I wanted to blog about this feature from so long (as it got released with Winamp 5.5 a long way back), but I couldn’t find enough time to do this.This weekend however, I had decided to use this feature heavily to tag almost all of my mp3s and hence I decided to blog about it too.
So what I’m talking about ? Auto-tagging in Winamp 5.5
It’s a new feature introduced in Winamp 5.5 that tags your mp3 files using the Gracenote’s CDDB server. It doesn’t relies on any kind of meta-data present in file, neither it does uses the file name for this purpose. I suspect it sends some kind og hash (that I’ll have to hack around …).But what stands out is that Winamp was even able to tag a file name “dsfdsferfermvmev.mp3″ correctly.
Using this feature you can tag and categorize unused songs in your mp3 archieve.
How to find this feature in Winamp:
There are two ways to use this feature:
1. Double click on the scrolling title(or press Alt-3) to open file info dialog, in bottom right you’ll see Auto-tag button (for tagging a single file).
2. Create a playlist and select files and then right click on them, select send-to and select Auto-tag (for tagging multiple files in one go).
A word of caution:
Nothing is perfect ! so is this. Please keep an eye on the results of the auto-tagging, if you suspect anything wrong don’t apply the tag at all.
Renaming files based on their tags
Now what to do when your files have been tagged, but still their names are like r3rff34f.mp3, well you can use any software available in the market that can rename files based on their tag information or you can use the following ruby-script to rename them.
Click here
20 responses so far ↓
Tony // March 29, 2008 at 8:42 pm |
Thanks!… After searching for days for an autotagger that is as good as MUSICMATCH was, I heard that WINAMP could do this. I couldn’t find any way to get tags from WINAMP till I stumbled on your explaination. Thank you SOOO much!
sazwqa // March 30, 2008 at 5:38 am |
Glad it helped you !
mjohnny // April 2, 2008 at 1:04 pm |
for months i’ve been auto-tagging my files one at a time. didnt know how to auto-tag all at once. thanks for this review!
Sur // April 18, 2008 at 5:36 am |
hey rd,
nice info man.
bloodyc // May 12, 2008 at 4:57 am |
i donno why my winamp dosnt show me the Send to menu option at all.. i m using the latest winamp 5.53 .. but i m not able to see this send to menu option on right click at all..
can anyone help me with this?
sazwqa // May 24, 2008 at 2:13 pm |
@bloodyc: Re-install your winamp and make it sure it’s the latest version available and remember to select all components in installation.
Hope this helps you !
laamanni // September 17, 2008 at 9:02 am |
This is a great feature! Winamp uses GraceNote service [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_note]
But there is plenty of others too. Like Musicbrainz (used by amarok) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicbrainz]
Max // October 4, 2008 at 1:27 pm |
Winamp is fine, and the auto tag works very well, but when i play a song from a file(that is a file in My Documents, i.a.w i opened it from a file from my computer) and auto tag it, it must rename the file name as well, how do i do that? I used ID3v1 and ID3v2 but dont rename that file, it is frustated to rename manually, HELP PLEASE
sazwqa // October 6, 2008 at 5:32 am |
@Max: You can use the ruby script mentioned at: http://techblogging.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/renaming-mp3-files-with-id3-tag-title-using-ruby/
If you have any trouble using it, ping back.
dab // October 14, 2008 at 11:53 pm |
By the way, for the “Send to” menu you have to use the FULL version of Winamp, not the LITE.
Leandro // November 8, 2008 at 4:22 pm |
MP3 TAG TOOLs 1.2 is excelent to rename files and tag songs.
Juha // November 24, 2008 at 5:25 pm |
thank you very much, this came handy.
KarthikC // November 28, 2008 at 5:42 am |
Hey i know how to change for a single file. You helped me to auto-tag the whole play list, Thanks.
sazwqa // November 28, 2008 at 5:54 am |
@KarthikC: It’s clear from the 2nd image posted on post, where I right-click on a file and select send-to, anyways you can see this: http://screencast.com/t/pzD8zIX5GS
~sazwqa
Kshitij // December 16, 2008 at 6:25 pm |
I have been using the ‘auto-tag’ feature for a long time but its not working only recently. I have just changed the OS of my computer, installed Winamp 5.541 and tries to use the ‘auto-tag’ feature. But it gives an error saying,’No match found.’ The surprising part is that such type of error was never displayed earlier. Please note that I had the same version of Winamp earlier too.
dick sauss // December 31, 2008 at 3:00 pm |
i’m drowning
l3utterfish // February 12, 2009 at 8:58 pm |
if u also want to tag with image cover, i use Mp3 Tag&Rename.
Richard // March 20, 2009 at 12:52 pm |
If you auto tag a compilation album where a track exists on more than one album it will get the album and track number completely wrong. Very clever feature, but I only see this working for singles or odd tracks that you don’t have any ID3 data for.
NL // March 21, 2009 at 6:31 pm |
Winamp’s autotagging feature is phenomenal….I have used it to tag almost my entire mp3 collection (46k items) and only have a problem come up every once in a while. Some compilations may cause a problem, but that’s minimal. I generally open up my entire ML, select all, then Sendto ->Autotag.
The only problem you’ll have is when you can’t tag the file at all (corrupt mp3 file or file is read-only). Otherwise…top notch.
Great way to included the year, etc, too
Side note: Why can’t it download the album art automatically, too? That would rock!
mercho // April 21, 2009 at 10:00 pm |
I discovered this feature recently and it looked amazing at first. but then I noticed that files tagged by auto-tag feature became unaccessible/locked. I cannot copy or move them!!! editing id3 tag is also impossible!
I tried to unlock them with Unlocker, then I tried to change the ownership of files, but nothing worked! help, please!