i have all my mp3's named "[artist] - [title]". is there a program that automatically mass clear tags and adds the artist and title from the filename? i'd like to add id3v1 on all of them and id3v2 only if the info doesn't fit in id3v1.

Case's TAG.

thanks. it works well but when the inputs are too long it writes a "Lyrics3 v2.0" tag. what is that? winamp doesn't show an id3v2.

TAG can't write id3v2 tags.

lyrics3 is yet another standard not as evil as id3v2 (use teh search to find info on id3v2's evilness).
Foobar2000 will read lyrics3 tags AFAIR.

ok so id3v2 is evil but it's widely supported. any TAG-like program with id3v2 support?

It doesn't seem to be the case.
Only programs I know of are larger tagging programs like helium2 and tag&rename.


edit: of and btw.: foobar2000 can read ape2 tags from mp3 files.
Ape2 tags are yet another standard but a very good one. The one used my monkey's audio and mpc.
Ape2 tags has technical advantages from a programmers point of view and gives the benifit of custom keys meaning that it is not restricted to the keys specified in some standard like id3v2.

Frontah can do ID3v2

i just tried about 10 different programs and TAG is still the best. if only it supported id3v2. i love the fact that it writes just the id3v1 and only writes the additional lyrics3 if it doesn't all fit in id3v1.

btw.: winamp does support lyric3 in some way (playlist formatting). Just not in the tag editor.

I use Helium2 for tagging. It was the best I've used by far (of course there is a fee). I'd definatly recomend it.

tried out the helium2 trial. still always writes id3v2. i guess there's no way out of it.

Mp3tag is one of the best taggers for MP3 and OggVorbis. Freeware! Check it out!

Check this out: http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/

It's completely free and has even more features helium has! In the future ogg will be supported!

Hi JanS, on Case's webpage it says:
If I d/l id3lib, can I use it with Tag to enable read & write for id3v2 ? If yes, how?

Nope.
It supports reading id3v2 only. It can't write id3v2.

Edit: id3lib is the source code used. It isn't something you can "add".

well mp3tag has the option to write id3v2 only when it doesn't fit in id3v1 but it doesn't work.

'Write ID3v2 only if ID3v1 is too small'
With this option the ID3v2 tag will only be written if the ID3v1 field limitation of 30 chars is exceeded, an ID3v2 tag already exists or a user defined genre is entered.

I suggest "Dr. Tag" at http://www.asterius.org/

It is a nice program for mass creating/changing/renaming files. I does it work in an automated way or driven by you.

Try It !

Hello!

As i already posted above, try "The Godfather", it's Freeware and better than all solutions i used (and i have tried them all)!

Check out: http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/

Bernie

Tag and rename is definitely the best to use for tagging, I've found, so I'll echo this...

Tag&Rename - features

Rename music files: easily rename files individually or a whole directory of files at a time, preview changes before renaming and undo the last renaming process, rename folder(s) containing your music files, and manually edit files names.
Multi-file or manual tag editors: edit tags for multiple or single files, fill-in tag fields using file name.
Tag&Rename support both ID3v1 and ID3v2 mp3 tags.
Convert ID3v1.1 to ID3v2 tags for all files with one click! *
Export to CSV wizard can export your music info into any database.
CDDB1 support: get tag information for full MP3 albums in seconds via the Internet using freedb.org.
allmusic.com support: Tag&Rename can import album information from allmusic.com server and write it to tags.
UPPERCASE, lowercase or Capitalize First Letter: convert case or capitalize the first letter of each word for file names or ID3 Tags.
Swap ID3 tag fields: you can swap Artist - Title, Album - Title, etc. tag fields with one click.
M3u playlists: create m3u playlists using the unique Quick Save Playlist feature.
Play music files: listen to your MP3 or VQF files using your favorite music player.
Explorer shell extensions: Tag&Rename can be added to the MS Explorer context menu so that you can access T&R faster (mouse right-click) from the MS File Manager.


Tag&Rename is very easy to use and highly configurable. In addition, it has helpful notes and description of menu commands built into the interface to help speed up your understanding and use of the program.

Does all it says it does.

* This is actually an option under the general options to click, so once you set it to update ID3v1 tags, it will automatically update the tag every time. I only add this because it's written to sound like you must click something for everytime you want to update the ID3v1 tag and that isn't the case.

i think it's buggy. the option is enabled/disabled randomly. i tried it out on mp3's without any tags. some had fields that didn't fit in id3v1. when i checked the option it wrote both id3v1 and id3v2 regardless.

If the information fits into an ID3v1 tag, MP3tag will only write ID3v1. If the information doesn't fit into an ID3v1 tag, MP3tag will write both ID3v1 and ID3v2.

that's what i'm saying. it ALWAYS writes the id3v2.
and the checkbox is buggy. it unchecks itself. and it's grayed out sometimes. if i close the dialog box and reopen it it's ungrayed again.

I've been using a nice GPL:ed program called MP3 Tag Tools:javascript:emoticon(':D')
smilie
http://massid3lib.sourceforge.net/

I can't confirm this.

I still don't understand why people hate ID3v2 so much. Its supported by most portables (like iriver and apple), can hold tons of information, is really flexible, and if you pad the tag when you encode, its just as fast as ID3v1.

maybe this will help read

i really think the faq should contain something about the disadvantages of id2v2.

does it work for you?

Hello everybody!

I'm the author of Mp3tag and I can reproduce the quirks with the ID3v2 only if ID3v1 is too small function ye110man has mentioned above.

I've just released a bug-fixed developer build, which is available at
http://www.mp3tag.de/support/

Thanks to Emcee for the friendly support!

With best regards,
~ Florian

thanks! it works now!

Fine


The mfc-version simply contains an additional file called MFC42.DLL. Mp3tag needs this file to be run properly. This file is often already at the user's machine, because it's used by many other apps too.

To limit the traffic on mp3tag.de and for the user, I decided to provide these two versions.

With best regards,
~ Florian