Can Actions be executed by Tools?

Support
1

Hello @ohrenkino and @LyricsLover

I really like the Actions command, to transfer my audio file covers to a folder, with 2 mouse clicks, what I learned from you, it's great

We can program, several options to transfer our audio file covers to one or more folders

I looked at the Mp3tag program, as a whole, without doing any tests

I would like to be able to run the Actions command, to transfer my audio file covers to a folder with a Tools

I understand in general, the Actions command, works in the Mp3tag program and makes a backup on the hard disk

And that the Tools runs a program, chosen on the hard disk

I don't think, that it is possible to run an Actions command, with a Tools

2

Exactly.
See the documenation on command line parameters:

3

Exactly.
Every single Action is controlled from Mp3tag in Mp3tag for your selected files.
If you run a Tool, you start an external 3rd-party application. What this external tool manipulates in your files is no longer under the control of Mp3tag.
For example: Some external tools only download a cover picture. Other external tools are trying to fix your tracks.

The main difference is:
Mp3tag has no control over these external changes executed by Tools. You must choose such tools carefully, because not all external tools adhere to the specified (ID3) standards.

And please:
Use a new thread for your new questions. "Can Actions be executed by Tools?" is only very distantly related to "Automatically remove duplicate fields".

4

Hello @LyricsLover,

We discussed the Actions command, yes there was a discussion about duplicate fields...

We also discussed the Actions command: Audio File Covers

I was still talking about the Actions command: Audio File Covers with Tools

For me, it is not always obvious to think is this a new question, because I was still talking about the Actions command with an addition of another Tools command, sorry for not thinking about it...

I have been in the Radio field for quite a long time, I have already noticed very rarely, that a bad abusive use of Tags, (I am not talking about the specified standards (ID3)), can make the file corrupted for the use of Tags, to the point of sometimes making the audio unusable...

For corrupted audio files, it is not always easy to know how it was corrupted, some of my colleagues told me that it could be a virus in the file...

I personally know artists, singers, musicians, studio producers, distributors in the music world, they give us audio files that are tagged with a minimum of information, for MP3 and MP4 files for Wav files, there is much less information...

They are always surprised to see their singing with the Producer TAG and the Talent Tag: Sometimes I put information from producers, musicians, name of the choir, artists who sing, the one who mixes the album etc...

None of them have ever told me to respect the ID3 standard, to tag their singing, for Tags, this only concerns Radio stations, as long as their singing is not corrupted by our use, I always have duplicates of original audio files that I receive, just in case...

On the other hand, you have to be very careful with audio files, with the Cover TAG, if the image is too heavy, it causes problems when broadcasting on air, which we did not know at the beginning...

I received an audio Single of an artist, a few weeks ago, the Cover was of incredible dimensions of 4478 X 4478, this gives an audio file much too heavy to read...

With Mp3tag, we see the dimension of the image very easily, I placed an image of 600 X 600 (Itunes uses this format, which I find excellent and on the Itunes site, there are hidden images: 1200x1200bf-60.jpg) :wink:

5

Just to get several things clear:
Action groups can be accessed via the actions menu, the toolbar buttons or right-click on selected items in the filelist.
Tools can be accessed via keyboard shortcut Ctrl-0 to Ctrl-9 or right-click on selected items in the filelist.

Action groups execute the stored actions which are MP3tag internal commands and completely under the control of MP3tag.
Tools execute external programs which are not under the control of MP3tag.
A mixture of actions and tools is not possible but have to be called separately.

It is good practice to have tools for file manipulations that are outside MP3tag's scope, e.g. treating the audio part. So to check a file's integrity or determining the bpms would be good functions for a tool.
Also, searching for covers from external sources would be a worthwhile application of a tool
To treat the tag data, MP3tag has a lot of functions that also can be called in many cases by using Actions (quick) or incorporating one or more in an action group.

The problems that you describe like

sound to me like a strange approach: the ID3 standard is mainly for MP3 files, yet the mechanism has been adopted for

The ID3 standard has a number of fixed tag fields but also allows user-defined tag fields.
Any tagging program that adheres to the ID3 standard will not corrupt the audio part by adding tag data and any player adhering to the ID3 standard will neither get upset by the standard tag fields nor by the user-definded fields.
But as you have found out: this is not the case with the radio program and some freeware programs.
Also, they seem to have some self-inflicted limitations like a certain cover size.

For already embedded covers MP3tag offers a number of actions:

So it would not be necessary to call a tool to shrink an embedded image from

to

If I were you I would setup a number of tool calls and action groups to do some kind of delivery check to make sure that the files are OK on arrival.

And on a side note: I did not have the impression that we were discussing actions and tools in general here but very detailed a function to call a specifc type of action automatically.

6

A virus in the music part of a file would IMHO not make that much sense, because a song like a *.mp3 file can not be executed directly like a *.exe or a *.cmd file.
If a music file would contain a virus, the player of this song would have to read, understand and execute this code part first.

More likely is a virus included in an embedded cover picture.
(Hiding code in a picture is called steganography).

But this is the same situation: The cover itself can not be executed directly. You need a displaying software first. This software would also have to read, understand and execute embedded code in such a picture.
I personally believe that a risk of a virus in a music files is very low.

I would suggest to check all new incoming music files first. For integrity you can choose these external tools. For a virus check there are plenty of anti-virus tools out there.

For the “to know how it was corrupted” part:
I think it is much more likely that a file will be damaged on its way from the manufacturer of the music file to you. E.g. when uploading the file, when saving it in the cloud, when downloading the file on your computer...

7

Hello @ohrenkino,

For the Tools CTRL+0 CTRL+9, I find that it is one of the most beautiful commands of Mp3tag, it is really great...

I try as much as possible to respect the ID3 standard, by working with the Tags that are given to me, in my case, I am talking about BSI

ohrenkino, I find that Tagging songs is an art in itself, my approach seems strange to you about the ID3 standard, when I meet producers, distributors, artists etc.

And when I talk to them about Tags in general, they are not even interested, they tell me it is up to you Radios to arrange with that, they are surprised when I ask them the production studio and the name of the producer, it is very rare that we ask them that...

Here is what they tell me most of the time about the Tags to respect, the basic Tags, that they write

  • Title
  • Artist
  • Album
  • Track
  • Genre
  • Year (I have already received audio files a few times, the year was not Tagged?)
  • Composer (Sometimes, there is nothing written in this box)
  • Copyright

When I receive Wav, MP3 and Mp4 audio files, sometimes I have to make a request, for the Cover that is not included in the folder that I receive, when I am pressed for time, I take my Cover on Itunes, many Radio stations do not work with the Cover

You have reason for image reduction Mp3tag does it very well, I don't work with a tool, but a program, it wastes my time, I will reduce my images with Mp3tag :wink:

8

Thanks @LyricsLover for your link on steganography, a very interesting topic... That I could share with my colleagues...

I'm going to be more careful with images, I take a lot of images with Itunes, I would be surprised if there would be this kind of virus in their images, but I'm going to be careful anyway...

It is true that I have already received audio files that had a reading problem, when distributors or artists receive complaints of non-compliance, they make a correction, after we receive a corrected audio file, but it is very rare that this happens...

Thanks for the external tools link, it seems that @ohrenkino, had already written to me about the Foobar2000 program...

9

If you use MP3tag on MP3 files, then you will always respect the ID3 standard.

You have not said anything about some kind of quality control if you get files to rule out any damaged files at the source.

I wonder why your suppliers are so reluctant to offer metadata - isn't it in their vital interest to make their works recognizable? But that is no MP3tag matter.

10

Just to be absolutely clear, it is not the job of mp3tag to make error correction to either the tag data or the audio payload of any file. It can identify in some cases that some errors exist so you can take action, but that is the end of the process. Any file correction required needs to be done externally as has been mentioned here several times.

Mp3tag is strictly focused on displaying the file information and allows editting of many of the tag field values.

This is often the problem with any media file. Most often the data, even from the original creators or owners of the music in this case, has little to no correct detail. As you have also found out, many are not even aware of the existence of some or all of these tags. Or don't care to know.

This is compounded by how collectors manage their personal libraries, including in commercial applications like you are describing. But this is essentially why mp3tag exists, so that you have the control to manage the data any way you wish.

Do not expect any one single online source to be 100% "correct" whether it is Musicbrainz, Discogs, Wikipedia, or even an Artist's own web page.

11

@ohrenkino, to exclude any file damaged at the source, I find that Mp3tag, does an excellent job, we have an X about the audio file, it gives us an excellent clue, that there is a problem...

There may be a problem that we can know when we only listen to the audio file, I have already heard a song that skips when listening...

@MotleyG, it's a fact, but if I see that the Tag Year is empty, I guess by forgetfulness, I will enter the year in Mp3tag

@MotleyG, you say is very true:

@ohrenkino and @MotleyG

The creators and original owners of the music, ask that it be played on the radios, to make their songs known, the Radios receive the songs before everyone else in addition to the promotion of the concerts to be announced, release on music platforms etc ...

I express my opinion, from what I know, some big studios have a lot of clients, they produce on the quantity of songs to be released on the music market, they have limited dates to respect on the release of the songs, which are already announced in advance on certain websites, with the delays it does not help, producers and distributors sometimes ask artists and new artists to give information quickly about their songs, they forget certain important data, especially if they are preparing a concert for the launch of their album, when they have a great team with them, there are fewer mistakes ...

I have already contacted an artist, because the title on the cover of the physical album was not the right title ...

From what you wrote to me @MotleyG and from what I know, it's not going to get any better...

12

Nope, thankfully we have mp3tag!