Why does Windows Media Player find the album art straight away and iTunes doesn't for many albums. the only way around it is to rip the CD in WMP AND iTunes and then copy the artwork file from WMP into iTunes.
Also iTunes is not so intuitive when it comes to albums with various artists accredited to different tracks.
Last edited by: Cheddar on Mon 7 Feb 11 at 22:54
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If iTunes doesn't get it right, I often grab artwork from Amazon, if it's just front cover you want. Copy & paste.
Not sure what the issue is with Various Artists albums, but I've never notice anything wrong with the standard way of doing it, which is Album Artist field = Various Artists and the individual track showing the actual artist.
I must admit I got a bit anal about editing tags to make sure things are consistent in my music library.
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Good idea copying album art from Amazon! It is easy enough from WMP if you have the CD ripped there anyway.
iTunes is great in that you can rip CDs to 320 kbps AAC files so virtually CD quality if put through a DAC.
The other issue is with albums like Robbie Williams "Swing when you are winning", the artists per track are listed kind of as follows:
No: ... Track: ... Artist:
1/ I will talk and Hollywood will listen / Robbie Williams
2/ Mack the knife / Robbie Williams
3/ Something stupid / Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman
4/ It was a very good year / Robbie Williams and Frank Sinatra
etc
iTunes relates to the artist perameter and lists it as half a dozen different albums, the only way around it (I have found) is to go into "Get info" and change all artist descriptions to be the same, i.e. just "Robbie Williams". It might also work classifying it as a compilation, haven't tried that yet.
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I'd guess that's more to do with the source of the album track info than the software you are using (iTunes). If you are talking about ripping, I guess it is getting album info from Gracenote or somesuch, and there are probably multiple versions of data for the same album. I believe the info is posted there by users like us, some of whom are literate and can spell, and some can't, and some of whom are anal and want every piece of info, and some don't.
In your example, the album name isn't mentioned, as it is a separate field from track and artist. I would have thought these tracks should all be the same album (looks a bit like Swing While You're Winning to me!), and album artist (even if it's Various Artists, although in your example I'd probably class the album artists as Robbie). I use a piece of software called Tag and Rename before I put files into the iTunes library to correct tag issues - it is a faster and more comprehensive than iTunes editing. And, for instance, it will capitalise first letters in titles if you want.
I don't know if you let iTunes manage your music, but if so, the structure of directories where your music is stored will be and (usually) the files will be named |
>> I'd guess that's more to do with the source of the album track info than
the software you are using (iTunes). >>
Though WMP sorts it out fine.
>> In your example, the album name isn't mentioned, as it is a separate field from
track and artist. >>
I did mention the album, yes "Swing while you're winning", though my point was that the artist field is confusing iTunes.
>> I don't know if you let iTunes manage your music,
Tried it both ways.
>> So I guess I'd suggest that you rip to somewhere other than your iTunes library, then correct the tags to what suits you, then import the folder to iTunes. >>
I have done that though if the "Swing while you're winning" issue occurs you can just highlight all tracks and then go to File>Get Info and align the artist data.
Many thanks.
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Personally I use mp3tag to sort out mess when WMP finds the wrong track listing or artwork.
www.mp3tag.de/en/
For album artwork I use Google image search then paste straight from the Google image results list into MP3tag.
WMP insisted on tagging Spamette Minor's Justin Bieber album with Japanese script track names the other week, that one baffled me.
Have MS nobbled the MP3 ripping in WMP10? it seems to take ages to rip one CD (several minutes), much faster to rip the same CD to WMA. Seems OK in WMP11 though.
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I use MP3Tag. Just done a 170gb library using it. Its a the perfect tool.
WMP frequently finds the wrong meta data and graphics,
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 8 Feb 11 at 10:01
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>>
>> WMP frequently finds the wrong meta data and graphics,
>>
Strange, it works pretty much fine for me, it's iTunes that mucks it all up.
Does MP3tag work with AAC files?
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>>
>> Does MP3tag work with AAC files?
>>
Yes. The one thing you have to remember is to hit the save button after editing the track data. Ok it's obvious but I kept forgetting when I started using it.
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Tue 8 Feb 11 at 10:38
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Its best feature is the ability to batch change file names and meta data using the filter, and its links to the on-line music databases.
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>> Its best feature is the ability to batch change file names and meta data using
>> the filter, and its links to the on-line music databases.
>>
Yeah, I've tried other editors but MP3Tag has about the right level of features without resorting to a 'geeks only' GUI.
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MP3tag looks good, thanks for the tip
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>> thanks for the tip
>>
+1
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iTunes frustrations, Windows Media Player better? - smokie
