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Bug Reports / Re: Search Field Shortcut / Set Specific Fields and empty Album Artist tag
« on: August 09, 2023, 01:46:28 AM »
Wow - thanks so much!! 
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Bug Reports / Search Field Shortcut / Set Specific Fields and empty Album Artist tag
« on: August 08, 2023, 05:38:05 AM »
Musicbee automatically sets the album artist tag based on the artist tag, if the former is empty. When I do a Custom Search by "album artist," it pulls all albums by that album artist, including when that tag is empty and essentially set to the artist - that is the expected behavior.
However, when I use the Search Field Shortcuts or Set Specific Fields (to Album Artist), those albums where the album artist tag is empty *don't* turn up in the results, even though the artist field matches (and thus the album artist field). This is not what I would expect, given how Musicbee handles the album artist tag, whether it be for handling displayed fields or custom searching.
Apologies if this isn't a bug but instead a feature request.
Thanks again for this great program.
However, when I use the Search Field Shortcuts or Set Specific Fields (to Album Artist), those albums where the album artist tag is empty *don't* turn up in the results, even though the artist field matches (and thus the album artist field). This is not what I would expect, given how Musicbee handles the album artist tag, whether it be for handling displayed fields or custom searching.
Apologies if this isn't a bug but instead a feature request.
Thanks again for this great program.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Custom Search window and Local Node Only / Entire Library toggle
« on: July 01, 2023, 02:55:08 AM »
I use the Custom Search window more frequently than the Search bar. The Search bar has the ability to choose between Local Node Only (LNO) and Entire Library (EL) searches. Musicbee's selects LNO or EL based on the active or last tab, and whether it is in a local node or showing all or part of the library (as far as I can tell).
This can create some inconvenience when using the Custom Search window, as a reversion to LNO creates different search results than anticipated, especially if I'm active across multiple tabs. When that occurs, I have to close the Custom Search window, go to the drop down menu on the Search bar, and select EL, then Custom Search again.
It would be nice if there was a toggle on the Custom Search window for LNO / EL, akin to what is available in the drop down under the Search bar itself. Preferably one that would remember the last-used setting rather than switching based on the active or last tab.
This can create some inconvenience when using the Custom Search window, as a reversion to LNO creates different search results than anticipated, especially if I'm active across multiple tabs. When that occurs, I have to close the Custom Search window, go to the drop down menu on the Search bar, and select EL, then Custom Search again.
It would be nice if there was a toggle on the Custom Search window for LNO / EL, akin to what is available in the drop down under the Search bar itself. Preferably one that would remember the last-used setting rather than switching based on the active or last tab.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Library View - More Grouping and Sorting Options
« on: June 24, 2023, 06:52:36 PM »i will add Original Year as an album sorting option and also in the thumbnail browser, but as to the artwork grouping i would like to see some plus ones as it seems quite niche to meconfirming i have added Original Year for sorting in v3.6
Thank you!
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Library View - More Grouping and Sorting Options
« on: June 23, 2023, 07:03:49 AM »Alright, I think I get it now. What caught me out at first was that I thought you meant two different artists had the same literal <artist> value.For the first question, I use a custom tag for grouping and as a preset for the file organizer, both of which reference a country tag when it exists.For example, if I have two artists with the same name...Wait...As it stands, how are you differentiating them in other areas...
This is what my file organizer preset is: $IsNull(<Country>,<Album Artist>,<Album Artist>" ("<Country>")")\<Album>\<Disc-Track#> <Title>.
But I now see that you mean one could have an artist value like <Mike Jackson> for one artist and <Michael Jackson> for another totally different artist.
And to make things easier, you'd wanna group them as <Mike Jackson (Country 1)> and <Michael Jackson (Country 2)> ?
Do I have that right?
Yes, 100% correct.
For instance, there are two Skid Rows, one Irish and one American.
I would use a conditional "country" tag to get "Skid Row (USA)" and "Skid Row (Ireland)", for instance. If the "country" tag were blank, the album artist would just be "Skid Row."
What this enables is avoiding the "Album Artist" field getting mangled with a bunch of (Country) qualifiers that impacts searching, for instance. It also works well with various sorting orders when using Album Artist, which I prefer as my Artist tag is where featured or guest artists are listed. I use the country tag when and where I need to through custom tags/sorting/display columns/file naming conventions.
However, the Library limits the group options, so I cannot use the custom tag - as a result, all of my "Skid Row" albums are grouped together even though they are distinct artists.
I've been contemplating a few other ways to achieve the same or similar effect, one of which being the ability to use custom tags in the custom sorting field, but this is also not possible. I don't know enough yet to figure out if there is a way to use a custom tag in the Display Artist field, if that is even possible...but that was my next angle to explore.
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Questions / Re: Font Color
« on: June 23, 2023, 06:39:36 AM »Is the anyway to change the font color for SELECTED songs only PERMANENTLY so that they could stand out? It would be useful during browsing.
I created a "test" virtual tag called TitleColor, and used BPM as the test field (as I never use it):
$IsNull(<BPM>,<Title>,{color: 155,255,64}<Title>{color: default})
I then changed the Set Displayed Fields for "Title" to the name of this virtual tag, in this case, TitleColor.
When BPM has a value, it turns the title green. When BPM has no value, it leaves it with the default color.
You could substitute "BPM" for a custom tag of your own creation, then simply enter any value into the tag to permanently change the colour of the title. You could get a bit more creative and customize colors for specific values by using the conditional $If and nesting the formulas rather than $IsNull, as the latter only evaluates for an empty field.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Library View - More Grouping and Sorting Options
« on: June 23, 2023, 05:34:21 AM »i will add Original Year as an album sorting option and also in the thumbnail browser, but as to the artwork grouping i would like to see some plus ones as it seems quite niche to me
Thank you for considering both, and implementing one. Sincerely appreciated - this in itself will certainly improve my (already great) user experience!
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Questions / Re: Duplicated songs appended by "_1"
« on: June 22, 2023, 02:11:35 AM »
I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for - but if you go to Preferences, Devices, and Add Virtual Device, you should be able to turn the folder into a virtual device and then sync the playlist.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Library View - More Grouping and Sorting Options
« on: June 18, 2023, 08:11:10 PM »In the Library, set to view by Artists, it would be nice to group by virtual tags.Wait...
For example, if I have two artists with the same name, I will differentiate them by country (or state(province)/country) using a virtual tag, and then...
As it stands, how are you differentiating them in other areas as far as the Music Explorer, artist bio, filtering systems, library stats and everything artist-related is concerned?
It's not quite clear to me if you are requesting this feature because you currently have artists sharing the same name or if this is only for once you come across that dilemma.Similarly, under Library, when I click on Album Artist and bring up their albums, it would be nice if...For my own info if someone can answer...is this referring to the Thumbnail browser?
For the first question, I use a custom tag for grouping and as a preset for the file organizer, both of which reference a country tag when it exists. This is what my file organizer preset is: $IsNull(<Country>,<Album Artist>,<Album Artist>" ("<Country>")")\<Album>\<Disc-Track#> <Title>. I would like for the Library to be able to group Album Artists using a grouping custom tag.
For the second question, in Library, when organized by "Artists", you can show the tracks for the selected artist or album directly under the selected album/artist. The sort options are Title, Year (Asc), Year (Des). I would like to sort using the custom sorting options that I use for other views.
Thanks for requesting the clarifications!
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MusicBee Wishlist / Library View - More Grouping and Sorting Options
« on: June 18, 2023, 05:59:19 AM »
Hopefully this hasn't been asked and answered before (if so, my apologies, I did search for the topic but didn't see anything responsive - honest!).
In the Library, set to view by Artists, it would be nice to group by virtual tags. For example, if I have two artists with the same name, I will differentiate them by country (or state(province)/country) using a virtual tag, and then I use a naming template to send them to a distinct folder in my library, Album Artist (Country). It would be nice to have this same ability to group Artists in the Library View by a virtual tag, as otherwise my Album Artists include a jumble of different album artists that happen to share the same name.
Similarly, under Library, when I click on Album Artist and bring up their albums, it would be nice if I could sort those by custom sorting options rather than just sort by Album, Year (Asc), Year (Des). For example, I use Year to represent the year that a release was actually released, and I use original year to represent the year that a live recording actually occurred or, in the event of a reissue, the year that the album was originally released. I would prefer to sort by original year, preferably using a custom tag that I set up that includes original year.
Thanks again for this program - it has been my go-to music player since October 2015! Can't wait to see what v3.6 brings!
In the Library, set to view by Artists, it would be nice to group by virtual tags. For example, if I have two artists with the same name, I will differentiate them by country (or state(province)/country) using a virtual tag, and then I use a naming template to send them to a distinct folder in my library, Album Artist (Country). It would be nice to have this same ability to group Artists in the Library View by a virtual tag, as otherwise my Album Artists include a jumble of different album artists that happen to share the same name.
Similarly, under Library, when I click on Album Artist and bring up their albums, it would be nice if I could sort those by custom sorting options rather than just sort by Album, Year (Asc), Year (Des). For example, I use Year to represent the year that a release was actually released, and I use original year to represent the year that a live recording actually occurred or, in the event of a reissue, the year that the album was originally released. I would prefer to sort by original year, preferably using a custom tag that I set up that includes original year.
Thanks again for this program - it has been my go-to music player since October 2015! Can't wait to see what v3.6 brings!
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Questions / Re: rename filenames in MusicBee WITHOUT moving the renamed files to another folder
« on: January 14, 2023, 02:53:21 AM »
If you just need to rename one file, go to Edit, Properties, and change just the filename at the end of "location".
If you want to change a series of files based on a naming convention, you should be able to use Move to Organized Folder, provided you set up the naming template properly and have tagged your music files consistently.
If you want to change a series of files based on a naming convention, you should be able to use Move to Organized Folder, provided you set up the naming template properly and have tagged your music files consistently.
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Questions / Re: Grouping Help
« on: November 12, 2022, 06:23:13 AM »Happy to help!...that seems to get something close to what you are describing.Close? HELL!! That's exactly what I've been struggling with. Thanks very much.
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Questions / Re: Grouping Help
« on: November 12, 2022, 01:04:05 AM »
Not sure if this is what you are seeking, but if you change the view to "Artists" and then go to customize panel and select under "when albums are grouped by artist" both "show album covers" and "show album count", that seems to get something close to what you are describing.
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Questions / Re: Change sort order of a specific album
« on: July 01, 2020, 07:32:27 PM »
You can add the month and the day after the year to sort it more precisely (yyyy-mm-dd).
For instance, the year tag for Infestissumam would be 2013-04-09 and the tag for if You Have Ghost would be 2013-11-19.
After you do that, the albums will sort by full date, then alphabetically.
For instance, the year tag for Infestissumam would be 2013-04-09 and the tag for if You Have Ghost would be 2013-11-19.
After you do that, the albums will sort by full date, then alphabetically.
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General Discussions / Re: Tagging Song Covers
« on: June 18, 2020, 06:14:53 AM »
I tag the original artist for covers. I then created a virtual tag:
$IsNull(<Original Artist>,<Title>,<Title>{color: 252,255,64}" ("<Original Artist>" cover)")
I display this field rather than <Title> so that it shows me the original artist after, in brackets and yellow, when available (I am planning to change the colour as it doesn't work well when the track is highlighted).
I've also set up a Filter - "Original Artist is not null" - and then set this filter to group by Original Artist. This enables me to get a complete list of all cover songs, organized by the original artist, which I can sort by other Album or Artist depending on what I am looking for.
I use the original year for 2 things: to tag studio albums that are reissues and to tag live albums with the date of the performance. I do this as I sort all of my albums by album artist, then year, and I prefer reissues and live albums to appear at the original date of issue or performance.
$IsNull(<Original Artist>,<Title>,<Title>{color: 252,255,64}" ("<Original Artist>" cover)")
I display this field rather than <Title> so that it shows me the original artist after, in brackets and yellow, when available (I am planning to change the colour as it doesn't work well when the track is highlighted).
I've also set up a Filter - "Original Artist is not null" - and then set this filter to group by Original Artist. This enables me to get a complete list of all cover songs, organized by the original artist, which I can sort by other Album or Artist depending on what I am looking for.
I use the original year for 2 things: to tag studio albums that are reissues and to tag live albums with the date of the performance. I do this as I sort all of my albums by album artist, then year, and I prefer reissues and live albums to appear at the original date of issue or performance.