Music Tagging

Music tagging process

Beets

Install

Current Debian versions tend to be old.

python3.7 -m venv venv37
source venv37/bin/activate
pip install -U beets

Import

1. Check the config for albumartist vs album
2. beet import /path/to/downloaded/album

Move

1. Tweak settings in ~/.config/beets/config.yaml

2. beet move -a [-p] album-name
   

---

MusicBrainz?

1. picard
   1. Import
   2. Collect
   3. Scan
2. easytag
   1. write playlists
   2. check CRLF (should have DOS line-endings)

Picard Settings

Metadata

Translate artist names to locale

ON, English (fixes Kitaro)

Use standardised artist names

ON

Convert Unicode punctuation characters to ASCII

ON

Use release relationships

ON

Use track relationships

ON

Use folksonomy tags as genre

ON

Preferred Release Countries

UK, US, ZA

Preferred Release Formats

CD

Before Tagging

clear existing, remove ID3? from FLAC, remove APE from MP3?

Tag Compatibility

ID3v2?.4, UTF-8

Albums

Cover Art

Save cover images as separate files, folder

Collections

Cover Art

Embed cover images into tags, Embed only front images

File naming

Replace non-ASCII characters

OFF

Replace Windows-incompatible characters

OFF

Delete empty directories

ON

Move additional files

*.jpg *.png

Picard Genres

Plugins

Last.fm.Plus

General Options / Join Tags With

blank

Forces multiple genres into separate tags.

Picard Rename

Default

$if2(%albumartist%,%artist%)/%album%/%artist% - %title%

With Custom Replacements

• Also replace ' / ' (which is forced to '_' by picard) to '; '
• Album: drop everything from the second ':' onwards
• DiscSubtitle?: add to the path if it exists

$replace($noop(?)
$replace($noop(:)
$replace($noop(")
$replace($noop(|)
$replace($noop(<)
$replace($noop(>)
$rreplace(

$if2(%albumartist%,%artist%)/$if2($rsearch(%album%,\(.*:.*\):),%album%)/%discsubtitle%/%artist% - %title%

,\\s_\\b,;)
,>,\))
,<,\()
,|,)
,",')
,:, -)
,?,)

Classical

Trying for something like composer/work/performance/(01x01 - )composer - title.

1. If albumartist has ';' use just the first part (the composer)
2. In album
   1. If < 30 chars, use it, otherwise
   2. Drop anything from the second ':', or
   3. Drop anything from a '(' onwards
3. Extract performers from the second part of albumartist
4. Extract "orchestra, conductor" as best we can
5. Use discsubtitle (large collections) else:
   1. performer part of the albumartist if it's shorter than 60 chars, else
   2. "orchestra - conductor"
6. 01x01 if total discs is large (>2)

$set(_maincomposer,$if2($rsearch(%albumartist%,\(.*\); ),%albumartist%,%artist%))
$set(_work,$if2($if($lt($len(%album%),30),%album%),$rsearch(%album%,\(.*:.*\):),$rsearch(%album%,\(.*\)[\(]),%album%))
$set(_performers,$rsearch(%albumartist%,; \(.*\)))
$set(_conductor,$if2($rsearch(%conductor%,\(.*\);),%conductor%,$rsearch($performer(conductor),\(.*\);),$performer(conductor)))
$set(_orchestra_conductor,$if(%_conductor%,$performer(orchestra)\, %_conductor%,$performer(orchestra)))
$set(_performance,$if2(%discsubtitle%,$if($lt($len(%_performers%),60),%_performers%),%_orchestra_conductor%))
$set(_tracknums,$if($gt(%totaldiscs%,2),$num(%discnumber%,2)x$num(%tracknumber%,2) - ))

%_maincomposer%/%_work%/%_performance%/%_tracknums%%artist% - %title%

Produces:

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Don Giovanni/Freiburger Barockorchester, René Jacobs/01x01 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni, K. 527 - Ouverture. Andante - allegro molto.mp3
• @@Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Requiem/Berliner Philharmoniker/Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Requiem in D minor, K. 626 (Süßmayr completion) - IIIa?. Sequenz - 'Dies irae'.mp3

@@

• John Rutter/Requiem and other Sacred Music/Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Timothy Brown/John Rutter - Requiem - I. Requiem Aeternam.ogg

Large Collections

Add 01x01 only if totaldiscs > 1.

album-artist/album/01x01 - artist - title:

$if2(%albumartist%,%artist%)/%album%/$if($gt(%totaldiscs%,1),$num(%discnumber%,2)x$num(%tracknumber%,2) - )%artist% - %title%

Putting it all Together

$set(_maincomposer,$if2($rsearch(%albumartist%,\(.*\); ),%albumartist%,%artist%))
$set(_work,$if2($if($lt($len(%album%),30),%album%),$rsearch(%album%,\(.*:.*\):),$rsearch(%album%,\(.*\)[\(]),%album%))
$set(_performers,$rsearch(%albumartist%,; \(.*\)))
$set(_conductor,$if2($rsearch(%conductor%,\(.*\);),%conductor%,$rsearch($performer(conductor),\(.*\);),$performer(conductor)))
$set(_orchestra_conductor,$if(%_conductor%,$performer(orchestra)\, %_conductor%,$performer(orchestra)))
$set(_performance,$if2(%discsubtitle%,$if($lt($len(%_performers%),60),%_performers%),%_orchestra_conductor%))
$set(_tracknums,$if($gt(%totaldiscs%,2),$num(%discnumber%,2)x$num(%tracknumber%,2) - ))
$replace($noop(.)
$replace($noop(?)
$replace($noop(:)
$replace($noop(")
$replace($noop(|)
$replace($noop(<)
$replace($noop(>)
$rreplace(
$rreplace(
%_maincomposer%/%_work%/%_performance%/%_tracknums%%artist% - %title%
,\\s_\\b,;)
,_, )
,>,\))
,<,\()
,|,)
,",')
,:, -)
,?,)
,...,)