Good ID3 mp3 editor for mac?

Recently, i just switched over from windows. I used to use mp3tag to organize my mp3 files. What's the best software for mac to organize my files?

 

At the top of my head, iTunes or Songbird

 

iTunes is pretty efficient in editing mp3 info; just select as many tracks as you like, and hit Command-i. This opens the 'information' pane, where you can easily edit the information; for single tracks or whole batches.

Once you set the various 'categories' right; iTunes is also great for organizing the tracks in various groupings.

 

Right now, I don't use iTunes to manage my music. I know huh? !?!?! I just don't. And I have over 25 gigs of the stuff. I was looking for an id3 tag editor and I found some shareware called id3 editor. I tried it but I'm not sure I'm quite ready to PAY for something that comes free with the OS but I just don't want to "import" all my music into iTunes. I guess I have a few questions. Let's say I import all my mp3's into iTunes but I tell it to leave them on the network drive where I keep them. If I edit the id3 tags, will iTunes save them back there or will it make shadow copies on my Macbook with the changed tags? If I hook up an ipod, will itunes try to cram all 20+gig of my music onto the thing or will it allow me to pick and choose? I would imagine all this is pretty seamless, or iTunes couldn't enjoy the command of the music market but I'd rather ask before I dig in and try it for myself. Hopefully I can avoid some stupid newbie mistakes I might make based on my assumptions about how iTunes does things.

I imported all my photos to iPhoto. I now have 2 sets of 26 gigs of photos. This is because I missed an obscure setting to tell iPhoto not to copy files when it imports photos. So when I set up my wife's machine, I found and used this setting. But wait. Now I find out that if you don't let iPhoto copy the photos when it imports them, some things don't work well like the iphoto screensavers. So before I let itunes get it's paws on my music I thought I'd ask. At $15 US, Id3 editor isn't that expensive, but I really should exhaust all free options before I pay for something.

 

r0k, you can stop iTunes from making duplicates this way:
Go to iTunes-Preferences-Import, then untick the box that says "Copy files to my itunes folder".

I share my bootcamped Zune software's music folder with the Mac's iTunes (not effecient, but it works)

 

I vote for iTunes.

 

Ok, I enabled itunes. The only stuff in there was about 50 npr podcasts and some mp3's I had imported a year ago. So I started importing my music. The first folder I dragged in was fine. I decided to drag in a series of folders with about 600 songs. I started a new playlist and dragged in my new stuff. Did it go to the playlist I had active when I dragged it in? Heck no. It went to my main list so everything is mixed in with songs I've had in there for over a year. Yuck. Then I wanted to do batch id3 tag edits. Nope. Nada. Once they were dragged in, I could not organize them based on where I have 'em on the hard drive. Now they are in alphabetical order. Worse yet, they are mixed in with the stuff I want to keep so I can't simply select all, delete and reimport. I guess I will wind up registering that id3 tag editing shareware. When dealing with hundreds or thousands of songs at one time, itunes doesn't make it easy.

 

Personally, I use Mp3tag, great little application.

I looked around, and never found anything which comes anywhere near apps like Mp3tag and EasyTAG when it comes to both changing tags and file names. I use Darwine (an application which lets you run some Windows applications in OSX), and while I couldn't get easyTag to work right (font problems), Mp3tag works beautifully.

It is a bit of an ugly solution, but for a simple and (for me) rarely used application, I don't mind.

Check it out:
http://www.kronenberg.org/darwine/