Quote:
Originally posted by Yesspaz
So, is it possible to change to v2 only the tracks that are already too short. For instance, there's no need to "fix" Yes-Fragile-Roundabout. But the five-part "The Appleseed Cast-Low Level Owl, Volume One-Messenger/Doors Lead to Questions/Steps and Numbers/Sentence/Bird of Paradise" would benefit from it.
If song-by-song could work, this would cut the 11,000 files down to perhaps, 4,000? A somewhat managable number? Just thinking - remember, I am computer illiterate.
|
Hoo boy. On the surface, you'd think it might be easier to do 4000 files than 11,000 files. Of course, you'd be wrong, since you'd have to go through and determine, by hand, which files have to be changed.
Me thinks it's time to illustrate just what would need to be done for EACH SONG in order to update the files in question. My fingers are already hurting just thinking about it.
- Identify the files to be updated - this would likely be the most time consuming portion of the process. As some songs will allow for their full title with the existing tags, but some won't due to other factors, such as band name and album name, one would have to examine each of the 11,000 songs to see if it fit in the 'would benefit from being updated' category.
- After identifying that a given song must be updated, one must locate the file on disk. Not a big problem, since the path name is in the database, but one that can be affected by other factors, such as the nature of the utility Jim mentions in his earlier post. If it's a command line utility, it would have to be handled one way, if it's a windows GUI, it would have to be handled a different way.
- Making a backup copy of the song to be converted. This, in my opinion, is the single most important step in the entire process. If, by some strange quirk of fate, the song gets corrupted by the upgrade process, and we don't have a backup of the song in question, it's toast. Gone. It will either not play, will sound like dogbreath, or might possibly crash the station, depending on the nature of the corruption. This will double the hard drive space required by each song updated until such time as the song has been played in its updated form and has proven to be sound.
- Update each tag - Each tag would have to be updated by hand to reflect the longer song name. There would be no other way of doing this, especially if the song name is truncated in the disk file name. This is where my fingers start hurting.
- Test each song - Another mandatory step, in my opinion. It would be much better to test the song before putting it up on the playlist instead of finding out, during live production, that the song sounds like a bad George Bush speech.
OK, now I can hear everyone who's had the fortitude to wade this far through this missive without wondering what the HELL I'm talking about asking "But Roger -Dot- Lee! You don't
have to do them on the station! Why don't you download the files that need to be updated, update them on your Very Own System, and reupload them!"
Well, my friends, that's a very good question. And I'm about to tell you why. Assume, for a moment, that I actually have a life, and wish to accomplish more with said life than updating 4000 MP3 tags. So, being the prudent person that I am, will probably only get to 3-4/day (a reasonable limit, considering the upload speeds I have to contend with -- dog slow on a good day). Thus, these 4000 songs, assuming that the 4000 number is anywhere close to reality, would take me on the order of 12 years, give or take for vacation and sudden bursts of productivity.
So, in short (WAAAY too late, r.l) it might SEEM easier to pick and choose, but in reality, it ain't.
Of course, if PDJ sez "do it", I'll likely get started as soon as possible.
Roger "And send him the bill" -Dot- Lee