Imploded Software

Tag Editor

The Tag Editor is Helium's primary tool for editing audio file tags. Its spreadsheet-style interface lets you view and edit every tag field across an entire selection of files at once — making it far more efficient than editing one file at a time. Whether you are tagging a single release or cleaning up a large collection, the Tag Editor is the tool you will use most.

Opening the Tag Editor

There are several ways to open the Tag Editor:

• Right-click any track or selection in any Helium view and choose Edit tags or Tag Editor.
• From the main menu: Tools → Tags → Tag Editor (Selected).
• Assign a custom keyboard shortcut in Options → Keyboard shortcuts. Once set, the shortcut is shown next to the menu item.

Modes of Operation

The Tag Editor opens in one of three modes depending on what you have selected and how your settings are configured.

Album Mode

Album Mode is activated when all selected files belong to the same album. A right-side panel appears, showing fields that are common to every track in the album — such as Album Name, Album Artist, and Release Type. Editing a field in the right-side panel applies the change to every track automatically. This is the fastest way to correct album-level details in one step.

Track Mode

Track Mode is used when the selected files come from more than one album. The right-side panel is not available in this mode. You can still edit all cells in the grid freely.

Grouped Album Mode

Grouped Album Mode is activated when files from multiple albums are selected and the setting Use grouped view for multiple albums is enabled in Tools → General → Tag Editor.

In this mode:

• A left-side panel lists all selected albums with their cover art thumbnails.
• The right-side panel is also available, as in Album Mode.
• Click any album in the left panel to load its tracks into the main grid.
• Changes are cached as you switch between albums, so no edits are lost.
• All changes across every album are saved when you click OK.

The Track Grid

The main area of the Tag Editor is a grid where each row represents a file and each column represents a tag field. You can resize and reorder columns, and choose which fields to show using Settings → Select Columns.

Default Visible Columns

Artist, Title, Subtitle, Remix, Album, Genre, Label, Release Year, Recording Year, Track Number, Total Tracks, CD Number, Total CDs, Rating, Duration.

Additional Columns (Hidden by Default)

Reveal extra columns via Settings → Select Columns. Over 80 fields are available, including:

• BPM — tempo in beats per minute; can be calculated automatically.
• Initial Key — musical key (e.g. Am, F#m); can be calculated automatically.
• Mood — a custom mood tag.
• Language — the language of the lyrics.
• Catalog Number — release catalogue number.
• Composer / Lyricist — composition credits.
• Grouping — content group or grouping tag.
• Involved Persons (IPLS) — structured credits for producers, engineers, remixers, and similar roles. The "..." button opens a dedicated editor.
• Musicians Credit List (MCL) — similar to IPLS. The "..." button opens an editor.
• Lyrics — the "..." button opens a full multiline lyrics editor. Lyrics can also be downloaded via plugins.
• Comment — a single comment field.
• Multiple Comments (COMM) — multiple comment frames (ID3v2 only). The "..." button opens an editor.
• TXXX Frames — user-defined ID3v2 text frames. The "..." button opens an editor.
• Album Artist — separate from the track Artist field.
• Part of Series — series membership tag.
• Original Year / Original Artist / Original Title — original release information.
• Sort order fields — Artist Sort Order, Album Sort Order, Title Sort Order, Album Artist Sort Order.
• Pictures (APIC) — embedded cover art and other image frames. The "..." button opens a full picture editor.
• Custom 1–10 — ten user-definable custom fields.
• Various URL fields and user-defined display columns.

Unsupported Fields

Cells shown in dark red indicate that the field is not supported by that file's format. For example, multiple COMM frames are not available in M4A files. Hover over a red cell to see an explanation. Editing blocked cells is not possible.

Editing Tags

• Click any cell and start typing to replace its value.
• Press F2 to enter edit mode on the focused cell without overwriting.
• Press Enter to commit an edit and move down to the next row.
• Press Shift+Enter to commit and move up.
• Press Escape to cancel an edit without saving.
• Press Delete to clear the selected cell or cells.
• Cells with a "..." button open a dedicated editor for complex fields such as Lyrics, Pictures, IPLS, and TXXX.

Clipboard

Productivity Tools

The toolbar provides several tools to speed up bulk tagging.

Apply — Ctrl+D

Copies the value in the focused cell to every row in the same column. Use this to apply the same genre, year, label, or any other field to all tracks at once.

Apply Down — Ctrl+Shift+D

Copies the focused cell value to all rows below it in the same column (or to all currently selected rows). Useful for filling a field from a specific track downward.

Auto Track — Ctrl+T

Fills the active column with sequential numbers, starting from the value in the focused cell. Works on Track Number, CD Number, or any numeric field.

Apply Sort Order to Fields — Ctrl+Shift+O

Automatically generates sort order values from the existing Artist, Title, Album, and Album Artist fields for all selected rows. For example, "The Beatles" becomes "Beatles, The".

Switch

Swaps the contents of the focused column with another field. For example, swap Artist and Title if they were accidentally entered the wrong way around. Available from the right-click menu.

Extract

Splits the content of a cell into multiple tag fields. The following Extract options are available from the right-click menu:

• Extract Artist - Title — splits "Daft Punk - Get Lucky" into Artist = "Daft Punk" and Title = "Get Lucky".
• Extract Artist / Title — same as above, using a slash separator.
• Extract Title - Artist / Extract Title / Artist — same as above, with fields reversed.
• Extract Title Remix — splits "Title (Club Mix)" into Title = "Title" and Remix = "Club Mix".
• Extract Title Subtitle — splits a subtitle into the Subtitle field.
• Extract Title Remix + Subtitle — splits both.
• Extract Artist Title (feat.) — handles "feat." style combined artist strings.
• Extract Multiple Artists (Ctrl+Shift+A) — splits a combined artist string (e.g. "Artist1 feat. Artist2") into separate artist entries.
• Extract Custom — opens a template dialog for pattern-based extraction using %fieldname% placeholders.

Replace — Ctrl+Shift+H

Opens a search-and-replace dialog for the active column. Regular expressions are supported. Applies to all selected rows.

The Right-Click Context Menu

Right-clicking anywhere in the track grid opens a context menu with quick access to all the productivity tools:

• Extract submenu — all Extract options (see above).
• Switch submenu — swap the focused column with any other field.
• Apply (Ctrl+D) — apply the current cell value to the entire column.
• Apply Down (Ctrl+Shift+D) — apply the value downward.
• Replace... (Ctrl+Shift+H) — search and replace in the active column.
• Auto-Track (Ctrl+T) — auto-number the active column.
• Calculate BPM — run automatic BPM detection on the selected tracks.
• Manual BPM — open the tap-tempo BPM tool.
• Calculate Track Gain / Album Gain — run ReplayGain analysis.

Filename to Tag

The Filename to Tag panel extracts tag information directly from filenames. It is especially useful for files with descriptive filenames but missing or poor tags.

Opening the Panel

Click the Filename to Tag button in the top toolbar. A panel slides in below the track grid.

Using the Panel

1. Select the rows you want to process.
2. Click Auto-guess — Helium analyses the selected filenames and fills in the most likely parse template automatically.
3. Review or adjust the template manually if needed.
4. Use the Insert Field button to insert field placeholders from a dropdown menu.
5. The Result preview shows the detected field values in real time as you adjust the template.
6. When the results look correct, apply the changes.

Panel Options

• Use Full Path — when checked, the full directory path is used as input, allowing folder-level data (such as the album name from the folder structure) to be extracted.
• Overwrite — when checked, existing non-empty tag values are replaced by parsed values. When unchecked, only empty fields are filled.

Template Syntax

Use %fieldname% placeholders to describe the filename structure. Any text between placeholders is treated as a literal separator.

Example: The file Daft Punk - Get Lucky.mp3 with the template %artist% - %title% extracts Artist = "Daft Punk" and Title = "Get Lucky".

Calculate BPM and Music Key

Access these tools from the Calculate drop-down button in the toolbar, or via the right-click context menu.

• Calculate BPM — automatically detects the tempo of each selected track and writes the result to the BPM field. A progress indicator is shown during analysis and the operation can be cancelled.
• Manual BPM — opens a tap-tempo tool for the focused track. Tap along to the beat to set the BPM manually.
• Calculate Music Key — detects the musical key of each selected track and writes it to the Initial Key field (e.g. Am, F#m, Gmaj). Requires the Boost licence add-on.
• Calculate Track Gain / Album Gain — runs ReplayGain analysis on the selected files and writes the gain values to the Track Gain and Album Gain fields. These values are used by Helium's player for volume normalisation.

Note: Helium automatically creates an undo snapshot before any Calculate operation. If the results are not what you expected, use the Undo button to revert them.

Downloading Information

When in Album Mode, you can fetch album and track information directly into the Tag Editor.

• Click Download → Download Track Information or press Ctrl+I to launch the Tag Downloader, which searches multiple sources for album details.
• Discogs is a particularly powerful source for physical releases. It can provide precise tag information including catalogue numbers, styles, and production credits, and stores Discogs IDs in your tags for future operations. Learn more about automating tagging with Discogs.
• Press Ctrl+L to download lyrics for the selected tracks (requires a lyrics plugin).

Built-in Player

The bottom toolbar includes a player so you can audition tracks without leaving the Tag Editor.

• Play / Pause / Stop — standard playback controls.
• Smart Play — jumps to key positions in the track (start, break, outro) for quick auditioning. Offsets are configurable in Options.
• Volume — drag the slider to adjust. Click the arrow to set a fixed value quickly.
• Capitalizer toggle — when enabled, text you type in any cell is automatically capitalised according to configured rules (Title Case, Sentence Case, and so on). Configure the rules per field using the Settings link at the right end of the player bar.
• Auto Sort Order toggle — when enabled, editing the Artist, Title, Album, or Album Artist field automatically fills the corresponding sort order field. For example, typing "The Beatles" also sets Artist Sort Order to "Beatles, The".

Right Sidebar (Album Mode)

The right sidebar is available in Album Mode and Grouped Album Mode. It provides album-level editing without touching each track individually.

• Album artwork — click the image to replace it with a file from your computer. You can also drag and drop an image onto the artwork, or paste one from the clipboard. Use the Download option to fetch cover art from the internet.
• Album-level fields — fields such as Release Type, Album Artist, and Album Name are shown here. Any change applies to every track in the album automatically.

To customise which fields appear and their order, use Settings → Edit RSB Fields in the toolbar.

Left Sidebar (Grouped Album Mode)

In Grouped Album Mode, the left sidebar lists all selected albums with their cover art. Click an album to load its tracks into the main grid. Changes are cached as you move between albums — nothing is lost when you switch. All changes are saved when you click OK.

Navigate between albums using Ctrl+Shift+N (next) and Ctrl+Shift+B (previous).

Undo and Save

• OK (Ctrl+Alt+Enter) — saves all changes to the audio files and the Helium library, then closes the editor.
• Cancel — prompts for confirmation, then discards all changes and closes.
• Undo — reverts all changes to the last undo snapshot. A snapshot is created automatically before Apply, Auto Track, Calculate, Download, and similar batch operations.

Additional Tools

The Tools drop-down button in the toolbar provides access to:

• Analyse Files — runs an integrity check on the selected audio files, checking for issues such as bitrate inconsistencies or corruption.
• Properties — shows detailed technical information about the selected files, including format, bitrate, duration, and encoding details.
• External Applications — launches any third-party tools you have configured in Options on the selected files.

Settings

Click the cog (⚙) icon in the top-right corner of the toolbar to access:

• Select Columns — choose which of the 80+ available fields are visible in the grid. Column order and width are saved automatically.
• Edit RSB Fields — choose which fields appear in the right sidebar panel and set their display order.
• Settings — configure text formatting rules:
  • Capitalisation per field: Title Case, Sentence Case, Uppercase, Lowercase, or None.
  • Word replacement rules: automatically substitute specific words or strings when they appear in tag fields.

Where the Tag Editor is Also Used

The same Tag Editor interface appears in several other parts of Helium:

• Edit Subtracks
• Split Audio Files
• CD Ripper
• Tag Downloader — result page

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