Hi Steve. There are a couple of programs that approach what you're looking for, both from Red Chair Software.
The first is a free program that does exactly as you request, that is, verify that the ID3 tags are valid in your music files. It's called, unsurprisingly and unoriginally, Red Chair's Tag Verifier. I downloaded a copy of it when it was first released and it looked pretty good back then. The other piece of software that you might be able to make use of is Audigen. This is a complete music database that will allow you to load your music and then browse by category or search on the ID3 tag values. The additional feature of Audigen that you might find interesting is that you can use SQL to do some pretty advanced interrogation of your music files and export the results in excel, HTML or XML. Of course, there has to be enough tag information to load the music in the first place but Audigen will allow you to auto fill missing information just to get it into the database. Below is an article that I wrote for a magazine over here in the UK that gives you an overview of Audigen and what it can do. Audigen - music management made easy By Kevin Lloyd For some considerable time I've been looking for a program that would help me to better manage the large collection of MP3 music files that I've collected over the last year or two. I wanted the program to provide me with a database that could be easily browsed and searched and that would allow me to produce reports in varying formats such as excel spreadsheets or XML based on various criteria. Whilst checking out the Red Chair Software website, http://www.redchairsoftware.com/ For an update to Notmad Explorer, a program I use to transfer music to and organise music on my creative jukebox, I came upon Audigen which on the product specification looked like it would be just what I was looking for. I purchased the software there and then for a measly $17 and downloaded it immediately. Installation was a breeze - just a case of following the on screen prompts and entering my activation code as the last step. I was certainly impressed with what I got for that paltry amount. This is not an exhaustive review of Audigen but will hopefully give you a flavour of the two main components that make up the application. Audigen Explorer is the music management engine and the main reason why I purchased this program. The other component I'll describe briefly is Audigen Xstreamer but more of that later. The interface to Audigen Explorer is extremely easy to use if you're used to working with windows explorer or My Computer. Note that there is a checkbox in the options menu that has been put there specifically for people that only use the keyboard for navigation that can change the layout of the screen. Checking this checkbox will ensure that you have no problems using Audigen Explorer with your screen reader. On starting Audigen Explorer, you're presented with 9 folders as follows: Audio Tracks Search Playlists Artists Albums Genres Last Transfer Utilities Device Information Entering any of these folders will result in a view of your music categorised as stated above by track, artist, album or genre. The search folder will allow you to search through your music catalogue with simple or more complex SQL based queries and playlists will display any playlists that you may have created in Audigen Explorer. Firstly, of course, you need to load the database. This is very easily achieved. Simply browse to your music folder or folders using windows explorer or My Computer and use control + C to copy either folders or individual files to the clipboard. You can load both MP3 and WMA files into the database. Enter the Audio Tracks folder from the main menu and then use control + V to paste the music into the database. It's important to note here that you won't actually be moving the files themselves in this process, that would simply be a waste of disc space. Instead, it is the ID3 tags that are taken from your MP3 or WMA files and used to create the database. If you go for the try and buy option for this program, you'll be able to load 100 files into the database and you'll have near complete functionality to check out the program before you buy. When fully activated there are no limitations on numbers of files loaded into the database. Another great feature of Audigen Explorer is that it will allow you to edit ID3 tags for those files that have missing or inconsistent tags. You can do this both on an individual file basis or on a whole batch of files changing artist, album or tracks names as well as genre, track number and comment fields. Once you've loaded your music, you can use the Audio Tracks to browse your collection in alphabetic sequence based on artist, album and track. From here you can build playlists, play tracks through winamp or your default music program or copy the music files to another location. If you choose to copy music to another location, Audigen Explorer will know where you initially loaded the music from and will copy it from there to your desired location. It's also worth pointing out that you could have your music scattered far and wide across your system but the database will give you a single view across the whole collection in one screen. The artists, albums and genres folders displayed in the main menu are fairly self explanatory. Entering either of these will present your collection in that particular sequence. So for example, if you enter the artists folder you'll see a list of all of the artists in your collection. Entering on one of the artists will then display a list of albums by that artist and, entering on one of those albums will display all of the tracks in that album. It really is that simple and intuitive to use. The Search folder from the main menu provides you with the ability to search your music collection either by simple search, entering a word or set of words that will result in all tracks being displayed where those words are present in the artists, albums or track name or you can use a complex search using straightforward SQL statements to achieve more accurate searches. For example, in a complex search you could search for all tracks where the genre is "hard rock", from 1979 where the bit rate is greater than or equal to 192kbps. >From your displayed search results you can either create a playlist or produce a report in excel, XML or HTML formats. Of course, you could produce these reports for your whole collection too. Most of the functions available are visible by highlighting a file with your cursor or perhaps a number of files using standard windows keystrokes of shift + down arrow, and then hitting the applications key next to your right control key. A context sensitive menu will then be displayed for you to choose your desired action. There's no need to use your JAWS or equivalent screen review cursor except when you wish to open one of the toolbar menus such as options, report, simple search, etc. The remaining folders from the main menu not discussed so far are Utilities and Last Transfer. The Last Transfer folder provides information on the files last added to the database and so is pretty unexciting. The Utilities folder is there for future enhancement by Red Chair Software who promise to provide useful utilities with future upgrades. All future upgrades are free by the way so again great value for that $17. At present there is only one utility available and this is a function for removing playlists that do not have any tracks in them any more. The other main component that comes with that $17 purchase is Audigen Xstreamer. This program gives you most of the features that come with Audigen Explorer in terms of being able to browse and search your collection. The difference though is that the database is viewed in a series of web browser pages rather than in a folder structure and you are able to use this program both on the computer where your music resides, on a computer networked to the computer on which your music resides or from any computer in the world that has an internet connection. You can control access to your database by setting up user id's and passwords or simply closing the port that Xstreamer uses to fire up the database. I've used this program to stream music directly from my computer and download music whilst away from home and it's really easy to set up and use. If you are using an ADSL modem you'll need to "port forward" so that when connecting over the internet with your HTTP address and port 8050, your modem will know the specific IP address of your computer to fire up Audigen Xstreamer. This sounds more complex than it really is. For example, with the BT Voyager 2000, it was simply a case of opening the configuration menu, selecting virtual servers and then creating a virtual server based on the port number 8050 and my computer's IP address. in conclusion, I'd urge anyone looking for a music database application to manage their MP3 collection to try Audigen. If you're familiar with the Red Chair Software's Notmad Explorer for the creative jukebox range of players or Anapod Explorer for the Ipod then you'll be instantly up and running with Audigen as the interface is identical. If you're not familiar with these programs but are proficient with windows explorer, My Computer and simple web pages then it's not going to take you long to get up to speed with this program. On a try and buy basis you've got nothing to lose by giving it a go. You can find out more about Audigen and download the trial software at http://www.redchairsoftware.com/audigen/ You can also contact the author of this article with any further queries you might have by sending an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Regards. Kevin E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Matzura" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, January 02, 2006 6:31 PM Subject: Looking for a Program > I'm looking for a program I cannot find anything nearly like anywhere > on the net. This program is an MP3 tag analyzer. Not an editor--got > enough of those--this program that I need will only read and report on > MP3 tags. > > I want a program which will analyze MP3 files--either a file or > recursive folder of files--and write a list of files which contain (or > which don't contain) data in each of the standard V1 and V2 MP3 tag > fields defined so far. If the bit for one or the other MP3 tag > formats is unset, I want that reported, as well as reporting if the > bit is set but the fields are blank or contain null values. In this > way, I can run the program and generate lists of files that need some > fixing-up of their tags. Then I can use these generated lists in other > programs and make the changes in a consistent manner across my entire > MP3 collection. > > While being a programmer, I am not a PC programmer. I don't have any > tools--compilers, linkers, assemblers, etc.--to do the job on this > platform, no less the information on the format of a .MP3 file to go > tiptoeing through it to find the data I need and report on it. I have > far too many MP3 files to upload them to one of my VAX or Alpha > systems and write a program on that platform (which I can most surely > do since that's what I do for a living anyway), and I'm thinking that > this kind of program would be a sweet piece of cake for some > enterprising soul to cobble together reasonably easily and quickly, > and we could all benefit from it when it's polished up nice. > > If you or someone you know can help out with this, please write me > off-list, as this is marginally on-topic, if at all, for this one. > > Thanks in advance. > > > _______________________________________________ > PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... > http://www.pc-audio.org > > To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > This list is a service of MosenExplosion.com. 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