Expert’s Rating

Pros

Cons

Our Verdict

My name is Kirk , and I ’m tag - obsessed . With an iTunes subroutine library of more than 50,000 tracks , I spend a lot of time guarantee that all my tunes are tagged right not only so I can receive them well , but also because they justhaveto be tagged the correct fashion . This can be a metre - consume labor , going through parts of my library rails by track , selecting a song , pressing Command - I , and changing some tags . There has to be a salutary way of life .

Equinux’sSongGenieis made for multitude like me . It looks through your music program library — whether you practice iTunes to organize it or not — and hold the music , place tracks with no tag , pop the question to nail the tags of partly tagged tracks , and trying to even out error in tags — be they spelling , capitalization , or other problems .

My review of version 1.1 of SongGenie explain how the program works , and the under - the - strong-armer elements have n’t commute much . The programme still uses the same technique — acoustical fingerprinting and theAmpliFind(formerly MusicDNS ) database — to name tracks . But the broadcast ’s total more tags it can explore , and also more compromising mathematical process and an improved user interface .

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SongGenie showing information for a track, and the tags it’s presenting to change.

It still takes a fairish amount of fourth dimension to scan a large depository library ( this metre I cast my 50,000 - track iTunes library at it ) , and searching is processor - intensive , as it look several tracks at a sentence . When SongGenie find missing or wrong tags , it show you its suggestions with your option of Red Hot Chili Peppers ( red ) or Tangled Up In Blue ( dismal ) label . Click a label to transfer that tag , or click utilize to go for all the tag that it demonstrate . you may now manually edit tags , which is quicker than using iTunes , and the program can set capitalisation mistake using an editable list of parole you do n’t require capitalized ( unless they are the first words of titles ) . SongGenie can also identify and correct genres , and if you ’re in incertitude about any tracks , you’re able to play them straight off by click a Play button .

One affair SongGenie does n’t do , however , is assistance you bring album nontextual matter to your euphony file . To do that , you need to spend another $ 40 on the company ’s CoverScout , the latest variant of which integrates with SongGenie . It ’s too bad that equinux force you to buy two different applications — without a bundle discount rate — to houseclean up your track , especially when apps such as TuneUp Media ’s TuneUp do both for less money .

The biggest new feature film in SongGenie is its ability to seek for and add lyrics to your music . It draw lyrics fromLeo ’s LyricsandLyricWiki . If it ca n’t find any on those sites , it offers to mechanically explore a number of lyrics sites on the Web using its build - in web browser windowpane . I found this a blessing , because I care to have language for some of my songs , specially those by The Beatles , Bob Dylan , or The Grateful Dead . To add language to these trail , I used SongGenie ’s preference to have the program just search in the booklet containing euphony by these creative person , so it would n’t have to scan my intact library . This is not a complicated cognitive process , but it ’s hidden in the computer program ’s preferences ; a good way of life to scan individual leaflet would be utilitarian . However , you may choose to have SongGenie look for and contribute language to all your strain automatically ; for other tags , you must either opt to apply them all , or click for each tag you require to change for each Sung dynasty . One hitch : it ca n’t find lyrics for a song that has a segue symbolisation in its title , such as “ Dark Star > ” , when you endeavor to add lyric mechanically ; you need to have the call recognized , by acoustic fingerprinting ( which require much longer ) to get lyrics for these tracks .

While the curriculum identified a destiny of medicine , it does n’t find every path ; some tatter are misspelled or have other problems ( wanting or superfluous “ The ” , incorrect use of commas in title , and so on ) , and sometimes I find language that displayed in all cap letters . I ’d like to be capable to manually change sure tag ( such as an album name ) for multiple tracks , and the undo feature did n’t seem to forge . Several sentence , when making changes , SongGenie told me it could n’t notice the file it was changing , and , when I cancelled the operation , the change had been made ( because the files were indeed there)—the party is aware of the topic and is look into it . In bitchiness of these limitations , however , it is a huge help to those who require beneficial rag for their euphony .

Macworld’s buying advice

If you need to keep your music program library well - organized , you require to have good , normalized tags . And if you want words with your song , this can be a long , complex process . SongGenie is a gravid tool to help you get the correct information into your medicine files , both tags and lyrics . It will sure as shooting improve the tagging of the files in your iTunes music library .