Audio File Naming Convention for Voice Data Projects
A clear naming convention saves hours when a project has hundreds of recordings. Many clients give you the exact format they want, so always follow their specification first. If there is none, the habits below are a safe starting point.
What a good name contains
- Speaker or project code, such as
spk01. - Sentence or recording number, padded with zeros, such as
001. - Optionally the language or dialect, such as
ar-eg.
Example: spk01_ar-eg_001.wav.
Habits that avoid problems
- No spaces. Use an underscore or a hyphen. Some systems break on spaces.
- Zero padding.
001,002,010sort correctly. Without padding, 10 can appear before 2. - Letters and numbers only. Avoid symbols, and use ASCII letters if the client's system needs them.
- One pattern for the whole batch. Do not mix styles.
- Keep a list. A CSV with the old and new names lets you trace any file.
When names come from the client
If the client sends a list of file names, paste the list into the batch renamer and the files get those names in order. Check the preview carefully, because a list in the wrong order gives wrong names.
Do it in a few steps
See how to rename many audio files at once. If you record sentences first, the voice recorder can already name files from your script.
Rename many recordings at once from a ZIP, free in your browser.
Open the batch renamer