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Add/edit your MP3 Collections.

MP3 Collections

Choose Musicbox->Add MP3 Collection from the menu, or press F4 on your keyboard. The next screen appears.

First you browse for a folder that contains the mp3 files of your collection. It is a prerequisite to have all mp3 files of one collection in the same directory on your hard disc or removable media. So, if needed you should arrange your files on disc using Windows Explorer for instance. Next you can add the files of your collection when you click the Add button. A Windows "Open File Dialog Box" pops up that allows you to choose mp3 files. The delete button can be used to remove an mp3 file from your collection. Note that this does not remove the file from your hard disc or removable media.

The mp3 file list supports drag and drop functionality. If you select one file from the list and click the right mouse button, you can rearrange the order of the files by dragging and dropping it to the right place.

If you want to edit an existing MP3 file collection, Dr. Tibonia's Musicbox first checks if all the mp3 files exist. If not, most functions do not work. Missing file are marked by a red colored number in the list. This can occur if you removed files from your hard disc, moved them to another location, or you did not insert the removable media that contains the mp3 files of the current collection. The reload list button can be used to refresh the list content after having put the files or media in the right place.

If you select just one file, you can click the ID3v2 tag button to edit the ID3v2 tag of the mp3 file. This file contains information about the artist and album of the track and the title of the song. If you select more than one mp3 file you can use the tags processor. This function enables you to edit the ID3v2 tags of more than one mp3 files at the same time. This function is very useful if an mp3 file collection contains all tracks of one album. This batch process does the editing of all tags of the album's songs. These functions are described in detail below.

Edit ID3v2 Tag

Editing the ID3v2 tag of an MP3 file can be done in 3 ways:

  • Match file with CDDB: if you click this button, the CDDB will be queried, using the name of the file as a search key and also, if present, using the ID3v2 tag. So, you can influence the search result by giving the MP3 file a proper name, for example using the name of the artist, the title of the track etc. in your filename.
  • Match file with Musicbox: if you click this button a new screen appears that will assist you to copy data from the Musicbox database into the MP3v2 tag. It is discussed below.
  • Edit the tag data manually.

    • More information about the ID3v2 tag, you can find at the ID3 website.

    Tags Processor

    A very efficient tool that comes with Dr. Tibonia's Musicbox is the MP3 tags processor. It helps you to edit the tags of more than one track at the same time. This is usefull, for instance, if you copied the data of one album to MP3 files on your hard disc or removable media and edit the tags of these files at the same time. You can choose to match the files with CDDB (using the selected files as a search key) or match the files with the Musicbox database.

    Match file with Gracenote CDDB

    The user interface for this function is provided by Gracenote. It is the same user interface that is used to match a disc with the CDDB as discussed in ' Add CD data with Gracenote CDDB® Music Recognition Service' .

    Match file with Musicbox Database

    This screen helps you to copy data from the Musicbox database into the ID3v2 tag of one ore more files. You can choose to match your files with compilations and/or albums in the database. Also, you can look for discs by a certain artist (in case of albums) and with a certain name (both with compilations and albums), optionally exactly matching the search criteria.

    If you entered the screen clicking the 'Match File With Musicbox' button in the 'Edit MP3 ID3v2 tag' screen, it shows all tracks that match your search criteria. Entering the screen by the tags processor results in finding the compilations and/or albums that match your search criteria and contain exactly the amount of tracks you selected in the tags processor. So, for example, if you selected 11 tracks to process with the tags processor, the 'Match With Musicbox Database' screen will only be able to find albums and compilations that contain 11 tracks.