This is some of my observations with naming 2500 tunes of various genres.
1: Winamp v5.51 sometimes crashes when using the Auto-Tag option.
--(reason)--
Either Gracenote is either unable to locate the information and winamp is not registering that there cannot be any changes made and uncheck it
- OR -
gracenote has the same information as the ID3 (Cannot write same info)
- OR -
MP3 file is incomplete / Damaged or filesize = 0 bytes.
When I de-select files in the auto-tag list which are the same as the original, it seems to avoid the crashing. (Not including the songs with improper titles.)
In any event, there clearly is some work to be done with this specific issue.
Other observations:
Auto-Tag feature within file info (alt-3) rarely locates the Genre, where the auto-tag from 'Send-to' option almost always retrieves the proper information. Likelyhood of the cause is that winamp sends gracenote different parts of the mp3 file to gracenote for examination in either case.
If so, as a feature request: Add option to 'Random scan-Gracenote' for file renames in the file info box (alt-3) such that if Gracenote is not capable of generating the proper song info from the sent data, it has a chance again from a different part of the song. Many more songs are misnamed with the Auto-Tag button within the File info box than using the 'Send-to'-'Autotag'.
In general, gracenote had approximately 80 songs out of 2500 with incorrect names or named with invalid characters (which I deselected). Only lost about 9 songs which I missed the invalid information. Not bad since some songs were at 56Kbps recorded from radio or scratchy LP's.
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GOOD JOB WINAMP! Managed to organize these 2000 songs in the time it would have took to listen to 40. Gracenote with Winamp 5.51 is an awesome addition to Softpointer Tag&Rename.
I'll be upgrading my Winamp for sure to keep up with Gracenote development. Not perfect, but when you have no ID3, it is a superior way to get it.
If only people knew how to rip MP3 files while retaining some type of ID3. - Like me -
Oh, and BTW: Ripping MP3's with Winamp doesn't work with me. My MP3 player doesn't support the file format. Searching for a Lame, Vaunhauffer or Ogg format addon to winamp. (One which can be intergrated rather than selected in the sound output configuration screen)
Till then, I wouldn't reccomend using winamp to rip.