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Cultured Perl: Fun with MP3 and Perl, Part 1
Ted writes "Every self-respecting computer and music fan needs to be able to manipulate MP3s -- the defacto standard for recreational digital music use. In this article, I'll look at ways to manage and manipulate MP3s (searching, tagging, renaming, commenting, etc.) using the autotag.pl application. I'll also take you through the application, illustrating how CPAN modules enable the application."
I'm going to say "Where the ogg version?" :)
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It's nice to know you can do this, and I've used the modules referenced for custom fixes. But don't reinvent the wheel if you don't have to: EasyTag probably does 90% of what you would write something custom for.
We're in an exciting time when many of the scripting languages are being augmented to be able to handle Real Data (Numpy is another example).
Seriously, I've been thinking it would be cool to have an emacs mode for MP3 files. The raw data wouldn't be displayed, but the ID3 tags would be available for editing.
To be fair, the MusicBrainz article for perl.com (that, full disclosure time, I wrote) doesn't cover as much ground as the Developer Works article, which seems to be going through all the steps needed to write an autotagger in Perl.
However, I was a little dissapointed that Teodor didn't spell out more of his reasoning for his choice of modules. I covered the (then) available Perl mp3 modules for a talk at YAPC::Europe this summer, and if you're not sure which modules to use, I'd suggest having a look at the slides (80K PDF) and notes.
In any case, I look forward to the second part of the article, to see how the script shakes out in the end.
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Filenames are not an appropriate place to store metadata because they are volatile when moving a file between media.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Generally, CDs don't have all the track information on the CD. RealPlayer, Windows Media, iTunes and so on all use a computed identifier of some sort, based on the length of tracks, typically, to look up the CD information from an online database.
Of course, because this means that *someone*, *somewhere*, ended up typing in the data, there are errors in a lot of the data. Most of the CD lookup databases are very bad at handling compiliations, and can have problems with any of the items of metadata other than title and artist (for example, 'year' often ends up as the year the CD is ripped, not the year the music was produced).
There aren't many programs that strip the data that's produced, though. Thankfully.
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Besides, I will not tolerate ANY DRM in my music files.
By "weird itunes format", I assume you're referring to the AAC MPEG4 format, which is an industry standard.
Also, there's only DRM in files that you buy from iTunes Music store. Please stop spreading the FUD that "AAC == DRM", because it's simply not true. Just like "EXE file" does not translate to "software which needs a registration key" and "VHS tape" does not translate to "protected by Macrovision". AAC is an open MPEG4 format to which DRM _CAN_ be applied. By default, it is not applied.
Also, what do you mean by "A2D" converter? Why would an MP3 player, which decodes digital signals into analog signals which your ear can hear need an "analog to digital to converter"?
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