Messages

1

Bug Reports / Re: <Album Complete?>

« on: January 21, 2024, 02:48:06 PM »

Thanks for calling this out! You are correct. I wasn't displaying the value of the tag but rather using it as a test condition and assumed it was a boolean (and treating it as such). The "?" makes perfect sense for my use case - there are times when there isn't enough data to reasonably conclude a disc is complete.

2

Bug Reports / <Album Complete?>

« on: January 14, 2024, 03:03:01 PM »

I came across what I would describe as an <Album Complete?> edge case but worth reporting imo.

Let's say I have an album that is comprised of 2 discs and 20 tracks (10 tracks per disc). I have only ripped one disc and added it to MusicBee. MusicBee sees that I have all the tracks on the first disc (10 tracks) and is unaware of the tracktotal for any additional discs so it reports the album as complete. However - there is a whole disc missing (10 tracks missing). It seems to me MusicBee should check the disctotal when available and factor that into it's calculation.

3

Questions / Re: Virtual Tag: display <actual album track count> / <expected album track count>

« on: January 14, 2024, 04:58:51 AM »

When I first read this I thought 'surely that's straightforward'.................and then I tried to do it....................not so straightforward.
However I have come up with this (feels like rather clumsy) method using three virtual tags:

1. Create a unique identifier for each disc:

AlbDiscID

Code

<Disc#><Album><Album Artist>

2. Assign a number to each track which represents an average value for the expected disc track count (i.e. expected disc track count divided by actual disc track count):

ExpDiscTkCtAv

Code

$Div(<Track Count>,$Count(<Title>,<AlbDiscID>))

3. Sum this average value over the whole album to give the expected album track count:

ExpAlbTkCount

Code

$Sum(<ExpDiscTkCtAv>,<Album>)

This definitely needs some more testing as I have only tried it on a system with a very small and simple library, but it appears to work.
I also feel that it might need some handling in the case of any rounding errors - not sure, and I haven't looked at this.

I like the way you think! I never considered tackling it in stages via the virtual tags! I look forward to playing with this. I'll let you know how it goes....

4

Questions / Re: Virtual Tag: display <actual album track count> / <expected album track count>

« on: January 14, 2024, 04:55:00 AM »

This is an adversary from (a little over) a year ago that I did not have much luck figuring out when you'd first brought it up:

https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=37144.msg204132#msg204132
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=37163.msg204247#msg204247

I need to replace <Track Count> with the album's "expected" track count (the sum of each disc's TRACKTOTAL) but I am not sure how to access this number.

Getting that number from the confines of virtual tags seems rather impossible from what I can tell.
Maybe it will help you a bit if I explain how I think MusicBee is determining whether or not an album is complete.

I am trying to display the <expected track count> that <Album Complete?> is using to determine if a album is complete or not and <Track Count> doesn't appear to be it...

MusicBee's <Album Complete?> does not appear to be comparing <Album Track Count> vs <sum of each disc's track count>
On the surface, what it looks to be doing is (1) checking if each disc is complete and then (2) marking the whole album as incomplete if any of the discs are incomplete.

To replicate that evaluation process, you can set up virtual tags as follows:
<Disc_Tracks>              =    <Disc#><Album>
<Disc_Complete?>       =    $If($Count(<Disc_Tracks>)=<Track Count>,0,1)
<Album_Complete?>   =    $If($Sum(<Disc_Complete?>,<Album>)>0,N,Y)

Wow! Great memory. I only vaguely remember those posts. Since then I have tried plexamp (which is great for mobile and andriod auto), tried roon and come back full circle - MusicBee is too good! I just gotta clean up my UI (hence this post), tidy up my workflow and tweak that damn chromecast plugin (so awesome and so buggy!). I appreciate the explanation and I don't blame MusicBee - I am looking to do something that is pretty edge case but it's hard for me to let it go. Worst case I know I can use python to create my own ALBUMTRACKTOTAL tag but that seems like cheating and is far from elegant. Not to mention that kind of hack would cause me to lose sleep and eventually just delete the tags. 

5

Questions / Re: Virtual Tag: display <actual album track count> / <expected album track count>

« on: January 13, 2024, 05:03:08 PM »

This little puzzle is hurting my brain.
My gut says it is possible, but my brain seems to have left and is doing some other stuff at the moment.

In case my brain returns and asks: what are your grouping settings for 'what defines an album'?

lol - sorry hiccup. I probably made it sound way more complicated than necessary. A tech writer I am not! 

Re: album grouping settings - I didn't even know this was a thing until you called it out. I am using MusicBee's default settings - the following fields define an album: 1. Album Artist; 2. Album Name

MusicBee has to calculate the number I am looking for to determine <Album Complete?>. I guess it's a question of - Can I access that number or calculate it myself?

6

Questions / Re: Two bands with the same name

« on: January 13, 2024, 02:33:22 PM »

I've used a similar approach but tried to make each band name more readable to the uninitiated:
Bush (GB) / Bush (CA)
The Beat (GB) / The Beat (US)

No right or wrong - genre, decade of org, etc can work as well, when they are distinguishing factors.
Elvis Presley (Rock) / Elvis Presley (Classical)
Elvis Presley (1930-) / Elvis Presley (1831-1888)

FYI - I made up the egs - no need to look for a classical composer named Elvis Presley or reference my post to prove Elvis is still alive. Going with the musicbrainz model does make life easier though.

7

Questions / Virtual Tag: display <actual album track count> / <expected album track count>

« on: January 13, 2024, 01:36:32 PM »

I used to use the FLAC tag "TRACKTOTAL" to document the expected track total of an album (vs what it is intended for - to document the expected track total of a disc). Once I realized I was using the tag incorrectly I corrected my mistake. However, by doing so, I broke one of my virtual tags:
$If(<Album Complete?>="Y",<Album Track Count>,<Album Track Count>/<Track Count>) Track(s)

If the album is "complete" the virtual tag shows the number of available tracks for the album: 32 Tracks (for eg)
If the album is not "complete" it shows the number of available tracks for the album over the number of expected tracks: 30/32 Tracks (for eg - 2 tracks are missing)

To get the above working again I need to replace <Track Count> with the album's "expected" track count (the sum of each disc's TRACKTOTAL) but I am not sure how to access this number. Any suggestions?

8

MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Ability to Add PDFs to Library

« on: October 20, 2022, 03:37:24 PM »

I love this addition! An additional suggestion:

In addition to the "album covers" view -> "show the tracks..." -> "directly under the selected album..."  -> "enable all artwork to be selected and displayed"
It would be great to include an option to display a link/icon to each PDF there. Something like:
In addition to the "album covers" view -> "show the tracks..." -> "directly under the selected album..."  -> "enable all PDF booklets to be selected and displayed" (or whatever language makes sense)

 Ideally, it would display icons for PDFs and images in the same way, as a single strip of clickable icons. This would allow me to drill down into images and PDFs in a single, seamless and consolidated way. While I realize displaying a thumbnail might not be possible, an icon would be enough, imo. Hopefully, that description makes sense...

9

MusicBee Wishlist / Start / End Times

« on: October 15, 2022, 02:42:11 PM »

I just discovered the "Start Time" and "End Time" settings in the track editor. Perfect timing as I was looking for a way to cut out the studio chatter from some of the alternate tracks included with the new super deluxe edition of a Charlie Brown Christmas. That said it triggered a few suggestions I wanted to share:

- If I set, save and then uncheck the start and/or stop time the values should remain. So, if and when I check them again, the previous values are assumed as a starting point. It took me some time to find exactly where I wanted these set and it was frustrating to lose them just because I unchecked them for a listen or two
- Allow multiple start / stop times - a bit of a stretch but I found some songs (medleys) I wanted to break into pieces. A way to indicate track 2a (start/end) 2b (start/end) etc. Would be nice, if possible.
- cut out a section of a track, vs just the start/end. Again, would allow someone to clean out studio chatter, etc.
- Another stretch - it would be nice to indicate start/end times only when not listening to the album in order. In other words, when listening to the album I want to ignore my start/end times BUT if listening to a track in isolation, an album on random or listening to a track as part of a playlist it would be nice to recognize the start/end times. This would allow someone to keep the flow of an album, including listening to studio chatter, etc. but still use a "cleaner" cut of a track in a playlist.

Thanks!

10

Plugins / Re: Musicbee Chromecast Plugin

« on: October 15, 2022, 02:28:20 PM »

I initially had an issue where I could see Chromecast devices and select them but couldn't stream to them. It turns out Windows defender wasn't properly configured. I needed to go to "Windows Defender Firewall" -> "Allowed Apps" and enable both Public and Private access to "MusicBee Chromecast"

11

Plugins / Re: Musicbee Chromecast Plugin

« on: October 02, 2022, 03:48:42 PM »

Curious to know the status of native MusicBee support for Chromecast?

I started something that made quite a bit of progress but have no plans to continue. Happy to send the code if you want to look at it for ideas

Hi Steven. That would be great! Thanks! It's been a busy week but I am hoping to spend some tinker time playing around this week/weekend.

12

Plugins / Re: Musicbee Chromecast Plugin

« on: September 22, 2022, 11:47:48 PM »

Thanks for a great plugin!

Curious to know the status of native MusicBee support for Chromecast? I would like to see a few things updated:
- The font size for the device list on the selection dialog is too big on my system
- I would like to see the display broken out as an isolated option (ie play on one speaker and display on another device, such as a TV)
- transcoding. This is a big one, as the plugin appears to send the audio in it's native bit/sample rate. My devices seem to choke on anything more than 24/48. So, I would like to see a lower bitrate option or see the stream bit/sample rate capped by default

I am considering taking TroyFernandes up on his offer and forking the build but if native support is on the horizon I would rather wait it out as I suspect my progress would be slow...

13

Questions / Re: Special Characters in Custom Web Links

« on: September 21, 2022, 10:08:45 PM »

I agree that it would be nice if it was handled internally & that $Replace seems as though it should be able to handle the use case. I was actually surprised the <origin> tag wasn't setup as a web link by default, it seems tailor-made for that purpose. Oh well, I guess that means MusicBee is only 1000x better than all the other music apps out there (rather than 1001x) 

14

Questions / Re: Special Characters in Custom Web Links

« on: September 21, 2022, 07:07:59 PM »

That did the trick! Thanks!

15

Questions / Re: Special Characters in Custom Web Links

« on: September 21, 2022, 06:38:44 PM »

I have tried several variations, as far as setup goes, but my goal is pretty straightforward:

I use the origin tag to track the origin of a track, a link to the album in the Qobuz web store, in this case:
https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/revolver-the-beatles/0060254767013

Then I setup the customize web link via the Track Information panel settings (to your point, you can also view/edit the custom web link list via preferences -> Internet):
name="Origin"
web-link=<Origin>

I then check the "show web links:" option for "Origin" on the Track Information panel settings form, save and attempt to open the link from the track information panel.

That's it...

Of note:
- I can see the origin tag in the tag editor when an individual track is selected as well.
- I use the field to help determine the source of a track - Qobuz, HDTracks, whatever... Hopefully, I am using it as intented.