Messages

1

Questions / Re: Permenantly Adjust The Volume Of An Album Or Track By A Certain Amount

« on: September 26, 2021, 07:33:59 AM »

You can right-click the album and click edit, then go to its settings tab:

This is not a permanent volume adjustment. It only applies to the tracks while they are playing in MusicBee.

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Questions / Permenantly Adjust The Volume Of An Album Or Track By A Certain Amount

« on: September 26, 2021, 12:52:22 AM »

Every so often, I run across an album that has average peak volumes of -6 or -7 dB. Usually these are remastered SACD Hi-def, etc modern remasters. Well, that is way too low a volume for rock, etc. Around -2 to -1 is better for modern ears as long as the RMS does not go below 13ish.

Say that I want to permenantly adjust the volume for each track by exactly +5 dB. As I can see it, there is no easy way to do this in MusicBee. I did it the following way, track by track.
Starting out with an album in lossless format:
1) Send each track, one by one to the volume analysis and add +5 dB. This writes replay gain tags.
2) Send the adjusted tracks one by one to the format converter. I check the "permenantly adjust volume" & "tracks to the same volume" checked.
3) I verify with foobar DR plugin that the tracks volume are permenatly adjusted - they are.

If you do not do this track by track, MusicBee will adjust the volume relative to the album or all tracks selected, because that simply is the only options available. I wish there as an option to only adjust a group of tracks only by a specified amount.

Is there a better way to do this in MusicBee?

3

Questions / Font Color

« on: September 10, 2021, 10:19:39 PM »

I assume that font colors are controlled by the skin that is used and can only be changed by editing the skin? If not, how? There are several places I would like to change the font color slightly without having to edit the skin files.

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Tips and Tricks / Re: Using Filters To Create "Sub" Libraries

« on: September 10, 2021, 04:36:37 PM »

Note that you can choose to create and apply specific layout settings for each filter, too. I have a filter for classical music that is very different from my "all" layout

Thanks for pointing that out. I have added to the post.

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Questions / Re: Artist / Album View, Album Display Question

« on: September 09, 2021, 09:56:00 PM »

Do you mean the album "pictures" by "the list of albums appears"? Mine do wrap, always have, on both Win 7 and 10 installs: the latest version on my Win 7 daily PC, and the prior-to-latest on my W10 Surface tablets. I display 8 or 6 per row, and any beyond that wrap. Does a MB- ->View --> refresh (or F5) change things? (I've only had do that after I  rip a CD that is not showing right away on the All Artists display.) I'd try a fresh install otherwise. Good luck getting past this.

When viewing by artist, then click on an artist, the list of albums has always scrolled them off the right side of the main panel since I have used it for many many years. This is a brand new version of MB I installed last week. If there is a setting to force it to display in a wrap fashion I would like to know.

This is what I am talking about. When I click on Uriah Heep, the list of albums continues to the right. You have to click the < or > on the right side just above the list of albums to scroll back and forth. I would love it if they simply stacked in rows in the main panel instead.

6

Questions / Artist / Album View, Album Display Question

« on: September 09, 2021, 02:22:51 PM »

When you view the main panel using the Artist view, click on an artist, the list of albums appears. If the artist has a lot of albums the album runs off the right side of the panel and you have to click the < or > buttons to navigate the list of albums. Is there anyway to allow musicbee to stack them in multiple rows (wrap them) under the artist instead of running them off the side of the panel?

7

Tips and Tricks / Using Filters To Create "Sub" Libraries

« on: September 08, 2021, 08:36:08 PM »

Instead of creating separate libraries in MusicBee for specific purposes, you can use filters instead to split up a combined library. I still keep the audio files separated on my PC in different locations. I personally keep my multimedia files rather structured. I have one "multimedia" directory that contains "main sub directories" for audio, video, etc. In my audio directory, I keep lossy & lossless (archive) files separated. I also keep audio books, podcasts, comedy, radio shows separate from my music files.

The challenge is how to keep these separated in a multimedia manager like MusicBee. I could (and have in the past) create a separate library for each purpose. But everytime you move the library, or make major changes, it is a bit of a pain to modify. If you have 5 libraries, you have to modify all 5. Using filters can solve this.

Also, you can specify that a filter or filters can be only apply when using a certain view to increase flexibility of your filters. In the upper right of the popup window when creating a filter is the option to "display using view".

I will just post a couple of examples of filters that I use on one big combined library in MusicBee. Based on my file structure on my PC, I could just add the "multimedia" folder, or add the "main subfolders" instead to create the library. Then I create a few filters.

Music Filters:

[1] Lossy Music Filter (this is a nested filter using "and"):

Kind > is any of > AAC audio file; MPEG audio file; WMA audio file
       and > Genre > is not any of > Audio Book; Podcast; Radio Show

To nest ("and") you have to click [.] on the right side of the first line of the filter.

[2] Lossless Music Filter (this is a nested filter using "and"):

Kind > is any of > ALAC audio file; FLAC audio file; OGG audio file; Wave audio file; WavPack audio file
       and > Genre > is not any of > Audio Book; Podcast; Radio Show

To nest ("and") you have to click [.] on the right side of the first line of the filter.


Other Media Filters:

[3] Podcasts (simple filter):

Genre > is > Podcats

[4] Audio Books (simple filter):

Genre > is > Audio Book

If you have a lot of audio books or podcasts & you use the Genre tag, then you can make a custom tag in MusicBee and call it Podcast, Audio Book, etc. Then you can add that tag in place of Genre. I only have 1 genre of audio books & two of podcasts, so I use the Genre tag differently than most people.

One thing to understand. If you want to create conditions for a filter, you have to nest it using the "and / or" function. For example the following filter will not work. If fact it does nothing.

This filter works (simple filter, no conditions):

Kind > is > MPEG audio file
Kind > is > AAC audio file
Kind > is > WMA audio file

This filter does nothing (by adding "is, is not, etc" breaks it):

Kind > is > MPEG audio file
Kind > is > AAC audio file
Kind > is > WMA audio file
Genre > is not > Audio Book
Genre > is not > Podcast
Genre > is not > Radio Show

Instead use this:

Kind > is any of > AAC audio file; MPEG audio file; WMA audio file
       and > Genre > is not any of > Audio Book; Podcast; Radio Show

To nest ("and") you have to click [.] on the right side of the first line of the filter.

8

MusicBee Wishlist / Re: CD's With Pre-Emphasis

« on: September 08, 2021, 05:17:06 PM »

The majority of remastered music has been mutilated and most people have no clue that it is not supposed to sound that way - so older recordings are sought out by the audiophile community.

While I surely agree that not all remastered releases sound better than the originals, trying to remain on topic a bit:
Isn't it the pre-emphasis that is doing the mutilation here?
If I were you I would try to avoid any pre-emphasised cd.
The pre-emphasis mutilated the master, and de--emphasising it will mutilate it further.

I am done presenting the topic. Steven, please consider implementing this in MusicBee for the audiophiles & collectors out there.

Thank you.

9

MusicBee Wishlist / Re: CD's With Pre-Emphasis

« on: September 07, 2021, 07:18:55 PM »

Your request by itself seems valid and you explained and defended it well, but what makes it seem less likely to be implemented (strictly my personal estimation) is that:

1. It hasn't been brought up by any other user since 1980  ;-)  (perhaps because there is a very limited amount of pre-emphasis cd's out there, and they seem mainly limited to releases for the Japanese market)

2. It would probably require an already available Bass addon. (the audio department of MB is based on it)
  http://www.un4seen.com/forum/?board=1

Unless this request gets some positive and productive continuation, at least it has accomplished that other users running into very thin-sounding rips and doing a search on the issue may stumble upon this thread and get some idea about how to fix it.

(a dedicated Tips & Tricks topic would even be better…)

Sadly, the majority of people only listen to remastered music or modern recorded music. These recordings are beyond the period of pre-emphasis. So most people except older people or audiophiles run into this issue. The majority of remastered music has been mutilated and most people have no clue that it is not supposed to sound that way - so older recordings are sought out by the audiophile community. I am old and a semi-audiophile.

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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: CD's With Pre-Emphasis

« on: September 07, 2021, 03:31:08 PM »

Computer disc players do not recognize pre-emphasis.

But you certainly know when a cd has pre-emphasis.
So for such a cd couldn't you activate the foobar2000 plugin yourself when ripping the cd?

Yes, I have used the foobar plugin to de-emphasize several albums premenantly. But it would be nicer if MB could handle it instead of forcing people to find a solution elsewhere. They may not have any idea what is actually wrong or how to search for it. I for example completely forgot about this until I ran across a current discussion on it. Then I found a CD in my collection that had pre-emphasis on it that I had not listened to in a long time.

11

MusicBee Wishlist / Re: CD's With Pre-Emphasis

« on: September 07, 2021, 03:00:49 PM »

Wouldn't it be more logical to have this done at the cd ripping stage?
(same as when you rip vinyl, where you need a phono-pre-amplifier that corrects the RIAA equalization curve)

So couldn't you rip such a cd using foobar2000 and a de-emphasis plugin to rip the cd to flac files that will then play fine everywhere?

If the player / ripper is specifically designed to read the pre-emphasis flag & apply de-emphasis pre-process (so you could rip right from the player), then the plug-in / custom tag method would not be required. EAC for example is said to rip the correct sub-channel data so that the flag is included in the tracks, but it is not programmed to de-emphasize.

Computer disc players do not recognize pre-emphasis. The multi-media player / ripper has to handle this. The multi-media player also cannot read the pre-emphasis flag on the CD unless specifically designed to do so. Which is why a plugin & custom tag comes into play as a post-fact solution. I assume the developers of foobar did not wish to address this or let the community handle it via a plugin.

12

MusicBee Wishlist / CD's With Pre-Emphasis

« on: September 07, 2021, 02:34:56 PM »

Many older CD's (especially those from the 1980's) have pre-emphasis on them. Pre-emphasis is when the frequencies of the original recording are modified according to a pre-set EQ template before transferring the music onto a CD. It was done to address some distortion issues. CD players were designed to detect this and then "de-emphasize" the CD so that it sounds as intended. There is a small file placed on the CD in the header area that flags the CD as pre-emphasized. But most multi-media players do not detect pre-emphasis nor correct it. A pre-emphasized CD sounds like absolute crap to put it mildly. One such CD that has pre-emphais that I ran across recently is Heart's self-titled 1985 album. The original pressings if not de-emphasized, it sounds like someone went nuts with the treble settings & took out all the mids. Modern recording techniques / transfers do not require this.

Any chance of adding pre-emphasis detection and have MB de-emphasize the tracks? The affected files would have to have a custom tag added by the user (I.E. "PRE_EMPHASIS" with a value in the tag such as 1 or yes) for MB to detect it. I only know of one multi-media player that has a plug-in for this at the moment (foobar).

If the capability was added to MB, it would need to be done in a pre-process way. That way you can take the pre-emphasized tracks, convert them and they will be permenantly de-emphasized. If it is a dsp type effect, it will not work as that is post-process. I have done this with a few CD's via foobar.

EDIT:

If MusicBee could detect the pre-emphsis flag on a CD (and apply de-emphasis pre-process), the plugin/tag method would not be needed when rippiing from a CD. But the issue comes when you have tracks already ripped that are not de-emphazied. Then you need the tag method, because the flag may not have been included in the track data.

13

Questions / Re: Filter Issues

« on: September 07, 2021, 12:28:52 AM »

I suspect you have Match *any* of the following rules selected rather than Match *all* of the selected rules.  It's right there at the top.

That filters out every file so there are none left. By telling it "all" that means that every single thing in the filter must be met before any files are to be shown.

Here is my filter for Lossless Music (using "any"):

Kind > is > MPEG audio file
Kind > is > AAC audio file
Kind > is > WMA audio file
Genre > is not > Audio Book
Genre > is not > Podcast
Genre > is not > Radio Show

If I change lines 4-6 to "is" instead of "is not", then my filter will show all lossy formats in lines 1-3. If the filter contains "is not", the entire filter fails and every file in my library is shown.


UPDATE (solved):

The average person would try to write the filter just as I have shown. And it will fail. I have figured out that you have to nest any "is not" functions within the filters in lines 1-3. I do not remember this being in the wiki section that I read. Some examples would be nice addition to the wiki.

New filter that works (any):

Kind > is any of > AAC audio file; MPEG audio file; WMA audio file
       and > Genre > is not any of > Audio Book; Podcast; Radio Show

To nest ("and") you have to click [.] on the right side of the first line of the filter.

14

Questions / Filter Issues

« on: September 06, 2021, 11:57:22 PM »

I am using MusiBee 3.4.7805 & Windows 10. I created one large library. I then played around with filters to create *sub* libraries. Two filters I made were Lossy Music & Lossless Music. Each filter contains several parts using the following:

Kind > is > chose a format

This works fine. But it includes things that are not music. So I added more lines to the filter to filter out audio files that were not music:

Genre > is not > choose tag
or
Genre > is not any of > choose tag.

By adding "is not" or "is not any of" to the filters above, they completely break the filter & the filter stops working. If I make a separate filter that only contains "is not" or "is not any of" that filter works on its own. Is this behavior correct or is something broken with filters?

15

Questions / Re: Shortcut To Open A Specific Library

« on: September 06, 2021, 12:09:09 AM »

No such shortcut exists. I suggest checking the Wiki for command line options as there may be something there that will do what you want. I don't have the time to look right now.

Also, instead of having/using multiple libraries, you can use filters which would avoid having to go back and forth between libraries. The Wiki has some documentation on filters also.

I have never used filters before. But playing around with them, I could see their use. Because I did not know about filters, I created 2 main libraries based on encoding type. (1) library has lossy encodes & (1) has lossless encodes. I have some others based on other criteria. Doing it this way helped me keep my archive files separate from my "working" copies. I have way more lossy files than lossless. I tend to think more in terms of file structure than metadata (each library also has its own folder in windows to keep them separated).

I do see that filters could allow me to create one big library and filter them to create *sub libraries*. That works 99% for me. I also see I could make custom tags and use them as filters. This works great for things like audio books where someone actually uses the genre tag for the type of audio book. I use the genre tag to call them Audio books because I only have 3 authors and I don't need to define them further.

The only fly in the ointment is that I do have a few lossless files in my lossless folders for reasons of consistency. I.E. a bonus track from another version of the album that I could not get in lossless format.