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Author Topic: Tagging audio files in itunes+ipod is an absolute NIGHTMARE!!  (Read 5289 times)

superboyac

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So my mom really wants to be able to play our childhood music to her grandkids.  But most of the stuff is on records, and so I volunteered to get everything on an ipod and just connect it to their audio system.  Now, I am a stickler when it comes to tagging my music and organizing them into folders with proper filenames.  So I expected not to have any problems as far as tags go since I've been so diligent about it.

WRONG!!  itunes and these i-devices are a tagging nightmare.  If you don't know, the only two tags that really matter (as far as organization) on the ipod is artist and album.  But it will fuck up that artist tag a LOT.  In these tagging protocols, the artist name is stored in multiple places: artist, album artist, etc.  Well, the ipod decides to read it from the Album Artist tag, which is the less common one in most tagging programs.  Now, that's fine, ok.  But what's the worst part is if you try to fix all this in itunes, it will show all the fixed tags in the itunes application, but it doesn't change on the ipod itself.  So you have to remove all the music and upload it again.  Man, this has taken me hours!

Normally, I wouldn't care.  But the BIG problem is that on the ipod, if the album artist isn't done right, a single album can be split up into multiple artists (like eagles, various artists, various) and before you know it, the ipod screen is filled with all these artists that you have no idea where it came from.  Bach may be Back or Johann Sebastain Bach or the conductor of the album...and it's all invisible.  It's been a nightmare.

Once again, this is the kind of thing that makes Apple evil.  The problem for us is this: even after years of these ipods and audio players and tablets, the i-devices touch response (swiping smoothness) and overall interface is still better BY FAR than all the other devices out there.  That's it.  These competitors (Android, Windows, webOS) better make darn sure their interface can equal that kind of smoothness and responsiveness or else they will NEVER catch up to Apple.  Every time I pick up the new Android device I can immediately tell how awful the touch-features are compared to Apple's.  Immediately.

I don't know what these other companies are doing with their time.  They need to stop everything and just get the dam touch response right.  But maybe it's just, who am I to tell them how to do it.  But don't listen, fine.  Keep coming out with model after model after model with that awful touch response.  Keep doing it, it's fine.   ::)

Anyway, I hate buying this Apple stuff, but it's a hell of a lot easier than teaching my mom how to use the shitty Android interface.

The good news is I gave my mom a little sneak preview of what this new fangled technology can do, and she was more excited than I've seen in a long time once she heard her favorite records playing again.  Now it sounds like I need to do the same for my sisters and their kids!  Glad to!

Edvard

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Re: Tagging audio files in itunes+ipod is an absolute NIGHTMARE!!
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2012, 11:47 AM »
Artist vs. Album Artist always confused me too.
It's not even in the ID3 spec:
http://www.id3.org/id3v2.3.0

Maybe this will help:
http://www.mkoby.com...versus-album-artist/

...and from now on, I'm going to declare embedded images as type '$11' in all my mp3's  ;D

Deozaan

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Re: Tagging audio files in itunes+ipod is an absolute NIGHTMARE!!
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2012, 12:22 PM »
Every time I pick up the new Android device I can immediately tell how awful the touch-features are compared to Apple's.  Immediately.

:huh:

I have never been able to get an iPod's touch-features to work correctly.

The only nice thing about the iPod is the large storage space, IMO.

worstje

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Re: Tagging audio files in itunes+ipod is an absolute NIGHTMARE!!
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2012, 12:39 PM »
I only got an ipod because of the good battery. Imo, the interface sucks, both on the device and the software. (Yes, I'm a heathen to many.)

Why does it suck? I'm someone who likes to manipulate their music while doing stuff. Don't like a track? Go to the next one. With an ipod, I can't do it unless I take it out of my pocket, use both my hands to get it off the lock, then hit the next track button. Previous music players I had allowed me to do all those actions with one hand, without looking, simply because I could feel where the controls were.

Innuendo

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Re: Tagging audio files in itunes+ipod is an absolute NIGHTMARE!!
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2012, 04:24 PM »
The Apple UI experience, whether it be on their personal music players or their computers, is absolutely, positively, without a shadow of a doubt the most intuitive, easy-to-use, elegant user interface that has ever been created by man...

...if your mind works the way the Apple designers do. For many, the way Apple has everything set up is sheer perfection & if the Apple way of doing things works for you then more power to you. Seriously.

However, there's a decent-sized percentage of the world's population whose workflow does not fit in with Apple's design philosophy. For those, using one of Apple's devices is not sheer enjoyment, but stirs up a feeling more akin to wearing tidy whities that are about 2 sizes too small. There's itching, chafing, and the ever-looming despair of claustrophobia and constraint.

That this portion of the population exists is also the reason why applications like Total Commander, Directory Opus, foobar2000, mp3tag and others exist & why they'll never exist in the land of fruit-friendly computing. These are powerful, extendable, free-form applications that allow you to fully grasp data and files firmly and do with them whatever your heart desires.

To this portion of the population and their power tools The Steve has said, "No. You're doing it wrong. You must edit your mp3 tags (and everything else) my way." Hopefully, now that this anal-retentive, control-hungry megalomaniac has departed this world maybe Apple will start to release its grasp on trying to control how people can interact with their data.

(And if I were going to try to load an iPod up with songs I think I'd be using one of the many unofficial programs out there that can interface with iPods rather than trying to use iTunes. iTunes will jack up your data, your tags, and your filenames & expect you to thank it for doing it.)

superboyac

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Re: Tagging audio files in itunes+ipod is an absolute NIGHTMARE!!
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2012, 09:15 AM »
Once again, this is the kind of thing that makes Apple evil.  The problem for us is this: even after years of these ipods and audio players and tablets, the i-devices touch response (swiping smoothness) and overall interface is still better BY FAR than all the other devices out there.  That's it.  These competitors (Android, Windows, webOS) better make darn sure their interface can equal that kind of smoothness and responsiveness or else they will NEVER catch up to Apple.  Every time I pick up the new Android device I can immediately
Good news!  Looks like Microsoft is trying to work on this issue:
http://www.engadget....chscreen-lag-to-1ms/

(is it considered bad protocol to quote myself? :D)

erikts

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Re: Tagging audio files in itunes+ipod is an absolute NIGHTMARE!!
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2012, 11:27 PM »
(And if I were going to try to load an iPod up with songs I think I'd be using one of the many unofficial programs out there that can interface with iPods rather than trying to use iTunes. iTunes will jack up your data, your tags, and your filenames & expect you to thank it for doing it.)

Could you recommend unofficial program(s) that can interface with iPhone 4S? Thanks in advance.

Innuendo

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Re: Tagging audio files in itunes+ipod is an absolute NIGHTMARE!!
« Reply #7 on: March 23, 2012, 05:20 PM »
Could you recommend unofficial program(s) that can interface with iPhone 4S? Thanks in advance.
I don't own an Apple iDevice myself as I don't want to be locked into Apple's way they want you to use their products & that seems to be the problem with the new iPhone 4S and the new iPad 2. Seems Apple didn't like people using 3rd party programs to maintain their devices so they tightened things up for IOS 5 so unfortunately, not a lot of choices out there. No one has figured out how to interact with IOS 5 without iTunes installed....yet. The MediaMonkey people seem to always figure it out first so keep an eye on their web site for updates.

I did find, however, a program that's supposed to be able to do what you're wanting provided you have iTunes installed on your PC. It's called iTools. Keep in mind I'm not endorsing this program in any way. I'm an Android person myself.

Good luck & report back to let us know how it works out for you.