Topic: A very handy tagging tool: Live Show Tagger (foo_tradersfriend)

[whatboutbob]

A while ago I happened upon the Live Show tagger plugin for Foobar.  It tags files (including flacs) based on your text info files.  I find it unbelievably useful.  I flac up a show in cdwave (cos that's what i use to track), drag and drop 'em into foobar, and about 3 clicks later all my files are tagged beautifully to my particularly anal standards.

You can download it here as part of the 'stable components package':
http://foosion.foobar2000.org/0.9/  (You'll also need foobar2000 0.9.3)

Aaanyways...I hope someone finds this useful.  Apologies if this is something y'all already use and I've just been in the dark about...but I haven't really seen it discussed here so figured I'd mention it.

[Brian Skalinder]

I've used Masstagger to do the same for the last year or two.  Works pretty well, but not perfectly (depends on the structure of the TXT files).   I'll check out this one when I upgrade Foobar.  Thanks for the heads up. 

[terrapinj]

thanks!! i  was actually just wondering if there was a program like this last night!

looking forward to checking it out

[Ed.]

I use Tag & Rename, but I haven't figured out a way to do shows, I'm going to have to look into this.

[terrapinj]

this is a great little tool - thanks!

[macacopowa]

it's very usefully and easy, but I thought  that the tag stayed after decode to wav, and it isn't. Anybody knows and easy program  to add tags to wav archives?

[davepeck]

I use Tag & Rename, but I haven't figured out a way to do shows, I'm going to have to look into this.

i've always used tag & rename as well, but inserting individual song names is the only part that sucks.. i'll have to check this out..

it's very usefully and easy, but I thought  that the tag stayed after decode to wav, and it isn't. Anybody knows and easy program  to add tags to wav archives?

i could be wrong, but wav files don't have tags..

[macacopowa]

it's very usefully and easy, but I thought  that the tag stayed after decode to wav, and it isn't. Anybody knows and easy program  to add tags to wav archives?

i could be wrong, but wav files don't have tags..

Ouch! Maybe this is the reason because I didn't found any software about that 

[whatboutbob]

i've always used tag & rename as well, but inserting individual song names is the only part that sucks.. i'll have to check this out..

as long as the info's in yer info file LST will write song names.

btw, 1 gripe i have with LST is that if i use 'at853' in the file name it picks up 853 as the track number, so i end up naming my files blah2006-08-08.at.d1t01.flac instead of blah2006-08-08.at853.d1t01.flac.  Chances are there's a better work-around for this issue - but i haven't bothered trying to figure it out.

[terrapinj]

doesn't seem to work well with 24bit Flacs

[Ed.]

it's very usefully and easy, but I thought  that the tag stayed after decode to wav, and it isn't. Anybody knows and easy program  to add tags to wav archives?

i could be wrong, but wav files don't have tags..

Ouch! Maybe this is the reason because I didn't found any software about that 

no tags on wavs, it took me a bit to figure that out at first too.

[Brian Skalinder]

doesn't seem to work well with 24bit Flacs

Don't know what the problem is with 24-bit and LST, but FWIW the MassTagger component handles 24-bit just fine.  I believe it's a standard component and one simply needs to choose to select it during install.  Of course, the component makes some assumptions about the format of your TXT files, but I found my TXT file template works quite well with it.  My TXT file looks something like this...

band
yyyy-mm-dd
city, state - venue

http://www.bandwebsite.com

musician1 - instr
musician2 - instr
musician3 - instr
musician4 - instr

DISC ONE

01. < lead-in >
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10. < fade out >

DISC TWO

01. < fade in >
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.

[Ed.]

perhaps I should check out mass tagger as well?  is it a free program?

[Brian Skalinder]

perhaps I should check out mass tagger as well?  is it a free program?

Yes, free.  It should come with the default Foobar2000 install, but I don't know if F2K insalls the MassTagger component by default.  You may need to specifically select the MassTagger component during install.

[Ed.]

hmm, I installed the everything version of foobar, I wonder if I already have it then.  I'll have to look when I get home.  I tried once to make my foobar look all cool with all the different skins and options they have for it, but I prefer the normal oldskool looking player, so I stopped messing with its functionability at that time.

[Gordon]

trying it out but the textfile won't load

Could not load info (Unsupported file format) from:
"C:\Documents and Settings\g dawg\My Documents\My Music\flacs n shns\dbt2006-09-15.184's.flac16\dbt2006-09-15.txt"

when I go to live show tagger and hit update files I get the above message.  tried loading the text file again and the same thing happens.

hmm.  now it seems to be working.....

edit again.  all I had to do was remove the text from foobar.  then go to live show tagger and load the text from there.  very nive tool!

[rowjimmy]

I've been loving this foobar2k plugin since its earliest versions. it has come a long way and is now more forgiving of ugly txt files and filesets with ffp files and whatnot taboot...

the "txt file template" Brian posted is key, though. If everyone worked with something like that we'd all be better off.

[aberg]

How do you get this plugin to put information into the album tab in the tag?

[Gordon]

How do you get this plugin to put information into the album tab in the tag?

it gets all the info for the tag from the textfile.

[aberg]

How do you get this plugin to put information into the album tab in the tag?

it gets all the info for the tag from the textfile.

Yes, I know that, but when I run it, it places the Venue and City information into a field in the tag called <VENUE>, but I would rather put it into the 'ALBUM' tag so that iTunes will list them properly when I convert to apple lossless for my ipod...

[Brian Skalinder]

Yes, I know that, but when I run it, it places the Venue and City information into a field in the tag called <VENUE>, but I would rather put it into the 'ALBUM' tag so that iTunes will list them properly when I convert to apple lossless for my ipod...

MassTagger allows you to specify the tag location for the data.  I do what you want to do - dump the city / venue info into the ALBUM tag.

[aberg]

Yes, I know that, but when I run it, it places the Venue and City information into a field in the tag called <VENUE>, but I would rather put it into the 'ALBUM' tag so that iTunes will list them properly when I convert to apple lossless for my ipod...

MassTagger allows you to specify the tag location for the data.  I do what you want to do - dump the city / venue info into the ALBUM tag.

Thanks Brian, I'll try this when I get home.

[aberg]

wow... this works great!

So my process for lossless on the ipod is now as follows:

1. Take my flac fileset (make sure text file is formatted as per etree standards) and load into foobar.
2. Run a script to set Artist and Album fields.
3. Use dBpowerAMP to convert to Apple Lossless, preserving ID Tags (takes about 2-3min per show)
4. Load into iTunes, and it sorts perfectly... no additional tweaking needed.
5. sync to iPod
6. enjoy!

Now to just get one of the new full speed ipod integration alpine head units.... mmmm.

[PH]

not to knock the apple lossless scheme or anything, but check out rockbox. You can load it onto most ipods and it sets up as a dual boot.
It allows you play flac and many other types of files, plus it utilizes a (much more user friendly) file tree system as opposed to itunes.
Kind of complicated to install, but easy and very cool after that.
Check it out  http://www.rockbox.org/    (i'm just a happy user)

I also use foobar2000 with live show tagger now (awesome!!!) and have ditched winamp, which always seemed to buggy for me.
Tag&Rename is another great program for organizing your flac tags, it's especially helpful with commercial cddb stuff and also with renaming filesets automatically.

I personally don't mess with anything but wav and flac. I record to wav. I archive with flac.
This is true for all my masters and subsequent mixdowns, plus all 16/44 stuff such as Cd's, Dats, downloads, etc...
It's all just stored on redundant hard drives. One installed in my home machine and one offsite.
I've converted everything to one format. With rockbox/ipod, foobar2000, and a hard drive.....you are all set. No more conversions.

A lot of work, but it works for me. YMMV......     

Cheers, Phil