All I would like to do is add track numbers to audio files so they will play in order on an MP3 player. I was told a program like this is the answer, but where to start? Is there a tutorial or an article using lay language or a very kind person who can guide me? Thanking you!
See e.g. here:
Also, see menu Convert > Auto-numbering wizard.
But I fear that only the numbers will not be enough, you would probably also have to fill in other fields like ARTIST, ALBUM, TITLE.
What do the filenames look like? And the folder name? Do they have data in them that could be useful?
Thank you! The audio files are basically podcasts, so no albums.
still - to get them all separated from each other, it is advisable to fill the data in the most common fields.
Because ... if the ALBUM is empty, then a player might treat them as all being from the same album with no name. The same applies to ARTIST and ALBUMARTIST, really.
If you want to sort or separate by particular data, the data has to be there. Non-existent data usually causes trouble and leads to suprising results.
So if you save the files in a particular folder for one series of pocasts, then probably that name could be retrieved from the folder name. Other data may be stored in the filename which then also could be harvested.
So show us a typical file, perhaps even with a screendump.
I'm beginning to understand the process. I had previously watched a couple You Tube videos about MP3TAG. I was hoping the method would be as simple as adding track numbers, but from your explanation, I can see that that won't work. Because the audio files are from dozens of sources and they change so frequently, I'm thinking that a tag editor is probably not the answer to my dilemma! I do thank you for taking the time to explain. So very kind of you!
I don't know - I frequently add podcasts to my collection, so the frequency should not be the problem.
Depending on the the way you get the podcasts, they should already have metadata in the tags.
What do they look like if you load them into MP3tag?
E.g. the podcasts I get have the field RELEASETIME which may server as sort criterion and then I use the Track numbering wizard to get a sensible track number. So for me MP3tag is the perfect tool.