Fixing Unknown Album title with mixtapes

Hi. I have a number of custom mixtapes that have been digitized from cassettes. (Yes, I made them a long time ago, but I'm very attached to them.) In my Android phone, they come up as Unknown Album no matter what app I use to listen with, even though I have named them in the original files, e.g. 'Tape 9'. A screenshot from MP3TAG is attached.

I'm not familiar with metatags or with MP3TAG. Suggestions on how to remedy this?

Thanks!

MP3 tag Unknown Album.pdf (269.4 KB)

You have to fill at least the tags TITLE, ALBUM, ARTIST and ALBUMARTIST.

I understand you this way that the whole tape is 1 track only?
Normally the title is the individual title of the song.

The album tag should be "Tape 9",
the title can stay the same and the artist and albumartist tag can be filled with "Various Artists".

The is no guarantee that this will work because every player is special in these things.
I would change the filename in "Tape 9" too.

Thanks. I haven't had time to try this yet, but it looks like great input to a problem I've been looking for a solution to for a while.

BTW, my mixtapes usually got broken into several chunks due to gaps when I digitized them from old cassettes. So there may be several "tracks" in each.

That’s fine, just use Tape 9 Track 01, Tape 9 Track 02, etc for those fields, or even Tape 9-01, Tape 9-02, etc. But to keep them sorted together, the Album and AlbumArtist tags must match. And you should also include the Artist tag, even if it is just something like Various or Various Artists in these cases. That will help make sure the player handles each properly.

Hi Motley G,

I'm just getting back to this. I changed one file that's the first track in one of the mixtapes, per the first attached screenshot. I haven't uploaded it and tried it in the phone yet, but wanted to try renaming all 4 tracks in that tape first. However, it won't seem to save the renamed file in the second track. Is it because I'm trying to give them the same file name? The album name would be the same - just different track #s.

I'm probably not describing this well, and I suspect I'm getting confused between naming the album and the track.. Can you look at the attached screenshots?

Thanks
mp3tags screenshots 12-4-21.pdf (336.2 KB)

It seems that you try to rename the second track with the same (already existing) filename "Attic Tapes - Tape 1". (This seems to be saved in your tags ALBUM and ALBUMARTIST).

I suggest that you set the %TRACK% number in front of your filename, like
01 - Attic Tapes - Tape 1
02 - Attic Tapes - Tape 1

1 Like

Thanks. I suspected that was the issue. But I'm getting confused between naming of albums and tracks. I want to create an 'album' that is a mixtape called Attic Tapes - Tape 1. (I made several "Attic Tapes.") If they are '01 - Attic Tapes - Tape 1' and '02 - Attic Tapes - Tape 1', will those be recognized as tracks with the album 'Attic Tapes - Tape 1'?

Also, I'm not sure whether, in your parenthetical sentence, you're saying the ALBUM and ALBUMARTIST names should or shouldn't be the same. A previous responder here wrote " the Album and AlbumArtist tags must match."

Thanks again.

In your very specific mixtape case, it is "OK" when the ALBUM and ALBUMARTIST are the same.
But you can't rename your different files with exactly the same name.

Whether your tracks are recognized as one and the same mixtape depends on the player you use. Some software groups an album together based on the ALBUM tag, some on the ALBUMARTIST tag and other don't read this tags at all, only using the filename. So I can't tell you, if YOUR player software recognize it. You have to try it with some example tracks.

Which raises the next question: do you or others have recommendations for an Android (free) player? I only need to play my own albums/mixtapes so it can be a really simple player - no bells and whistles.

I can’t recommend any of the free ones, as most have limitations with how they manage your library, especially with how they use the metadata that mp3tag is helping you improve. Most of these use the standard Android music library API and as such all end up with the same basic functionality.

But given your use case, I think Gonemad can fit the bill and is relatively inexpensive as a one-time investment.

Thanks Motley G and LyricsLover. I'll work some more on the tags, hopefully in the next week or so. (In between 'real' work!)

What about foobar2000?