Author Topic: Anybody care to share their settings?  (Read 4928 times)

Mr. Trev

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
I've always assumed that I'm not even remotely using MB to its fullest.
Some of you guys are probably doing things I've never even considered, so I was wondering if someone is up for letting me have a look at their setting/cfg. just to see what's what. I'd be mostly interest in things like virtual tags, etc. since I'm mostly hopeless at creating them myself.
Basically what I'd do is create a new portable install, set my file locations and see if I could work backwards from there and hopefully learn something new/cool
If not… its all good.

Cheers

psychoadept

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10940
This is my whole MusicBee folder (C:\MusicBee, although I think you could put it anywhere), plus the Library and Playlist folders (which live in User\Music) because I rely heavily on auto playlists for library management. I removed the library file itself and the giantic artwork cache, and a few other things like logs. You should be able to do a search and replace on "scamp" to put your username in place of mine in the settings files.

I would say my naming template is on the extreme end in terms of complexity, but I sort of came at it from a programming mindset: I treated virtual tags as functions within the larger template.  Also a lot of my projects are in a chronically unfinished state. For instance, genre mapping I've fiddled with several times around. I would have to start from scratch again to get anywhere with it now.
MusicBee Wiki
Use & improve MusicBee's documentation!

Latest patches
(Unzip and overwrite existing program files)

Mr. Trev

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
Thanks.

I've been working through Hiccup's guide for enhanced tags and Classical tagging and realized that even after all these years, I'm probably only touching the very basics of MB's capabilities - esp. when it comes to virtual tags and scripting.
I'm hoping that if I can see how other folks are using MB, that will open up a lot of doors for me.

My naming template is pretty set in stone for now. I found a good way to have files easy to find on my portable players that just had an explorer type navigation and it's more than suitable on my laptop and Daphile machines.

karbock

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 563
Here are a few special features that I use:
* custom tags
* virtual tags
* highlighting rules

Below, a brief introduction to their purpose, so that you can select what you're interested in.

CUSTOM TAGS
* Catalog: used for classical music (e.g.: 'BWV 211')
* MediaType: for storing the source (e.g.: 'CD', 'LP', music provider names, ...)

As far as I know, you need to set such custom tags by using MB's interface. In other words: simply importing the definition files into your own folders won't work, since MB adapts its library just after your defining the custom tags.

Note: standard tag names in .mp3 files:
* MediaType -> TMED
* Language -> TLAN

VIRTUAL TAGS
Used for displaying titles on two rows:
1) if available: Work
2) if available: Movement (nr. and/or name), otherwise: Title

Definitions:
TitleRow1: $IsNull(<Work>,,$If(<Work>=<Title>,,<Work>))
TitleRow2: $IsNull(<Movement #><Movement Name>,<Title>,$IsNull(<Movement #>,,<Movement #>". ")$IsNull(<Movement Name>,,<Movement Name>))

HIGHLIGHTING RULES
They are based on tags such as Genre and Language, in order to see at a glance, for example, what tracks are instrumental or sung, and in what language. They rely on a bunch of icons.

Example of highlighting rule for works sung with accompaniment (not a cappella):
<Rule>
  <Name>GENRE=Sung (with accompaniment)</Name>
  <Query>
   <CombineMethod>0</CombineMethod>
   <Criteria>
    <Field>83</Field>
    <Comparison>0</Comparison>
    <Value1>Sung</Value1>
   </Criteria>
   <Criteria>
    <Field>83</Field>
    <Comparison>1</Comparison>
    <Value1>A cappella</Value1>
   </Criteria>
  </Query>
  <Icon>GENRE_Sung.WithAccompaniment.ico</Icon>
  <Colour>-8355712</Colour>
 </Rule>


Highlighting rules can be defined with MB's interface. They are stored in MusicBee3Settings.ini, between:
<TagHighlightingRules>
and
</TagHighlightingRules>

Icon location:
* installed version: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\MusicBee\Icons
* portable version: <MusicBee folder>\Icons
Last Edit: February 03, 2022, 12:35:56 PM by karbock

NailJ

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 34
wow, Psycoadept's MB looks NOTHING like mine. I had no idea it coould look like that and I love it, thanks so much for sharing!

Mr. Trev

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
Indeed, my first thought was WTF?? ;)

I haven't gotten around to digging into it yet. I just finished making a fresh backup of my file - I'm pretty sure I disabled any "auto" settings, and my network is being idiot slow when it comes to scanning my NAS for music

psychoadept

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10940
wow, Psycoadept's MB looks NOTHING like mine. I had no idea it coould look like that and I love it, thanks so much for sharing!

Haha, glad it's useful! I'm curious to know what, specifically, was different.
MusicBee Wiki
Use & improve MusicBee's documentation!

Latest patches
(Unzip and overwrite existing program files)

Mr. Trev

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
So, a couple questions for you…

In the left panel, under computer, you have your folder locations (D:/). How does a person get rid of them? This is a general question because I have long gone network locations from my old NAS in my MB install that I can't figure out how to get rid of either

You have a virtual tag for "album type". I tried dissecting it, but I cannot figure out why one of my albums is showing up as "100%" when pretty much everything else is "other"

I do like the way you did the highlighting. I never did get into that part of MB, but I also can't think of a reason that it would be essential for me.

I'm sure I'll have more questions to bug you with as I play around some more

psychoadept

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10940
In the left panel, under computer, you have your folder locations (D:/). How does a person get rid of them? This is a general question because I have long gone network locations from my old NAS in my MB install that I can't figure out how to get rid of either

As far as I know, they should go away if you re-open the folder selection and those folders aren't selected. But if that doesn't work, I suppose you could try manually editing the settings file.

Quote
You have a virtual tag for "album type". I tried dissecting it, but I cannot figure out why one of my albums is showing up as "100%" when pretty much everything else is "other"

That vitrual tag is derived from MusicBrainz' release type, which is one of my custom tags. Do you have a custom tag that contains a similar value?

Incidentally, I just redid it to be simpler (I removed the "Album %" calculation), but even more closely based on MusicBrainz' formatting:

Code
$If($Or(<Release Type>="album",<Release Type>="single"),<Release Type>,$If($Contains(<Release Type>,album),$Replace(<Release Type>,"album; ",),other))

More questions welcome!
MusicBee Wiki
Use & improve MusicBee's documentation!

Latest patches
(Unzip and overwrite existing program files)

Mr. Trev

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
In your external tools, you have a send to "RYM".
Absolutely great idea, but with the parameter you have (http://google.com/release/album/"$Replace(<Artist>," ",_)") I just get 404 errors.
I'm guessing the fact that it's google.com and not Rate Your Music is the problem. You have a working parameter?

psychoadept

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10940
Wow, I didn't even remember having that one. I thought I had a google search configured so maybe it got mixed up.
MusicBee Wiki
Use & improve MusicBee's documentation!

Latest patches
(Unzip and overwrite existing program files)

Mr. Trev

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
So I'm guessing there isn't a way to send to RYM at the moment?

Never looked into their website before… kinda pissed I didn't find out about it until now ;)

psychoadept

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10940
I just pulled a random album that was linked from their home page, and here's the URL:

Code
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/animal-collective/time-skiffs/

So it looks like, for an album:

Code
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/"$Replace(<Artist>," ",-)"/"$Replace(<Album>," ",-)"

For an artist:

Code
https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/"$Replace(<Artist>," ",-)"

I'm sure there are other considerations like special characters, but that should get you pretty close.
MusicBee Wiki
Use & improve MusicBee's documentation!

Latest patches
(Unzip and overwrite existing program files)

phred

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10270
Thanks for posting these, psycho. Unfortunately neither album nor artist work for me. RYM returns a 404.
I first made sure the artist and the album were in their database, but no go on the link.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Album: Europe '72

I tried playing around with the code a little bit but couldn't get past the 404.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

----------
The FAQ
The Wiki
Custom Forum Search
Posting screenshots is here

Mr. Trev

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
Indeed, I get the same error
So what I get when I send to RYM is this as a link: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/Lightning%20Dust/Infinite%20Light
That gets a 404.
The actual RYM link for that album is: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/lightning_dust/infinite_light/

Now if you go and change the "%20" to __ and remove the capitalization, the failed link works
How that's accomplished in the MB code is beyond me - I really suck at scripting :-[