Yate for Mac

With numerous compilation CD imports and mislabeled YouTube converts, your music library can quickly become a mess, and once in a while, it's good to get your hands dirty and bring some order back to your chaotic audio files. With many useful features and only some minor quirks, Yate for Mac can help you tag and organize your audio files the right way.

Yate for Mac proposes a more classic approach to tagging and organizing your audio files. You directly drop your files from iTunes or from the finder into the program's interface, and from there you can edit pretty much any ID3 tag or add lyrics, cover art, etc. There is a Help file to familiarize you with every possibility offered if you have particular tagging needs. The software delivers what it promises, but not without quirks. On multiple occasions we experienced error windows and subsequent file closing. Fortunately, the errors seemed irrelevant, as our changes were always saved as planned. The artwork finder didn't prove very ergonomic to use, either. There is an option to modify multiple files at once and you can even access some rather useful conditional formatting functions to remove and insert text at specified locations. Frequent users will appreciate the ability to customize the toolbar to get quick access to more actions, too.

Apart from some confusing errors, Yate for Mac offers enough features to satisfy most of your tagging needs, from seasonal cleaning to frequent tagging. Don't expect a fully automated and perfectly smooth workflow, though.

Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of Yate for Mac 2.0.1.2.