The definitive guide to creating an audio library across Windows Media Center, Windows Media Player, ITunes and the iPod.

See the article at:

http://www.brianfrost.com/misc/sortingmusic.htm

Ah! Got you!. Yes, I too have Googled up forum and down blog to locate how to get my extensive music library integrated into the above software and hardware tools and yes, there is a lot of information out there but too much of the hits contain unanswered questions. There are a few nuggets, but naturally they did not answer all my needs.

What did I want then? Easy. I love the iPod (AIP) working together with iTunes (Apple ITUNES). I love its design and the flat simple view of Apple ITUNES. I prefer the sound that comes out of Windows Media Player (Windows Media Player) but I can’t use it with my iPod. I have four Windows Media Center systems, a Windows Home Server and a music library of some 8000 tracks all neatly tagged. In addition, I’ve around 2000 tracks of spoken word stuff taken from BBC Radio using FreeView on Windows Media Center and converted from either DVR-MS or more recently WTV format.

I’m a geek too and love perfection. I also know that whatever technology I nail my colours too will fade. Early adopters often board sinking ships (Betamax anyone?). So, I rip my CD’s first to WAV and then from WAV to 320k MP3 using Lame encoding. The WAV is kept (as you’ll see below) to ensure that one day I’ve got the original lossless data if I need it. And I will. Some tracks don’t have a WAV equivalent, I’ve bought tracks in 128k mp3 online and these sit by themselves, but you’ll see how this is handled later.

So, what are the rules for setting up your library to work with these software tools? Here goes.

First, you must tag your files properly. If you don’t, you’re at the mercy of Windows Media Player or Apple iTunes just looking at the file and folder names and guessing. Sometimes they may even get it right but if you have lots of poorly tagged tracks, expect to see a train wreck when you look in Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center. You may also not realise that the Windows Media Center music features are simply a layer wrapped around Windows Media Player and in Windows Media Center there is relatively little control over how your library is imported. Read on and I’ll show you how to do this. Some of you will have also noticed that having imported some music into Windows Media Center / Windows Media Player a while ago and then ‘sorted out’ incorrect tags, these changes just don’t get noticed by the software. Again, read on.

So, step one – Locate the best audio source material. If you have only mp3, locate the highest encode rate. Choose at least 192k, ideally 320k. If you can only get 128k, so be it.

If you have a CD, use a program like CdEx or any other ripper to generate a simple WAV copy of each track. Do not use Windows Media Player or Apple iTunes to rip the CD unless you are happy to lose control. If you have ripped to WAV, use a decent encoder to convert the WAV’s to MP3 at 320k. Have some structure to the created ripped track file name, e.g. “<artistname>-<title>”.wav (or mp3). Don’t worry about other tags at this stage. Keep all WAV and MP3 files together in a single folder. The name of this folder will NOT be used by Windows Media Player or Apple iTunes but it needs to allow you to browse the file system, so use the full album name e.g. ‘Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’. Be tidy and consistent too, use title case and a <ArtistName>-<AlbumName> structure – one day something might need to process the folder name.

So by now you should have a named folder with at least one MP3 and possibly multiple MP3’s and WAV’s. Now you need to sort out the tags.

Use a decent bit of software to get the tags correct. I use Tag&Rename (Tag&Rename). This is like an Excel spreadsheet for tracks and tag and allows you to quickly assign tags to entire groups of tracks by album or by anything you like. There are two killer features of Tag&Rename that make it indispensible for me. First, it can take a typed artist and album name and go to Amazon to get the cover art and album tags. This gives you a great start although I find that it is easier to use my existing track file name to get the ‘title’ tag and let Tag&Rename get everything else from Amazon. The second killer feature is its ability to generate tags from the track file name, for example if you have a track called “When I get home – Billy Rae.mp3”, working in the Tag&Rename ‘Get tags from filename’ preview with the code ‘%1 – %2’ pulls out and writes the title (%1) and artist name (%2) into all selected files. It can also rename files from the tags allowing you to set up decent tagging and then to have consistent file names as well.

So in a couple of minutes you can have all WAV and Mp3 album files written with the correct tags (yes even the WAV files too – more later).

These are rules for tags, but there are some general rules. Be consistent with case and characters. Avoid using characters other than letters or numbers.

:

·         Name the folder containing the WAV and MP3 tracks using the form <ArtistName> – <AlbumTitle>. For example Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. If the album is a compilation, use ‘Various’ for the artist name e.g.’ Various – Sounds Of The Sixties’.

·         Artist (or ‘Artist name’), should be just that e.g. ‘Genesis’

·         Album Name should be ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’.

·         Album Artist – This is important and is the reason that Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center get confused. If the album is by one artist, use the same data as you’ve got in ‘Artist’, e.g. ‘Genesis’. If it’s a compilation, use the phrase ‘Various Artists’.

·         Genre – Be as consistent as possible, e.g. ‘Popular’, ‘Jazz’, ‘Classical’. Try not to use more than a single word. If this tag is filled in from Amazon it is likely to be anything and often plain wrong. Retype it. The less genre words you’ve used the cleaner will be the options facing you when you choose a track on your Windows Media Center or iPod.

·         Covert art and file art. Unless Tag&Rename found this automatically from Amazon (which it usually does) you should obtain a picture in jpg format, size between 20kb and 1Mb , rename it to be called ‘folder.jpg’ and put it together with your track files. Now tell Tag&Rename to use this ‘folder.jpg’ to write it into each track. (Most software is happy to work with the single ‘Folder.jpg’ file it finds, but if you ever copy a track file to another place you’ll be glad the picture was in the file too).

Now you have a nice set of tagged tracks. Do the following. Right-click the properties for the album folder and mark all files in this folder read-only. This doesn’t guarantee you won’t crash, but it’s putting on your seatbelt. Now mark all the WAV files ‘hidden’. This is a neat trick because this way, when you add the folder to Apple iTunes and Windows Media Player / Windows Media Center, they all ignore the WAV versions (which they cannot currently handle), yet you have not lost your traceability. (Interestingly, Tag&Rename has also tagged the WAV files too).

Next you can place this album folder where you need it to stay. I put mine in the ‘Music’ folder of my Windows Home Server. (Make sure you have a decent backup strategy too. What? You like folder duplication? Hmmm. I wait with bated breath….).

Before you add it to the software, do the following. In Apple iTunes and Windows Media Player turn off the ‘get album info from internet’ options. (Apple iTunes it’s in preferences, Windows Media Player it’s on the library tab of ‘options’).

If you already have a train wreck of tracks in Apple iTunes or Windows Media Player, you should follow the steps below before adding your new folder.

·         In Apple iTunes, working in the ‘music’ page, select all incorrect files and press ‘delete’. Confirm deletion from library but say ‘KEEP’ to the second confirmation about removing actual files.

·         In Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player, do the following to clear the library. Exit Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player. Using the ‘services’ button on Task Manager or the services page obtained by Right-clicking ‘My Computer’ and selecting ‘Manage’, identify the ‘Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service’. Right-click this and stop the service. In Windows Explorer, type the following address into the address bar at the top:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player

This will open a folder showing a bunch of cache folders and the actual Windows Media Player database file which is used for both Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center. Select and delete all of these files and folders. This will cause Windows Media Player to re-generate the entire library, something that does not seem to be possible from within the software. Finally, re-start the service that you stopped above.

Finally, add the folder to the software:

·         In Apple iTunes, drag the folder and drop it on the ‘music’ page. Apple iTunes will do the rest over the next few minutes. Syncing with the iPod should be painless.

·         In Windows Media Center, point the music library at the share containing this folder. If you leave the ‘You can wait while….’ prompt up, you get a faster scan and you can see it happen, otherwise prepare to wait a couple of hours.

·         In Windows Media Player, drag and drop the folder into the ‘library’ pane. If Windows Media Player is on the PC that your files are on, the action is almost instant. (These additions will show up in Windows Media Center too).

If you are working with Windows Media Center, go into the Music screen and select ‘Albums’. You should see decent cover art and information. If you see ‘Unknown album’, this is a sign that one or more file tags are still not correct or may be missing. Deal with this as follows:

·         Go into ‘unknown album’ and make a note of the track names. Go back to Tag&Rename and work on these files (and probably the albums they are in) to insert the correct tag.

·         REPEAT the LIBRARY CLEARING described above to accept your tag changes. In Apple iTunes you can simply mark all files, choose ‘Get Info’ and press OK for it to re-read all files and their tags, but Windows Media Player has a very persistent database which I think is causing many headaches. Anyway simply delete the files as described above and Windows Media Player will re-index them again.

Have fun with a nicer music database!