AutoTagX v3.00 beta 2 was released today. The main difference is that AutoTagX now supports gnudb, one of the projects that arose from the ashes of FreeDB.
Release notes:
- Changed the way All Music Guide entries are searched. Should get better results.
- Added support for gnudb.org, a new incarnation of FreeDB. Source Code U.
- Always back up .m4p files, whether you asked for backups or not.
- Changed some score weightings so to make better entries bubble up to the top better.
This beta is operative for until February 26. Please feel free to provide constructive feedback to this blog.
12 comments:
Hi! I was about to send you an e-mail and then suddenly I get an e-mail from you advising me to check out the new version. Great work!
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the email and for update to AutoTag, its good to know the project is still going. I have been testing the program on some albums I needed to tag. First impressions are good, the album art cover collection is fantastic and I am glad that you have that working now. The album information collection seems to be working ok with only a few albums that cannot be found. The bright colours of text in the information area is quite hard to read, I am guessing this is only for testing purposes? The end user will not need to know where each result has come from. It seems to be doing a very good job of getting the best result at the top of the list (these are normally the yellow results). So far it has been very stable on Macbook C2D, with no crashes after about six albums (mp3 only).
Thanks again and keep up the good work!
Hey, first of all, thanks for bringing this app back from the dead, I was always a big fan.
Anyway, some initial notes (This is scattered, sorry):
I think the color-coding of the 'match-list' is a good thought, though the colors arent the best, imho. I assume the coding is for results from different dbs? Perhaps indicating this somewhere (even in prefs, for ex.) could be useful. Also, the leftmost column in this window should be identified (it looks as though it also is to do with which db, yes?).
What is the new 'backing up to music folder' feature?
The Search for... and Search buttons don't seem to have distinct enough roles to justify both. In fact, I just tried Search for... with the query Juana Molina and got 0 results. When I added Juana Molina to the Artist Field and hit the Search button I got great results. This seems odd to me, and I guess the real point is that I don't understand why I would use the Search For... button.
On two albums, Nas-Hip Hop is Dead and Juana Molina-Son I found satisfactory results for track listings for both. However, only the Juana Molina album returned a correct album cover. Could you perhaps include a means of choosing between different downloaded images (I am kind of assuming it got more than one result for the Nas album). Also, maybe a method for searching generic sites like google images would be useful.
Congratulations on all the new work, it is definetely appreciated. I'll continue using and let you know how it goes—and thanks, I look forward to the final release.
Yes, the different colorations and first column codes signify the source from which track data was received. I can switch them all to black if you're not finding the colors useful.
My plan is to replace the first column with an icon instead of a letter.
I would like you to know where the data is coming from, because I'd also like AutoTagX to eventually be a good gnudb user and allow you to send corrections back to gnudb.
Interestingly, I can't think of a time when track data from All Music Guide and from Google Music weren't identical. And with Google Music's artwork being so small, it seems superfluous to search Google. I'm not going to rip the Google code out since it works, but the beta 3 has a preferences setting to turn on/off databases. I am probably going to turn off searching Google under normal use.
g-fighter - the "backing up to music folder" feature copies the original files to your Music/AutoTagX Backups folder. I put this in because if AutoTagX crashes (or you lose power, etc.) at the right time, your file could be corrupted and unplayable. The danger for this is currently greater with .m4a and .m4p files than with .mp3 files.
If you uncheck the option, it won't back them up, but it will continue to back up .m4p files. I don't want there to be any chance that AutoTagX causes you to lose files that you've paid money for.
If you leave it checked, your disk may eventually fill up with duplicate files. Would you like to see an option to check that folder and report if it gets too big? Or delete backups older than x days old? Other ideas?
Deleting the backup on a successful completion of tagging, or after a certain period of time would be very useful.
I have found a small bug that has been around in version 2 also. If a number of tagging sessions are open and an AutoTag window is minimised, when the minimised window has finished tagging its songs it pops back up and tries to read the new tags back. At this point it OFTEN (not always) stops and the minimised window becomes un-usable.
Will keep testing!
Great to hear that you're working on an update! AutoTagX is one of the best tools for tagging on the Mac! I've added a post about the beta on my blog:
Mac Music Tagging
Hi,
I think I might have found an error/bug in the program, Mark.
When I retrieve results and I select "Compilation" in the results-window (at step 3), as the original mp3's are indeed from a compilation, and I rename the files (step 5), I get filenames with the artistname twice!
Example:
11 - Manzanita - Manzanita - Ramito De Violetas.mp3
Am I doing something wrong, or is it the program? This is the best program out there to update 1000's of files, I couldn't live without it. :)
-----------------------------------
Here are my settings from preferences in AutoTagX:
TAB File Names:
[x] Rename track fields on Save: %N - %T
[x] Use different... ...Compilations: %N - %A - %T
[x]Use different format for single files: %A - %T
TAB Folder Names:
[x] Rename album folders on Save: %T
[x] Use different... ...Compilations: Various - %T
TAB Song Titles:
AutoTagX always.. ...consistency: %T
[x] Use different format for Compilations: %A - %T
[x] Use different format for single files: %A - %T
TAB Cover Art:
All OFF
TAB General:
[x] Smart Capitalization
[x] Tag version: id3v2.3
[ ] Back up originals
Looks great ... but: I haven't managed to work on any mp3s yet. AutoTag crashes every time. Powerbook G4 800, 768MB, OS 10.4.8. I am dropping just 12 mp3s onto AutoTag, tried this from external firewire drive and internal drive, tried changing AutoTag preferences and leaving default preferences - crashes every time :-(
Babbington - thanks for the mention on the site!
button - I'd like to find out more about what you're seeing. Could you iChat me some time? My id is mmalson.
Hi Mark, still can't get Autotag to run ... I could send you a crash log if that would be helpful. email me mogsa(at)tiscali.co.uk
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