Messages

31

Questions / "Lock layout" - layouts reseting if MB window size changes

« on: October 15, 2020, 05:01:12 AM »

Hello.

Thank you for adding the 'lock layout' option under Layout (1) in Preferences (hope something similar comes up for column headers in the future ).

However, when I resize Musicbee, the panels reset to another size. This is especially unfortunate when accidentally resizing the window.

As an example, I have album art in the right main panel taking up half the screen. MB resizes layout when the window isn't maximized. However, when I re-maximize MB, original layout is forgotten and panel is back to about 1/4 its size.

Is this a bug or should I try something else?

32

Screenshots / Re: Config/theme show off thread.

« on: October 14, 2020, 01:58:00 PM »

Basic tags, no genres, no playlists. Just artists and albums.

Could you please name the skin?

33

Questions / Re: Advice for a Non-Audiophile

« on: October 11, 2020, 05:20:14 PM »

First, equalize your headphones properly. The benefits of doing this are self-explanatory.

Thanks for the link. Haven't done a detailed read yet but guide feels like something suited for a youtube video. Too many gaps in its walkthrough.

Next, start normalizing your volume fairly low (I use -6dB across the board, no matter the type of music)

Are you refering to replaygain here? Do you mean an additional -6dB to the usual 89dB default?

On that note, I too recently apply replaygain to my library. That said can't say I'm entirely satisfied with the outcome. I'm still tweaking volume almost every other song especially on shuffle. Kinda defeats the purpose no? That the case for others?

However, if you play Redbook ( 44.1 kHz) and you set the Win audio to 44.1, no resampling is needed.

I've been curious about that. If most of your music is 44.1kHz should you set windows to that? Or as I've read elsewhere, supposedly its better to resample to 48kHz?

34

Questions / Re: What layout is this?

« on: October 09, 2020, 05:37:29 PM »

What he appears to have is nothing displayed in the Left and Right main panels. The Navigation tree is in the left sidebar and the tracks/lyrics/bio are in the right sidebar. These panels show full height. He has placed the Now Playing bar in the main panel under 'files' which makes it appear shorter length in this format. The minute you add something into either the left or right main panels the shape will change.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, this is correct.

35

Questions / Re: What layout is this?

« on: October 09, 2020, 04:20:20 PM »

The answer to your first question is the Now Playing Bar: https://musicbee.fandom.com/wiki/Track_Specific_Elements#Now_Playing_Bar

Thanks Psycho.  I swear I'm going senile. I looked at that wiki page too before posting and didn't figure it out.  The only thing tripping me up is that he has the bar confined to just the main panel, stopping where the right side bar/panel starts.

If I add the Now Playing Bar, its spans the entire length of the app, obscuring part of the right panel.  Is that your experience too?

36

Questions / Re: A non-small number of questions related to MB layout / customization

« on: October 08, 2020, 01:06:41 PM »

DOH. So sorry, I was thinking of the column header not the tabs at the top. Can't believe I  never saw that option while playing around.

Just to make sure I understand, I can only have one sort order for track list view that is then used everwhere?  I suppose the same applies to Album Covers and Alubm & Tracks?

It's been a while since I experimented extensively with views, but I believe all nodes retain their own view/sorting (Music, Inbox, Audiobooks, etc). However, within any node, it will retain the same settings for Track Details, *with the exception* that you can also assign saved views to library filters. Yes, it gets kinda complicated.

But the long and short of it is, to make permanent changes to the track detail view, you have to switch into track detail mode first.

I'm sort of making sense of it but ngl it still feels like guesswork. I will start with a new portable MB and go from there. Thanks!

37

Questions / What layout is this?

« on: October 08, 2020, 02:33:17 AM »

Any idea what element is at the bottom of the image (the one with the image on left and right and spans width of main panel)? I thought it might be the 'Now Playing Bar' but I don't think so. The track info seems to suggest its the 'Track Information' element but you can't put that in the main panel.

---------------



How does he get the track list to reflow into multiple columns? In mine, I just get two very long columns that I have to scroll.  Is there a way to tweak the album art reflection?

Sorry if there's a sticky for this kind of stuff. I didn't want to post questions in SS thread.

38

Questions / Re: A non-small number of questions related to MB layout / customization

« on: October 08, 2020, 12:52:08 AM »

4 - Does MB use one layout for the entire app? For example if I change the width of the right sidebar, it is that same width everywhere else in the app, from music node, to auto dj, etc.

Nope and nope, if it's saved under a different layout.

 

Thanks. So how do I do that? In the above, if I change the width of the right sidebar (contains album art, track list & lyrics), its the same everywhere (inbox, history, podcasts, etc).  How do I save / enable separate layouts?

39

Questions / Re: A non-small number of questions related to MB layout / customization

« on: October 07, 2020, 05:39:18 PM »

Larger Size

1 - MB doesn't appear to be respecting selection for fields shown or sorting order (or there's an overriding setting I can't find).

For some indeterminate reason, it is sorting by track length.  I can change the sorting as shown, but if I restart MB, it reverts to sorting by track length.  Is something overriding it? Where and why?

Just before making this post, it would also show two columns for track length side by side. Even after changing the fields shown, they would reappear after restarting MB. I don’t know what I did but it suddenly stopped. Still concerning because I don't actually know what's governing these related behaviors and I could trip it again.

[Oddly enough, I found this: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=25193.0 but I don't understand Steven's explanation, where the 'Music Library tracks view' is or why that view would be stuck in one sorting order / have duplicate columns.]

I think I figured out question 1. It seems that main Music Node sets the sort order that subsequent filters inherit. That's what Steven meant after all.  I think it also covers the duplicate column issue.

Just to make sure I understand, I can only have one sort order for track list view that is then used everwhere?  I suppose the same applies to Album Covers and Alubm & Tracks?

40

Questions / A non-small number of questions related to MB layout / customization

« on: October 07, 2020, 04:51:59 PM »

Larger Size


1 - MB doesn't appear to be respecting selection for fields shown or sorting order (or there's an overriding setting I can't find).

For some indeterminate reason, it is sorting by track length.  I can change the sorting as shown, but if I restart MB, it reverts to sorting by track length.  Is something overriding it? Where and why?

Just before making this post, it would also show two columns for track length side by side. Even after changing the fields shown, they would reappear after restarting MB. I don’t know what I did but it suddenly stopped. Still concerning because I don't actually know what's governing these related behaviors and I could trip it again.

[Oddly enough, I found this: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=25193.0 but I don't understand Steven's explanation, where the 'Music Library tracks view' is or why that view would be stuck in one sorting order / have duplicate columns.]


2 - Is there a way to deselect an artist / album cover if there is no whitespace?  In the above its restricted to Kate Bush but when no artist is chosen, the bottom panel allows you to scroll through your entire library.


3 - Reading about customizing the main panel, I learned MB saves changes on the fly. What's the best way to make sure you preserve the default settings or is there a reset button somewhere?

4 - Does MB use one layout for the entire app? For example if I change the width of the right sidebar, it is that same width everywhere else in the app, from music node, to auto dj, etc.  Can you save layouts to certain views as you can for the main panel?

5 - Is there a way to lock or hide the entire header in green?  It is too easy to misclick and change the sort order on the fly while using this view.  It's partly the origin of some of the above issues. I had misclicked track length in the Music Library which then propagated to my other filters.

41

Bug Reports / Re: Ratings Not Showing

« on: September 24, 2020, 03:06:43 PM »

2 PMs with link sent.

The first one (Jack Johnson) - MB used the POPULARIMETER tag but currently doesn't show rating in the app.
The second one (Linkin Park) - MB used the RATING tag. I can't figure out why  the switch. It's rating does show up in MB.


Here's the pattern I've noticed (all ratings managed soley by MB) -
FLAC files with the POPULARIMETER tag, their ratings aren't shown. Recently MB started tagging FLAC with the RATING tag instead, these continue to be shown in the app. (Recently tagged, as in the past 1-2 weeks?) Although the problem of some ratings not showing only presented in the last 24 hours.

MP3 files with the equivalent POPM tag don't appear to be affected. They still show their ratings in MB. If I tag an MP3 right now, MB still uses the POPM for it.  As of right now, MB continues to tag FLAC with RATING tag.


Edit 2: I suppose a short term solution, if this is now the new default behaviour for MB, is to convert all FLAC files with the old POPULARIMETER tag to RATING in mp3tag.


(While we are talking about tags, I also noticed that deleting the 'ENCODER' tag (ex 'reference libFLAC 1.3.3 20190804') with MB inspector doesn't seem to have expected results. After deleting/saving, inspector shows it upon checking again.)

42

Bug Reports / Ratings Not Showing

« on: September 24, 2020, 04:59:11 AM »

I'm still taking a look but MB isn't showing ratings for some files.  It seems to be primarily affecting my FLAC files, although not all of them.

I've inspected a few albums in both MP3tag and MB internal inspector and they still show the POPULARIMETER field that's written by MB.

However, when I look at the tracks in Album Art View or in Now Playing, the ratings collumn remains empty. Similarly they don't show up in an auto playlist filtered to their ratings.

I have Musicbee set up to write ratings to the files themselves in settings. I've tried deleting the album from the collection and scanning it back.  I've also tried right click, rescan with no change.  On latest stable release.

43

Plugins / Re: VST Effects Plugin

« on: September 22, 2020, 06:49:33 AM »

Hello. Anyone else have experience with this vst plugin: https://www.hpl-musicsource.com/software

Its geared towards headphone use but its not evident to me if its meant for general purpose use or specifically for music mastered for it (they have a small catalogue). The translation on the site isn't clear to me.

44

Questions / Figuring out / Musing out about tagging multiple artists and featuring artists

« on: June 27, 2020, 01:07:53 AM »

I promise I've read older threads, even a few at hydrogen forums. I'm still looking for more opinions.  I'm mostly looking for clarity around tagging artist info.

For tracks that feature a secondary artist, I've been capturing that info in the 'artist' tag. So for a song 'Happy' by John featuring Maya

Title - Happy
Artist - John feat. Maya
Album Artist - John

Downside is that creates a fictional artist entry 'John feat. Maya'.

1) Are there any downsides to putting the featuring artist in the title other than making it longer or maybe being less aesthitically pleasing?

2) Does the 'album artist' support multiple entries much like the 'artist' tag does (at least for flac and aac)?

3) Take an album by B.B. King & Eric Clapton. Would you enter it as 'B.B. King & Eric Clapton' in album artist or as two separate entries if possible?

4) When do you use '&' vs 'and' for multiple artists or bands? Ex 'Grace Potter & The Nocturnals' or 'Grace Potter and The Nocturnals'? Keep in mind both have been used officially on their albums. So my question is do you actively standardize towards one, follow what's on the cover, or don't really care?

5) Apparently MB uses ';' as a delimiter between entries vs other software like MP3tag that uses //. I know its partly due to a lack of industry standards but in general which method do you find causes least problems for you down the road?

For now I'm ignoring 'display' option available in MB but I'm aware its very versatile. I just want to nail down a baseline first.

45

Tips and Tricks / Re: Managing (levels of) classical music works using MusicBee and MusicBrainz Picard

« on: June 26, 2020, 11:44:05 PM »

Sorry I am (very) late to responding to this thread but thanks so much for the additional comments and feedback. Not going to lie, its a lot to take in. I've been reading the Musichi Zen Classical Tagging guide amongst other things and it feels like I know more but left more confused. Which is a shame because my mind is going to get hung up on these details before letting me enjoy the music.

I'll keep digesting it and if you don't mind maybe do a follow up in the future. Cheers for helping though.