Lastly - has anyone found a tool to help prepare and process audio files "to be" added to your library? Over the years I have spread my collection about multiple drives and want to undertake a consolidation effort. I like a tool that would help review files to be added, check to see that they don't already exist in the library and move them to a staging folder ready for a merge. Along the way it would also address a whole list of other validations: complete or partial album, bitrate, audio format, artwork, etc.
In my experience, there's no quick fix for this. My current process is something like this.
I have a main library and a to-be-added library. I started by creating a temporary library, putting absolutely everything in there, and running MB's duplicates tool. This got rid of a fair amount of dead wood. I then load up my main library in an MB process opened in Sandboxie (the only way I know of to get multiple MBs open). I then load up the other library in a normal MB process. For each artist, I do a full search of the TBA library including filename. I only ever search by artist, to make sure that I'm not missing any songs spelt incorrectly. I compare the TBA library to the current one, delete any more duplicates, then tag the files in the TBA library and send them to the HDD where the main library is stored. Having done this, they get deleted from the TBA library. I do this for all artists in the main library. Then (and I've not reached this stage yet
), I'm planning on doing the same for all the artists in the TBA library, making use of MB's identify file by sound signature and then, if that fails, Shazam/Soundhound or similar.
When the files are in the main library, I use Album Artwork Downloader to search for HQ artwork (1000*1000 only), making edits as needed in Paint.net. I have Auto-Organise turned on in my main library, and thus files are sent to the correct folder when they are moved out of the inbox. Then, I have two separate filters in my main library - one for tracks I'm happy with, and one for tracks that need more editing. That last filter has a large number of conditions, and I research all my track tags thoroughly (using a combination of Wiki/Discogs/Allmusic/Bandcamp/And-if-that-fails-a-desperate-Google-search). I also make sure at this point that the files are in MP3 format (my current preferred format - not looking forward to the switch to FLAC when I have to do it!). To make sure of this, I have a highlight rule that highlights only tracks that aren't MP3s.
The final steps are to run the main library through Mp3Val and Mp3Diags (in that order) every few weeks/months. That highlights actual file issues which can be fixed, and is also a good way to spot files which are missing embedded artwork. And then, I do a search on Google Play to see if each track exists. If I don't know where the file has come from (highly probable), if it's a vinyl rip (also relatively likely) or if I know that it's from an old CD and a newer remaster is available, then I'll convert the file to 320kbps if it's available on Google Play and then upload it. Hopefully, Google Play recognises a match and I then download a 320kbps file from the best master available, and replace my current file with that using MB's Folder (Replace) command. If it doesn't match it, I do some dodgy MP3 recording or downloading to try and get a file that does match (which I think is justified given that I do actually already own the file and I don't pirate music). I also make sure that Media Source is present on files so I know where I've got them from!
Hope that helps give you some ideas for how to proceed. I'll warn you, library maintenance is a long term task if you want to do it properly. I'm currently on ~14000 correctly tagged files with around the same to go... Hopefully be done in about three years time (by which I'll have inevitably acquired a lot more music of course).
