Messages

1

Questions / Re: Renaming Folders Easily / Regularly w/o Messing Up Play Count

« on: Today at 09:15:39 AM »

You might like to browse this post:
Missing Files: Relink Music File Paths, Locate Missing Files (and Prevention)
(which includes karbock's above suggestion).

I would have suggested using the Computer Node within MusicBee to rename the folder but I see you have already tried that. I can't think why you might not have permission to do this, but this is probably worth looking into as it may cause issues with other MusicBee functions in the future. (Are you currently able to edit tags in MusicBee?)

2

Questions / Re: [FIXED in reply #14] Files with MP3Gain tags isn't recognized by MusicBee

« on: Today at 09:05:42 AM »

I'm one of those surprising types

Indeed, it would appear so.
I used to use MP3Gain and agree that it is a pretty nifty solution but I guess I stopped when more players started to support replay gain tags. That all seems a long time ago now.

Just out of curiosity, how do you handle the same situation with other file formats? (I believe MP3Gain only supports the MP3 file format - and support for AAC was added at some point I think.)

3

Questions / Re: Applying sub-grouping when displayed in 'Tracks' view

« on: July 11, 2025, 11:51:55 PM »

I think the OP is asking if there is sub-grouping available in Tracks view (i.e. a second level of grouping below their current 'group by' setting of 'Album [Year]').

I'm pretty sure the answer to this is 'no'.

4

Questions / Re: [FIXED in reply #14] Files with MP3Gain tags isn't recognized by MusicBee

« on: July 11, 2025, 11:39:35 PM »

Weird how removing MP3Gain tags (and actually normalise the volume fully from these) isn't a thing in MusicBee right?

Not really no.
MusicBee uses 'standard' Replay Gain tags to normalise apparent volume across tracks. It will recognise these tags no matter which program writes them (including MP3Gain) and will delete these tags when you use the 'Restore Original Volume' function.

However MP3Gain has an additional function whereby these adjustments can be written into the frames of the mp3 files themselves - this is, for all intents and purposes, a 'permanent' adjustment and all players will then play the files at the new volume even if they do not support replay gain.
The clever part of this feature is that MP3Gain writes undo information in the MP3Gain_UNDO tag which then enables it to reverse this change without re-encoding the audio (ok, so it's not actually permanent).

While this was a neat idea before replay gain was widely supported, most players these days will support replay gain tags so I would think that this method is rarely necessary. I'm not sure that MP3Gain is maintained any longer nor do I believe that it uses the latest volume analysis algorithms. I'm actually surprised that anyone is still using this.

I wouldn't expect MusicBee (nor any other music player or editor) to be able to do undo this change nor would I suggest that Steven waste his time on any attempt to implement this.

5

Questions / Re: Not Populating?

« on: July 11, 2025, 06:23:44 PM »

I wonder if it would doable for Steven to make MusicBee throw a simple message when this happens, like "Process stopped; file "artist - title.mp3" could not be scanned--skip and continue?"  And/or, continue on its own and produce a report like "1200 files successfully scanned; the following were skipped due to file errors: <list files>"

That would be incredibly useful, wouldn't it?

Yes, this would be extremely useful.

Yes, agreed

6

Questions / Re: How to send tracks to a different managed library or folder?

« on: July 11, 2025, 06:19:48 PM »

"Folder (Move)" is greyed out.

This is probably because you have the Auto-Organise feature of MusicBee enabled - you can't move files manually if they are already automatically being moved by MusicBee.

"Folder (Copy)" is present but requires me to delete the track from my main library afterwards. It also doesn't preserve any folder structure after moving it.

Using Folder (Copy) > Copy Files to Organised Folder will allow you to set the folder structure but yes, as boroda pointed out above, you will have to manually delete the files from your library when using this method.


If you would like to consider a possible alternative method, I would suggest a single library while using a Custom Tag to identify a track as 'archived' and then a Library Filter to restrict what is being displayed.

7

Questions / Re: [FIXED in reply #14] Files with MP3Gain tags isn't recognized by MusicBee

« on: July 11, 2025, 06:01:01 PM »

Had time to have a look at MP3Gain again and your solution looks to be good.

For step 2 you don't need MP3Tag to delete the APE tags though - you can use MP3Gain (as you already have it open and loaded with the right tracks):
   Options Menu > Tags > Remove Tags from Files
which will remove all tags written by MP3Gain in all the files loaded.

8

Questions / Re: If files have MP3Gain, MusicBee doesn't recognize it

« on: July 10, 2025, 06:40:23 AM »

Just be careful here - I'm not sure that removing these APE tags will reset the volume.
I'm away from home at the moment and don't have time to check this (so I could be wrong) but, from memory:

The APE tags written by MP3Gain are only analysis and undo information.
MP3Gain does not set dynamic volume adjustment tags but sets some volume adjustment data within the frames of the mp3 files themselves - this means that the mp3 volume is adjusted for all players regardless of their functionality.
I think the only way to undo this is to use MP3Gain again and use the UNDO function.

I don't know if this is necessary as, presumably, in order to level volume across your library you could just apply the MusicBee volume analysis and enable Replay Gain.

9

MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Visibility of active filters

« on: July 07, 2025, 07:08:42 PM »

I would +1 this but I already requested something similar here a few months ago.

10

Bug Reports / Re: text after first line break in the comments repeats once

« on: July 07, 2025, 07:01:33 PM »

I can't begin to imagine how this can be happening.
Perhaps upload one of these files somewhere and post a link here so we can have a look.

11

Questions / Re: 2 'bugs/issues' that I can't reproduce but happen more than I would like.

« on: July 07, 2025, 06:52:56 PM »

I have numerous 'validation' auto-playlists that check my library for inconsistencies. For example find all songs in my library with no value for Year. Normally these work as expected but occaisionally they report some songs with no value for the Year. When I look at the songs they actually have a value for Year. The only way I've been able to fix this is to recreate the auto-playlist.

I have not experienced this so a wild stab in the dark here:
Might you have accidentally 'added' these tracks to the auto-playlist?
Next time you see this, go to edit the auto-playlist and click on 'Add Files'. This will list any manually added files (which can be deleted from here).

12

Questions / Re: Volume Adjustment option greyed out

« on: July 07, 2025, 06:39:09 PM »

For the volume adjustment setting to take effect you need to:
 1. Adjust the volume slider.
 2. Save
 3. Restart the track - if the track is playing you need to STOP, not PAUSE, and then play again.


I don't know if you are aware of this but the other, more comprehensive, method of making sure that all your tracks are played at the same volume is to use Volume Analysis (and Replay Gain). Volume analysis will save a volume adjustment figure into the tags of each track. Turning on Replay Gain enables the use of this adjustment figure when playing tracks.
For more information (and a very detailed explanation) see this post:
What is loudness normalization, why would I need it, and how do I use it?

13

Questions / Re: Edited Song Not Updating in MusicBee Playlist

« on: June 29, 2025, 01:42:19 PM »

Maybe I need to find a program that will permanantly adjust the volume

Don't do this - re-encoding lossy formats, such as mp3, can result in a loss of audio quality.
The Replay Gain system is a good method but you don't need MP3Gain for this - MusicBee can do all this for you. Have a read of this post first:
What Is Loudness Normalisation, Why Would I Need It and How Do I Use It

Come back and ask any questions if you need to (as long as you have had a go at finding the answer yourself first, people are quite willing to help).
You can use the forum search bar or this useful search engine:
MusicBee Google Search

14

Bug Reports / Re: Issue with album listing based on song metadata

« on: June 29, 2025, 01:32:47 PM »

MusicBee allows you to choose the fields that define an album. By default these are Album Artist and Album but you can add any that you deem useful:

    Edit Preferences > Sorting/Grouping - grouping (section)

You can add any field you like, including <Year>, here but just be aware that if you don't have consistent tagging then this can cause other issues.

15

Questions / Re: HELP WITH EDITING VIRTUAL TAGS FOR DISPLAYING TITLES AND FEATURED ARTISTS

« on: June 29, 2025, 10:24:13 AM »

It is a little hard to be precise with a solution here as it really depends on how you are tagging your music.

The virtual tag code you quote above is solid but its use of the <Artists> field is strange - it will identify anything identified as an 'artist' (this includes guest artists, performers, remixers.....) as a 'featured artist' (except for the first listed artist).
Perhaps you could share a link to where you found this code so we can see the context in which it was suggested.

To only have guest artists displayed here you could use the code:

Code

<Title>$IsNull(<Artists: Guest>,," (ft. "$RxReplace($RxReplace(<Artists: Guest>,";(?=.*;)",","),";(?=.*[^;])"," &")")")

This does assume that you are tagging your guest artists as 'Guest Artist' in the Multiple Artist Splitter - something like this:


Normally with duets/collaborations both artists will be listed individually as 'Artist' but with both names in the 'display artist' field - something like this:

Then the 'display artist' text is shown wherever the <Artist> field is used.

(I notice that I used the word 'normally' in there. Of course there is no 'normal' and there are probably many methods people use to do this sort of thing. I am merely suggesting one way based on my methodology.)