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The Tagging Process--Explained.
Let me give you an example of the processes I undertake in tagging the shows in my collection and perhaps you can get some ideas for tagging your own collection--or send me your favorite tagging secrets and I'll post them here:
Every new file you receive is supsect. Treat every new file that way. Take nothing for granted--not the name, not the series, not the dates. . . nothing.
LISTEN to the file. Yeah, I know, this may seem obvious, but you wouldn't believe the number of collectors who too often bypass this seemingly essential step.
LOG as much information about the recording as you HEAR, including sponsors, performers, technical personnel, a particular 'provenance' to date the episode in time (e.g., the mention of that day's date, or day of the week, or special event or occasion associated with the news that day). Even something as innocuous as an advertisement. Example: You're listening to an episode dated 1949, but you hear a commercial for "the brand new 1951 Ford". What's wrong with this picture? The file was dated wrong by whomever tagged it previously.
Do NOT refer to someone else's log until you've logged the episode yourself from beginning to end. Why? We often tend to accept another authority's log as accurate beyond question. All too often, others' logs are just as prone to error as your own might be. Comparing your log to someone else's is the very last step you want to take in this process.
Use every tool available to you, to nail down any episodes that don't seem obvious, or don't contain cues to provide the essential information you need to completely identify it. There are a world of resources available to you for this purpose. Among them, books on either collecting or logging Golden Age Radio recordings. I have several of these listed on Publications Page. Other excellent sources are the internet, Radio Historical Societies, and media museums--both brick and mortar and electronic.
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Here's a Tip: One of our subscribers, Andrew Steinberg is an absolute stickler for tagging accuracy and takes great pains to catalougue the errors he finds among mp3 recordings in circulation. He's compiled all of them on his website here:
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Having logged as much information as you can HEAR, you can begin to attempt to identify the show/episode at hand. The more episodes you have, the easier it will be to nail down day/date sequences in the abscence of any other obvious cues within the recording itself. Once you've exhausted all other resources available to you, you can attempt to match them up with known logs from respected archivists you've grown to trust over time.
Once you've assembled all the information you need to completely identify the episode or series at hand you can begin to properly and methodically tag the episodes at hand. I'll give you an example of the steps I take, step-by-step and you can compare my methods to your own:
Step #1: I run every series through Otter (individually, since Otter seems incapable of compiling more episodes than it has in it's 80,000 entry database. There are over 130,000 in my own), to see whether Otter has all of the episodes at issue in it's database. This is by no means an essential step, as Otter is just as prone to error (and both buggy and crash prone) as any other log source, but it's a another 'sanity check' for an entire series--especially the longer running series with hundreds or thousands of episodes. This is your classic 'garbage in, garbage out' situation. If Otter's database entries bear no resemblance whatsoever to the episode information you've logged (and it often doesn't, since Otter's datasources are highly suspect), it's time to consider scrapping the log information in Otter and loading your own. Learn to trust your own hard work and due diligence.
Step #2: Think ahead. Creating extremely verbose file names will prevent you from smoothly burning your collection to your media storage method of choice, be it CD's, DVD's, DAT Tape, or Hard Drive. Until the specification is enhanced you won't be able to burn either CD's or DVD's with overly lengthy file names. Place the longer name in the ID3-V2 tag within each recording. Use a short, but sufficiently informative title for the file name.
Step #3: Find yourself a Tagging Utility you have faith in. The simplest and most readily available--and reliable--that I'm aware of is WinAmp's own tagging features. But there are over a hundred special purpose tagging utilities available, each with a different collection of features that may or may not appeal to you or suit your methods. I use Dr.Tag for my tagging, so that's the utility I'll use to describe the remaining steps.
Step #4: Convert all ID3-V1 tags to ID3-V2 tags. Why? You'll have more room to enter more accurate and complete information using the ID3-V2 tag. Even if you don't need the additional room NOW, you made need it later. It's a no-brainer. Just convert all of them first.
Step #5: If you've thought ahead entering or correcting the file names, you've already got three of the key elements of any internal tag as part of the file name: the date, the episode number, and the title or episode name. Here's what I do to every series I run through Dr.Tag:
a. I copy the entire file name to the internal 'Artist' field.
b. I remove anything in the file name before the date.
c. I use Dr.Tag's 'Remove Numbers from file Name' process, to remove the date fields from all of the file names (remember, they're still intact within the Artist field at this point). This leaves just the Episode Number and Title in the file name.
c. I use Dr.Tag's 'Extract' feature to extract the episode number into the 'Track' field of the ID3-V2 Tag. Now I'm down to just the Episode Title in the file name.
d. I copy the Episode Title to the 'Title' Field.
e. Using Dr.Tag's 'Rename' feature, I 'rename' the file back to what it was before I extracted the Episode numbers and titles to the Track and Title fields.
f. Selectiing as many of the files as I can at a time, I begin entering the 'common' information, such as Artists, Genre, Album Name, and Year. I then enter those three critical elements into every tag--the Year, especially, in case the file name ever gets mangled by some other process.
g. I review all of the changes I made to each field, then save the entire series.
h. I run the entire series back through both Otter--to update it's database--and my own database, to record the presence of, updates to, and entry of any new episodes into the Master Database.
i. I prepare and print a revised directory printout of the series for my own future reference--or to act as a 'needs' or 'have' list for further episode searches.
Step #6: I burn the completely revised series to either CD or DVD, depending on the size and number of the episodes.
Why I Tag This Way.
My rationale for adopting these standards throughout the archives are as follows:
- I recognize that these archives are not just audio recordings. They can be very visceral, emotion-provoking, historical and sociological records of a time gone by. To that end, we make every attempt to capture and accurately preserve as much as is known about a given recording.
- Since the folder in which the file resides is almost always the 'show' folder for a given series, I feel that the presence of the Show Name in the name of the file is both redundant and unnecessary.
- I feel very strongly that this is part of our stewardship of these archives, helping to accurately archive, preserve, and restore as many of these recordings as we can, for sharing and enjoying with even more generations to follow.
- The practical differences between the ID3-V1 tags and ID3-V2 tags are that the ID3-V1 tags are much more limiting, especially in the area of Genre. ID3-V1 tags were engineered with a built-in limitation of 255 genres that are internally referenced via a binary index encoded into the header of the .mp3. Almost none of the built-in genres are practical for application to Golden Age Radio archives.
- Whenever practical I code both ID3 versions into my archives. I recognize that not all current media players have adopted the decoding standards of the more expansive and extendable ID3-V2 Tags.
- The date field formatting is the absolute minimum essential field I try most to apply these standards to, when an accurate date is known. Those of us that collect and/or archive our collections via a database require that the date field be two position year, two position month, and two position day for efficient cataloging with a database.
We hope you find this information helpful and we welcome any suggestions you may have regarding more accurate or efficient tagging methods and techniques.
The following references can give you even more detail and rationale behind the ID3 Tag standards for both versions:
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