getmusicbee.com
Support => Questions => Topic started by: KyleHxyahoo on May 15, 2019, 07:17:46 PM
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The entries below started with a mistake, on my part.
I'm leaving them in, because they may help people figure what's happening,
especially with multi-value entries in artist(s) field(s).
The ending point is the opposite of where I started.
It seems that MusicBee is the cleanest with mp3 tags (at least ID3v2.3),
at that's a non-trivial issue, especially for those doing many imports & exports.
My thanks to "frankz" & "psychoadept" for working with me on this.
It might be useful, even for just this one issue (multi-value artist entries), to
do a comparison across many apps, to help with the import/export stuff.
I just ran a quick test and it seems that VLC uses spaces, where MediaMonkey
uses forward slashes, where MP3Tag uses double back-slashes, which MusicBee
interprets correctly and displays as a multi-value field.
Nice work.
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If I enter "Artists: Artist" as: Prince; AC/DC; other.
Then it shows as that.
And in the selection panes at the top, there are 3 entries.
(Working like Genres separated by semicolons & using multipe Genre selection panes).
(same applies to "Artist" multi-field)
But if I edit the same file in another program, and re-import (re-scan) in MusicBee,
then the semi-colons are changed to forward slashes, and the other options crap out.
Obviously, MB understands semicolons, and works fine with them.
But it HAS to STOP changing semcolons to slashes on import & re-import of MP3s.
I've tried the options/tagging, like using MP3v2.4 instead, but none of the options I found changed this behaviour.
How can I get MB to leave the semicolons alone?
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The changes are done in both "Artist" and "Original Artist" fields.
MB does NOT change semi-colons in the "Genre" field.
???
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It'll be the other programs doing that, not MusicBee. In MusicBee, the semi colons don't actually exist in the file, they are just a stand-in to indicate multiple values. Take a look at the tag inspector to see what i mean.
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Did that, and, unfortunately, it is MB.
-Create or Edit in MB (with semicolons), save.
-Go out & create or edit elsewhere, save (with semicolons).
-Rescan in MB .. MB comes back with slashes.
Consistently.
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psychoadept is correct
-Go out & create or edit elsewhere, save (with semicolons).
do you think there is any possibility it is this?
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Went thru it again, just to be sure, but same.
In MB, set Artist = Prince; AC/DC; more
Saved, exited MB & scanned in MediaMonkey.
Came up as "Prince; AC/DC; more" in MM.
In MM, set Artist = Prince; AC/DC; other
Saved, exited MM, & scanned in MusicBee.
Came up as "Prince/AC/DC/other" in MB.
As I said, consistent .. and it is MB.
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Went thru it again, just to be sure, but same.
In MB, set Artist = Prince; AC/DC; more
Saved, exited MB & scanned in MediaMonkey.
Came up as "Prince; AC/DC; more" in MM.
In MM, set Artist = Prince; AC/DC; other
Saved, exited MM, & scanned in MusicBee.
Came up as "Prince/AC/DC/other" in MB.
As I said, consistent .. and it is MB.
Literally the first Google result for "mediamonkey slash separator"
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=53078
the standard delimiter for ID3 tags in mp3 files is the "/". For cosmetic purposes, you can change what shows in MM, but the slash will always be written to the actual tags
MB is showing you what MM has done to your file, not doing it to your file.
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{pulling my hair out}
just to go thru it .. the next series:
MusicBee: set to: Prince; AC/DC; MB
mp3tag: shows as: Prince\\AC/DC\\MB
MediaMonkey rescan: Prince; AC/DC; MB
MediaMonkey: set to: Prince; AC/DC; MM
mp3tag: shows as: Prince/AC/DC/MM
MusicBee rescan: Prince/AC/DC/MM
MusicBee: set to: Prince\\AC/DC\\MB2
mp3tag: shows as: Prince\\AC/DC\\MB2
MediaMonkey rescan: Prince\\AC/DC\\MB2
MediaMonkey: set to: Prince/AC/DC/MM2
mp3tag: shows as: Prince/AC/DC/MM2
MusicBee rescan: Prince/AC/DC/MM2
There's got to be a way to tie this down.
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If you want to save multiple artists in MB, use the semicolon. That splits your artists in to separate Artist tags, one for each.
How other programs COLLATE and DISPLAY those separate tags is what you're getting hung up on.
But if you look in the actual file with Mediainfo or something else that will show you the actual tags absent of third-party display options, you will see that each artist is in its own Artist tag if you save them with a semicolon in MB.
How you save multiple artists in other programs is a question for the forums of those other programs.
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MusicBee: set to: Prince; AC/DC; MB
mp3tag: shows as: Prince\\AC/DC\\MB
MediaMonkey rescan: Prince; AC/DC; MB
This actually proves our point. \\ is mp3tag's equivalent of the semicolon in MusicBee. It is a stand-in, not actually saved to the file. Media Monkey is the problem, not MusicBee.
Here are more topics on this subject:
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=28287.msg156843#msg156843
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=20686.msg122527#msg122527
There are others but I'm not in a good position to find them right now.
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It should also be noted that these messes seem to occur only when editing the artist(s) field(s) themselves.
For example, editing a comments field (only) outside of MB, then re-scanning in MB, will NOT cause the
artist(s) to lose their multi-value quality, but any edit to the artist value(s) will.
...
pain that has to be lived with
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This is why I now never open my music files in ANY app other than MusicBee. I spent a lot of time getting my tags correct (over 35,000 tracks), and other programs all seem to insist on changing them whether I want them to or not.
MusicBee is the only app I've come across that keeps the tags the way I set them.