Messages

16

Questions / Re: Is there an MB equivalent to iTunes Genius Mix to auto-create a playlist?

« on: January 22, 2020, 03:22:23 AM »

I can see that applying Filters to the Library would help, but that really doesn't seem to do anything different to an Auto-Playlist but with the option to vary how close/different the next artist should be.  I was hoping for something more automatic!

17

Questions / Re: "Unable to locate any pictures for album" on all searches (Update)

« on: January 22, 2020, 03:18:16 AM »

I've had the same trouble, but for me it sometimes seems to be better if both Album Artist and the actual Artist are set to Various Artists.  Still not foolproof, but I've had better luck that way.  Some compilation albums just don't come back with anything, though, which does seem odd when they're widely available recordings; examples for me include the soundtrack albums from the Big Chill and for Grosse Point Blank.

18

Questions / Is there an MB equivalent to iTunes Genius Mix to auto-create a playlist?

« on: January 18, 2020, 01:56:17 AM »

One of the (few) things I liked about iTunes was the ability to right click on a single track and have it create a Genius Playlist, picking as many tracks as you specified (25, 50, 100, whatever) that were related to the starter track in terms of similar period, music style, artist, etc.  E.g., starting with a Beatles track would automatically generate tracks from the Stones, Who, Yardbirds, Hollies, etc, but not anything from the 50s or 90s, nor anything from other genres.  I'd hoped Auto-DJ would do this, but I haven't found a way to restrict it to a specific Genre, or time period; it seems to pull tracks from across my full Library, including classical and jazz.

I've tried using Auto-Playlists to do something similar (Genre is Pop/Rock, Decade is 70s)  but this is still a bit wide for the selection.  I've built Auto-Playlists where Artist is any of Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc., but this excludes all the many good single tracks I have in the Library.  iTunes used to do this all automatically, pulling in relevant tracks I hadn't heard in a long while.

How have other people approached this?  Thanks for any advice!

Jon

19

Questions / Re: Cover art images from Internet don't always Save

« on: January 17, 2020, 10:26:48 PM »

Very many thanks, Phred!  I've tried that on a couple of reluctant displayers and it seems to work fine.  Much appreciated!

Jon

20

Questions / Re: Cover art images from Internet don't always Save

« on: January 17, 2020, 06:48:21 PM »

Aha!  Yes, it does!  But the "Search Internet for Picture" dialog box has the "Embed the picture in the music file" box checked every time I use it.  Sometimes the picture displays in the Album Cover view, sometimes not.  Would a different option lead to a more reliable outcome?  I'm afraid I don't know the pros and cons of the different options, so I just went with the Embed default.

21

Questions / Re: Cover art images from Internet don't always Save

« on: January 17, 2020, 12:07:36 AM »

"No errors have been logged."

22

Questions / Cover art images from Internet don't always Save

« on: January 16, 2020, 02:42:51 AM »

Is there some trick to getting cover art images found on the Internet to Save to a folder?  This seems to be erratic.  Many album covers are found (right click on blank album image placeholder icon and select "Search Internet for Picture") and Save just fine.  Several others are found just fine, but clicking Save does nothing at all; no image appears in the folder,and there's no error message or indication of a problem.  I though that it might be a copyright issue with some artists (even though the images are listed under iTunes or Google) but it seems to be album-specific; some album images from a specific artist Save just fine, others from the same artist do not.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Jon

23

Questions / Re: Filters seem to be working inversely

« on: January 15, 2020, 07:52:11 PM »

OK, never mind!  I realized that I needed to enter "Time is less than 15:00"; that seems to work just fine.  Sorry to have raised a false flag!

Best

Jon

24

Questions / Filters seem to be working inversely

« on: January 15, 2020, 07:45:21 PM »

Sorry if this is just my misunderstanding of filter grammar, but I'm trying to set up a filter for an Auto-Playlist and it seems to be working backwards.  (I'm on MB version 3.3.7310)  I have the playlist set to "Genre is New Age".  Most tracks are around 4-6 minutes long, but quite a few are extended meditation pieces, which I'd like to exclude from what's intended to be a background music playlist.  If I set the next filter (after Genre) to "Time is less than 15" it excludes the whole genre, including the 45-minute tracks.  If I set it to "Time is greater than 15", it selects a playlist of tracks but they are all shorter ones, i.e. about 4-8 minutes.  What am I doing wrong here?

Thanks for any advice or pointers to an explanation.

Jon