Folks, tagging SotS files has been a bugaboo off and on for years as I think we all know. Artist/album/artwork etc blank or unknown etc etc. I know I've searched the forum over and over for suggestions. There are numerous threads, but one I found was started in 2017 by dbacks_Nation entitled SOTS Metatag issues (sorry I don't know how to embed a link but if you search you can find) where CujoMatty had some excellent suggestions on using Mp3tag to edit meta. I've followed his suggested method until something seemed to change last year and The Show "lost" a lot of the meta for my imported jukebox songs, and all the SotS showed up as artist unknown. This year I was importing again and noticed the same. I won't bore you with the details but I had to make a couple changes to the settings in Mp3tag that had worked for me in the past to get The Show to display the data correctly this year.
Here's my step by step method to get ALL the data to display as well as artwork (again thanks to CujoMatty from 2017 otherwise I'd never had figured it out myself):
- download SotS zip. In this example 2020 BOSTON RED SOX.zip from the 2020 SotS thread (ya, obviously, I know, but it helps me to go through every step here....sorry!)
- unzip to SotS2020/Boston Red Sox/Preseason (wherever you'd like).
- load Mp3tag
- In Mp3tag click Tools at the top. In the dropdown click Options. You should then see a list of options on the left...General/Messages/Directories/Tags...
- Under Tags, click on Mpeg. You should see Read/Write/Remove options in the window to the right.
- Ensure that under "Read" all 3 options - ID3v1, ID3v2, and APE - are all checked.
- Under "Write", ensure ID3v1 and ID3v2 (it doesn't seem to matter which ID3v2 format) ARE checked, BUT DO NOT check APEv2. In addition, it seems to matter that "ID3v2 only if ID3v1 too small" is checked. Upon testing file after file re-tagged and saved in different formats then imported into SotS it seems that SotS reads the tag data from the ID3v1 format and the artwork from ID3v2 (I am not technical so I don't know why, I just know what worked for me. See more below).
- Under "Remove" ensure all three options (ID3v1, ID3v2, APE) are checked.
- I've attempted to include a .JPEG to show what this should look like.
Then:
- Click File/Change Directory OR click on the appropriate folder icon at the top of Mp3tag.
- Navigate to SotS2020/Boston Red Sox/Preseason folder and select.
- Once all the files show up in the window to the right, click CTRL-A to select all.
- Click CTRL-X to remove all tags. Click "Yes" you really want to remove the tags of the selected files and copy the tags onto the clipboard".
- Click CTRL-Z to "undo" and it will restore the tag data. This removes any APE formatting that has reportedly lead to some problems in the past.
- Enter any metadata in the left window. For example, in this case I use Boston Red Sox for "Artist"; MLB The Show 20 RED SOX for "Album"; 2020 for "Year"; Soundtrack for "Genre"; SD edit for "Comment"; TiedyeTrader for "Album Artist". Title, Track, Composer, and Discnumber I leave blank. I then hit "Save" or the disk icon at the top. This saves all the above information, and your "Tag" column should show ID3v2.3 (ID3v1 ID3v2.3). No APE formatting. All the other info you just input (Artist, Album, etc) for each file should show up in the appropriate column.
- I then (and this is likely overkill, but it works for me) right click on the art box in the lower left hand side and select "Remove cover". I then hit "Save". I then right click again and select "Add cover" to add the Red Sox artwork I saved from prior years of SotS, which I've previously resized to 300x300 (this seems to be important for some reason to ensure the artwork shows up on 100% of the files, until I resized to 300x300 it wouldn't always work). I then save again. (I know...I know...). You now have all your tags and artwork.
At this point you can import and it should work. I am getting 100% results with all artist, album, and artwork in SotS so far this year 3 teams in (Boston, Toronto, Baltimore plus 231 Jukebox songs) doing this. It had bugged my OCD brain to get some files that worked and some that didn't, and some that had worked not working anymore. So I experimented with different Tag formats, saving each individual and in combo and then importing into SotS to see what worked. This has for me so far.
Some further background FWIW. While I was experimenting I noticed that if I saved files in only ID3v1 I would get the artist/album/etc information properly in SotS but not the artwork. I also found that if I had opted to "Write" in both ID3v1 and ID3v2 without the "ID3v2 only if ID3v1 too small" I would then get the artwork but unfortunately the dreaded "unknown" for artist/album in SotS even though the tags showed up in Mp3tag. So... with the above settings I have been getting both the tags and the artwork 100% of the time.
I hope this helps to get rid of the "unknown" issues many of us have had.
One last thing I will add, I also run these through MP3Gain and edit the dB level to suit my audio set up. I've actually been editing most down to 89dB and along with the pre-set "Broadcast" audio option in The Show I find it a good mix for my tastes. I edit up certain sounds that I want louder to 98dB (strikeout sounds, intros). I think MP3Gain might have been a CujoMatty or LowLightHabit suggestion as well back in the day.
Finally, thanks to CujoMatty, LowLightHabit, BU1B22 and everyone involved. I can't imagine playing this game without these!!!
Stay safe and healthy, all.
g22
Here's my step by step method to get ALL the data to display as well as artwork (again thanks to CujoMatty from 2017 otherwise I'd never had figured it out myself):
- download SotS zip. In this example 2020 BOSTON RED SOX.zip from the 2020 SotS thread (ya, obviously, I know, but it helps me to go through every step here....sorry!)
- unzip to SotS2020/Boston Red Sox/Preseason (wherever you'd like).
- load Mp3tag
- In Mp3tag click Tools at the top. In the dropdown click Options. You should then see a list of options on the left...General/Messages/Directories/Tags...
- Under Tags, click on Mpeg. You should see Read/Write/Remove options in the window to the right.
- Ensure that under "Read" all 3 options - ID3v1, ID3v2, and APE - are all checked.
- Under "Write", ensure ID3v1 and ID3v2 (it doesn't seem to matter which ID3v2 format) ARE checked, BUT DO NOT check APEv2. In addition, it seems to matter that "ID3v2 only if ID3v1 too small" is checked. Upon testing file after file re-tagged and saved in different formats then imported into SotS it seems that SotS reads the tag data from the ID3v1 format and the artwork from ID3v2 (I am not technical so I don't know why, I just know what worked for me. See more below).
- Under "Remove" ensure all three options (ID3v1, ID3v2, APE) are checked.
- I've attempted to include a .JPEG to show what this should look like.
Then:
- Click File/Change Directory OR click on the appropriate folder icon at the top of Mp3tag.
- Navigate to SotS2020/Boston Red Sox/Preseason folder and select.
- Once all the files show up in the window to the right, click CTRL-A to select all.
- Click CTRL-X to remove all tags. Click "Yes" you really want to remove the tags of the selected files and copy the tags onto the clipboard".
- Click CTRL-Z to "undo" and it will restore the tag data. This removes any APE formatting that has reportedly lead to some problems in the past.
- Enter any metadata in the left window. For example, in this case I use Boston Red Sox for "Artist"; MLB The Show 20 RED SOX for "Album"; 2020 for "Year"; Soundtrack for "Genre"; SD edit for "Comment"; TiedyeTrader for "Album Artist". Title, Track, Composer, and Discnumber I leave blank. I then hit "Save" or the disk icon at the top. This saves all the above information, and your "Tag" column should show ID3v2.3 (ID3v1 ID3v2.3). No APE formatting. All the other info you just input (Artist, Album, etc) for each file should show up in the appropriate column.
- I then (and this is likely overkill, but it works for me) right click on the art box in the lower left hand side and select "Remove cover". I then hit "Save". I then right click again and select "Add cover" to add the Red Sox artwork I saved from prior years of SotS, which I've previously resized to 300x300 (this seems to be important for some reason to ensure the artwork shows up on 100% of the files, until I resized to 300x300 it wouldn't always work). I then save again. (I know...I know...). You now have all your tags and artwork.
At this point you can import and it should work. I am getting 100% results with all artist, album, and artwork in SotS so far this year 3 teams in (Boston, Toronto, Baltimore plus 231 Jukebox songs) doing this. It had bugged my OCD brain to get some files that worked and some that didn't, and some that had worked not working anymore. So I experimented with different Tag formats, saving each individual and in combo and then importing into SotS to see what worked. This has for me so far.
Some further background FWIW. While I was experimenting I noticed that if I saved files in only ID3v1 I would get the artist/album/etc information properly in SotS but not the artwork. I also found that if I had opted to "Write" in both ID3v1 and ID3v2 without the "ID3v2 only if ID3v1 too small" I would then get the artwork but unfortunately the dreaded "unknown" for artist/album in SotS even though the tags showed up in Mp3tag. So... with the above settings I have been getting both the tags and the artwork 100% of the time.
I hope this helps to get rid of the "unknown" issues many of us have had.
One last thing I will add, I also run these through MP3Gain and edit the dB level to suit my audio set up. I've actually been editing most down to 89dB and along with the pre-set "Broadcast" audio option in The Show I find it a good mix for my tastes. I edit up certain sounds that I want louder to 98dB (strikeout sounds, intros). I think MP3Gain might have been a CujoMatty or LowLightHabit suggestion as well back in the day.
Finally, thanks to CujoMatty, LowLightHabit, BU1B22 and everyone involved. I can't imagine playing this game without these!!!
Stay safe and healthy, all.
g22
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