Messages

46

Questions / Re: Album cover confusion

« on: February 27, 2016, 02:35:06 PM »

I've been taking a closer look by switching to Album and Tracks view. Album covers are showing up where I've made some downloads.  But here's the weird part...On one row, I've got no album cover, an artist named and 6 tracks listed.  None of the 6 tracks have an album identified (not uncommon for me).  However 2 of the tracks belong to the named artist (Lady Antebellum) and the other 4 tracks belong to a different artist (Lady Gaga).  How's that for a combo?  The tags look fine for all six.  The Sort is Artist/Album.  The next row down is with Lady Gaga and a track that does have the album named and it looks fine with it's own album cover.  Nothing I do will cause the 2 artists and the 6 tracks to separate unless I change the sort (ie Genre/Album Artist/Album) and then they have their respective rows.  In these 6 tracks, artist and album artist happen to be the same on each track.  Artist/Album sort should still split the 6 tracks but isn't.

Check your grouping setting (Preferences> Sorting/grouping). Probably you have selected album name only. That's why no album name tracks gather and form a single album regardless of their artist values. If you include album artist too to the setting, they will split.

It's buried in the middle of the paragraph...The Sort is Artist/Album.  I also tried sort by Album Artist/Album...same problem.

47

Questions / Re: Album cover confusion

« on: February 27, 2016, 02:37:42 AM »

I've been taking a closer look by switching to Album and Tracks view. Album covers are showing up where I've made some downloads.  But here's the weird part...On one row, I've got no album cover, an artist named and 6 tracks listed.  None of the 6 tracks have an album identified (not uncommon for me).  However 2 of the tracks belong to the named artist (Lady Antebellum) and the other 4 tracks belong to a different artist (Lady Gaga).  How's that for a combo?  The tags look fine for all six.  The Sort is Artist/Album.  The next row down is with Lady Gaga and a track that does have the album named and it looks fine with it's own album cover.  Nothing I do will cause the 2 artists and the 6 tracks to separate unless I change the sort (ie Genre/Album Artist/Album) and then they have their respective rows.  In these 6 tracks, artist and album artist happen to be the same on each track.  Artist/Album sort should still split the 6 tracks but isn't.

48

Questions / Re: Album cover confusion

« on: February 27, 2016, 01:15:12 AM »

I decided to try using the same folder as the audio files and use "?<Artist>-<Album>" as the template. This way the picture files will sort to the bottom of an ascending list. And I moved that template to the top of the list for "which pictures are displayed".

"Search Internet for Picture" - is this the best option I should use to download covers?

With regard to album covers, I'd like to start from scratch (made somewhat of a mess) and clear any album covers I've got right now.  Is there a way to remove pics that may have been embedded in audio files or at least check if any are embedded?  I deleted files in AppData\Roaming\MusicBee\Internal Cache\Album Covers\5 but they just seemed to reappear in the same folder.  Is it possible to clear whatever MB holds about associated album covers and get a fresh start?

Many thanks in advance.

49

Questions / Re: Album cover confusion

« on: February 26, 2016, 04:30:35 PM »

Thanks again. I'll give some of these options a try and see how it works out and come back with feedback.  Awesome, Awesome help!!!!

50

Questions / Re: Album cover confusion

« on: February 26, 2016, 03:10:27 AM »

Right now you have no artwork storage options selected.  Is that intentional?

Any of the filenames like Cover.jpg and Folder.jpg assume that you have your audio files organized with each album in its own folder.  So if you want to continue using that option, just have MB arrange your files.  You don't have to turn on auto-organize; you can use the Organize Files command in the File menu.

Alternately, you could use a template for your artwork names.   Instead of Cover.jpg, you could change it to (for instance) <Album Artist> - <Album>.jpg.  Then you would want to change your settings under "which pictures are displayed" to prioritize that filename (which will appear in the list when you change the template).

I've got all audio files in one folder and that works great for my purposes.  Working with 1 folder (compared to 1 album per folder) is very handy and more important to me than the album cover images.  Right now I'm leaning away from embedding them into the audio file (but you never know).

Where "Cover.jpg" is shown right now (textbox) on Tags(1) page...does that only apply to "copy to the same folder as the music file and name as:"?

So can the audio files remain in one folder and the album cover images get directed to a different folder using a naming convention as you suggested?  Is that what soundtrack pictures location is for (folder remains empty so far)?  And would I need to check any of the 3 checkboxes for artwork storage options for this approach and if so which one?

Now I understand why the album images would sometimes seem to change "randomly".  Thanks so much for the help.

51

Questions / Re: Album cover confusion

« on: February 26, 2016, 02:45:18 AM »

Sorry thanks phred

52

Questions / Re: Album cover confusion

« on: February 26, 2016, 01:10:32 AM »

@psychoadept Thanks for the instructions.

Artwork storage settings in Preferences:
http://imgur.com/2wIqfO1

Is that helpful or need something else?  And what is the purpose of cover.jpg & folder.jpg when it comes to storing album covers for all tracks?

53

Questions / Album cover confusion

« on: February 25, 2016, 08:15:08 PM »

How are your music files organized?  With cover.jpg or any other generic filename, the cover will be applied to all files in the same folder, and will be over written when you save a new cover for that folder

I've seen cover.jpg and folder.jpg but never understood. I see cover.jpg in same folder as music files. So it holds 1 image? Is that the image used when no other is available?  What's the approach for saving the appropriate covers based on the separate albums?  Do they have to be stored in the same music files folder?
In Preferences | Tags(1) | artwork storage, the 3 checkboxes under downloaded album cover storage are unchecked. Artist pictures & soundtrack pictures have valid folder paths. There are images in Artist pictures but soundtrack folder is empty.

Why don't you start a new thread, with screenshots of your artwork settings, and maybe the artwork files on your drive?

is there a secret to embedding images in a post like this? Can't paste in here.

54

General Discussions / Re: GUI changes for v3.0

« on: February 25, 2016, 06:53:31 PM »

How are your music files organized?  With cover.jpg or any other generic filename, the cover will be applied to all files in the same folder, and will be over written when you save a new cover for that folder

I've seen cover.jpg and folder.jpg but never understood. I see cover.jpg in same folder as music files. So it holds 1 image? Is that the image used when no other is available?  What's the approach for saving the appropriate covers based on the separate albums?  Do they have to be stored in the same music files folder?
In Preferences | Tags(1) | artwork storage, the 3 checkboxes under downloaded album cover storage are unchecked. Artist pictures & soundtrack pictures have valid folder paths. There are images in Artist pictures but soundtrack folder is empty.

This is not a discussion for this thread.  Why don't you start a new thread, with screenshots of your artwork settings, and maybe the artwork files on your drive?

yeah was thinking the same thing

55

General Discussions / Re: GUI changes for v3.0

« on: February 25, 2016, 05:00:34 PM »

How are your music files organized?  With cover.jpg or any other generic filename, the cover will be applied to all files in the same folder, and will be over written when you save a new cover for that folder

I've seen cover.jpg and folder.jpg but never understood. I see cover.jpg in same folder as music files. So it holds 1 image? Is that the image used when no other is available?  What's the approach for saving the appropriate covers based on the separate albums?  Do they have to be stored in the same music files folder?
In Preferences | Tags(1) | artwork storage, the 3 checkboxes under downloaded album cover storage are unchecked. Artist pictures & soundtrack pictures have valid folder paths. There are images in Artist pictures but soundtrack folder is empty.

56

General Discussions / Re: GUI changes for v3.0

« on: February 25, 2016, 02:28:06 AM »

Not sure if this is me but something seems odd.

My use of MB has always been pretty basic. I'll load artist pictures for something interesting to see while listening.  I've never bothered with album covers.  Well with all the cool stuff going on with MB3, I got motivated to try some album covers.  Extreme...I know!

I looked around but not sure how I should do this w/MB. I tried Auto-Tag by Album by unchecking all tags except Artwork but didn't seem to get much success. I was hoping for an option along the lines of "select all and load covers and click and wait for downloads to finish", not one at a time.  Then I discovered and tried Search Internet for Picture and was able to load some covers individually.

Settings: [Uncheck] embed the picture in the music file; [Check] link the picture to this music track; [Check] link to an organised copy of the picture (Cover.jpg)

What seems odd is that some album covers switch covers.  An album with a cover switches to the display of a different cover. Or a series of albums with the same artist end up switching to a single album cover instead of keeping their unique covers.

I could easily be creating my own problems but wondered if anyone has reached out for downloading album covers recently and if any odd behavior was noticeable.  I prefer not to save the images inside the music file but if there are any suggestions, please advise.  Thanks!

57

General Discussions / Re: GUI changes for v3.0

« on: February 25, 2016, 01:23:54 AM »

Is there a reason pinned tabs default to the left of a locked tab? Have the global Music node as a locked tab (prefer visual text for this tab) and would have liked pinned tabs to the right of this. Also, don't seem to be able to drag tabs to re-arrange when there is a combination of locked and pinned.

I'm not able to move the pinned tab but others move around just fine (using v3.0.5897)

58

General Discussions / Re: GUI changes for v3.0

« on: February 22, 2016, 06:38:12 PM »

I suggested this before, but why not display custom view name for main panel selector button when the view's selected to avoid any confusions just like now playing bar displays TM view name on its selector button?

+1

+1

59

General Discussions / Re: GUI changes for v3.0

« on: February 20, 2016, 04:05:17 PM »

When there is just slightly more in a list than what can be fully displayed (like 1 item too many), the scroll bar has just a small space above the down arrow where you should be able to click and cause a scroll down.  It doesn't move.  The same thing with clicking the down arrow of the scroll bar. It acts like it thinks the list is fully displayed.

thats fixed for the next update

yes it is fixed

60

General Discussions / Re: GUI changes for v3.0

« on: February 19, 2016, 03:40:48 AM »

Using Dark-Variations | Greenish Slategrey skin.
When there is just slightly more in a list than what can be fully displayed (like 1 item too many), the scroll bar has just a small space above the down arrow where you should be able to click and cause a scroll down.  It doesn't move.  The same thing with clicking the down arrow of the scroll bar. It acts like it thinks the list is fully displayed.