Tags

Use tags for information that helps you make listening decisions but is not represented consistently by ordinary metadata. Good tag families include mood, activity, setting, source, production status, personal themes, and broad genre groupings.

Use the Tagging Quiz for repeated artist- or album-level decisions. It presents focused groups so you can apply consistent tags without manually locating every track. For one-off corrections, select tracks and use the Tags panel in Tagging Mode.

Work in passes: add broad genre or source tags first, then mood or activity tags where they add value. Filtering for missing:tags creates a manageable queue of unfinished tracks. Avoid creating a new tag unless you expect to use it again.

The Tags panel has two distinct modes. In Tagging Mode, clicking a tag adds or removes it from the selected tracks. In Filtering Mode, clicking a tag narrows the library. Check the mode before performing a bulk operation.

Tag-panel filters also combine with search chips even though they use different visual controls. If the list seems unexpectedly narrow, clear both the chips and the selected Tags-panel filters.

Yes. Auto Tag on Scan can convert embedded genre values into TrackRate tags. Enable it only when the source metadata is clean and consistent. Real-world files often contain vague or overly specific values such as “Unknown,” “Synth-pop,” or long catalog classifications, which can produce a noisy tag list.

For mixed-quality libraries, the Tagging Quiz gives you more control. If automatic import creates unwanted tags, disable it, clean the tag list, and establish a smaller vocabulary before scanning more folders.

Yes — TrackRate imports the musical key if another application has already embedded it in the file, but it does not calculate key itself. Key detection is inherently unreliable for general-purpose music: most tracks do not stay in a single key, and automated analysis often produces inconsistent results across different tools.

Key tagging is primarily useful for EDM, electronic music, and sample libraries where tracks tend to be harmonically simpler and DJs mix by compatible keys. For a general music player covering all genres, key detection creates more noise than value.

When TrackRate encounters an embedded key value from another app (such as Mixed In Key, Traktor, Rekordbox, or Serato), it parses and normalizes the value into a consistent format and applies it as a hashtag (for example, #key-am or #key-fm). The file will carry a hashtag with the key label so you can filter and organize harmonically compatible tracks.

TrackRate can write its hashtags to the embedded comment field, producing values such as #jazz #vinyl #live. This makes the tags visible to compatible players and DJ tools while keeping the audio stream unchanged.

The operation still modifies the file on disk. Back up irreplaceable audio and test with a few files before applying it broadly. If another application also manages the comment field, inspect the result to make sure the programs do not overwrite each other’s information.

Use the Tags panel management controls to rename a tag, combine duplicate concepts, or remove tags you no longer need. Before deleting, filter by that tag and inspect the affected tracks. A cleanup such as merging #rock-n-roll and #rock should reflect how you actually search, not only spelling.

For a large cleanup, export or back up first. Premium MCP can assist with repeated changes, but changes are immediate and should be performed in small batches with explicit mappings.