Difference between revisions of "Foobar2000:Components/Masstagger (foo masstag)"

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{{Foobar Component Infobox
+
{{DISPLAYTITLE:foobar2000:Components/Masstagger (foo masstag)}}
| name = foo_masstag
+
{{infobox foobar2000 component
| screenshot =  
+
| name                 = Masstagger
| caption = Masstager
+
| screenshot           = [[Image:Foobar2000-Masstagger.png|256px]]
| maintainer = Official
+
| caption             =  
| stable_release = 1.6
+
| module_name          = foo_masstag
| preview_release =  
+
| developer            = Peter Pawlowski
| foobar_version = 0.9.4.x
+
| repository          =
| use = Tagging
+
| released            =
| license = -
+
| released_ref        =  
| website = [http://www.foobar2000.org/]
+
| stable_release       = 1.9
| discussion_thread =  
+
| stable_release_date  = 2022-09-19
 +
| preview_release     =  
 +
| preview_release_date =  
 +
| foobar2000_minimum  = 1.6
 +
| foobar2000_maximum  =  
 +
| foobar2000_ui_module =  
 +
| use                  = Tagging
 +
| license              =  
 
}}
 
}}
'''Masstagger'''
 
  
Masstagger is an advanced tool for editing the information of tags in multiple files.  
+
'''Masstagger''' is an advanced tool for editing the information of tags in multiple files.
'''Note:''' It's not available by default, You must select it during installation under Tools\Masstagger.
+
 
What makes Masstager so powerfull in editing tags is it's use of titleformat scripts (see [[Foobar2000:Titleformat_Introduction|introduction]] and [[Foobar2000:Titleformat_Reference|reference]].
+
Masstagger's main limitation is lack of <abbr title="What You See Is What You Get">WYSIWYG</abbr> editing of tags, making it inefficient for typical tag editing scenarios. You should use the [[Foobar2000:Properties|Properties dialog]] instead unless you want to be able to quickly run predefined complex tagging tasks on your files.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
== Basic usage ==
 +
[[Image:Foobar2000-Masstagger-howtoactivate.png|thumb|Accessing the main Masstagger dialog]]
 +
To open the main Masstagger dialog, select the tracks you want to work with and choose the "Manage Scripts" command from the context menu, under the "Tagging" submenu.
 +
 
 +
The left box displays a list of actions that are about to be performed on your tags. The actions are performed in descending order - actions placed lower on the list will operate on tags already altered by actions placed higher on the list.
 +
 
 +
The "scripts" box contains commands that allow you to save the current chain of actions or restore a chain of actions that was saved earlier.
 +
 
 +
There are two ways to store Masstagger scripts:
 +
* In foobar2000 configuration - by using the "Save" / "Load" etc buttons - you can quickly load those scripts later, as well as access them directly from the "Tagging" / "Scripts" submenu of the context menu, as well as access them with [[Foobar2000:Preferences:General:Keyboard Shortcuts|keyboard shortcuts]].
 +
* In external files - by using the "Export to file..." and "Import from file..." buttons - such scripts can be easily interchanged between users or between different foobar2000 installations.
  
 
== Available actions ==
 
== Available actions ==
  
 
=== Add value ===
 
=== Add value ===
Adds desired tag field and sets it to whatever you enter in the masstagger input window.
+
Adds a new value to the specified metadata field. If the field already exists, a new value is added to its values; if it does not, it's created with a single value.
 +
 
 +
This is particularly useful when working with fields that often have more than one value, such as "ARTIST" or "GENRE".
 +
 
 +
For an example: an Add "GENRE" = "Rock" action will add "Rock" to the list of genres on affected tracks - if any of these tracks don't have a "GENRE" field yet, such field will be created, with one value equal to "Rock".
  
 
=== Auto track number ===
 
=== Auto track number ===
Line 28: Line 51:
 
=== Copy value ===
 
=== Copy value ===
 
Copies one tag field to another.
 
Copies one tag field to another.
 +
 +
===Embed cuesheet===
 +
This action looks for a cuesheet named %filename%.cue or %filename_ext%.cue in the same folder as the file being processed and embeds it.
  
 
=== Format value from other fields ===
 
=== Format value from other fields ===
This is where it becomes interesting. This option lets you enter a specific formatting pattern for any tag field you wish to edit or create.
+
This action lets you enter a specific [[Foobar2000:Title Formatting Introduction|title formatting]] pattern for any tag field you wish to edit or create.
  
'''Note''' that when using complex formatting patterns I would recommend to first format a temporary %temp% tag with the desired pattern and then copy that one into the value that you wish. Afterwards you can remove the temp value. When processing a large batch of files you could probably just do a test run on one of the files and then do the rest in one go. Think about what you are doing beforehand though. After all I don't want to be held responsible for messing up anyones music collection.
+
In addition to standard title formatting fields, starting with version 1.8.2 you can use %now% to fetch current system time.
 
+
''I will explain how to create formatting strings for different situations further down .''
+
  
 
=== Guess values from filename ===
 
=== Guess values from filename ===
Guesses values from filename and lets you enter a certain formatting pattern for it. For example if your files are named artist - album_title.
+
Automatically fills metadata values according to file paths, according to a guessing pattern that you specify.
  
Enter
+
Note that this is similar to the [[Foobar2000:Properties/Automatically Fill Values|Automatically Fill Values dialog]].
%artist% - %album%_%title%
+
 
as formatting pattern.
+
The guessing pattern syntax is NOT based on title formatting - functions or field remappings do not apply here.
 +
 
 +
You can put slash characters in the guessing pattern to also retrieve data from names of folders containing your files.
 +
 
 +
For an example, if your directory structure is formatted as "Artist\(Date) Album\N. Title.ext" - eg. "Muse\(2006) Black Holes & Revelations\01. Take A Bow.mpc", you can transfer all relevant information from file paths to tags using the following pattern: "%artist%\(%date%) %album%\%tracknumber%. %title%".
  
 
=== Guess values from other fields ===
 
=== Guess values from other fields ===
Guesses values from other tags and lets you enter a certain fromatting pattern for it. For example if your files are tagged artist / title in the title field.
+
Similar to "Guess values from filename", except it uses other fields - through a [[Foobar2000:Title Formatting Introduction|title formatting string]] - as a source, instead of file names.
  
 
=== Input data (one line per track) ===
 
=== Input data (one line per track) ===
Line 50: Line 78:
  
 
=== Remove all fields ===
 
=== Remove all fields ===
Removes all tag fields (who would have guessed)
+
Removes all tag fields.
  
 
=== Remove all except for... ===
 
=== Remove all except for... ===
Does just as it says, removes all values and lets you specify wich ones not to remove in a second field in the following pattern ie.:
+
Removes all fields except for the ones that you specify. For an example, specify "title;album;artist" to remove all fields other than title, album and artist.
 
+
%artist%;%title%;etc
+
  
 
=== Remove field ===
 
=== Remove field ===
 
Removes desired tag field.
 
Removes desired tag field.
  
=== Set value ===
+
=== Remove values... ===
Sets desired tag field (artist, album,custom,etc) to whatever you enter in the masstagger input window.
+
Opposite of "Add value". Removes matching values of the specified field. Useful when dealing with multiple genre values for an example.
 
+
=== Split multiple artist field ===
+
 
+
 
+
 
+
'''Note''' that it is possible to perform several of these actions at once and in that case the order of those actions can be very important. So removing field A before copying it to field B is probably a bad Idea and should be performed the other way around, etc.
+
 
+
== Writing format strings for the masstager ==
+
 
+
 
+
'''Extracting Information from Relative File Paths:'''
+
 
+
As suggested I have included a small section on how to extract different values from their relative file paths. To do so I will use the following example path to extract information from
+
 
+
''...\Genre\Artist\Album[Date]\01_Title.mpc''
+
 
+
 
+
'''sets title:'''
+
 
+
%_filename% returns title as 01_Title.mpc and
+
 
+
$puts(char,_)$puts(tag,%_filename%)
+
$puts(spacer,$strchr($get(tag),$get(char)))
+
$trim($right($get(tag),$sub($len($get(tag)),$get(spacer))))
+
returns title as Title.mpc
+
 
+
'''sets album:'''
+
 
+
$directory(%_path%,1) returns title as Album[Date]
+
 
+
$puts(char,'[')$puts(tag,$directory(%_path%,1))
+
$puts(spacer,$strchr($get(tag),$get(char)))
+
$trim($left($get(tag),$sub($get(spacer),1)))
+
returns album as Album
+
 
+
'''NOTE:''' that the [ is quotes as '[' , the reason for this is for it to be recognized as a character and not as a command syntax, you will probably have to ommit the quotation marks for most other characters.
+
 
+
 
+
'''sets artist:'''
+
 
+
$directory(%_path%,2) returns artist as Artist
+
 
+
 
+
'''sets genre:'''
+
 
+
$directory(%_path%,3) returns genre as Genre
+
 
+
'''
+
sets tracknumber:'''
+
 
+
$num($left(%_filename%,2),2) returns tracknumber as 01
+
 
+
 
+
 
+
Obviously a lot more is possible, but then this was just supposed to be a short introduction. I would say simply copy a few of your files, and play around with it.
+
 
+
 
+
 
+
== The Rename Files Dialog ==
+
 
+
 
+
The rename files dialog enables you to automatically rename your files according to your metadata tags in an automated way. You will first need to select all the tracks you want to rename and then right click and select: Masstagger/rename files.
+
 
+
Select in the masstagger dialog wich output directory you mant to use and wether to generate subdirectories according to the / \ characters. I will give a few examples for renaming strings below.
+
 
+
 
+
'''Examples:'''
+
 
+
To rename your files to "tracknumber_title.ext (i.e. 08_The Glass Bead Game.mpc)" you will need to enter the following syntax in the Output file name format field
+
 
+
%tracknumber%_%title%
+
No need to create subdirectories in this case.
+
 
+
 
+
To rename your files to "/artist - album/title.ext (i.e. Thievery Corporation - Sounds of the Thievery Hi-Fi/08_The Glass Bead Game.mpc) and create the appropriate subdirectories you will need the following syntax
+
 
+
/%artist% - %album%/%tracknumber%_%title%
+
In this case make sure the "create subdirectories" checkbox is ticked.
+
 
+
 
+
To rename your files to "/artist/album/tracknumber_title.ext (i.e.: /Thievery Corporation/Sounds of the Thievery Hi-Fi/08_The Glass Bead Game.mpc) use the following syntax
+
 
+
/%artst%/%album%/%tracknumber%_%title%
+
 
+
 
+
 
+
In case you generally make use of "album artist" tags (or anything similar) for various albums files you can replace %artist% with
+
 
+
$if2(%album artist%,%artist%)
+
in any of the above strings.
+
 
+
 
+
'''Note:'''
+
One reason why it is convenient to use the masstaggers rename files function is that this way Foobar2000's database will automatically get updated to the current changes.
+
 
+
 
+
 
+
Of course this only gives a general idea of what is possible and all kind of different filenaming schemes can be used for this.
+
And as usual, please don't hold me responsible in case this makes a mess out of any of your files wink.gif
+
In case the renamer ever does anything unexpected, don't dispair, it is usually very easy to fix with just another renaming operation.
+
 
+
Well, if your still with me now I guess thats quite a good sign and at least you didn't get all to bored along the way. Hope this is all somewhat comprehensible and can give people who are new to this a general idea on how things work. Concerning Foobars Masstagger at least. Any suggestions and especially critisism, corrections and add ons extremely welcome.
+
  
Oh yeah and in case you ever get bored of any of those old bad quality Kazaa files that might still be lying around on your harddisk you can
+
=== Replace values... ===
 +
Replaces matching values of the specified field with the specified value. Useful for mass-fixing inconsistent tagging, especially when dealing with multi-value fields such as artist or genre, since only the matching value gets altered.
  
always replace %tag% by $rot13(%tag%) , mess them all up a bit and make your filenames gow all blowfish. (allright, for all humorless people, it's a joke, '''PLEASE DON'T DO THIS''', except of course if you are really bored with them)
+
=== Set value... ===
 +
Sets desired tag field (artist,album,etc) to the specified value.
  
Hmh lots of blehs and blahs, guess I should have used something a bit more creative . Otherwise I might as well have called this thread BlahBlah.
+
=== Split field by separator... ===
 +
Splits values of the specified field according to the specified separator string. For an example, if your tags have ARTIST fields formatted as "person1 & person2" instead of correct multiple values, you can use this action to split generate multiple values, by specifying "&" as the separator string.
  
In case you find any ingenious strings or even better simple ones, I suggest everyone can simply post them in this thread.
+
=== Split multiple artist fields ===
 +
If the artist field value contains characters such as "," or "&", the value gets split into multiple values accordingly.
  
 +
Note: This is equivalent to having two "Split field by separator..." actions, both with field set to "ARTIST", one with separator set to "," and the other with separator set to "&".
  
== Links ==
+
== Notes on upgrading from older (pre-1.7) Masstagger versions ==
 +
Various functionality that is now available through other components has been removed.
 +
* File moving functionality - now available through the [[Foobar2000:File_operations|File Operations component]].
 +
* Copying tags between tracks - see: [[Foobar2000:How to transfer tags between two sets of tracks|How to transfer tags between two sets of tracks]].
  
This page is based on picmixer's [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=12302 Unofficial masstagger guide] on the foobar2000 forum.
+
== Command line interface ==
 +
Masstagger provides extra [[Foobar2000:Commandline_Guide|command line switches]] for tag modifications. Version 1.8.4 of the component shows this information:
 +
Usage:
 +
 +
/tag:help - displays this message
 +
 +
/tag:<command1>[;<command2>;<command3>...] <file1> [<file2> <file3>...]
 +
 +
Commands:
 +
 +
<NAME>=<VALUE>
 +
    Sets <NAME> field to <VALUE>, e.g. "/tag:title=test <file>".
 +
    You can erase particular field by specifying empty value, e.g. "/tag:comment= <file>".
 +
    You can also specify multiple values by separating them with \ character, e.g. "/tag:artist=name1\name2 <file>".
 +
AUTOTRACKNUMBER
 +
    Sets TRACKNUMBER field of multiple files according to their order in commandline.
 +
    E.g. "/tag:AUTOTRACKNUMBER <file1> <file2> <file3>" will assign TRACKNUMBER=1 to <file1>, 2 to <file2> and 3 to <file3>.
 +
FORMAT:<FIELD>:<SPEC>
 +
    Formats <FIELD> using <SPEC>; see title formatting manual for more info how to use it.
 +
    E.g. "/tag:FORMAT:COMMENT:"%ARTIST% - %TITLE%" <file>".
 +
GUESS:<PATTERN>:<SPEC>
 +
    Guesses field values using <PATTERN>, according to <SPEC>.
 +
    To perform "guess values from filename" action, use "/tag:GUESS:<PATTERN>:%_FILENAME% <file>".
 +
    E.g. "/tag:GUESS:"%TRACKNUMBER%. %TITLE%":%_FILENAME% <file>".
  
You can find a tutorial with videos here [http://eolindel.free.fr/foobar0.9/masstut.php Unofficial masstagger tutorial]
+
==External links==
 +
* {{foobar2000|http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_masstag|Masstagger}}

Latest revision as of 15:24, 20 September 2022

Masstagger
Foobar2000-Masstagger.png
Developer(s) Peter Pawlowski
Repository
Release information
Initial release
Stable release 1.9 (September 19, 2022)
Preview release
foobar2000 compatibility
Architecture {{{foobar2000_architecture}}}
Minimum version 1.6
Maximum version
UI module(s) N/A
Additional information
Use Tagging
License
Discussion thread {{{discussion_thread}}}
View all components

Masstagger is an advanced tool for editing the information of tags in multiple files.

Masstagger's main limitation is lack of WYSIWYG editing of tags, making it inefficient for typical tag editing scenarios. You should use the Properties dialog instead unless you want to be able to quickly run predefined complex tagging tasks on your files.


Basic usage

Accessing the main Masstagger dialog

To open the main Masstagger dialog, select the tracks you want to work with and choose the "Manage Scripts" command from the context menu, under the "Tagging" submenu.

The left box displays a list of actions that are about to be performed on your tags. The actions are performed in descending order - actions placed lower on the list will operate on tags already altered by actions placed higher on the list.

The "scripts" box contains commands that allow you to save the current chain of actions or restore a chain of actions that was saved earlier.

There are two ways to store Masstagger scripts:

  • In foobar2000 configuration - by using the "Save" / "Load" etc buttons - you can quickly load those scripts later, as well as access them directly from the "Tagging" / "Scripts" submenu of the context menu, as well as access them with keyboard shortcuts.
  • In external files - by using the "Export to file..." and "Import from file..." buttons - such scripts can be easily interchanged between users or between different foobar2000 installations.

Available actions

Add value

Adds a new value to the specified metadata field. If the field already exists, a new value is added to its values; if it does not, it's created with a single value.

This is particularly useful when working with fields that often have more than one value, such as "ARTIST" or "GENRE".

For an example: an Add "GENRE" = "Rock" action will add "Rock" to the list of genres on affected tracks - if any of these tracks don't have a "GENRE" field yet, such field will be created, with one value equal to "Rock".

Auto track number

This gives the track number according to the order of the files in the selection.

Copy value

Copies one tag field to another.

Embed cuesheet

This action looks for a cuesheet named %filename%.cue or %filename_ext%.cue in the same folder as the file being processed and embeds it.

Format value from other fields

This action lets you enter a specific title formatting pattern for any tag field you wish to edit or create.

In addition to standard title formatting fields, starting with version 1.8.2 you can use %now% to fetch current system time.

Guess values from filename

Automatically fills metadata values according to file paths, according to a guessing pattern that you specify.

Note that this is similar to the Automatically Fill Values dialog.

The guessing pattern syntax is NOT based on title formatting - functions or field remappings do not apply here.

You can put slash characters in the guessing pattern to also retrieve data from names of folders containing your files.

For an example, if your directory structure is formatted as "Artist\(Date) Album\N. Title.ext" - eg. "Muse\(2006) Black Holes & Revelations\01. Take A Bow.mpc", you can transfer all relevant information from file paths to tags using the following pattern: "%artist%\(%date%) %album%\%tracknumber%. %title%".

Guess values from other fields

Similar to "Guess values from filename", except it uses other fields - through a title formatting string - as a source, instead of file names.

Input data (one line per track)

Enter the data for each song with the pattern indicated, line by line, (one line per song as it is said). Don't worry about the length, the lines could be very long (only adds a vertical scroll bar if it is too long).

Remove all fields

Removes all tag fields.

Remove all except for...

Removes all fields except for the ones that you specify. For an example, specify "title;album;artist" to remove all fields other than title, album and artist.

Remove field

Removes desired tag field.

Remove values...

Opposite of "Add value". Removes matching values of the specified field. Useful when dealing with multiple genre values for an example.

Replace values...

Replaces matching values of the specified field with the specified value. Useful for mass-fixing inconsistent tagging, especially when dealing with multi-value fields such as artist or genre, since only the matching value gets altered.

Set value...

Sets desired tag field (artist,album,etc) to the specified value.

Split field by separator...

Splits values of the specified field according to the specified separator string. For an example, if your tags have ARTIST fields formatted as "person1 & person2" instead of correct multiple values, you can use this action to split generate multiple values, by specifying "&" as the separator string.

Split multiple artist fields

If the artist field value contains characters such as "," or "&", the value gets split into multiple values accordingly.

Note: This is equivalent to having two "Split field by separator..." actions, both with field set to "ARTIST", one with separator set to "," and the other with separator set to "&".

Notes on upgrading from older (pre-1.7) Masstagger versions

Various functionality that is now available through other components has been removed.

Command line interface

Masstagger provides extra command line switches for tag modifications. Version 1.8.4 of the component shows this information:

Usage:

/tag:help - displays this message

/tag:<command1>[;<command2>;<command3>...] <file1> [<file2> <file3>...]

Commands:

<NAME>=<VALUE>
    Sets <NAME> field to <VALUE>, e.g. "/tag:title=test <file>".
    You can erase particular field by specifying empty value, e.g. "/tag:comment= <file>".
    You can also specify multiple values by separating them with \ character, e.g. "/tag:artist=name1\name2 <file>".
AUTOTRACKNUMBER
    Sets TRACKNUMBER field of multiple files according to their order in commandline.
    E.g. "/tag:AUTOTRACKNUMBER <file1> <file2> <file3>" will assign TRACKNUMBER=1 to <file1>, 2 to <file2> and 3 to <file3>.
FORMAT:<FIELD>:<SPEC>
    Formats <FIELD> using <SPEC>; see title formatting manual for more info how to use it.
    E.g. "/tag:FORMAT:COMMENT:"%ARTIST% - %TITLE%" <file>".
GUESS:<PATTERN>:<SPEC>
    Guesses field values using <PATTERN>, according to <SPEC>.
    To perform "guess values from filename" action, use "/tag:GUESS:<PATTERN>:%_FILENAME% <file>".
    E.g. "/tag:GUESS:"%TRACKNUMBER%. %TITLE%":%_FILENAME% <file>".

External links