Multi-Rename Tool: replace MP3 ID3 track with Artist

[btreloar]

Use a real tool for handling MP3 Tag -> FileName; vica versa or even MP3 Tag -> Folder / Folders / Filename

E.g. MP3Tag or TagScanner or something.

Wow - Thanks! Lots of info here. Editorial - I HATE underscores. They're a holdover from mainframe days when there was actually an underscore key on the keyboard. Now it takes two keys to type and in my case two hands.

I have my MP3s in genre folders and my naming convention is super simple: artist hyphen songtitle plus extension. I'll see how I can automate this a bit, but it seems AudioInfo ought to be sufficient for my needs. Are the two applications you recommend freeware, shareware or regular commercial applications? My volume is too low to justify much or any expense.

[btreloar]

Still drawing a blank. I must be getting dumb in my old age.

I'm unable to make the AudioInfo plugin work in the multi-rename tool, but begin to think I shouldn't really need it. Let me express my goal a little differently:

I want to replace the first three characters of a bunch of file names with a common (longer) longer string that I type in (into the Replace With field?). In other words, I want a single string to replace the first three characters in all of the files I select.

That seems to me like it should be a trivial thing to do in the multi-rename tool. What's the easiest way to do that?

[MVV]

btreloar, use name template like @%&[N4-] and replace @%& with desired string using search and replace feature of MRT. You're free to use any other unique character sequence instead of @%& (but of course the same in both places).

[btreloar]

Thanks, MVV - sounds like we're getting close. However, in the Search field I can't specify a string to replace your @%& because the value of that string is different in every starting filename.

So I tried this:
Search - [N-3][N4-]
Replace - StartChars[N4-]

And I got a warning that would create duplicate filenames. Also, nothing but ".mp3" displayed in the New Name section of the tool.

Clearly I'm missing some basic concepts here. Sorry for the abject ignorance.

[Hacker]

btreloar,
Try putting the following into "Rename mask: file name" in the MRT:
a common (longer) longer string [N4-]

HTH
Roman

[btreloar]

Roman - Thank You!! Not only does it work, but I think I understand why. I kept trying to manage this through the search & replace fields.

[Hacker]

btreloar,
Glad to have helped.

Roman