If you need to have mp3 files tagged for your media playing device, GoldWave does a great job. Devices like the Braille+ Mobile Manager from: American Printing House for the Blind (or the Icon from: Levelstar) can easily sort your MP3 files by Artist, Album, Genre or Song if the MP3 file is tagged properly. (You will need to install the Lame Win32, free, MP3 encoder for GoldWave to rip MP3 files. The instructions and link to down load the MP3 encoder are on the GoldWave web site:
GoldWave
If you put in a CD and select CD Reader from the Tools menu in GoldWave, you will find a "Get Titles" button. Tab to that button and press the space bar and if the CD is in the database, it will automatically fill in the information. (This information isn't always formatted correctly, but usually gives enough information to get by. If incorrect, you can fix it yourself.
You then press the Save tracks button. On the following screen, you select the location for the files, the file format, (in this case MP3,) and you can select MP3 at whatever level of quality you prefer, then hit the OK button and your files will be saved and tagged as MP3 files.
If the CD is not in the database, or the information needs to be corrected, you can fill in the fields yourself before you rip the files to your hard drive. The fields on the first screen are:
1) Album 2) Year 3) Genre. If you want the Braille+ to sort the Album and Artist properly, you can do this by filling the Album field with the following format (without the quote marks):
"Artist name / Album Title"
Separating the artist name and album with a space, forward slash, and another space.
If you have an old file you wish to tag, open it in GoldWave and on the File menu, select Information.
The edit boxes that you can fill in are, in this order:
1) Track Name
2) Artist
3) Album
4) Title
5) Copyright
6) Genre
7) Date
8) URL
9) Track Number
10) ISRC
11) Description
After filling them in, save the file and the tagging will be perfect and easily read by the Braille+ or any other MP3 player that depends on tagging.
I do not know what some of those field names mean, like "ISRC" but I doubt they are important.
Last modified April 30, 2008