Author Topic: Moving from iTunes to MusicBee (Rating Tags)  (Read 8362 times)

stranger

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Hello,

I've just made the move to Musicbee from iTunes for the following reasons;

1. Asio Support
2. Interface Customization
3. Flexible Tagging
    - Permanent Ratings Tag
4. Replaygain

Asio, customization and Replaygain are working out great but i'm having problems with tagging. I initially imported my iTunes library but decided to rescan my music folder instead. With a fresh start i quickly realised since all of my files are ALAC and therefore use the MP4 tag I can't write ratings directly to the files. I've searched around for a solution, but to no avail. To clarify, my motivation for permanent rating tags is the prospect of backing up or moving my files while retaining my ratings.

Has anyone got a solution? or is the ALAC format a dead end?
Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 07:33:23 PM by stranger

Alumni

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Hi, I was under the impression ALAC used the .m4a extension, and besides why would ratings not be able to write directly to these files?

theta_wave

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Did you open up tag inspector on a track that you know for sure was rated in itunes?  It might still be there.

stranger

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Exactly, and yet it doesn't seem to work...

1. Add .M4A file to MusicBee library
2. Rate Song 5 Stars
    - No change to file tags
3. Tools > Advanced > Synchronise Tags...
    - No Change to file tags

The only way i've been able to successfully save a rating to a .M4A file is by using dBpoweramp's ID-Tag... I can alter a rating over and over and MusicBee will pick up the alterations. But if i change the rating in using MusicBee, the tag does not change. Which is further proven by adding the same file to a fresh MusicBee library.

My tagging settings are as follows...

Save MP3 tags as: [ID3v2.3] - [?] also save ID3v1 tags
[?] use UTF-8 for WAVE files
[?] store ratings in the music file
[   ] auto-calculate album rating - [   ] exclude zero rated tracks
[?] disable half ratings
[   ] don't update file modification time when saving tags

- Tag Handling -

[?] enable direct editing of tags in the main panel

redwing

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It only happens with ratings tag? How about other tags? Can you edit and save them?

stranger

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Did you open up tag inspector on a track that you know for sure was rated in itunes?  It might still be there.

:D

Tag inspector has shed some much needed light...

MusicBee uses a different tagcode to dbPoweramp/Foobar

:(

Default tag codes:
MusicBee = rate
dbPoweramp = Rating
foobar200 (quicktag) = Rating

Would a custom tag resolve this?

theta_wave

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Huh?  M4A ratings (lossy, as all of lossless are FLAC) are seen by tag inspector and reflected in MB.  Granted, I rated these in Mediamonkey first, so your situation may be different.  If you are concerned with retaining data like ratings and playcounts, you should've imported the iTunes Music Library.xml in the first place.  If you used itunes and MB on the same computer and you haven't changed any filenames or directores, you still can import the xml and the playcounts and ratings will be updated accordingly.


Alumni

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MusicBee uses a different tagcode to dbPoweramp/Foobar

It should be possible to transfer your exisiting rating tags to the format MusicBee understands by using a tool like mp3tag.

stranger

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MusicBee uses a different tagcode to dbPoweramp/Foobar

It should be possible to transfer your exisiting rating tags to the format MusicBee understands by using a tool like mp3tag.

Fortunately I haven't got any existing rating tags, and MusicBee recognizes dbPoweramp/Foobars ratings. Editing them or rating new files is where it gets messy. If i can change the default MusicBee rating tag from 'rate' to 'Rating' the problem will be solved :D

Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 09:42:20 PM by stranger

theta_wave

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Did you open up tag inspector on a track that you know for sure was rated in itunes?  It might still be there.

:D

Tag inspector has shed some much needed light...

MusicBee uses a different tagcode to dbPoweramp/Foobar

:(

Default tag codes:
MusicBee = rate
dbPoweramp = Rating
foobar200 (quicktag) = Rating

Would a custom tag resolve this?
Weird, for FLAC, MB reads off RATING and my m4a's were probably assigned values under rate when I imported most of my Mediamonkey library as an xml.  I guess M4A tags are weird beasts hence the need for its own field under custom tags.  Anyways I digress, here's what I would do if I didn't want to import the itunes xml that could update ratings and playcounts, especially if I shuffled things around after moving to MB.

1) I would create a custom tag named TempRating and have it point to Rating under the mpeg column.
2) Create an autoplaylist, "Edit Rating" for example, with "track detail" view and have it look up <TempRating> with the criteria that it has a value (add in <TempRating> as a displayed field).  Also, display the regular rating field.  You may want to add these songs to a new regular playlist, as any changes under autoplaylist might take the files out.
3) For proper ratings, please make sure that TempRating is 100 for 5 stars, 80 for 4 stars, 60 for 3 stars, etc (90, 70 are for .5 stars).
4) Highlight a song  and right click > Additional Tagging Tools > Copy Tag
5) Test it out on a few tracks.  If it works, then highlight the rest and do the same.

EDIT: I just saw your attached pic and I would like to discourage you from using medieval cue splitter: https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,57563.msg683198.html#msg683198

EDIT 2: Don't use swap tag, use copy tag (I forgot that I always used "copy tag to clipboard" and thought "copy tag" was the same)
Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 10:02:48 PM by ssri

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If it's not too much hassle, I would recommend converting your audio files to FLAC, more compatibility and less chance of potential issues such as these.

stranger

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4) Highlight a song  and right click > Additional Tagging Tools > Swap Tag and choosing TempRating on one side and Rating on the other.

You lost me here, 'Additional Tagging Tools' doesn't seem to exist???

If it's not too much hassle, I would recommend converting your audio files to FLAC, more compatibility and less chance of potential issues such as these.

Unfortunately it would be an issue if I ever need to return to iTunes + converting 200,000 files doesn't sound too fun :(

theta_wave

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4) Highlight a song  and right click > Additional Tagging Tools > Swap Tag and choosing TempRating on one side and Rating on the other.


You lost me here, 'Additional Tagging Tools' doesn't seem to exist???
Whoops, it is a plugin: http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Additional_Tagging_and_Reporting_Tools

Look for it under "Download".  Also, use "copy tag" instead of "swap tag".

EDIT: Here's my setup (Preferences > Plugins > Additional Tagging and Reporting Tools > Configure) to allow it to appear in the right-click context menu:
Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 10:09:36 PM by ssri

stranger

  • Guest
Thanks, gave it another try.
It's working perfectly fine, but will require a routine to maintain... the nature of a workaround :)

I still can't help but wonder, is it not possible to simply change the default rating tag from 'rate' to 'Rating'? ???
Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 10:51:48 PM by stranger

Bee-liever

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As MusicBee ratings are set up for compatibility with MediaMonkey, I can only assume that's where the difference with "Rate" and "Rating" comes from.
I can think of 2 solutions for the problem.

1:  create a custom tag eg. "DBPOWER RATING"
Code
<Tag id="DBPOWER RATING" id3v23="Rating" id3v24="Rating" wma="Rating" vorbisComments="Rating" mpeg="Rating" ape2="Rating" />
install 'Additional_Tagging_and_Reporting_Tools' plugin
set it up to auto-copy the value from DBPOWER RATING tag to Rating tag


2: AT YOUR OWN RISK! make a copy of your Configuration.xml file before you attempt this!
open the Configuration.xml file from your MusicBee installation folder with a text editor
in the <CustomTags> section insert in the alphabetical sequence
Code
<Tag id="Rating" id3v23="POPM" id3v24="POPM" wma="WM/SharedUserRating" vorbisComments="RATING" mpeg="Rating" ape2="Rating" />
save into MB and start.
Not 100% sure if this one will work.
you may have to re-scan your library to get MB to recognise the changes.
MusicBee and my library - Making bee-utiful music together