Topics

1

Questions / Strange behavior in playing multi-movement classical files

« on: February 02, 2024, 02:53:13 PM »

I've been a MB user for a long time, having installed and used it on several different computers. My Library seems to be a little scrambled.

I put the music files in a folder called C:\Music followed by several subfolders. For example, if I rip a CD, then MB creates a folder called "Ripped Files". I recently discovered that I have several multi-movement symphonies where each movement is a separate file. In the main page, only one movement shows up (sometimes, but not always, the first movement). However, if I use Windows Explorer and click on the first movement, they all play in the correct order (I have set MB as my default music player). I have been unable to make the main page of MB find and add those additional movements. I've tried "locate missing files", under the Tools menu; "Add Files to Library" and "Scan Folders for New Files", both under the files menu.

A related question, what is the best way to organize files. If I'm downloading a digital file, I create a folder or folder+subfolder with the album name, artist, and/or the composer and put all the files there. I then edit the main page entries to make sure all the metadata is correct, and that usually works. It can be a bit confusing, because maybe half of these files came from my old iTunes library, which has its own organization, which I don't feel like messing with, unnecessarily.

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

2

Questions / Multichannel files and SACDs

« on: January 15, 2024, 03:47:56 PM »

How does MB handle multichannel files? I have purchased a few 5-channel DSF files but am not sure if MB can play them. Also, is there an easy way to rip multichannel (or stereo) SACDs?

3

Questions / Transferring MusicBee program and library to a new computer

« on: September 24, 2022, 10:55:15 PM »

I've been using MB for a couple of years on an older Win10 computer and wish to transfer the program and library to a new one, which is running Win11. Is the easiest way to download and install the latest version of MB, then copy the contents of the folder(s) where the music files are located to an equivalent set of folders on the new computer? I want to keep both installations active, at least until the old computer dies. Should I update MB on the old computer first? Currently using 3.4.7628.

4

Questions / Albums, cover images, and sorting

« on: December 21, 2020, 11:27:07 PM »

I have been rearranging my music files and have come up with a situation; further explanation here:
I have a fairly large collection of music files, from MP3, wav, various iTunes files, etc. and want to rearrange them. Mostly classical music either ripped from CDs or digitized from LPs. Many done 10 years ago, using various programs, including iTunes. These files are in several locations, many in Users/myname/music/iTunes etc. I now want to put them all in a folder called Music in the root of my C: drive to avoid the users/... situation. I want to put all the files from one CD or one LP into one album, usually with the Album name that the original CD or LP had.

When I look at my collection in MB, with "Path" included as a "Displayed Field", I can see where all these files are located. The next step is to find and select all the files which are from the same Album. I select them as a group and change the Album Name to be what I want. I then find an image of that album. In the old days, I would scan the actual CD or LP cover, but now I just Google the name of the album and can find a reasonable image of my album. I paste that image into the Album image. I then check on all the other tags and, for example, of the entire album is one artist, I make sure the artist tags are identical for all files.

Now the problem: even after this, when I sort by Album/Disc#/Composer/Artist (or any other scheme which starts with Album), not all tracks assigned to that album appear together, and the image I pasted into that album doesn't appear on all tracks. Usually it works, but sometimes not.

Another related issue (especially important for classical music) is that the tracks don't all appear in the correct order. Is there any way to force all the tracks for one composition to appear together, in track# order? Also, for longer works which were on more than one disc, how do I make all the discs to appear together?

PS, for those who care, I've given up on Picard; since I have the CDs or LPs, I have all the information I need for manual tagging.

5

Beyond MusicBee / new computer requirements

« on: November 09, 2020, 04:03:13 PM »

I'm thinking about getting a new computer (laptop) on which to run MusicBee. What specifications should I look for (other than speed, HD capacity, memory) to maximize sound quality. Such a computer might need a DAC - is this something I can identify in a laptop? And, does it make any difference? Also, output ports. My current computer uses an HDMI connector which goes to my TV (where the DAC is), and analog out from the TV to my amp (which doesn't have HDMI ports). I can use the headphone out, but that doesn't sound very good (probably a bad DAC in the computer). Do any PCs have optical outs, and would that be desirable if they do?

6

Questions / I messed up my MB installation!

« on: November 04, 2020, 05:46:53 PM »

I think I installed MB on or before July 5, 2020, based on the dates of the music file folders, and did some rearranging since then. But, about two weeks ago, I had a major computer problem which required that I reinstalled Windows 10, and all my apps were deleted. I went to the MB website and installed version 3.3.7491, which I am using now. I'm pretty sure that my previous installation was earlier.

In my fiddling around, I initially created a library and everything was working fine. I then found another collection of files in an old iTunes library, and created another library for those files. I used that library to put on a flash drive for my car. I was in the process of trying to merge these two libraries when my computer crashed.

In the new installation, I seem to see only the files from the former iTunes library. And, more significant, when I go to the main player, I cannot "set displayed fields" to my taste. The only fields present in the selection were Album, Album Artist, Track#, Genre, etc. Since my library is primarily Classical music, clearly these are insufficient. Why are the other displayed fields not available? Is this a result of the change of the installed version?

In searching my computer for MusicBee files, I found them in several folders:
C:\Users\(me)\AppdataProgram Files (X86)\MusicBee
C:\Users\(me)\AppdataProgram Files (X86)\MusicBee\Skins
C:\Users\(me)\Appdata
C:\Users\(me)\Appdata\Roaming
C:\Users\(me)\Appdata\Roaming\MusicBee
C:\Users\(me)\Downloads
C:\Users\(me)\Music\MusicBee - This is where the old music files are
C:\Music\Reorganized - this is where the new music collection files are

7

Questions / sorting and play order

« on: September 14, 2020, 10:01:31 PM »

When I sort my track list (Library?) by clicking on the tag title, and then play one track, shouldn't the next track on the list play next? That's what iTunes does, and I like that method - unless MB has a better one. Also, is there a way to sort on multiple tags - such as artist then title?

8

Questions / Grouping (or ungrouping)

« on: September 04, 2020, 09:41:26 PM »

I seemed to have gotten all the tracks on a particular album grouped, in the sense that in track view, they all show up, but I can't edit them individually. It's a classical symphony and each movement is a separate track, but they all have the same title, etc. They have different times so I know they are separate (and, of course, I can play any one).

9

Questions / Multiple libraries

« on: August 26, 2020, 10:22:47 PM »

I have a very nice library on my PC, with the files on the same computer. I created another library for a flash drive and put a number of files from a different external source on that drive. During that process, I noticed that both libraries showed up on my main MusicBee page. I noticed that sometimes the libraries get cross linked - that is music from one library shows in another. Because of this, I am hesitant to use MB for the library on my flash drive, but I would like to copy some music from one library to the other. How can I safely do this?

10

Questions / ripping cds and copying files using a naming template

« on: August 24, 2020, 06:54:58 PM »

Basic concept question here: where do the tags usually come from? Many of my files, either from ripped CDs or digitized LPs had no tags (except for "track01", etc.), except for those I got from my old iTunes library or those which I had ripped using Foobar. So, when I put them into MB, I had to manually enter the tags. I just got 4 CDs which were locally produced from live concerts. I ripped them using MB,  and, again, no tags. I assume it's because they weren't in any database. My question: If they had been regular commercial CDs, would MB have gone out to the cloud and found the necessary tags? Because I have always had the original CD or LP, I have the information necessary, but have to type it in manually.

Now, when I copy these new files, which I have manually tagged, to my library, will they use that naming template I had previously used so these files will "fit into" my library structure?

11

Questions / iTunes files on a flash drive

« on: August 16, 2020, 10:47:39 PM »

I found an old backup hard disk with about 45 GB of iTunes files. I have copied them to a flash drive and would like to use MB to organize and tag them, but I don't want them in my main library on my main computer. What's the best way to do this?

12

Questions / Tracks from DVDAs

« on: August 13, 2020, 03:26:10 PM »

I have two DVDAs which I ripped with a program which I cannot remember the name of. However, the individual tracks have essentially no tags, and when I play them, there is no time listed on the main window of MB. The track names are something like track-01-01[0]-01-[L-R]-24-48000 or track-01-01[1]-01-[Lf-Rf-Ls-Rs-C-LFE]-24-48000 as a track title, depending on whether I selected stereo or surround sound. When I play them, there is no time displayed (I guess I could play each track and see the elapsed time, and enter that into the time tag, but there doesn't seem to be a time tag in the Edit window). Any suggestions?

13

Questions / Mini and Compact players - control of

« on: August 10, 2020, 03:14:06 PM »

I've started playing around with the mini and compact players, and can't figure out how to control what they display. It seems as if the default is a number (of track in entire library?), artist, title. Sometimes the cover shows up, and sometimes the timing. On the main player, I can control what is displayed, but not on these. As a classical music listener, I would like what I have selected in Preferences:Sorting/Grouping (Composer, Title, Artist, Movement#) to be used.

In creating this question, I just noticed that if I am in compact player view and select track information, I get, among other things, a list of up to 7 fields (which I guess are selectable): Composer, Title, Artist, Album, and Year. But what are displayed are: Cover art, Title, Time.

14

Questions / Removing duplicates.

« on: August 03, 2020, 03:02:19 PM »

I was browsing the festsures of MB and noticed that under Preferences/Library, there was the choice to move duplicates to the Inbox upon startup. I have a lot of duplicates, because I copied music files from several flash drives and hard drives to the same folder on my PC. How does MB define a duplicate? I assume it is a pair of files for which the music is identical, but perhaps not the tags or the titles. But when I applied this, even files which I'm pretty sure are duplicates weren't flagged. Duplicates in the sense that they had the same title, length, format, etc. but not necessarily the same filename.

15

Questions / recognizing external drives

« on: July 30, 2020, 05:52:13 PM »

I've been using MB to manage files and add tags. I then take selected files and copy them to a USB flash drive. If I want to check what's on one of those drives and maybe edit, how do I get MB to see the drive without changing anything in my main library? When I tried looking at it, all it showed was the list of files plus an offer to copy them (which way - from my main library to the flash drive or the other way around?)