Programs for File management - HELP

You might not like this answer, but the only way to make sure you're ripping and tagging your cds right is to practice first. You should burn the same cd several different ways and then open up your interface such as iTunes, Media Monkey, Foobar, etc and see how the cd comes up. For example, is it listed in folk or jazz. Now try to have it listed as trip-hop. Once you figure out how to change the genre, you don't have to rely on the often incorrect genres automatically picked by your ripping program.

When you burn a compilation, is the artist listed under the artist section, or was it accidently listed in the album section. This is a big problem. If you come across a compilation cd that isn't recognized and the track titles are blank, type them out and see if after the cd is burned everything is listed properly. It probably won't be until you figure out how. Do you type the artist and THEN the track title? Do you separate the artist and track title with a comma or with a hyphen?

One of the biggest pitfalls is tagging the year. I have a big jazz collection and some John Coltrane, for example, was released only recently. So the automatic tag might be, say, 1998. This is bad because when i want to random play jazz from the 1960s, the title won't be in there. You need to learn how to change this before you burn the cd - perhaps you can make the change after (I don't think so) but i don't know how. Even if you can, do you want to have to go back?

A tip: You don't have to burn the entire cd to practice. Just burn a track or two so you don't have to wait to see the results.

I would suggest practicing for a while and then when you set out to burn all your cds, for the first 50 or so, after each burn, open up your interface program and check to see that the cd is tagged properly before moving on to the next cd. I can tell you from experience that this will save you a nervous breakdown, $17,000 dollars in psychiatric visits, a two month stay at bellvue and other incidentals like fixing holes in your walls and apologizing to neighbors for the late night sobbing.

Good luck my son and god bless.

Gararddunn, I'll get back to you on that question. I know an expert that I can ask. Basically you want to make sure that the ID tag info remains formulated the same in itunes as it does for foobar or media monkey, for example. if it does then the question becomes whether or not your playlists can be exported properly from one program to another. If so, then any playback program is fine because you can always switch. The only thing then to make sure of is that the cds are tagged properly when you burn them onto your hard drives.

There is a book called something like 'iPod and iTunes for dummies.' With that kind of support it's going to be hard to beat. Foobar has the most flexibility for customization but it's difficult to learn how to customize it. there are programmer sites that have screen captures of what their personal foobar interfaces look like and it's very interesting - those are the coolest looking interfaces i've seen.

Media monkey is what I am using (so is the expert I know) and it's easy to use right from the start. for now it's all I need.

But again, the question is about reading ID tags and exporting playlists. I would not want to create interesting playlists for different types of jazz and different types of rock, etc from a 1000+ cd catalogue and then have to redo it when i changed playback programs.

G, here's the deal. There should be no reason for one player program to sound better than the next...they all access the same music file on your hard drive. You can change players any time and bring over your playlists and ID tags like genre, etc. The expert I know uses Media Monkey because it's the most convenient for him. I use it and also find it to be pretty simple.

Bottom line is that the only thing to concern yourself with is burning the cd properly. If you set up EAC correctly you're fine. So, like you said, just make a few decisions and start enjoying your music.

Good luck.

Ultravoilet, I found that when I tagged a cd after I burned it the changes wouldn't show up in the actual file on my hard drive. This is why I thought you had to burn it over. FOr example, I put a Coltrane CD in my drive and brought up EAC. The track titles weren't listed and I burned it anyway. Then I opened Media Monkey, inserted the cd and tagged the cd using "tag from Amazon." The CD titles came up and everything looked good. Media Monkey shows the tracks listed each time I open up that cd, however, when I go to my hard drive and open up the cd the track titles still aren't listed.

Any advice?

Edesilva, I'm burning in FLAC. The cd file is being tagged properly. It's just that the track titles aren't being changed in the file on the hard drive. Maybe it's too much to ask for this convenience?

Ultravoilet, thanks for the info.