Messages

31

Questions / A very frustrated man

« on: July 31, 2021, 10:44:09 PM »

This is in reference to MusicBee 3.3.7367 on Windows 10 Pro 20H2 (build 19042.1110)
I have my music library located on my PC and use MusicBee to catalog it.
I also have copies of most of the tracks on my Android phone.
I would like to keep track of which tracks I have on the phone and which I do not, so I used one of the custom tags. I renamed this tag 'Phone'.
I put a Y in the tag's value if the track is on the phone, and leave it blank if it is not.

Today I spent about 2 hours updating the values of the Phone tags on tracks in MusicBee.
I have been doing this by selecting multiple tracks of one artist, open the tag editor, and set the value for the custom (phone) tag to Y.
Then I hit Save, and move on to the next group.

I have also been moving some of the .flac files on the PC from one folder to another as I try to create a simplified directory structure. In the past, I have always stored files in folders by album, but since I am using MusicBee to sort out which tracks belong to which album, I am moving the flac files into a single folder for each artist. I never listen to albums anyway, so I just thought I would make my life easier - when I need to search in Explorer for a specific file.

When I make changes to the location of the files, I need to refresh MusicBee. I do this by File > Scan folders for new files.

Is this a bug in MusicBee, or am I violating some sort of rule of file integrity?
I am really frustrated with this now, so am planning to go back to my Access database for keeping my library organized, using MusicBee only for playing the tracks.

Any idea of what I am doing wrong?

Thanks
Ultrarunner

Edit: After posting, I recalled reading in these forums about saving custom tags to MusicBee database only or to permanent metadata in the files.
So I opened preferences and on the Tags(1) tab I see that I have my custom tags set to save to MusicBee database only.
So I chose one of the other options (File Owner) and selected it for the custom tags.
Now these tags no longer disappear if I move the files on the PC.
I assume that saving to MusicBee database only does just that - saves to a special MusicBee file somewhere on my PC (probably in Users/../Appdata.
This when the files are moved, and MusicBee rescans the music folders, these tags are reset.
I assume that by saving to 'File Owner' or any of the other choices in that list, I am saving the data to the file itself, thus it will not be lost if the file is moved.
Is this correct?

Thanks again.
Ultrarunner

32

Questions / Re: Can I create a check-box field?

« on: July 10, 2021, 07:52:24 PM »

Thanks. The enumerated field does what I want, but how do I remove one or more of the selections in the drop-down list?
For example, I wanted to use Y and N (caps) but mistakedly used y (lower case) instead. Now I would like to get rid of that lower case y when I click on the drop-down menu.
I seem to recall a method to do this, but I can't seem to figure it out now.

33

Questions / Can I create a check-box field?

« on: July 10, 2021, 04:19:38 PM »

Hi;
I would like a couple of my fields to be checkboxes instead of text. For example, I have a custom field (tag) labeled 'phone'. The purpose of this field is to tell me whether I have uploaded the track to my phone.
Another  field I have is 'new', which I use to indicate that I have recently purchased this track.
Both the 'phone' and 'new' fields would ideally be checkboxes.

Is there any way to do this in MB? I did see a couple of posts in the wishlist thread,  but I wasn't sure if this feature has been implemented or not.

Thanks
Ultrarunner

34

Questions / Re: Auto Tag doesn't update year

« on: November 24, 2018, 10:16:07 PM »

Thanks redwing;
I'll check the tag[2] fields. I agree about the release vs re-mastering dates. Both tags are necessary.
Now, all I need to do is copy the data I already (manually) entered into the Year field into the Original Year field.
I haven't attempted to update the musicbrainz database yet, and won't try to do so until I really know what I am doing.
And to make things even more confusing, I find that while MusicBee has both Year and Original Year, another program (Tag&Rename) I use on my PC doesn't include Original Year - Just Year, and 'Release Time'. Perhaps Releae Time is the same as Original Year?
I'll have to play around with editing tags in MusicBee and see what shows up in Tag&Rename.
I would think that tagging a song would work for any software editing or reading the tags, but maybe not.
I understand that iTunes does not use the standard tagging system, but I'm only using it if I want to purchase music from Apple.

35

Questions / Re: Auto Tag doesn't update year

« on: November 23, 2018, 09:40:25 PM »

...from memory, I'm sure that with the "auto-tag by track", you can select, (using the check-boxes) which tags you want updated and those that you wish NOT to be changed. Freddy

OK. That works a little better, but I am finding that often, the year is wrong (much later) even when the album is correct. I suspect this is due to the album being re-mastered at a later date. In this case, I have to enter the date myself, using the info provided by Wikipedia or other Google search result.
I find many of the tracks are listed on Vivo, but even there, the original release date is not always listed.

36

Questions / Re: Auto Tag doesn't update year

« on: November 23, 2018, 04:13:55 PM »

That's what I've been doing. Wikipedia and just Google.
But I found that even if I enter the correct album name, then do the 'auto-tag by track' or auto-tag by album' MusicBee doesn't always get the year correct.
I guess it all depends on what is in the database I am using. If a later release is all that's there, then that's what I'm going to get.

I was never particularly interested in the year a song was released, but now that I am creating play-lists by decade, that info is important to me.
Perhaps when I find the correct info, I should also update the database online, so others can benefit from my research.

37

Questions / Auto Tag doesn't update year

« on: November 23, 2018, 01:45:50 PM »

Hi;
MusicBee ver 3.2.6827, which I checked and is latest version.
I am trying to auto-update my library by track. My main concern is getting the year the song was originally released; not on a greatest hits album.
When I do 'auto-tag by track', the missing fields are filled in, but with the wrong data.
For example, Tom Petty's 'Listen To Her Heart' was first recorded on his 'You're Gonna Get It' album in 1978. But Auto-Tag writes the album as 'Recorded Live in Holland & USA' and the year as 1992.
I tried changing the database order, and un-checking databases, but it makes no difference.

Any ideas?

Thanks
FW

38

Questions / Re: How does MusicBee apply Replay Gain to .flac files?

« on: January 11, 2018, 08:17:49 PM »

Hey guys;
I did some "inspecting" and experimenting, and here is what I found:
Note: For these tests I ripped a track from a CD using EAC.

When I rip a track(s) with EAC into .flac format, then look at tags in MB Tag Inspector, I see that ReplayGain has been set. I do not see anywhere in EAC where this option can be set or reset, but I assume that EAC is setting the tag.

If I run "Restore Original Volume" on the track(s), the ReplayGain tag disappears in MB Tag Inspector, but scanning with Foobar still shows the same value as when it was first ripped.

I am returning all files that I used the gain slider on to their original volume and will make the adjustment in my music player with ReplayGain turned on.

FWIW: Using MB "Auto-Tag" is useless. It does not always retrieve the correct info.

39

Questions / How does MusicBee apply Replay Gain to .flac files?

« on: January 11, 2018, 05:03:00 PM »

Hi;
I have been experimenting with Replay Gain both in MusicBee and in Foobar2000. I am a bit confused as to what MusicBee is doing when you perform the "Analyze Volume" operation.
I select a number of tracks I want to work with, un-tick the "on album basis" so that I have correct analysys by track, slide the "adjust calculated replaygain values:" slider up to +6db to make the songs louder, and finally hit the Proceed button.

Once the process has completed, I notice that playing the songs I applied the replaygain +6db to are louder. But when I open the same files in Foobar, I see that the replaygain has not changed. This leads me to assume that adding the 6db in MusicBee does not actually change the replaygain tag values but only sets a flag to tell MusicBee to apply the gain while playing the song. So the same files will sound more quiet in another player, such as Foobar.

Is my thinking correct, or is something else going on here?

Thanks for your help

Ultrarunner2018

40

Questions / Re: Play list doesn't update automatically in Auto DJ

« on: November 26, 2017, 04:02:56 AM »

Just look at your playing tracks list (right sidebar by default).  If you want to see more upcoming tracks, make the list size larger in auto dj.

Wow! I can't believe I didn't think of that. I have the sidebar turned off because I needed all the space to see info like filename for my tracks while sorting through them. I'll turn it back on.

Thanks

Edit: Wow! I just clicked "Now Playing" and not only did it turn on the sidebar list, but it now shows the lyrics and the album art!

41

Questions / Re: Play list doesn't update automatically in Auto DJ

« on: November 26, 2017, 03:35:38 AM »

Thanks for that info. So, there's no way of knowing what tracks are going to play next?

42

Questions / Play list doesn't update automatically in Auto DJ

« on: November 26, 2017, 02:42:16 AM »

I set up Auto DJ to play tracks using a filter. No tracks immediately appear in the play queue below. When I stop Auto DJ then press Preview, the list will fill up. Then I press Start and double click the first song and it begins playing.
But when the last displayed song had been played, and the next song is playing, the list does not update.
I would think that the list will always show the set number of upcoming tracks (I left this set to 5) but the list didn't update at all.

If I stop Auto DJ, then press Preview again, the list updates.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

Ultrarunner