Migrating custom tags from MediaMonkey

[nojac]

I have used MediaMonkey for several years. And I use its 5 Custom Fields.

When importng my tracks to MusicBee, these fields are not available. They are certainly stored within in the music files, not only in the MM library.

 Is there a way to make these custom fields appear in MusicBee?

I have installed MusicBee today for testing. And I am impressed to see how far you have managed to get in only one year. This program really has potential!

 I would also like to see a black skin... Or a Spotify-style... I've noticed that you are working on it....

[Steven]

in Edit/ Preferences/ Tags/ custom tags
if these tags are non-standard id3 tags (sounds like this is the case), you first need to make them known to MusicBee using Define New Tags button
then for each assign them to a custom tag field by selecting each in the 'save to music file as tag' drop-down
On saving, all your files will be rescanned and should automatically be assigned to each custom tag

yes i am looking at a dark skin and will try to do that tomorrow infact

[nojac]

Sorry, I am definitely a NewBee, and I've not been able to figure out how to do this.

From your TagInspector it seems that the first 3 custom fields used by MM are called COMM/Songs-DB_Custom1 , 2 and 3. (mp3-files)

I have defined new tags with these names and then assigned them to one custom field each from the drop-down. But nothing appeared in these fields after saving/rescanning. And I do not want to add values to the fields for each file again.... the point is to make MusicBee find the values already present in the tags. (I have not even checked if MusicBee is capable of dispaying the number of embedded AlbumArt and their size for each track..)

Is there no way you could choose to use the same ID-fields as the ("non-standard") ones used by MM?

I can't believe thar you are able to run your project more or less alone. MediaMonkey would not be much if it was not for the impressive group of volunteers who make scripts and skins... But I've noticed that many of the options you need to install scripts for in MM are already standard in MusicBee. Nice!

[Steven]

the usual standard implementation for custom tags is using TXXX/tag name
i didnt realise media-monkey had done it a different way, so i will need to add in some extra logic to also look for COMM/tag name

[Steven]

in the 1.2 beta i will post a little later today (on the forum downloads topic), when you define the custom tags in the tag preferences Define New Tag screen, just modify the definition and set the ID3 tag to COMM/Songs-DB_Custom1 .. 5 as appropriate

after saving the preferences MB should rescan and include the custom field

[Steven]

actually if you want to try it out now before i do the update:
http://www.mediafire.com/?qt4mmmqmzyl

[ultradust]

Steven, quick question on this:

I noticed that, after mapping the custom tag field in MusicBee, in the actual files the tags remain in the weirdly-named MediaMonkey tag fields.

Let's say we want to get away from the weird "COMM/SONGS-DB_CUSTOM1" tags of MediaMonkey and migrate entirely to your native MusicBee custom tags.

What's the easiest way to batch transfer the values for a bunch of files from a MediaMonkey-mapped tag field in MusicBee to a native custom tag field in MusicBee, so that the MediaMonkey mapping can be subsequently removed?

For example:
I have a bunch of tracks with COMM/SONGS-DB_CUSTOM2 set to various values (some of them with multiple values).
I want to put these values into a new custom tag field simply titled "Theme" so that they're actually stored in the files with that tag name.
Then I want to get rid of the COMM/SONGS-DB_CUSTOM2 tag name/field, removing it from all the files.

Suggested workflow?

[ultradust]

I figured out a solution. Documenting here for anyone else who comes across this and needs to know:

1. Install boroda74's Additional Tagging and Reporting Tools. (Be sure to download the latest from the dropbox link, as there may be earlier versions posted directly on the page.)

2. For ease of these operations, make sure Column Browser is turned on.

3. Follow Steven's instructions above to ensure your old MediaMonkey tags are mapped correctly in MusicBee. Now, if you don't like the messy old MediaMonkey tag names, then you want to create new tags and migrate the old values.

4. In Preferences > Tags (1) > Define New Tags... , create a new custom tag row to match each old MediaMonkey tag row. (So if you have 3 old MediaMonkey tags listed there, add 3 new custom tags with new names to match them.)

5. Right-click the Column Browser and Set Displayed Columns to include the old and new custom tags you're going to work with. In the left sidebar, choose the scope of what files you want to work with (folders, albums, etc.).

6.  Now, let's say you have an old custom tag "MediaMonkey Occasion" and a new custom tag "Occasion."  In the column browser under the MediaMonkey Occasion column you've displayed in (5) above, shift-select all the tag values represented there. MusicBee will display all of the tagged tracks in the Main Panel. Select all of those files.

7. Choose Tools > Additional Tagging Tools > Copy tag... and a panel window will open. For the "Copy tag" dropdown, in this scenario you would select "MediaMonkey Occasion" and for the "to tag" dropdown you would select "Occasion." (Your actual tags will vary per your actual files' tags.) You may want to Preview to see the effects, and then click Proceed once you're sure the results are what you want. MusicBee will copy the tags from the old tag field to the new tag field. Close the Additional Tagging Tools window.

8. You'll see that all the pertinent tag values are now shown under both the "MediaMonkey Occasion" and "Occasion" columns. You may want to manually click on the values and check the filtered results in the main panel just to doublecheck that the tags copied correctly.

9. Now it's time to get rid of the old MediaMonkey tag field. First, select all the Occasion tag values in the Column Browser, then select all the files shown as filtered in the main panel. Right-click to Edit the files. On the "Tags (2)" tab, check the box for the old tag (in this case "MediaMonkey Occasion") and leave the value blank. Click the Save button. MusicBee will now update the files to remove the old MediaMonkey tags.

10. Repeat steps 6-9 for each MediaMonkey/MusicBee custom tag pair until you've converted all the old MediaMonkey tags to MusicBee tags.

11. Now it's time to clean up. In Preferences > Tags (1) > Define New Tags..., click the minus (-) signs to remove all the old MediaMonkey tags. (But be sure to leave the new MusicBee tags alone!) Click Save and Close; then, in the custom tags list, revert any unused tags back to the default "Custom3", "Custom4", etc. values like they were when MusicBee was installed. (But again, leave all the new MusicBee tags alone!) For each of the reverted tags, ensure "Save to MusicBee database only" is selected. Apply, Save and Close.

12. In the Column Browser, Set Displayed Columns to remove the old (now deleted) MediaMonkey tags.

And that should be it. Now you've got all your old MediaMonkey tag values in natively-named MusicBee tag fields.

[psychoadept]

Thanks for the great write up.  I've moved this post into Tips & Tricks to make it easier for others to find.

[theta_wave]

Here's my mini-guide on the subject (a little more condensed for the more visually oriented)...
 
 Mini-guide to migrate Mediamonkey custom fields > MB custom fields:

Directions:

Mapping Mediamonkey custom tags to Musicbee user-created custom tags

Configuration Menu: CTRL+O > Tags (1) > Define New Tags

Identifier: whatever you want to call your custom tags, you can leave as Custom[1-5]
MP3: COMM/Songs-DB_Custom1 to  COMM/Songs-DB_Custom5
Vorbis (flac, ogg): CUSTOM1 to CUSTOM5
apeV2: CUSTOM1 to CUSTOM5
mpeg: CUSTOM1 to CUSTOM5
wma: UserCustom1 to UserCustom5

Click Save and go back to the previous menu



Using the remapped custom tags

1) Go to the configuration Menu: CTRL+O > Tags (1)
2) Here, under Tags (1) > custom tags, create a display name for your custom tags; it could be custom1, custom2, etc or whatever you feel like (see screenshot below)
3) Direct the display name to the identifier for the custom tags that you just made (save to music file as tag > identifier) (see screenshot below).
4) Hit apply and save to allow MB to rescan your files to incorporate your MM custom tag values into MB.  

Here's how Mediamonkey Custom Tags 1-4 (in my setup) look under CTRL+O > Tags (1):

[blue_elephant]

Hello - I've just joined the forum because I'm switching from MediaMonkey to MusicBee. I've done the database export/import, and somewhat to my surprise (because all my music is in wav files) most of the tag data has come across OK.   However, despite following the instructions above, I can't get the contents of my MM custom fields to show up.  I wonder if this is a wav issue - any advice would be very welcome.  

If it's not possible to import custom fields for wav files, plan B is to move the information (in MM) from the custom fields into unused standard fields, then import the database to MB again. Any suggestions for a better way will be much appreciated!

[psychoadept]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

Have you looked in the tag inspector for your custom tags? If they show up there, then MusicBee can access them, you just have to configure them as MusicBee custom tags first.

If they're not visible in the tag inspector, you'll have to go with plan b.

[blue_elephant]

Thanks for this tip.  It took me a while to find where the Tag Inspector was hidden  but when I did, I found that the custom tags were there for odd few mp3 tracks in my database, but not for the wav tracks.  So I guess that answers my question - no custom tags for wav files.

Plan C: I'm going to try converting a few wav files to FLAC in MediaMonkey and see if the custom tags come across to MusicBee with them - if so that might be the push I need to switch everything to FLAC.  I can always keep the wav files as a backup.

Many thanks for the help.

[theta_wave]

Plan C: I'm going to try converting a few wav files to FLAC in MediaMonkey and see if the custom tags come across to MusicBee with them - if so that might be the push I need to switch everything to FLAC.  I can always keep the wav files as a backup.

Many thanks for the help.

Unless you need wavs for something specific (e.g. music production, programs or devices that lack FLAC support, etc), there's no need to keep them as a backup since FLACs will have the same md5 hash as the wav's audiostream.  In other words, when uncompressed, FLACs are bitidentical to wavs with respect to audio.

Furthermore, one can test FLACs to determine whether their audiostreams are bitidentical to the original wavs (flac.exe -t *.flac).  This is a great way to determine whether the audiostream has been corrupted (e.g. bad sectors from a failing hard drive), something not possible with wav files unless you already have way to cross-reference their checksums with those on record or in a separate database or you have a parity system in place.

[blue_elephant]

Thanks theta_wave.  I've had some success with FLAC migration, so I probably will convert all my wav files to FLAC now. I know I don't really need to keep the wav files, I just have trouble letting go!

Now, back to tags - FLAC files seem to carry over all my MediaMonkey tags, except <Comments>.  Rather frustrating, as mp3 and wav files DO come over with <Comments>.

I've tried setting up a custom tag for Comments, to no avail.  As it doesn't appear in tag inspector, this isn't surprising.

Does anybody know why a FLAC file should "lose" its Comments tag when migrated from MediaMonkey, or, more importantly, does anyone know a fix for this problem?

BTW, there were a couple of other tags that didn't appear at first (Original Year, Original Artist) but these DID appear in tag inspector and so I was able to set up custom tags for them.