Messages

106

Questions / Re: Why isn't musicbee open sourced?

« on: January 03, 2017, 10:23:47 AM »

To be a bit pedantic about your signature;

Music Bee is written by one guy, Steven Mayall, not a team of dedicated coders. http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#Who_makes_MusicBee.3F (Just a bit farther up from psychoadept's link.)

The community is pretty awesome, though.

107

Questions / Re: Using Duplicate manager to compare a playlist to the rest of the library

« on: January 03, 2017, 10:14:41 AM »

Now you've got it exactly.  

I could do this with a plugin for Media Monkey called "Advanced Duplicate Find and Fix." Basically, this allowed searching for duplicates using criteria similar to Music Bee. It also had the option to specify an "At Least One Playlist."

This was at the duplicate filtering stage, not in the auto-playlists. I'm hoping to simulate it there. Auto playlists have their limitations but maybe  I can expand this one.

As a "Database Guy" by trade, I could probably cobble together an SQL query to do this, but my focus is on keeping the data available, not using the data.

108

Questions / Re: Using Duplicate manager to compare a playlist to the rest of the library

« on: January 02, 2017, 09:48:14 PM »

I may not have been as clear as I could have been; I'm not concerned about what I consider a legitimate duplicate. (In a Box Set, and on the original album.) As far as I'm concerned, the vast majority of that 10k+ list is not a duplicate. It's the 50 to 100 that are in the "Separates" folder that are the potential duplicates. Drive space is cheap, and I use my folder structure to differentiate between Original albums, live albums and Compilations within my playlists.

My previous Media Manager had a method to show me a list of duplicates where one of the duplicates met some specific criteria. For Example; If I had a track in Separates, that was also on two other albums, the list would show all three tracks. If I had another track which is on three different albums, but none in "Separates," none of those would show on the list.

Since I continue to get new music all the time, and I add new music to the "Separates" folder constantly, I would rather have this a bit less cumbersome, than sorting through a fresh playlist every time I get new music. I'm hoping for a way to streamline my process to; "add and tag albums, check my custom playlist, remove real duplicates from separates, and then auto-organize to the appropriate location." I also had some auto-playlists I could make from this; based on number of entries for the title in the database, tracks with at least 3 starts that only exist on regular albums, Tracks that don't appear on any compilation, and one of my favorites; songs with the same title, from all artists.

I hope that makes sense to you. It sounded perfectly understandable in my head, but I'm not sure it all went out through my fingers.

109

Questions / Re: Using Duplicate manager to compare a playlist to the rest of the library

« on: January 02, 2017, 07:30:54 PM »

That is a huge playlist for me to sort through. I started on that, but it quickly got cumbersome. If I use just artist/title, I get 10k+ entries. Jazz, Classical, and Live albums are the biggest offenders, but Greatest Hits, and Box Sets don't help either. The more criteria I add, the fewer matches, but then, the less chance I have of finding a real duplicate.

I'm hoping for Auto-Playlists, because then I can not only keep track of what I've finished, but then I can re-use it when I get more music.

*Ninja edit; I see what you are saying about sorting, and highlighting, It would work, but I'm looking for a bit more automation.

110

Questions / Using Duplicate manager to compare a playlist to the rest of the library

« on: January 02, 2017, 06:48:33 PM »

I have a folder of what I call "Separates" in my folder structure. These are all songs that I downloaded from various sources over the years. As time has progressed, I find that I have obtained these songs as part of a purchased album, whether the original, or a compilation. I would like to clean this folder out, by comparing folders that are in this directory, with the larger library. I have assigned "Separates" as the "Album Artist" for all of the tracks in this folder.

I know I'm close; I have an Auto-Playlist to find files that are both in the "Duplicate Manager" playlist I created for the entire library, and have an Album Artist of "Separates." Now I have a list of files that are presumably duplicates in the with "Separates" as the "Album Artist."

Now I want to see a list of the duplicate files in both places. I'm hoping for both the entries that are in Separates, and in the larger library, so I can compare them personally before deleting. (I want to make sure that both files are good, and that I'm not losing a remix or alternate version because the file in Separates is mis-tagged.)

I feel like an Auto-Playlist is the answer, but I can't seem to figure out the logic. New here, but not to the concept of auto-playlists. I love auto-playlists.

111

Questions / Re: Keyboard Navigation.

« on: December 28, 2016, 01:16:18 PM »

Thanks! I was hoping this was not a big deal. Usually I can use a pointing device, but I have days where that just isn't possible, and I still want to play with my music.

I'll take the time to get a list of items together so that I can do one big request instead of a lot of little ones. I know I always prefer a list instead of a lot of separate items.

112

Questions / Keyboard Navigation.

« on: December 28, 2016, 03:37:53 AM »

I often use the keyboard for navigation within my software, because sometimes I am physically unable to handle a pointing device. I'm finding it difficult to navigate fully through Music Bee.

I've seen a few requests for better keyboard navigation, and some of them have been responded to. Is this something that's coming, or planned? I really love Music Bee when I can mouse around, but this is kind of a big deal for me.

The general navigation is mostly adequate for general playing, my problems come about when I want to edit tags. The most recent is that I can't get to the field splitter when I'm trying to edit a track.

My biggest issue is that it is just about impossible to tell where the focus is when I'm tabbing around. Is there a skin that makes that easier to see? Right now, I'm using the default.

113

Bug Reports / Interface oddness in Artist Splitter

« on: December 27, 2016, 12:57:32 PM »

Working through fixing my tags because my previous Music Manager mangled them for me. Found a bunch of multiple artists that are listed with "/" separating the artists. Not enough consistency in the artists to make automation reliable. Anyway;

In the "Artist Splitter," after splitting the artist, and editing the "display artist," hitting "Enter" does not save the changes to the "display artist" field. It does save the split artists, though. If I "tab" away from the artist field after editing, it works as expected.

Here's my process;
1. Auto Playlist to find candidates
2. Sort by artist
3. Select identical artists
4. Edit properties
5. Click the three dots next to the artist
6. Click the "Split" button
7. Adjust the split artists as needed
8. Edit the "Display Artist"
9. Hit Enter.

114

General Discussions / Re: Official MB appreciation thread

« on: December 26, 2016, 10:10:17 PM »

To paraphrase Steve Ballmer; "I have four words for you; I. Love. This. Program."

Now that I've converted to Music Bee, I realize I only have two regrets;

1. I didn't stick with Music Bee when I tried it several years ago.
2. I paid actual money for a lifetime license for Media Monkey.

I just want y'all to know that the more I use Music Bee, the more I hate Media Monkey.

Seriously, this program \m/ ROCKS \m/

115

Beyond MusicBee / Re: Software beyond MusicBee

« on: December 26, 2016, 04:00:55 PM »

New to MusicBee, (A refugee from Media Monkey) reading through the forums, and thought I'd weigh in. I notice I have some apps not mentioned earlier, and this way I can feel like I'm contributing.

My job is mostly Support in a Microsoft shop, so I'm stuck in Microsoft land. I'm almost exclusively Windows 10 at home, with Windows 7 at work. Compatibility with work, and needing to know Microsoft keep me out of other operating systems; I just don't have as much opportunity to play any more. I used to use free office suites at home, but found that when I had to work on things from work, it was never pretty. I gave up, and started paying for an Office subscription. It's a great deal if you have a kid in school, and a wife who needs to do stuff for work too.

Notepad++ - I just leave it running because somehow I always need it. I find a lot of open tabs with information, or text I just needed temporarily. Literally, the first thing I install when I get a new computer.

OneNote - I used to use Evernote, but OneNote works seamlessly across all my personal devices with less fuss. The best part is how well it works in the browser while I'm at work.

LastPass - Used to use KeePass, but it was a major pain to use while I was at work. LastPass with the FireFox plugin is almost perfect. I don't even know what most of my passwords even are. I use the paid version, and can't imagine life without it.

XMarks - I always hated trying to keep track of favorites. Now, I don't have to unless I'm on an unfamiliar computer, and even then, I can get to my favorites from the website.

Lightroom - Is there anything better for keeping and processing pictures from your DSLR camera?

Private Internet Access - Because it's nobody's business but my own where I go on the internet. Inexpensive, fast, and easy to use. I install it on my laptop for when I'm out and about, and have it on my Linksys router for when I'm not. It's also handy for those times I run into a YT video that isn't available in my country. Quick couple of clicks, and suddenly I can watch that video.

Photoshop Express - For the times I'm on my tablet and want to work with some pictures.

Fruity Loops - Because I also sometimes like to pretend that I am a musician. Since I don't use this as often, I appreciate the fact that it's a lifetime license.

Bamboo Paper - I often use this on my Windows 10 tablet, because sometimes you just want to be able to free-form draw to get a point across. This is the fastest way I've found to just start making marks on a blank background.

Free FileSync - For backing up data to external drives. (No one likes taking backups, but everyone loves a restore.)

Greenshot - For screen capture when I'm on a personal computer. It's free, and makes it easy to capture an entire window. There's a better app on the Work computer that I can't remember the name of, but that one is expensive, for not many more features.

AutoCad 360 - Great tool for 3d design. Once I get a 3d printer, I'm told it's possible to get from this app to a piece of plastic. I'm in the third year of a student license, and Autodesk is changing their licensing, so this may be changing in the near future. It looks like "Fusion 360" is where I'll end up.

Mp3Tag - I used to use this back in the day when I got new music. Now, I find I'm back in it to fix the damage to my tags caused from years of Media Monkey abuse. I've had the Monkey off my back for week now, and regret I didn't move sooner.

I do use other software, but this is all the stuff that gets installed when I find myself in a fresh Operating system. Anything else gets installed if I need it.

116

Questions / Re: How can I do this? Musicbee -> NAS -> DAC

« on: December 12, 2016, 10:58:56 PM »

So far my best solution has been Remote desktop from a Windows tablet to the media server which is plugged into everything running the Media Player. It would require some extra configuration if I want to control it remotely, but then I've never run into a situation where I wanted to play music at home when I was not there.

Other than that, I got nothing other than; "not Media Monkey."

117

Questions / Re: How can I do this? Musicbee -> NAS -> DAC

« on: December 12, 2016, 05:53:30 PM »

As a former Media Monkey user; stay away from Media Monkey. It may have it's positive points, but Music Bee is a far superior product.

Unfortunately I can't give much advice on how to do this, only how not to.