent

>how do you split the tracks<

A simple example, suppose all the filenames are like -

Track # artist-song.mp3, i.e "9 Misty In Roots-Mankind.mp3"

Load all the tracks into mp3tag
CTRL-A to select all
Convert->Filename - Tag (or ALT-2)
Then type in the format string "%track% %artist%-%title%" and click OK

The filename for each track will be read and split up using pattern you supply, to write the tags. Play about with the pattern to get it to match the filenames.

Then ALT-1 to write the filenames with pattern of your choice, I always use "$num(%track%,2) - %title%"

Fairwinds

So if this is the file name
Various Artists - Automatic - Monster.mp3

and this is the title - Automatic - Monster

Artist = Various Artists

How would I get the Astist to be Automatic
and the title to be Monster

Thanks for the help by the way - never really looked into the functionality of MP3tag - theres more to it than meets the eye

blisteringblue

I have just retagged my whole mp3 collection (almost 12000) tracks using a product called media monkey.

It is 100% free and is great for re-organising your mp3 collection. It interogates via the amazon database and allows you to retag you track listing automatically from it. It will also bring the album art over too.

It also works with iPods so if you are fed up with iTunes then this is a great alternative.

When dealing with Various Artists what I tend to do is record 2 artists fields as follows :

Album Artist : Various Artists
Artist : Actual Artist Singing

This way the album still lists in your various artists field so you know what are compilations, but the track will also appear under the Actual Artists listing too.

Happy Days :j