Re-naming Those Pesky WMA Files [Archive]

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Jason Dunn

06-19-2003, 12:36 AM

Ok, I need some help here. I've switched over from my very retro use of Auduigrabber and the XING MP3 encoder to Windows Media Player 9 and VBR WMA files. Windows Media Player has really evolved as a digital audio tool, and I'm finally comfortable using it all the time now. Here's my problem: while WMP9 is fantastic for getting the right CD metadata (album name, artist, track title, etc), it's not so good about putting the file names just the way I want them. I have thousands and thousands of MP3s from my 500+ CD collection that are in a very specific file name format: (Artist) - Song title.mp3. Yes, I'm Mr. "Type A" Personality, because I want all my songs to be in the same format. I found a wonderful program by the name of <a href="http://www.zortam.com/">Zortam ID3 Tag Editor</a> that will automatically re-name the file based on the meta-tag information, and vice-versa. The problem? It doesn't work with WMA files and the author has no plans to add WMA support! :evil:<br /><br />So here's the request - does anyone know of any application that would allow me to do this quickly and easily? Any developer out there want to hack together a .NET app for me? :wink: It just drives me insane that Microsoft wouldn't allow for custom file naming schemes. They come very close, but I can't do the above naming format (unless I'm missing something).

R K

06-19-2003, 12:48 AM

Tell me if this helps.

http://download.com.com/3000-2167-10164030.html?tag=lst-0-1

Songs-DB allows you to arrange your own naming schemes.
For example, you can make it like...

( %A ) - %N .MP3
for album for song name

karen

06-19-2003, 12:49 AM

Another annoying thing - at least I can't find resolution -- is that the year associated with an album is not editable. So my "Best of [insert your favourite 70's band]" gets categorized as a 2003 album. So autoplaylists are wrong, etc. I guess I'm thinking of the 70's as a genre more than a publication date. But WHY can't I just change the date in the tags?

K

monkeymaster

06-19-2003, 12:52 AM

As far as I know, MediaJukebox www.mediajukebox.com , can do just about anything with tags. The new version, MediaCenter9, does even more. I just tried it on my copy and it seems to work just fine. It's well worth the money if you have a large collection.

R K

06-19-2003, 12:53 AM

The registered version of the program above allows you to change the tag data on the WMAs. You can do it with the shareware version as well if you create a new field and give it the same name as the one that already exists. This doesn't work with all fields though.

klinux

06-19-2003, 01:04 AM

I am sorry for the possibly non sequitur response but, wait Apple releases iTunes for Windows? I very much like the Mac iTunes which is extremely clean and intuitive.

Also, I have just started a project to encode my CDs using AAC, which IMO sounds just as good if not better than WMA v9 VBR if not better. (And of course, both AAC and WMA VBR sound much better than MP3.)

Jason Dunn

06-19-2003, 01:05 AM

Another annoying thing - at least I can't find resolution -- is that the year associated with an album is not editable.

You're right! How very odd - why isn't that data like any other meta data...?

nz0eBoy

06-19-2003, 01:19 AM

I may be missing something from your post, but you can do custom naming.
Tools>Options>Copy Music> File Name from here you can move the order up and down and selct what you want in the title, I have mine set to Artist and Song Title and the separator set to Dash (-).

I guesss I like my files named the same as yours.

HTH

Dean

aboy

06-19-2003, 01:30 AM

Hi, musicmatch jukebox allows you to do this within
it's playlist editor. You can either retag the file based
on it's filename, or rename the file based upon the
tags. It works for both mp3s and wmas that I know of
(I use this feature a lot). So, just read in all the files into
the library of musicmatch and then selcct them all, then
edit the tag and look for these options.

Jason Dunn

06-19-2003, 02:42 AM

I may be missing something from your post, but you can do custom naming.

I can do the dash, but I can't do parenthesis or have a space like this:

(Artist) - Song.wma

WMP9 comes close, but no cigar, which is what is REALLY frustrating. :evil:

Jason Dunn

06-19-2003, 02:43 AM

Songs-DB allows you to arrange your own naming schemes.
For example, you can make it like...

This is PERFECT! It's free, it's fast, and it works well over WiFi accessing my network drive. Excellent find - thank you! :way to go:

Jason Dunn

06-19-2003, 02:47 AM

I am sorry for the possibly non sequitur response but, wait Apple releases iTunes for Windows? I very much like the Mac iTunes which is extremely clean and intuitive.

The problem isn't the player, the problem is getting the files into exactly the right naming format the soothes my Type A personality. I like things being the same. :-)

rapster

06-19-2003, 07:51 AM

I can highly recommend eMusic Tag Editor, to be found at:

www.abyssaudio.com

It handles not only MP3 (ID3v1.1, ID3v2.4, VBR) and WMA (WMV, ASF), but also OGG, VQF, AAC, Monkey's Audio, and MPEG+.

AND...it renames files based on tag info!
==
Randy

Simone Ue

06-19-2003, 10:10 AM

Have a look at

http://www.albert.nu/common.asp?sub=programs/default.asp?sub=renamer/main.htm

not sure whether it handels wma correctly, but works great on mp3.

ericdo

06-19-2003, 02:50 PM

I use Abander (http://www.softartstudio.com/tagcontrol). Works great with WMAs, and a host of others

Timothy Huber

06-19-2003, 03:51 PM

I love this program...

I can highly recommend eMusic Tag Editor, to be found at:

www.abyssaudio.com

It handles not only MP3 (ID3v1.1, ID3v2.4, VBR) and WMA (WMV, ASF), but also OGG, VQF, AAC, Monkey's Audio, and MPEG+.

AND...it renames files based on tag info!
==
Randy

Jason Dunn

06-19-2003, 04:36 PM

Thanks for all the great tips guys! I knew someone would have the answer for me. :-)

danmanmayer

06-19-2003, 04:51 PM

you truely are a geeky one aren't you... hehe i would help but i just name all my mp3's xmp3num******.mp3 with a higher number moving up in the stars.... Then my music is always random cause i can't pick out songs i like. Kidding good luck to you.

karen

06-19-2003, 05:47 PM

Another annoying thing - at least I can't find resolution -- is that the year associated with an album is not editable.

You're right! How very odd - why isn't that data like any other meta data...?

Oooohhh...I love it when you talk techie in my specialization.
:oops:
K

Jason Dunn

06-19-2003, 05:59 PM

Oooohhh...I love it when you talk techie in my specialization.

You specialize in meta data? 8O :lol:

puithove

06-19-2003, 06:19 PM

I switched from Musicmatch to WMP9 and had the same gripe (hmmm...I must be anal also).

I always want my separator to be " - ". There's a powertoy for WMP9 called TweakMP (same idea as "TweakUI"

Try this link: http://www.wmplugins.com/ItemDetail.aspx?ItemID=171

Or if that doesn't work, go to www.wmplugins.com and download "TweakMP powertoy for Windows XP".

Works for me!

cpoole

06-19-2003, 10:49 PM

I too like my files organized. Has anyone an explanation for the following behaviour on Windows... not sure about the pocker pc version.

Open up one of your mp3 folders and select some songs (not a playlist) and right click play. The media player playlist will not be in the same order as the selected songs. Close media player and go back to the selected songs and right click play again... the songs will come up in yet another order! Yes, I should use playlists but I was just wondering about this quirky behaviour.

ctmagnus

06-19-2003, 11:22 PM