What's new

NERO ripping... Question about .wav files (1 Viewer)

Scott Wong

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 30, 1999
Messages
421
Real Name
Scott Wong
You guys, I'm currently beginning to rip all of my own CD's into .wav format and I'm then encoding them with LAME as an .mp3 file.

I got a disc full of .mp3's from a friend of mine. When I open up Windows Explorer and highlight a particular track name, the artist name, song title, and even the album that it came from is all included.

Do any of you guys know how I get NERO to do that?

Here's what I'm currently doing:

I open NERO. And go to "save track". I highlight the track I want from the CD and rename it to something simple... i.e., trk1, trk2, trk3, etc, etc. I dump it in the mp3 folder on my c: drive. Then I go over to LAME and begin encoding it. Once encoded on my c: drive, I delete the .wav file and then rename the .mp3 file while in Windows Explorer.

Maybe I'm missing something. But I don't see anywhere in NERO where I can input all of that data, like, album title, song title, artist name, etc, etc. Or does this sort of thing need to be done somewhere in XP? Bear in mind, I need to rename it initially with very simple info as I am then converting it via LAME in MS_DOS. I got NERO off a buddy of mine who does not have a manual for it. And I didn't see anything in NERO's help topics that addressed this feature. Can it be done?

thanks for any info you might be able to lend.

Scott.
 

Camp

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
2,301
Let me start by saying I'm not familiar with Nero as I don't use it.

I'd suggest you use CDex http://www.cdex.n3.net/ or EAC http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ (both are free).

Both programs will access Internet-based CD databases to download track data (artist name, album name, track titles, year, genre) and properly ID tag your resulting mp3 file. It's quick and very easy.

I would suggest not ripping the CD to WAV in one step and encoding to MP3 later in a second step. WAV files can't really be ID tagged (you can't save track names inside the file). Both CDex and EAC will rip to WAV and encode to MP3 (using LAME) in one step -and you won't need to type any tag info in manually.
 

Scott Wong

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 30, 1999
Messages
421
Real Name
Scott Wong
1. When I do obtain an mp3 player, will the files I already encoded into mp3 show up with artist and song title? These are the ones I manually renamed in Windows Explorer in XP. Please say, yes.

2. I downloaded this CDex program. Not too shabby. It seems like it can certainly do everything I am currently doing with NERO/LAME in my two-step program. Can either one of you (or anyone else for that matter) tell me how to configure it? I'm referring to the filenames tab under the settings menu, there's an option about adding files to the M3U playlist... what is this? And do I need this on? What about the PLS playlist?

Sorry if this all sounds ignorant. I'm just now touching base on this .mp3 stuff. Can someone e-mail me or just post what kind of settings they're using. I currently have it configured with LAME to use the "--alt-preset standard" string, as I know this has been tested with very good results and seemingly transparency.

Scott.
 

Scott Wong

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 30, 1999
Messages
421
Real Name
Scott Wong
Also, CDex automatically recognized my DVD-ROM drive as the default drive. Is it possible for it to use and recognize my Sony CD-R/CDRW drive instead? I didn't see where I could set this as the default instead... I'm not even sure if that's possible...?

Scott.
 

Scott Wong

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 30, 1999
Messages
421
Real Name
Scott Wong
Sorry about all the questions... I feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. ;)

I have .mp3's that my friend has given to me sorted in folders by genres. Rap. Metal. 80's. etc. etc. Within each of those folders I have renamed the files, again, in Windows Explorer (but tagged using CDDB) to look like this:

Pearl Jam - Daughter (I want it written like that and dumped into my generic c:mp3 folder where I can move it later on)

I don't care so much about having artists separated neatly by album. I want all of the entire Pearl Jam library in my folder marked as Alternative. I want every single Green Day song in my Alternative folder. etc. etc. I have the .wav->.mp3 conversation to go right into my generic "c:mp3" file. And from there, I transfer them to the designated "genre folders"

I'm noticing that CDex is making its own folder of the artist name. Is there a way to alleviate that? How do I get the file to convert via CDex and dump into my c:mp3 folder with just artist and song title like how I have it written above? No folder. Is it possible? If it isn't, it isn't a huge deal.

**BUT**

I want to insure that if I rename that file in Windows Explorer how I want so that they're all neatly organized... that when I do get an mp3 player, I'll be able to properly view the artist name and song title and album and crap like that. I'm assuming the CDDB tagging is what takes care of all of that. I wouldn't understand why me renaming the file how I want in Windows Explorer would screw that up??

Follow up question: I converted quite a few of my own CD's via my old method (NERO to LAME) I used no CDDB tagging whatsoever because I didn't see a way that NERO supported it. So no tagging. Again, I just manually renamed those files how I wanted within Windows Explorer in XP. Are those files garbage?? Would I see how I named them on an mp3 player?? Or would they just not show up on an mp3 player's display because there is no CDDB tagging???? Please help me. I'm desperate. hahaha.

Scott.
 

Camp

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
2,301
I'm assuming the CDDB tagging is what takes care of all of that. I wouldn't understand why me renaming the file how I want in Windows Explorer would screw that up??
ID tags and the file name are two separate things. If you rename the file in Windows Explorer you are not changing the embeded ID tag (though it is possible to edit the ID tag within Windows Explorer in WinXP by right clicking on the mp3 file and selecting "Properties" then clicking on the "Summary" tab and pressing "Advanced".

As for your older files, you can edit the ID tags manually (as described above) or get software like Tag & Rename to do it for you. Tag & Rename is very powerful but personally I think the interface is confusing. Windows Media Player 9 is free and does a great job.
 

Camp

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
2,301
One more thing...if you have MusicMatch it does tagging automatically. It has a feature called SuperTagging that allows you to import a bunch of mp3's and MusicMatch compares the filename to an Internet database. When matches are found it automatically plugs in all the important info (it even adds cover art).

There are other programs that do this too (WMP 9 and Media Jukebox) but MusicMatch does it much better. Unfortunately, MusicMatch (IMO) can't compare to WMP 9 and Media Jukebox (or Media Center) in any other department.

BTW, all three of these programs will rip CDs and encode to mp3 as well as allow you to manage your collection. WMP 9 & Media Jukebox attempt to replace Windows Explorer as your mp3 manager as well.

http://www.musicex.com/mediajukebox/

http://www.musicmatch.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...a/default.aspx (the only free one)
 

Scott Wong

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 30, 1999
Messages
421
Real Name
Scott Wong
Camp:

Thanks for the info!! I totally appreciate it! I think I would have just about died if I had to go back and encode all of these again using CDex. I'm just gonna go ahead and tag them using Windows XP. That seems to work fine. A bit tedious, but still faster than re-encoding all of these.

Thanks for the help.

Scott.
 

Scott Wong

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 30, 1999
Messages
421
Real Name
Scott Wong
One more question:

I know you mentioned earlier the file name itself and the CDDB tag are two completely things. I'm just curious, without a CDDB tag, do you know how the file comes in on an mp3 player? As far as the display goes, what info is given? I just want to confirm that without a CDDB attached, the file essentially has no "name" per se. I'm sort of stuck now. I'm realizing out of the few hundred mp3 files my friend gave me, several of them are without tags. Not to mention all of the ones I previously did, as well. Are these files completely worthless?

Basically, I don't wanna have a 20GB portable mp3 player with thousands of songs on it and no information attached to the tracks. If I can't see who it is and what song it is without listening to it, the files are worthless, aren't they?

Please let me know... I don't wanna delete these or have to go and tag hundreds of files. :frowning:

Scott.
 

Camp

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
2,301
http://www.id3.org/

They're actually called ID3 tags...CDDB is just one tool to complete the info.
There are different versions of ID3 tags. Most portable mp3 players today will display both ID3v1 and the newer ID3v2 tags. You can store more info in ID3v2 tags (album art, lyrics, etc.). Just make sure the portable player you buy supports v2 tags.

I'm just gonna go ahead and tag them using Windows XP. That seems to work fine. A bit tedious, but still faster than re-encoding all of these.
I'd strongly recommend at least trying Windows Media Player 9 (since it's free). With it you can highlight all your Pearl Jam files, for example, and categorize them all as "alternative" at once (as opposed to doing it track by track within Explorer). The other programs I mentioned above will all do batch ID3 tag editing as well (some do it better) but they aren't free.
 

Scott Wong

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 30, 1999
Messages
421
Real Name
Scott Wong
Camp:

Do you have Windows Media Player 9? I downloaded it last night. It seems to be quite intuitive only I somehow feel I'm getting myself in pretty deep here. I'll explain:

I have 20GB hard drives. The older one that came with my PC is my c: drive that houses all of my software. Windows XP, NERO, MS Office XP, etc. The newer one I purchased is my f: drive. I store all of my .mp3 files on this drive.

Windows Media Player 9 has somehow detected certain .mp3 files within my f: drive (even though it's on the c: drive) but it has not detected all of them. I somehow feel it's discriminatory because upon looking at my playlist, I noticed none of my "rap/hip hop" genre is available.

Do you know how I can easily tag these things to show a certain genre?

For example, while I'm looking at all of my MP3's in Windows Explorer on my f: drive, I can double click on a track and Windows Media Player 9 automatically begins playing the track (I think that's a good thing). But how do I go through and get it to auto tag them? I thought you had mentioned something about that in a previous post but I'm not sure. Manually doing all of these in Explorer is like a painfully cruel joke.

Help?

Scott.
 

Scott Wong

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 30, 1999
Messages
421
Real Name
Scott Wong
Furthermore, there are files I have obtained from my friend on disc that he has designated (for some odd reason or another) as read-only. hence, I don't believe these can be updated, modified, or tagged. Perhaps I'm mistaken. Should I just delete these? Are they of any use to me at all? I guess my point is I won't be able to store these tracks in any one particular genre of my choice.

Scott.
 

Camp

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
2,301
Do you know how I can easily tag these things to show a certain genre?
After importing your mp3's into WMP you can begin doing some bulk tagging.
Within WMP 9 go into the "Media Library". The left pane shows all your mp3 files (it'll probably try to organize them by artist). As you select files in the left pane they should appear in the right pane. The right pane is where you do the editing.
Once you get the desired files into the right pane (all the Pearl Jam, for example) you can simply select all those files (control+highlight) then right-click and select "Advanced Tag Editor". Here you can make changes to ALL the selected mp3 tags at once. Be careful to only make changes that are relevant for all the selected files (things like genre, maybe the album and artist but not song title). You can edit individual mp3's for distinct info like the song title.

Alternatively, you can also highlight the files in the right pane and let WMP attempt to auto tag them by right-clicking and selecting "Find Album Info". The success rate depends upon how the files are named and if the songs are in the WMP database. In my experience Music Match does this much better than WMP 9.
 

Scott Wong

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 30, 1999
Messages
421
Real Name
Scott Wong
Have you imported your mp3 files into WMP 9?
I was originally concerned about doing this. I honesty just got my PC upgraded to Windows XP a couple of weeks ago. I'm not all that familiar with it. I was concerned that all of these .mp3 files I want remaining on my f: drive would somehow be transferred over to my c: drive. Evidently, WMP9 just reads the file directly from my f: drive.

Anyway I slice it, I have some work cut out for me. WMP9 does it make it a heck of a lot easier to do things by bulk, so to speak.

I'm also realizing that editing the name of the track as far as how WMP9 reads it is also different than tagging the .mp3 file. And this is also different than editing and renaming the file within Windows Explorer. Damn. :) haha...

Scott.
 

Camp

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
2,301
I'm also realizing that editing the name of the track as far as how WMP9 reads it is also different than tagging the .mp3 file. And this is also different than editing and renaming the file within Windows Explorer.
Yea, it's not the most intuitive system on the planet. Once you get it all organized the way you like it things will be good.

At some point you might want to consider organizing your mp3's in a f:mp3artist namealbum name folder hierarchy. Once your collection gets to a certain size the f:mp3 method gets pretty unwieldy. I didn't want to believe that when I started but once my collection got to the 10,000 song level I realized I needed to re-organize things. The folder method was the best solution (and it's how WMP 9 does things by default)
 

Scott Wong

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 30, 1999
Messages
421
Real Name
Scott Wong
I had originally anticipated on merely doing Artist - Song Title. But this default, as you mentioned earlier with WMP9, automatically tosses it into what they feel should be "album folder". I suppose it does make things a bit easier/organized. I just wasn't anticipating it. Besides that, knowing the album any particular track came from isn't something I'm all that interested in.


I did import all of my .mp3's into the WMP9 player. Man, it's ugly. hahaha. Anything not already tagged is ugly. My friend in Hawaii sent me 12 CD's with .mp3's on it. Looks like I've got about 1,300 songs right now. Some are tagged. Some are not. Some are in weird "unknown" folders with no artist name or song title... it just says "track 04" or "track 16". Yet, I went through the last few days though in Windows Explorer and renamed them how I wanted. But I'm seeing now that WMP9 doesn't care how YOU named them in Windows Explorer. On certain tracks, it chose to completely disregard my renaming process and toss them in an unknown folder. weird.

*sigh* Even in WMP9 this is still gonna take me forever.

Scott.
 

Scott Wong

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 30, 1999
Messages
421
Real Name
Scott Wong
Another question I just thought of: When I'm using CDex to begin ripping tracks from my own CD collection, how will WMP9 recognize newly added tracks to my f:mp3 folder? Do I simply do the same thing and have it search for it? Won't it duplicate all of those files and import them again?

Scott.
 

Nathan_W

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Nov 13, 2001
Messages
206
Real Name
Nathan
Scott,

It sounds like you have all your mp3s named the way you want them, Artist - Song.mp3, right? There's a cool program that'll tag them all automatically according to how they're named. It even can rename them according to how they're tagged. It's a commandline program called Tag . A frontend for using it in windows is here .

Download Tag (the binary), unzip it into your 'Windows' directory. Download the frontend, unzip it into any directory you want, C:Tag or whatever. Double click Tag frontend.exe. If you get an error, you'll probably need one of the files listed there on the frontend's webpage. I needed the one called tabctl32.ocx. There's a text file with instructions on what to do with it.

You can add files or entire directories to it's list. Then you can have it 'guess' how your files are named and tag them automatically, or you can tell it exactly how your files are named and have it tag them automatically.
My files are usually in Drive:FolderArtist - Song.mp3. So I have it configured like this: check 'custom', enter
'XA - T' in the field next to it (the X is because it puts the Folder name as 'Album', which I don't want, without it), and check
'capitalize words'. You can enter things like 'Genre', and it'll write that to ALL the files in the list.

Well, if you can get it to work for you I know you'll like it. If not, maybe others who read this thread will try it out and like it.

Good luck :emoji_thumbsup:
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top