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MP3 & iPod Tools
The software described on this page was created after (or inspired by) using
an iPod, the iTunes application, and Winamp. Many people had a collection
of mp3 music files before buying an iPod. Before using either iTunes or the
iPod, most people organized their music using a hierarchy of folders and
properly named mp3 files. After working with iTunes and an iPod, it became
clear that the information stored within the music files (artist, song title,
album, genre, year, etc.) was more important than the names of the music
files themselves. While iTunes is a great application for organizing music,
there are some tasks that are a bit cumbersome to do, or not possible to do
at all, through its interface.
The applications described on this page are designed to assist people in organizing their music files. | ||
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MakePlaylist
This application is used to generate a playlist from a given search criteria.
You provide a search pattern and specify what is to be searched (filename,
artist, title, genre, etc.). MakePlaylist is able to traverse through an
entire folder hierarchy. While the resulting playlist can be used in iTunes,
the output of this application is really meant for use with an application
like Winamp where you don't have all of the organizing capabilities of iTunes.
FixNames
FixNames is a very powerful application that allows you to easily change
either your music filenames or the artist and title information stored within
the file whenever they differ.
FixNames does this by traversing through your folder hierarchy of music files and displaying a dialog box whenever there is a mismatch between the filename and the artist and title. With this dialog box, you are able to change either the filename or the tag information (or both) and continue on to the next music file. Note: Updating .m4a tag information is not yet supported. |
Synchronize
Do you have two directories that you would like to synchronize? Perhaps you
have a laptop computer that you occasionally hook up to your home computer
network and you would like to synchronize (or backup) the data from your
laptop to your desktop computer. This application will do this for you by
only copying the files that have been modified between two folder hierarchies.
A very handy use of this application is to synchronize from your iPod to a computer. Suppose you have an iPod and use iTunes on your home computer to load your iPod with music. Now, what if you would like to synchronize from your iPod to your computer at work so that you have a backup copy of your music? This application can easily synchronize from your iPod to your computer at work, copying only the files that have changed on your iPod from the last time it was synchronized to your work computer.
SetGrouping
Itunes allows you to specify grouping information for each music file. This
grouping information is stored within the mp3 file but is not redily accessable
with an application like Winamp. SetGrouping allows you to set the grouping
information for a folder of files. This is handy for use with iTunes and
"Smart Playlists". For example, suppose you have your music files organized
into folders and you with to create a playlist based on a folder name. To
do this you can use SetGrouping to set the grouping information to correspond
to the folder name. Then, in iTunes, you can create a "Smart Playlist" based
on the song grouping information.
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TagToName
When music files are synchronized onto an iPod via iTunes, the filenames are
truncated to 31 characters. If you copy the music files off of your iPod
(perhaps by using my synchronize application) you will be left with these
truncated filenames. TagToName is used to easily restore the filenames of
these song files to the full "Artist - Title" information stored within the
music file.
TagToName processes your music files by comparing each mp3 filenames to the artist and title information stored within the file itself. Whenever a discrepancy is found, TagToName allows you to easily update the filename with this tag information. TagToName is able to process a folder full of mp3 or m4a files or traverse an entire folder hierarchy.
NameToTag
The artist and title information that is displayed in iTunes is based upon
the header information found within an mp3 file. If you have a collection
of music files that do not contain this information, NameToTag can be used
to easily store this information into your music files. If your files are
named like this: "Artist - Title.mp3", NameToTag will automatically store
the artist and title information in the header of an mp3 file. NameToTag
will not overwrite any header information already stored in your music files.
Note: Updating .m4a tag information is not yet supported. |
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Support This Site
The software found on this page is free for you to use. However, if you
find the software useful, please consider donating a small amount of money
to be used to offset the time and effort required to create and provide these
applications for you. A small donation of say, $5.00 would be appreciated
and would also encourage me to provide software updates, enhancements, and
even more applications similar to the ones found on this page.
Thank you! | ||
