Tag updating from Muso

[MDE]

Time to revisit an old feature request that was a bit "pie in the sky" at the time, namely the ability to update music file tags if the Muso database is changed. At the moment, if a tag is wrong it usually becomes evident when playing the track. The natural thing to do is to change it in Muso. However, my (future-proofing) approach is to change the tag on the music file, which I think is the "correct" approach. This then has to be re-imported to Muso to get it to show. Would there be a way of "exporting" changes from Muso to update the underlying file, so that all changes could be done in Muso with just occasional updates to the music files?

[DuLac]

Yes, that would be ideal. It would save me a lot of time.

[RichG]

I'd like to see this too - would solve a few 'issues' I have with tagging programs and save time. However, IIRC that Jeremy has said previously that he was not keen to implement this.

[musoware]

I have played around with this. The problem is that not all tags have strictly agreed standards. While on reading tags I can provide some flexibility in looking for a range of tag ids (see the wiki), on writing I have to write to one and one only, so either have to fix on one tag id and say that's the way it is (which may not suit everyone) or provide some configuration as to how you want your tags saved (which is tricky! considering there are flac, mp3, ape etc all with different tagging schemes). Also in writing it may be expected to "reverse" the logic of the "Import Actions" mechanism, which is also tricky.

[MDE]

I understand the difficulties and have a few thoughts which may (or may not) be helpful. Firstly, I would suggest perhaps a beta test using only FLAC (being the most flexible and easiest type to deal with?). If that proves promising, then others such as mp3 could be attempted. As regards the tag names, there are two approaches. The simplest for you is probably to write custom Muso tags which are clearly different from the main database ones. The user would then run an Mp3tag "action" to update the main tags according to whatever scheme suits them. I am happy to attempt an example action and share it. The other approach involves mapping the Muso tag names to those on the underlying file. Reversing the tag mapping on the import would be difficult if not impossible because of conditionality and many-to-one mappings, so a separate "export mapping" would be required (effectively putting the Mp3tag action inside Muso).
So, my suggestion is to do a simple export of custom FLAC tags, e.g. "Muso_Artist"; I will then see if I can get an Mp3tag action working, which may or may not lead to further functionality in Muso.
EDIT: Ideally, the tag export should (optionally?) be restricted to include only those tracks where the Muso database has been changed from the imported version (or since the last export?) - to avoid unnecessary rewrites.

[musoware]

I can try the simple export of custom flac tags. The proper place to do this would be when you save database edits because it knows which rows you have edited, but this won't help with all the tracks you have edited in muso already - I'll think about that issue.

[musoware]

It happened a few releases ago, but Muso now allows writing of standard tags from the database edit grid.

[MDE]

That's great news. I have been very busy over the last year and haven't had much time for tinkering with my music, or even ripping more CDs. I'm hoping to get some time over the winter to catch up and also to re-invigorate my "classical tagging blog", so I'll try the tag writing then. I should add that I have at least been playing some music, and very much enjoying the combination of iPad and VNC viewer for using Muso, especially with the left panel unpinned.