Topics

1

Questions / Best Sound Device Settings for Stability?

« on: February 21, 2022, 05:53:26 PM »

Hi,
Would someone kindly enlighten me as to the different choices for sound driver settings? 
My choices are DirectSound and WASAPI (I understand the difference between shared and exclusive).  Then, I can select the Primary Sound Driver or the Speakers directly (maybe like direct access to the speakers?  without going through Windows?).  Also, with DirectSound I have a checkbox for 32 bit sound (I assume WASAPI forces 64 bit sound?)
Which choices are probably best?  I have a couple apps that sometimes, when I start them, MB closes and one app that ALWAYS sends MB packing (the GeForce Experience app that checks for game and driver updates).  It's not a big problem but it just got me thinking that I would like to understand a little more about the audio settings.

FWIW, at home, on my desktop, I have an ASIO audio interface and don't recall ever having MB quit on me.  Now, I am away from home on a laptop and MB has quit on me a few times while opening some things.
Thanks for any help.
JL

2

Bug Reports / Album Auto - Tag Repeats Tracks 10 and Higher as Track 9

« on: January 24, 2022, 10:44:43 PM »

If I use Album Auto Tag on an album with 10 tracks or more, the 9th track is repeated in place of tracks 10 and above.  But if I deselect one of the tracks for tagging, it corrects the repeated tracks.  Except, it often leaves off the last track.  But if I click Apply, it does actually tag the last (unshown) track.  I have tested it with many albums and it seems to always happen with 10 or more tracks.  I am using version 3.4.8033.
Anyone else getting this behavior?
JL

3

Questions / Filter Out Of Library Songs That Are Already On A Playlist?

« on: January 11, 2022, 09:59:10 PM »

Hi,
I have my entire Library.  Then I have about 3/4 of it on a playlist to sync to a USB drive for the vehicle.
I want to filter what is already on the playlist out of my music library in order to see what is NOT on the playlist.
Any way to do this?

4

Questions / Volume Analysis Questions

« on: January 05, 2022, 11:01:31 PM »

I have seen a couple of times when the Volume Analysis gives me the warning that the replay with the replay gain values applied would cause clipping but in the file listing status window, all the files say "OK".  Sometimes it does identify the file with clipping and the clipping amount.
Just trying to learn more about the readout.  Maybe it is an Album Gain vs. Track Gain thing?
Or is there something I am misunderstanding when I get the clipping warning pop-up  window but all the files say "OK" in the status column?

5

MusicBee Wishlist / Rounded Corners on Artwork

« on: December 28, 2021, 01:37:59 AM »

Similar to the option with Artist Artwork to have a circle or a square, an option to show artist and album artwork as a "Tile" (square with slightly rounded corners) would be nice.  I have been seeing a lot of the "tile" look on phones and Operating Systems lately and it generally gives a nice, sleek, clean look.

Or maybe there is a skin that already does this?  An internet search didn't reveal anything to me.

6

Questions / Backup Library Halted by Hidden System Attributed Folder.JPG files

« on: December 28, 2021, 01:02:55 AM »

I am posting this as a question in case others have this issue I had and maybe someone with a better understanding of it can even help me understand it better.
While migrating to Musicbee and organizing, retagging, and cleaning up my library, I would occasionally use the Backup function just in case I screwed up and lost some work...
I am coming from WMP and the problem was that the FIRST backup (to a new location... so all files copied fresh) would work fine.  Then, after doing some more editing, if I tried another backup, it would be halted because MB was denied access to one of the Folder.JPG files (I think it was always one of the albums I had changed the artwork for).  BUT, when I went to the location, the Folder.JPG file was hidden EVEN with view hidden files enabled.  I came to the conclusion (but not really certain) that those files were also tagged as system files so could not be viewed or have their properties (such as read-only) modified.  When I looked at the root music folder, it would have the "dash" in the read only box (meaning SOME files in there are read only but not all (which would be a check mark).  Unchecking the read only for the whole folder never seemed to work.  Again, I think because the folder files are attributed as hidden system files....

The solution I came up with was to update ALL the Album art with new pictures (the WMP ones were crappy resolution anyway) and have MB organize the library to a new location so that it could write it's own Folder.JPG files.  I had a few more times where I missed updating the artwork (or maybe if there wasn't already a Folder.JPG file created by MB then WMP would write one with the read only properties?).  Anyway, I stopped opening WMP and got all my art updated in MB with normal (not hidden, system) Folder.JPG files and haven't had the permission problem during backup since.  BUT, if I do get it again, my solution will be to delete the offending album folder IN THE BACKUP location.  This will delete the associated Folder.JPG file and the backup will rewrite all the deleted files anyway, including the new folder.jpg file.

This had me really frustrated for about half a day and I hope this information helps someone.  If anyone really understands what was happening and want's to explain or provide a less "hacked" solution I am grateful.
I am using Windows 11, latest update and latest MB version.

7

Questions / Customized font in Compact Grid Main Panel View

« on: December 27, 2021, 09:57:37 PM »

MusicBee GUI
I have my custom GUI layout in MusicBee all set up and just one thing I would like to change but don't see a way to do it.
In the main panel, I like the "Compact Grid" layout rather than the Detailed listing.  But, in the settings, "Layout (1)" I selected a BOLD font as the General Default font (in order to have the text standout more) but it only applies to the track titles and NOT to the track number or track time fields (circled in yellow in my posted image)
The "General Default" font seems to override everywhere else on the screen unless a different custom font is chosen in a specific panel (where possible) but it doesn't seem to apply to all the fields in the Compact Grid View.  I see that the detailed listing option gives more specific control over the fields and fonts but it doesn't seem to allow the two or three "columns of track data" layout.  Hopefully the picture illustrates...

EDIT:  I was looking at the skinning guide to see if this was something I might be able to change by editing the .xml file but it seems like skinning deal with colors, dimension, and icons/images that are used for elements and not fonts so perhaps I can't change it by editing the skin file?

8

Bug Reports / Analyzed WMA files Show as "Not Calculated" Until Rescanned.

« on: December 27, 2021, 09:11:35 PM »

I am not sure if this is technically a bug, as it may be the intended function, but it does seem to be inconsistent with the process with MP3 files.

Reproduction...
Select some .WMA files and use "Analyze Volume" and wait for the process to complete.
Check the tags and they should say "Not Calculated"  NOTE" that replay gain is ALSO NOT APPLIED to playback of the files.
Select the analyzed files and "Send To" "Rescan".
Files tags should now show the correct replay gain values and will be applied to the replay volume.

For me, the process works fine with MP3 files (meaning the replay gain shows in the tags and is applied upon finishing the volume analysis, without rescan),  just not with WMA files.  I tried several different WMA files with varying bitrates, etc., with the same result.  I tried closing and reopening Musicbee, removing the files from the library and adding them back.  The only thing that seems to "wake UP" the replay gain values is a rescan or something that triggers a rescan such as moving the file, etc.

Workaround is fairly simple.  After Volume Analysis, select the files and "send to" "rescan".