Messages

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Questions / Re: Can MusicBee simply follow directory structure

« on: November 24, 2020, 05:25:10 PM »

Okay, I realize that my words did not come across as intended. I meant to suggest that my issue, being philosophical and conversational about software use cases, was less deserving of the developers' and volunteers' time and attention than tracking bugs and assisting users experiencing hard issues. Hope this makes sense. My apologies for the poor wording.

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Questions / Re: Can MusicBee simply follow directory structure

« on: November 24, 2020, 05:03:27 AM »

I am not saying it is impossible to achieve what I want in MB. I am sure there is a way, however I spent a significant chunk of two days looking for it, unfortunately to no avail. At some point a person needs to take a step back and ask themselves, do I keep obsessing over this software until I coax it into fitting my needs, or do I just switch to another one that gives me what I want in <5 minutes?

If I were @Steven, I think I would look favorably upon implementing a dead-simple solution (sort by folder structure option) that has the considerable virtue of putting the onus on users to achieve whatever arcane sorting scheme it is they might want, just by tweaking their own file structure. While I certainly do appreciate the conversation, I would rather MusicBee had spent the time tracking bugs and assisting users.

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Questions / Re: Can MusicBee simply follow directory structure

« on: November 24, 2020, 03:19:51 AM »

@The Incredible Boom Boom @HaiFi's solution ultimately does not seem to resolve the question of how to sort various-artists albums depending on whether one wants them listed by name or by artists.

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Questions / Re: Can MusicBee simply follow directory structure

« on: November 23, 2020, 07:11:06 PM »

I don't suppose you tried refreshing with F5?

Correct, I did not realize F5 was functional in MB.

That's fair, MusicBee has multiple ways to accomplish almost anything. Figuring out how it can meet your needs has a learning curve, especially in these edge cases.

True again, but at the end of the day the goal is playing music, not becoming a music software expert. And although I agree with your general point, I disagree that following directory structure constitutes an edge case. I think it's a mainstream use case, and implementing it would give users the option to get precisely the results they want, simply by organizing their library accordingly.

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Questions / Re: Can MusicBee simply follow directory structure

« on: November 23, 2020, 05:19:37 PM »

@The Incredible Boom Boom: You are correct, tagging those "various artists" albums as "iTunes compilations" enables correct sorting (in most cases). Here's what I found, for the benefit of other users who may read this thread:

1. If you want the compilation to appear under its album name BUT NOT under individual artists' names (possibly because it is a themed compilation, collection or soundtrack album where the album is the focus, rather than individual artists). Example: 500 hits from the 80's - you don't want your album/artist sorting clogged with 500 separate entries for 500 artists that have one track each:
     a. In Edit > Settings, tag the album as "iTunes compilation" (not sure why a checkbox AND a drop down list, but I checked both)
     b. Per @phred suggestion, in Edit > Tag, enter the album name in both the "Album" and "Album Artist" fields. This causes MB to display the album under its own heading.
     c. In Edit > Tags, leave the "Artist" field blank.

2. If you want the compilation to appear under each artist's name BUT NOT under its own name (possibly because it is a split album / EP with 2 or 3 artists where the artists matter more than the album proper):
     a. In Edit > Settings, tag the album as "iTunes compilation"
     b. In Edit > Tags > Artist, select the artists you want the album displayed under. Alternatively, enter the artists' names, separated by semicolon(s).
     c. In Edit > Tags, leave the "Album Artist" field blank.

In truth, this method seems to work in most cases but it is not 100% reliable. It takes a lot of closing and restarting MB to get changes to display. At different times, a drop-down list of artists may or may not appear in the Artist field. One collection refused to display at all for reasons unknown. Maybe not all of its 309 tracks are tagged the way MB expects.

On a higher level, I think MB is a great app and I wish I could continue using it. @frankz It does not seem unreasonable to offer a "by folder structure" sort option to those who choose to maintain a clean music library on disk. It may even be a breeze to implement from a development standpoint? Not everyone's idea of a "music library" is to dump 6000 disparate mp3s in a single folder and expect a music player to sort it out. A "By folder structure" sort option is available right out the box in the otherwise rather agricultural foobar2000, whose XP-era looks one might have to learn to look at as charmingly nostalgic. As they say in French, better is the enemy of good. Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to this thread.

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Questions / Re: Can MusicBee simply follow directory structure

« on: November 21, 2020, 04:56:13 PM »

If the filter is set on Album Artist, the album appears in full under Relaxing Chansons, and not at all under Céline Dion nor Death Grips.

If the filter is set on Artist, 6 tracks of the album appear under Céline Dion, 6 tracks under Death Grips, and no entry exists for Relaxing Chansons.

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Questions / Re: Can MusicBee simply follow directory structure

« on: November 21, 2020, 06:30:03 AM »

The album appears in full under artist Relaxing Chansons, and not at all under artist Céline Dion nor Death Grips.

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Questions / Re: Can MusicBee simply follow directory structure

« on: November 21, 2020, 06:15:06 AM »

By "regular library view" do you mean "Music"?

If so, it makes no difference. It's just a different view of the same sorting, and Music Explorer is way more elegant.

I also tried to change the tags on one album as you suggested. To reuse my previous example of a split album by Céline Dion and Death Grips with 6 tracks by each artist - let's say that album is called Relaxing Chansons. Album artist tag was blank so I edited it to read "Relaxing Chansons". Now it does show under Artist = "Relaxing Chansons" (okay) and lists all 12 songs (good)... however, it is no longer listed under either Céline Dion nor Death Grips, which is incorrect as it features original tracks by both and should be listed under both as it is significant to the discography of both.

On the other hand, an album like "The Best of Pre-WWI Rockabilly" with its 30 tracks by 30 artists should probably NOT be listed under each of its 30 respective artists as it is representative of a genre rather than individual artist(s). Hope that makes sense, although it's getting complicated  That's why an option for MB to blindly follow the folder structure would give the user the option to control how content is displayed in MB based on the way the user stored it in the file structure.

I used to use Cantata on Linux, and its "Folders" option does just that, it shows you your directory tree and you can play whatever you want. I know MB sort of does that too under "Computer", but it is a rather inelegant way to use the program .

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Questions / Re: Can MusicBee simply follow directory structure

« on: November 21, 2020, 02:36:57 AM »

The problem I am trying to solve is one specific to anthology albums, soundtracks, etc.

Let's say I have an anthology album named "The Best of Pre-WWI Rockabilly" or something. It has 30 tracks by 30 artists.

When I play that album, I most likely want to listen to the entire album. I'm not likely to want to listen to a single song by one artist. So I would want MusicBee to display it as one album rather than splitting it into 30 album/artist pairs.

Similarly, let's say I have a split album where half the songs are by Céline Dion and the other by Death Grips. If I navigate Artist > Album I see the album, but only the tracks by the one artist are shown. If I want to play the other tracks, I have to re-navigate to the album using the other artist's name.

MusicBee's default sorting algorithm works fine whenever "album" is a subset of "artist", but not in those cases when "artist" is a subset of "album", like the examples above or (some) soundtracks. In those cases there should be a means to override the default algorithm in order to keep these albums together. Hope this makes sense.

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Questions / Re: Can MusicBee simply follow directory structure

« on: November 19, 2020, 11:15:12 PM »

I have, but it has not changed the grouping.

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Questions / Can MusicBee simply follow directory structure

« on: November 19, 2020, 10:36:22 PM »

Hi all,

I am coming back to MusicBee after a multi-year hiatus. Much has been improved in the interval; Music Explorer in particular looks great. But I can't seem to make it behave the way I want.

My music library is already organized the way I want it at the directory level. Generally, top level folder = artist; 2nd level folder = album; 3rd level folder = disc number (when appropriate). Simple. But I can't get MusicBee to just display it as is in Music Explorer, without second-guessing the existing grouping / sorting. I looked for such a setting but could not find one.

The reason I would want that is to get control over how soundtrack, anthology and / or split albums are displayed in Music Explorer.

Thank you!

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Questions / Re: Why did MB randomly move my FLAC files?

« on: December 08, 2016, 04:11:25 AM »

The Auto-organise media files box is unchecked. It always is, and in the years I have been using MB it has NEVER moved a single file anywhere on its own volition.

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Questions / Why did MB randomly move my FLAC files?

« on: December 06, 2016, 02:05:52 AM »

Hi, I'm a happy MB user posting here for the first time. I am having an odd issue that I cannot figure out. I added a couple of albums to my library the same way I always do, which is:
- copy the album folder to my physical repository
- open album folder in windows explorer
- select music files and drag them onto MB center panel

This has always worked flawlessly. The files are added to my library and the physical folder itself is untouched.

But not this time. Those albums are single-file FLACs. First I tried to drag the .flac file, and the album appeared in the library but as a single file (no tracks). So I dragged the .cue file instead, and that worked fine - all tracks are listed in the library and they play back just fine. But! Both the .cue and the .flac files are gone from their folder! MB obviously moved them somewhere, I took a quick look in appdata and program files but I couldn't find them. So I have 2 questions:
1. MB has never moved my files before. Why this time, and where are they?
2. Is there a better method to handle single-file FLACs?

Your help is very much appreciated. Thank you!