My goal was to write an Automator Service where I could right-click on an MP3 file, choose Services, and have it add all of the ID3 tags in one quick go of it. Bart even more than the others has taught me that if I just keep digging and experimenting and researching, I can eventually figure this out. I thought, “Why don’t I just write my own script to add my ID3 tags?” Remember those names I mentioned at the beginning? They inspired me to think crazy thoughts like this, to realize that it’s not that hard, I should be able to figure this out. I had small victories but it was fragile and failed way too often.Īnd this week, I had had enough. I worked a long time on trying to get Keyboard Maestro to do it for me. I begged the developer to at least add a keystroke to the menu to select Load Tag Data File but they haven’t updated it since Sierra that I can tell. I know those 15 seconds of adding the tag data into ID3 Editor is only 2.39 hours of my life lost in all the time I’ve been doing Chit Chat Across the Pond, but still, it bugged me. The only problem is that Auphonic charges by the number of hours processed, and since there are no chapters in Chit Chat, it seemed more cost effective to use the desktop app and do the ID3 tag editing locally. The web-based version does a lot more than the desktop version: not only does it compress and level the audio, it also automatically adds the ID3 tags and uploads the resultant file to my server. After I bought the desktop version of Auphonic Leveler, I got the request to add chapter markers to the NosillaCast and the only way I could do it was using the web-based version of Auphonic Leveler. You might be wondering why I’m only talking about Chit Chat Across the Pond and not the NosillaCast. I know, that whole process takes what, 15 seconds if I round up? So what is the problem to be solved? After 559 episodes of Chit Chat Across the Pond, I was really really tired of dragging my mp3 files onto the ID3 Editor icon in my Finder menu bar and then going aaaaalllll the way up to the menu bar and pulling down to Load Tag Data and then selecting the Tag Data file from the Finder like an animal and then using my TextExpander snippet and saving. Since every episode has a new title, you might want to add that fresh each time, but in my case it was a simple TextExpander snippet to add the title. The next time you want to add ID3 tags to a recording, you simply go to File → Load Tag Data and choose the your saved tag data file in the Finder. You first go through the interface to enter all of the tag data, but then you can save that tag data into a file including adding the album artwork. It does what it says on the tin and it does it easily and quickly. I found a lot of people use a lightweight app called ID3 Editor from /… for $15 on Mac or Windows. I discovered the desktop version of Auphonic Leveler which not only compresses my files but also adjusts them to the loudness standards which is awesome, but it doesn’t add these ID3 tags I’ve been talking about. But after a while, I realized it was a lot of overhead to pull an uncompressed audio file into iTunes, have it compress the file, and then type in all of the ID3 tags once a week per show I produce. For many years, I used iTunes to add my ID3 tags and part of Dorothy’s efforts went to automating that process. The ID3 tags are specified at id3.org but there’s no one single way to add the ID3 tags to the audio or video files we create as podcasters. All of this information is stored in what’s called the ID3 tag. When you receive a podcast episode, you’ll see things like who produced it, the website URL, the episode will have a title, the genre will be podcast, and there will be album artwork so you can identify the show at a glance. She did a lot of work on it and much of it is automated now, but there was one piece that eluded automation. Years ago I asked my good friend Dorothy if she’d help me automate the mechanics of producing my podcasts. The gift they give in their teaching is that we can learn to automate things that are repetitive to us. Listening and learning from these people doesn’t mean that I can replicate what they do. Bart Busschots and his Programming By Stealth series of course, but also Ray Robertson from his AppleScript Bootcamp at Command-D and Sal Soghoian. In the past few years, I’ve been highly influenced by a few people in tech. ID3 Editor applicaiton showing my ID3 tags & album artwork
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