How can I sort a few GB of imp3s into folders by artist?

December 27, 2003 2:52 PM

I have a few Gb of mp3 which I want to sort into folders by artist (they are currently all lumped together in one single folder). My ID3 tags are in order. Is there any software that will allow me to do this in XP?
posted by signal to computers & internet (15 comments total)

iTunes does that, if you check the "keep my iTunes folder organized" option. (It actually creates a directory for each artist, with subdirectories for each album, which may be more than you want.)
posted by Zonker at 2:59 PM on December 27, 2003

I like Tag&Rename, (it's one of the more popular mp3 naming programs) it lets you create folders named from Id3 tags, but it still might take you a while. Only problem is it's not freeware, you can use it for 30 days though.

If you want freeware, maybe Rename Master, haven't tried it yet.
posted by bobo123 at 3:14 PM on December 27, 2003

bobo123, I actually have T&R, just didn't know it could do that. Thanks.
posted by signal at 3:16 PM on December 27, 2003

On a related note, is there a good, fast mp3 normalizer out there?
posted by signal at 3:23 PM on December 27, 2003

I second signals question - a few years ago there was a piece of software that worked as a very fast mp3 normalizer. It didn't use the old fashioned "convert to wave, normalize, convert back to mp3" technique, rather it relied on a property of mp3 files where a "scaling factor" can be set within the files. It could normalize a 5 minute mp3 in about 5 seconds. Unfortunately, like many pieces of forgotton shareware, it seems to have dissapeared off the net. Does anyone know what I'm talking about, or an equivalent piece of software? It seems like a fairly simple technique, I'm suprised I can't find any open source software to do the job over at Freshmeat.
posted by Jimbob at 3:52 PM on December 27, 2003

Oops, I think I've found it - mp3Trim. If I recall, if it's not registered, it won't do batch conversions, and it won't normalize long mp3s files, but it's a very smart piece of software.
posted by Jimbob at 4:07 PM on December 27, 2003

Sorry, ignore that last link, for some reason a pop-up ad companies URL ended up in my browser bar when I copied and pasted. Here's the proper URL and it's not too hard to find the full version of you know where to look and are into those kind of dodgy dealings.
posted by Jimbob at 4:15 PM on December 27, 2003

Sigh. Anyone remember the good ol days of

dir *.mp3 /on /b /s /w > playme.m3u
posted by WolfDaddy at 4:19 PM on December 27, 2003

iTunes for Windows normalizes all MP3s (if that means adjusts the volume of all to be at a consistent level). It does take a second or two per track.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 4:57 PM on December 27, 2003

In re: normalization, try this thing, which seems to do exactly what you want without requiring any transcoding.

For several years, I've used this, which back in the day only supported uncompressed audio. These days it seems to have MP3 support as well, although it may very well be transcoding as it goes along.

As for renaming and sorting MP3s, I do that as I rip them, so I don't know how it could be done in a batch process. It probably wouldn't be too hard to whip something up using this.
posted by majick at 5:00 PM on December 27, 2003

ssf: Does it change the actual mp3 file or does it just save the equalizer presets in its own little playlist file thingy?
posted by Space Coyote at 5:00 PM on December 27, 2003

Found freeware mp3sort.exe here, which works alright.
posted by signal at 5:25 PM on December 27, 2003

And an opensource normalizer on sourceforge.
posted by signal at 5:29 PM on December 27, 2003

I use a little utility called MP3 Tag Tools 1.2 , which can batch-manipulate ID3 tags (strip annoying comments, fix case, etc) as well as rename files in any schema you want (e.g. $artist\$album\$artist - $track - $title.mp3).
posted by Aaorn at 8:53 PM on December 27, 2003

I should add, one thing with MP3 Tag Tools -- there is no "Are you sure?" and there is no undo, so don't try anything too fancy while you're still learning the program. I accidentally wiped out all my ID3 tags when I first got the program, and had to have the program re-add them according to the filenames.
posted by Aaorn at 8:55 PM on December 27, 2003