QuickTag for iTunes - Testers needed :)
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  1. #1
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    Default QuickTag for iTunes - Testers needed :)

    After I saw todays article on tagging and such, I figured I would post about a program I wrote recently (QuickTag) to speed up the process of tagging lots of tracks with a useful meta-data system. The program is stable and works quite nicely for my library.

    I haven't yet gotten it polished quite to the point of being able to submit it to the App store, but wouldn't mind getting some feedback and testing if some DJ's would find it useful.



    It's written in AppleScriptObjC, so it does only run on Mac's. It runs along side iTunes in a separate window and uses AppleScript to talk to iTunes to actually update the tags. You can then use Smart Playlists as the article states to sort your music however you like.

    In the App, as you click through your newly downloaded tracks listening to them, you select a new genre, a star rating, a category, then you tick off track attributes.

    In my case I used the Genre ID3 tag field for the genre, and the Comments field for the rest. I used different delimiters for each item to make them easily searchable in smart-playlists.

    (Genre) - Genre's are tagged in "()'s" to differentiate your custom genres from ones from those from the music sites.

    <Rating 3> - Ratings in iTunes aren't stored in ID3, so I store in this format (1-5) in the comments to make them persistent if you move the file around.

    {Category} - This can be whatever you want, but only one of the set of 8 categories can be set at a time. I use things like "peak time", "lounge", "chill out", etc.

    [Attributes] - You can configure up to 16 attributes, and tick off as many as you like for each track. These can be things like "glitchy", "dark", "vocals", etc.

    If anyone would like to test it out, let me know via PM and I'd be happy to provide a beta copy

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ryan Ruel View Post
    After I saw todays article on tagging and such, I figured I would post about a program I wrote recently (QuickTag) to speed up the process of tagging lots of tracks with a useful meta-data system. The program is stable and works quite nicely for my library.

    I haven't yet gotten it polished quite to the point of being able to submit it to the App store, but wouldn't mind getting some feedback and testing if some DJ's would find it useful.



    It's written in AppleScriptObjC, so it does only run on Mac's. It runs along side iTunes in a separate window and uses AppleScript to talk to iTunes to actually update the tags. You can then use Smart Playlists as the article states to sort your music however you like.

    In the App, as you click through your newly downloaded tracks listening to them, you select a new genre, a star rating, a category, then you tick off track attributes.

    In my case I used the Genre ID3 tag field for the genre, and the Comments field for the rest. I used different delimiters for each item to make them easily searchable in smart-playlists.

    (Genre) - Genre's are tagged in "()'s" to differentiate your custom genres from ones from those from the music sites.

    <Rating 3> - Ratings in iTunes aren't stored in ID3, so I store in this format (1-5) in the comments to make them persistent if you move the file around.

    {Category} - This can be whatever you want, but only one of the set of 8 categories can be set at a time. I use things like "peak time", "lounge", "chill out", etc.

    [Attributes] - You can configure up to 16 attributes, and tick off as many as you like for each track. These can be things like "glitchy", "dark", "vocals", etc.

    If anyone would like to test it out, let me know via PM and I'd be happy to provide a beta copy
    does it overwrite the comment field? I store my Key information in that field.
    So is there a way to put the info somewhere else?

  3. #3
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    Currently is does overwrite the comments.

    Personally I store my key in camelot notation in front of the track name, with actual key name after the track name:

    1A - Track Name (Ab Minor)

    This allows me to quickly sort my tracks by key in traktor or on a CDJ-2000 but sorting by name.

    I could add an option to preserve the existing comments, and append/prepend the new tag information. Good idea!

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ryan Ruel View Post
    After I saw todays article on tagging and such, I figured I would post about a program I wrote recently (QuickTag) to speed up the process of tagging lots of tracks with a useful meta-data system. The program is stable and works quite nicely for my library.

    I haven't yet gotten it polished quite to the point of being able to submit it to the App store, but wouldn't mind getting some feedback and testing if some DJ's would find it useful.



    It's written in AppleScriptObjC, so it does only run on Mac's. It runs along side iTunes in a separate window and uses AppleScript to talk to iTunes to actually update the tags. You can then use Smart Playlists as the article states to sort your music however you like.

    In the App, as you click through your newly downloaded tracks listening to them, you select a new genre, a star rating, a category, then you tick off track attributes.

    In my case I used the Genre ID3 tag field for the genre, and the Comments field for the rest. I used different delimiters for each item to make them easily searchable in smart-playlists.

    (Genre) - Genre's are tagged in "()'s" to differentiate your custom genres from ones from those from the music sites.

    <Rating 3> - Ratings in iTunes aren't stored in ID3, so I store in this format (1-5) in the comments to make them persistent if you move the file around.

    {Category} - This can be whatever you want, but only one of the set of 8 categories can be set at a time. I use things like "peak time", "lounge", "chill out", etc.

    [Attributes] - You can configure up to 16 attributes, and tick off as many as you like for each track. These can be things like "glitchy", "dark", "vocals", etc.

    If anyone would like to test it out, let me know via PM and I'd be happy to provide a beta copy
    I'm in! Gonna PM you in a minute!

  5. #5
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    I seem to have trouble PMing (Maybe because I just signed up?) but I would like to try out the beta.

  6. #6
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    I figured out a small issue I was having, where when you would delete some tracks in iTunes with QuickTag running, it would stop responding (uncaught exception).

    So for the list of new features, I have:

    1. An option to append vs. overwrite the track comments.
    2. Customizable delimiters? (<>, {}, (), etc.) - not sure if this one is needed or desired

    I've pushed all the source up to GitHub. If anyone testing it has any issues, you can just create a new issue here:
    https://github.com/Ryan0751/QuickTag/issues

    Thanks!

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ryan Ruel View Post
    I figured out a small issue I was having, where when you would delete some tracks in iTunes with QuickTag running, it would stop responding (uncaught exception).

    So for the list of new features, I have:

    1. An option to append vs. overwrite the track comments.
    2. Customizable delimiters? (<>, {}, (), etc.) - not sure if this one is needed or desired

    I've pushed all the source up to GitHub. If anyone testing it has any issues, you can just create a new issue here:
    https://github.com/Ryan0751/QuickTag/issues

    Thanks!
    Custom delimiters would be really nice. I use hashtags (#trap #90s etc) because its feels natural coming from blogging.

  8. #8
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    Default More categories and/or attributes please!

    Coming as an esctatic dance Dj (really ecclectic sets), the way i categorize my songs are by a lot a keywords. Such as emotion, type of instruments, elements (earth, fire, water...), 5 rythms style, country genre, etc...

    For sure, at the end, i just get a couple of keywords but it would be amazing to be able to have it all set in attributes and/or category fields to fast click them. In my idea, the app would have a conditional statement to respect the maximum numbers of field in the ID tag.

    But i can also try to fit my head in your hat, oh no, your app and I still be please to use it!

    Thank you.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by YStheDJ View Post
    Custom delimiters would be really nice. I use hashtags (#trap #90s etc) because its feels natural coming from blogging.
    That's not bad...

    As a programmer I tend towards open and close delimiters. But hash tags aren't bad...

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ryan Ruel View Post
    That's not bad...

    As a programmer I tend towards open and close delimiters. But hash tags aren't bad...
    I actually started with open and close but realized it's just less efficient. Tags like "/,[,-" are quicker since you don't need to hit shift but yeah, I'd say have parenthesis, brackets, and hashtags as options at least.

    I have no idea how to work Github but I'll try to figure it out to make things easier on your end.

    If you can pair extensive options with a clean interface, this is going to be a killer app for DJs.

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