MP3 Info utility

[GadgetGeek]

I've put together a little macro in Excel that creates a listing of mp3s under a specified directory (and all subdirectories under it), loads the info into a tab, splits the filename up by directory, and reads the id3v1.1 and 2.3 headers if present and adds that info in as well. 
You need to enable macros to get it  to work.
What it WON'T do...it won't modify your files.  It won't update the ID3 tags.  It won't rename your files.
What good is it then?  It (fairly) quickly creates a listing of files.  You can quickly review your tags to see if you need to update some.  You can reformat the results to create a printable listing to keep nearby for reference.  You can use it as the starting point for a bulk (or selective) renaming process (you are on your own for that...I don't want to be responsible for trashing your files)
Where is it.  I'll try to attach it here (rename txt to zip), but if that fails, a copy of it is here

It might have problems with filenames that have a single quote in them...I'm not sure.

If you find it useful, great.  If not...remember what you paid for it.  I'll listen to suggested improvements and if easy or feasible, I'll attempt them.  Enjoy

edited to add...Mods...if this really belongs under software, then move it there, but I figured since it was specifically for MP3s, it could go here.  Thanks

edited to update the new version (v02) 2/10 9:25 am
edited to update to v03 2/17 9:15 pm

[Dermbrian]

OK...so the macro is a .txt file.  Any quick directions as to how to get that into Excel and then use it?

It sounds really useful and might save me some steps as I re-organize all my MP3's once again.

Brian

[GadgetGeek]

OK...so the macro is a .txt file.  Any quick directions as to how to get that into Excel and then use it?

As I mentioned in the original post

rename txt to zip

One doing that and unzipping it, you will be presented with a .xls file.

[Dermbrian]

Thanks.  I missed the comment about renaming to .zip.

What a great utility!  I had been using something called Karen's Directory Printer which works great if you don't have Excel.  But with that I had to do some cut and pasting to get the info in the way I wanted to see it.

But your Excel utility does it all in one click.  Thanks!

Brian

[Chris]

Okay, I'm officially impressed.  Nice job!

[GadgetGeek]

Okay, I'm officially impressed.

[Chris]

One thing I've definately noticed since putting ID3 support in DOSCab/WinCab is just what a poor state most MP3 files' tags are in.  I added Year support last night in preparation for filtering by decade, and I'm guessing about one out of every ten songs had years.

[sWampy]

If you leave off the ending slash in the directory name, it crashes, seems to also if your music directory has a space in it, like c:\My Music.

[GadgetGeek]

If you leave off the ending slash in the directory name, it crashes, seems to also if your music directory has a space in it, like c:\My Music.

I thought I had fixed the ending slash problem.  Will fix that tonite.  Let me experiment with the space in the filename.  I think I know the solution to that, but getting it to work is a different animal.

[GadgetGeek]

I lied...I think it is fixed now and v02 is posted back in the original message.  Should handle spaces in the initial directory now along with the missing / at the end of the initial directories.

[billf]

Wow, Gadget that utility works great.

[GadgetGeek]

I'll look into that.  I tested it against some mp3s I've got on a CD for listening at work and it worked fine, so I'm not sure why it gave you fits.

As for accidental deletions...that is why we make backups.  I've got a 15month old son who loves to bang on the keyboard.  Backups are your friend.

[Chris]

Backups are your friend.

Except when you have a toddler that likes to shove crackers in your tape backup drive... 

[billf]

As for accidental deletions...that is why we make backups.

[GadgetGeek]

Wow, Gadget that utility works great.  Well it worked great after I took off the "read-only" status of my mp3 files.  Before that it gave me a 'Runtime Error 70' I believe.  Once I took the read-only off,  smooth sailin' 

I think I got this fixed now.  I modified all the open statements to be read only.  Don't know why I didn't do that before.  I wasn't doing any writes, but I guess if I don't specify when opening a binary file, it will assume read/write.  version v03 is now posted at the top of the thread.  Let me know

[billf]

Wow, Gadget that utility works great.

[GadgetGeek]

Just grabbed version v03 to give it a whirl.  No joy 

Tried to run it on one of my read-only folders and I get the "Run-time error '70': Permission denied" message.  The macro does create two .txt files.  One is mp3flag.txt with the word 'done' in it.  The other is mp3list.txt and it contains the string that goes into column A, on the MP3Info tab, in the excel spreadsheet, although it never gets far enough to put it there.

I also tried to take the read-only status off of those same files and folders and re-run the macro.  Still got the run-time error.  So version 3 I can't get to run either way.  Version 2 ran fine with the read-only status off.

OK,  I might know the problem then...before you run it, set work directory to a folder you have full read-write access to.  Lets see if that fixes the problem

[billf]

Just grabbed version v03 to give it a whirl.

[bioart]

Very nice... It crashed when trying to access a network drive, but I just needed to reconnect the drive in windows by accessing it once through explorer... Once I did that, it worked fine


Art

[quarterback]

splits the filename up by directory

It splits the mp3s filename? What does that mean exactly? 

[GadgetGeek]

splits the filename up by directory

It splits the mp3s filename? What does that mean exactly? 

Say a sample filename is

Code: [Select]

d:\audio\AC-DC\Live\01-Thunderstruck.mp3
It would split that in the spreadsheet to columns containing

Code: [Select]

d
audio
AC-DC
Live
01-Thunderstruck.mp3