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Topic: Tagging application for Mac (Read 27397 times) previous topic - next topic
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Tagging application for Mac

What is the best application for tagging audio files (MP3 and otherwise) on a Mac?  Ie the most functions, good interface etc.
In particular, I'm looking for one that will copy ID3V2 => ID3V1.

When I used to use Windows, I found a program called Tag&Rename (http://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm) which could do EVERYTHING.  Something like that for Mac would be perfect.

Thanks.

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #1
With foobar2000 you would get both a powerful audio player and a very good tagging software.

The only thing it can not do is to embed Album Art pictures.
This is HA. Not the Jerry Springer Show.

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #2
Isn't there anything that runs natively on Mac OS, so I don't have to assemble the application myself?

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #3
Isn't there anything that runs natively on Mac OS, so I don't have to assemble the application myself?

Do you not use iTunes? On Mac it is not so much the behemoth; though FLAC functionality is almost nil.

Tag is not too bad and is free.

ID 3 Editor is $12.

Jaikoz is £15.


Tagging application for Mac

Reply #4
Isn't there anything that runs natively on Mac OS, so I don't have to assemble the application myself?

Do you not use iTunes? On Mac it is not so much the behemoth; though FLAC functionality is almost nil.

Tag is not too bad and is free.

ID 3 Editor is $12.

Jaikoz is £15.


All of these don't even come close to T&R in functionality.  iTunes IS pretty good, but lacks key features. One being renaming files, which I now do using A Better Finder Rename (http://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderRename/). Another feature being copy ID3V2 => ID3V1. (my car stereo doesn't read V2)

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #5
in iTunes you can rename right in the main window

what other *key* features?

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #6
TriTag!


Tagging application for Mac

Reply #8
Media Rage is quite good.
Every night with my star friends / We eat caviar and drink champagne
Sniffing in the VIP area / We talk about Frank Sinatra
Do you know Frank Sinatra? / He's dead

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #9
You can try EasyTag which can do the aforementioned everything.  There is a binary available for OS X.

Quote
Features of version 2.1:

          o View, edit, write tags of MP3, MP2 files (ID3 tag with pictures), FLAC files (FLAC Vorbis tag), Ogg Vorbis files (Ogg Vorbis tag), MP4/AAC (MP4/AAC tag), MusePack, Monkey's Audio files and WavPack files (APE tag),
          o Can edit more tag fields : Title, Artist, Album, Disc Album, Year, Track Number, Genre, Comment, Composer, Original Artist/Performer, Copyright, URL, Encoder name and attached Picture,
          o Auto tagging: parse filename and directory to complete automatically the fields (using masks),
          o Ability to rename files and directories from the tag (using masks) or by loading a text file,
          o Process selected files of the selected directory,
          o Ability to browse subdirectories,
          o Recursion for tagging, removing, renaming, saving...,
          o Can set a field (artist, title,...) to all other files,
          o Read file header informations (bitrate, time, ...) and display them,
          o Auto completion of the date if a partial is entered,
          o Undo and redo last changes,
          o Ability to process fields of tag and file name (convert letters into uppercase, downcase, ...),
          o Ability to open a directory or a file with an external program,
          o CDDB support using Freedb.org and Gnudb.org servers (manual and automatic search),
          o A tree based browser or a view by Artist & Album,
          o A list to select files,
          o A playlist generator window,
          o A file searching window,
          o Simple and explicit interface!,
          o French, German, Russian, Dutch, Hungarian, Swedish, Italian, Japanese, Ukrainian, Czech, Spanish, Polish, Romanian, Danish, Greek, Brazilian Portuguese and Chinese translation languages,
          o Written in C and uses GTK+ 2 for the GUI,






Tagging application for Mac

Reply #12
Awesome, EasyTag is the first free GUI-based OS X app I've seen that supports embedding images in FLAC tags (I've griped about this a bit before). So is there a place to get a binary for 10.5 Intel, or do we have to compile from the source ourselves?

 

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #13
Awesome, EasyTag is the first free GUI-based OS X app I've seen that supports embedding images in FLAC tags (I've griped about this a bit before). So is there a place to get a binary for 10.5 Intel, or do we have to compile from the source ourselves?


Follow the link to EasyTag > Downloads >  EasyTAG for MacOSX from Fink Packages where you will see versions for OS X 10.4 & 10.5 PPC & i386, and for OS X 10.6 i386 & x86_64

There was a bug with manual CDDB lookups a while ago when some of the gnudb/FreeDB servers changed from CDDB protocol to http.  It got patched in August 2009 and the OS X binaries were built the following month so they should be fine.  If not then perhaps send an email to the maintainer of the OS X binaries, his details are on the download page. For reference the patch was made available on the easytag mailing list 26/08/2009.  This info is for your convenience and should not alarm or deter you 

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #14
Follow the link to EasyTag > Downloads >  EasyTAG for MacOSX from Fink Packages where you will see versions for OS X 10.4 & 10.5 PPC & i386, and for OS X 10.6 i386 & x86_64


Yes, I got there, but they're all source, and the binary column is totally blank. Or am I missing something?

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #15
Follow the link to EasyTag > Downloads >  EasyTAG for MacOSX from Fink Packages where you will see versions for OS X 10.4 & 10.5 PPC & i386, and for OS X 10.6 i386 & x86_64


Yes, I got there, but they're all source, and the binary column is totally blank. Or am I missing something?


Yes, you're missing clicking the links to the Fink FAQ ;-)

I'm not a Mac user but it looks to me like Fink is something like a BSD ports system combined with the excellent Debian binary package management, so follow the FAQ & Documentation, set up Fink and you'll be able to easily install anything available via Fink, with the advantage that it's built from source automatically and optimised for your machine's architecture and OS.

I had a quick look through available packages and it looks like there is a lot of great stuff available this way.

Fink - About

p.s. this is your big chance to enjoy the flexibility and power of UNIX that often may lay undiscovered under all that Apple marketing gloss :-)

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #16
If I wanted to program computers, I would have used Linux.


Tagging application for Mac

Reply #18
If I wanted to program computers, I would have used Linux.


This is not programming computers.  It's a useful way for Mac OS X users to gain access to software available for UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems, one of which is OS X  (as opposed to software which is intended to be OS X specific and hence is packaged in binary dmg form).  It might require a little reading and searching to become familiar with some of the terminology and methods but the upside is that once it's done it's done, and you enjoy the benefit of access to a vast amount of free software.

There is a similar project MacPorts which might be seen by many Mac users as friendlier/easier.  I looked at the installation guide and macports can be installed using regular dmg binaries.  It also offers a build of EasyTag.

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #19
All of these don't even come close to T&R in functionality.

Absolutely true. I tried everything -- at least 20 different Windows and Mac programs -- and none of them are as good as Softpointer's Tag & Rename. Everything else has bugs and limitations, won't handle enough audio formats, or doesn't have as good a user interface -- IMHO. It means having to run Windows, but this is one of a handful of programs that isn't yet equalled on the Mac.

Quote
One being renaming files, which I now do using A Better Finder Rename.

Absolutely. Absolutely fantastic program for renaming files. I usually prefer renaming files with T&R, but Better Finder Rename (and Better Finder Select, etc.) are all godsends.

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #20
Quote
I use Muscbrainz Picard, works great for me.


Worst interface ever.


Quote from:  link=msg=681552 date=0
Media Rage is quite good.


Do you know how to copy ID3V2 tags to ID3V1 for a whole folder full of MP3s?

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #21
Looks like this is a dead-end thread.

I found a ready to use copy of Easytag 1.0 here:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23207

It doesn't look like it will create ID3V1 tags for me either.  Plus it doesn't even run natively. It runs within another app called X11, and the GUI looks like Windows 3.1. Yuck.

Tagging with a Mac is the pits.  I've tried everything I could find.  Since all my MP3's are on a Mac-formatted external hard drive, using a Windows box to do it isn't an option anymore either.  I guess I was asking for too much.

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #22
That's an extremely old version of Easytag, and inevitably it's using ancient versions of Gtk and X11.    All versions of EasyTag for Mac will run in a similar way, i.e. they require X11 and GTK. X11 is a windowing system, broadly speaking it fullfils on UNIX-like systems the role played by Core Graphics in OS X.  GTK is the graphical tool kit, which determines the look and feel i.e. appearance of widgets, icons, decoration and so on.  Clearly you've succeeded in installing/setting up MacUpdate and now appreciate it isn't terribly difficult to get this type of thing set up and that to the end user it isn't actually complex (just slightly unfamiliar territory).  With this in mind I'd strongly suggest looking at MacPorts (linked in one of my posts above) which works in the same way but is up to date, actively maintained, well documented, and also makes no demands on your bank balance. It looks to me like MacUpdate is attempting to monetize a facility which doesn't compare favourably with similar but better services provided at no cost.

Newer versions of Easytag most definitely can write ID3v1 tags, as well as ID3v2.3 or 2.4 as preferred, and write them both if required. The interface is modern and pleasant (using GTK 2) and imo extremely well designed, making your workflow both easy and fast.  For clarification my point of comparison is with some of the taggers I used in Windows such as Mp3tag, foobar2000 and so on, and some such as Kid3 that I have used on GNU/Linux or BSD systems. I don't have any recent experience of using a Mac and have never done any ripping, encoding or tagging in OS X.

Tagging application for Mac

Reply #23
Like I said, it was the only ready-to-use copy of Easytag I could find meaning I downloaded it and ran it.
I'm one of those people who wants their computer to be a tool, not a hobby.
I refuse to muck about in command-line driven interfaces in the 21st century.  I'd sooner retag all my MP3 by hand.

Thank you. That's nice that it writes V1 tags, but as I said in my original post, I need to copy V3 in info to V1.


Tagging application for Mac

Reply #24
iTunes lets you convert the ID3 version..



With Doug's great collection of applescripts, I've found iTunes to be an incredibly powerful tagger, but YMMV of course!