Using Fill Properties from FilenameSo, first, I'm going to use the example of the Allison Krauss album.
In the better Files view we just made:
1. Open up F: under the Location pane and then the Music folder.
2. Then find the "Alison Krauss & Union Station - Paper Airplane [24-96]" folder and select it.
3. This will show the files inside the folder in the list below. Select them all (click down there on one of them and hit Control-A to select all).
4. Right click and choose Library Tools > Fill Properties from Filename.
5. In the dialog that appears, Template should be pre-selected. If it isn't, pick Template instead of Automatic.
6. A note: Automatic would have already been done on the files when you imported them, if you used Auto-Import.
7. Check the box for Directories, and type this in the box (just like this, with the dash and the brackets):
[Artist] - [Album] [24-96]8. As you enter this, on the right side of the dialog (which is re-sizable if you need it), MC will show you how it is going to apply the tags if you hit OK now. Right now, for each track, it should list:
Artist: Alison Krauss & Union Station
Album: Paper Airplane
See how I put the [24-96] in the text I had you use up above? Basically the way the template system works is you use the file or folder name as-is, and you insert [Artist] for where you want it to extract the Artist name, and [Album] for where you want it to extract the Album title. Anything else you enter is used "literally" as separators (and is ignored). The " - " in your folder name will serve as the separator between the [Artist] and [Album] "tags". The tags are all denoted using that same style [] around the tag's name.
Since I included the [24-96] part in the Directory template text, that part is "skipped". If you wanted to include that part in the "Album title", you could just use this in the Directories box instead:
[Artist] - [Album]9. Next, check the Filename box (if it isn't already).
10. In the Filename box put something like (this uses the examples I gave above):
[Track #] - [Name]11. Now, the right-hand side should say (in addition to what it said before, using track 2 as the example):
Name: Dust Bowl Children
Track #: 2
Some or all of these might be labeled with [same as existing value]. This just means that when you apply the changes, nothing will be changed from the current tags for that item.
You can use the examples at the right (inspect them before you hit OK if you aren't sure what you are doing) to help you design your template. It'll show you the "preview results" right there as you go.
Here's an example from my Library, with a bunch of fields properly filled in (they were all already properly tagged, so they all say "same as existing value"):
click to embiggen.12. When you get it right, or as close as you can,
click OK.This will close the dialog and those files will all now be tagged properly.
Now, that just did that one folder. The beauty is, that if you have other folders (hopefully LOTS of them) that have similar or identical "file naming schemes", you can select ALL of those files at once (like I said above, you can hold down the control key and select multiple folders under the Location pane), select all of those files, and then do the whole operation in one fell swoop.
It is always good (essential) to try a few out first as a test before you do a whole bunch.
I can't give you examples for your Track names, because I don't know the filenaming scheme you use, but here's what would work for your other example folders in the Directories template box:
F:\Music\Beethoven\Beethoven - Complete Piano Sonatas - Eric Heidsieck\CD 4
[Artist]\[Artist] - [Album]\CD [Disc #]Notice, you can apply tags twice if they're duplicated. You'd have gotten the same results by using:
[Artist]\Beethoven - [Album]\CD [Disc #]Now, that's going to give you this as the Album title: Complete Piano Sonatas - Eric Heidsieck
For just that one album, but assuming you have other albums that use a similar naming pattern, it'll work better to be less specific. The tag "kept" is the one "further to the right" (I believe).
Another important point about that example, if you left off the "\CD [Disc #]" part, it wouldn't work at all. The reason is that the Directories template system works from "right to left" across the directories. That's why you don't have to put the F:\Music\ part in there, because the template never "gets that far". However, if you left off the "\CD [Disc #] part, then your example folder would end up parsing something like:
Album: CD 4
Artist: Beethoven - Complete Piano Sonatas - Eric Heidsieck
And the initial "Beethoven" folder will have been ignored (because the template didn't "contain" enough folders).
Okay, so the basics are done. But maybe you don't want that. Eric Heidsieck is a pianist, so I assume he is playing the sonatas, so perhaps you want to capture that tag as well. Fine, then use this:
[Artist]\[Artist] - [Album] - [Soloist]\CD [Disc #]Since those things are nicely separated by dashes, they'll show up just fine. Then, each of those files will also have a [Soloist] tag filled with "Eric Heidsieck". Later on, when you make "browsing views" (similar to how we made this Tagging view) you can add a Soloist category pane, and then browse all of the soloists you have in your collection, independent of what particular piece of music they were playing, or who the composer was...
Or, perhaps instead you want to capture Beethoven as the [Composer] (another built-in tag) and use Eric Heidsieck as the [Artist]. That's fine. In that case, use:
[Composer]\[Composer] - [Album] - [Artist]\CD [Disc #]Hopefully this is becoming more clear. Play around with the preview, and browse through the available tags. You can see the full listing right within MC under
Tools > Options > Library & Folders > Manage Library Fields.
Here are some final example Directories templates for the other folder names you provided:
F:\Music\Reference - HDTracks Sampler
[Genre] - [Album]or maybe
[Artist] - [Album]F:\Music\Steely Dan\1977 - Aja [MFSL UDCD 515] (FLAC)
[Artist]\[Year] - [Album] (FLAC)or maybe
[Artist]\[Year] - [Album]or even
[Artist]\[Year] - [Album] [[Comment]] (FLAC)One thing about this last one... If you have a bunch of folder names that are similar, but contain a bunch of "extra junk" at the end, it is usually best to just include it in the tag, so that you can do a bigger batch of files at once. Later on, you can even do much the same thing as this "filename parsing system" to copy and extract information out of other tags (that's a much more advanced topic, but it can be done). So, if you leave that extra stuff in there for now (or put it in the [Comment] tag, which is what I prefer to do when possible), you can come back to it later and not have to type things by hand.
Then, after you are done, you can easily clean up that tag by selecting all of the files, and editing it once in the Tag Action Window. MC also has a powerful Tag Find and Replace tool (which can help clean up poorly formatted tags immensely) under
Library Tools > Find and Replace.
Lastly, I should mention... In that first, Allison Krauss example, I intentionally excluded the [24-96] part to make another point. You don't need to include this tag manually, because MC already knows that they are 24/96 files. When you import files into MC, it analyzes them and fills many tags (including technical details about the files) automatically. The [Bitrate], [Bit Depth], and [Sample Rate] are all certainly included (along with [File Size] and [File Type] and [Date Created] and all sorts of other things.
You don't need to include that as part of the Album title, because MC already knows (and can show and you can add panes for if you want) the Sample Rate and Bit Depth of ALL of your files.
I hope this helps.
