Getting and using results + Batch deletes

Support
1

Hello new boy here with very little knowledge. I have searched the forums and looked at FAQs but have not been able to recognise what I am looking for. So, before posting in detail I need to ask a few fundamental questions:

  1. After having drag/dropped a VortexBox’s flac folder or files into mp3tag and gone through the various steps to a satisfactory result – how do I then incorporate the data (including cover-art jpeg) back into the VortexBox directory, i.e. how to output the result from mp3tag? Or is it automatic?

  2. Are there any mp3tag ‘Screen-Views’ available which would lead beginners through some of the basic processes?

  3. Can mp3tag have any effect on the way music files are named and shown in Windows Explorer? VortexBox’s flac folders are shown in Explorer where the albums are listed by name and within these folders are the tracks’ files. I know the ‘Tag Info.’ lists are separate and different but can mp3tag change the Windows file names? If not, is it only the tagging which is dealt with?

Lastly, I want to delete multi-duplicate tracks automatically. Can anyone tell me if mp3tag (or anything else) can get a large volume of flac files into alphabetical order by song title? This is only to facilitate the identification and elimination of repeats (obviously except one, and any other artists’ versions)? I have been looking at Windows Explorer because once the file names are correctly arranged, with the song title in place of the track number, Windows Sort can the group them alphabetically in a giant folder.

Thanks in advance.

2

on a) If you edit the data in the files list, then the changes are saved everytime you leave a field.
If you edit the data in the tag panel you have to save (disk symbol or Ctrl-S) the modifications explicidly.
on 2) no, but the help is fairly straightforward. Reading it would have led you to answer 3): use the converter "Tag-Filename". In this converter you can use field variables and string constants and scripting functions to get a filename of your requirements.

on lastly: yes, MP3tag can load and sort files as long as the address space is not exceeded.
To sort files, click on the column header of the field by which you want to sort.
Also: there is a filter function which may help as well e.g. if you have "The Beatles" and "Beatles" which would appear at almost opposite ends of the list when sorting alphabetical.
But: MP3tag does not compare files, so there is no way to find duplicates from within Mp3tag.

3

Thanks for your very quick answer ohrenkino,

For 1. (a) I’m sorry for being thick but where is it saved? And how do the changed data get back into the VortexBox directory? It’s perhaps obvious to you.

As for 2., it’s a pity about the screen-shots, these would help in confirming that what I see is what I am supposed to see, I guess it’ll have to be trial and error. And like I said, I did read but couldn’t ‘see’ the answers.

I suppose I should also have asked, ‘How?’ rather than, ‘Can?’. I’m sorry but although I recognise your, “…field variables, string constants and scripting functions”, as English, I don’t really understand a word. Short of taking a course in whatever this discipline is called, is there a way of finding out what to do in plain English (if such a guide already exists in German, my apologies).

Your last comments look encouraging thanks, once the flac files are in alphabetical order by song title (somewhere) I can easily delete them manually. Are the files you are referring to the deeper ‘Tagging files’ (I don’t know what to call them), or the Windows files?

4

For the changes you make in mp3tag (or any other tag editor) to show up in vortexbox running LMS, you need to go into the webGUI for LMS, click on SETTINGS on lower righthand side, then in SETTINGS screen, click on the "basic settings" tab, then under the "rescan media library" use the drop down menu to select "clear library and rescan everything". Then click the rescan button to the right of this. Then just let LMS on your VB rescan your music library. This will update the library info within LMS based on the new tag info, artwork, or other changes you made with mp3tag.

And I second the use of "CONVERT > TAG-FILENAME" for changing the names or subdirectories of your actual files (what shows up in windows explorer). For example, I use this mask in that function to simply change the name of the files to "track no - title"

$num(%track%,2)-%title%
(note that I'm forcing the track no to be two digits (eg, 01, 02, 03....)

When I want to create a new artist subdirectory/album subdirectory/trackno-trackname, I use this mask:

.\%artist%\%album%$num(%track%,2) - %title%

If you wanted to make the filename just the track name, you could use this mask:

%title%

(note the location of the files within the current artist/album subdirectory (or however you have it setup) would stay the same...only file names would change.

If you wanted the name to be the title followed by the artist or album name you could do

%title% - %artist%
or
%title% - %artist% - %album%

Something like this could help you on the duplicates. That is, the first thing in the file name will be the title, so all songs with the same title will sort together in explorer, but you can also see at the same time the additional info regarding the artist and/or the album.