Macro To Sort Audio Files into Folders

[Dego]

Hi There

I have obtained a copy of Macro Express Pro Version 4 and being new to macros was wondering whether the software had the capability to automate a laborious task that I do daily.

I have a very large library of poorly tagged Audio files. So what I have to do is use an app called MediaMonkey to listen to the track, from there I can Copy the File (Ctrl+C) open the corresponding New Media Library that contains folders of all the different music genres i.e Jazz, Classical, Pop Etc.  and paste it Ctrl+V it os also possibly to Drag and Drop to the appropriate folder.

What I am after is a macro that I can initiate with a shortcut key with some sort of mechanism to copy the file to a the appropriate genres folder.

I have tried playing with the software but am getting nowhere and about to give so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards

Desmond

 

  

[acantor]

Start by checking out the Help screen for the "Text Type" command. That will give you a head start! For example, this Text Type command will do the copy operation:

 

<CONTROL>c

 

Note that it's lowercase "c". <CONTROL>C is the equivalent of <CONTROL><SHIFT>c!

 

Another suggestion: figure out the exact sequence of keystrokes to perform the entire task, and then translate them into a series of Text Type commands...

 

Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <CONTROL>c

Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <TAB>

Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <ENTER>

or whatever

You may need to insert pauses between some commands, e.g.,

Delay: 500 milliseconds

[Dego]

Thanks Acantor

Very helpful.

The issue I now have is getting the software to ask me what Genres folder i want the Audio file to be copied into.

I suppose the options could be hard coded in the macro i.e Jazz, Classical, etc or the idea option is that the macro reads all the genres folder names in the Music Library and presents them to me to select one.

any ideas?

This is a huge learning curve to me but I get there slowly.

kind Regards

Desmond

 

[rberq]

Once you have copied the name into the clipboard, you can build a "copy" command (in a text variable), including the destination folder.  For example,

COPY C:\MUSIC\SONGNAME.MP3 C:\SORTEDMUSIC\CLASSICAL

Then "type" the WIN key, texttype the text variable into the Windows RUN command area, and texttype ENTER to run the copy. 

Or, look at the macro command "Copy File or Files".  If you build the source and destination names in text variables T1 and T2, then you can use %T1% and %T2% in the Copy File command and skip the Windows RUN command.  See image below for the macro command -- I'm using Macro Express 3 rather than Pro so Copy File may be slightly different.

If you use either of these methods, I would recommend NOT having the macro ask you for the name of the destination folder.  Instead, just hard code the destination into the macro, and clone the macro for each possible destination.  Use different hot keys for each macro, for example CTRL-ALT-c for classical, CTRL-ALT-j for jazz, etc. 

 

[Dego]

Thanks Acantor

Very helpful.

The issue I now have is getting the software to ask me what Genres folder i want the Audio file to be copied into.

I suppose the options could be hard coded in the macro i.e Jazz, Classical, etc or the idea option is that the macro reads all the genres folder names in the Music Library and presents them to me to select one.

any ideas?

This is a huge learning curve to me but I get there slowly.

kind Regards

Desmond

 

 

 

Thanks rberq

Very helpful suggestion, the only issue I have have is that the genres could go down to sub genres so potentially there could be up to 50. A lot of hot keys to remember. Can a do what you suggested, but instead of hotkeys for each genre,  say something like a dropdown list box of all the genres and i select one fro0m the list.

You assistance is very much appreciated

Regards

Desmond

[mdoverman]

I'm not a programmer either, but having used Macro Express for a number of years I can manage fairly well. You should be able to use a multiple choice menu or Variable set string in your macro to ask you to select what genre you want which will put your choice in a variable that can be used later in your macro to put the file in the correct folder.

[Dego]

1 hour ago, mdoverman said:

I'm not a programmer either, but having used Macro Express for a number of years I can manage fairly well. You should be able to use a multiple choice menu or Variable set string in your macro to ask you to select what genre you want which will put your choice in a variable that can be used later in your macro to put the file in the correct folder.

Hi mdoverman

Thanks for your reply.

Can you explain in a little more detail the multiple choice menu or Variable set string options please.

i.e where I can find the commands

Regards

Desmond

 

[mdoverman]

Multiple choice menu is in the Dialogs section. The variable set string is in the variable section.  Very basic example attached.

Audio.mex

[Cory]

I didn't read all the posts here so forgive me if I've covered this already. But I use a tag manager called TagScanner. Besides editing and cleaning up tags with online databases and such, it can rename based on the tags automatically. Since the path is the file name, it can essentially restructure the directories using tags as well. I checked just now and one of the variable 'placeholders' is genre. I'm not sure if this helps. I just know that many people don't realize that these tag managers can also organize your files as well.