Author Topic: Customizable Library Categories or Multiple Libraries  (Read 3667 times)

beehive

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Under Preferences>Layout>'left navigator panel' you have the option to choose what library categories are shown in the left navigator.

How about having an option to customize those categories or simply, add another inbox folder that you could name to your liking?

For example, I find the inbox feature useful for many reasons but, if I had the option to add another category (that functions like the inbox) and name it to whatever suits the job or task then this will give users a great advantage especially with the tabs. There are a many possible reasons that this could come in handy and some may include:

Scenario 1 - 70% of my massive music collection is dominantly Rock music, 10% are instrumentals,10% are foreign music, and 10% are mixed files, and I would like to separate those files and have each 10% in another category or part of my library, (I understand that there is a track browser and search function but when you have a massive collection it becomes tedious. To have it all in one place or in one part of your library will simplify organization.

Scenario Many  - I have songs in my library that I: might want to delete later, burn to cd, copy/move to another drive, need converting, need a custom tag, I  only want to keep from an album, etc....

I was also thinking about multiple libraries, but the ability to add a category would act like another library. That way if your a neat freak you could separate and organize your library to your liking and just have those files only in that part of the library.

If you think of other reasons please jump on.



Anti

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To reiterate Steven's suggestion, I use the 'grouping' tag to split my library up into sections. It is meant for orchestral groupings, but hardly anyone uses it for that purpose. My current 'groupings' are:

· No filter <--- appears automatically when you create the first filter
· Main [rule: grouping is null]
· Jazz, blues and world [rule: grouping is 'JBW']
· Classical [rule: grouping is 'Classical']
· Pop & Party [rule: grouping is 'Pop']
· Progressive  [rule: grouping is 'Progressive']
· Other [rule: grouping is 'Other']

An advantage of using the 'grouping' tag is that the shuffle feature has a setting 'shuffle tracks by grouping', so you can queue tracks from across different library sections, but then have them shuffle within each section Eg. all the Jazz and Blues first, then the Pop, then Progressive, etc.

For the editing scenarios you mentioned, if your inbox is empty, you can temporarily drag files from your library to the inbox to work on them. They get removed from the library until you drag them back. If you end up with a lot of tracks in the inbox, you could expose the 'comments' field in the columns selection and make a note of why albums/tracks have been moved there.

But if I've got a lot of editing going on, rather than use the inbox I tend to flag stuff appropriately and use autoplaylists to then list the tracks that need attention. Eg. using the 'bomb' rating, the 'quality' field, and the 'ban' flag to signify different problems, as well as autoplaylists with rules for low bitrate, genre mis-tagging, unrated albums/tracks, etc. I have all these kinds of playlists in a collapsible 'Admin' folder to keep it out of the way of my listening playlists.

Hope this gives you some ideas for your work flow.
Last Edit: December 29, 2011, 01:46:06 PM by Anti


beehive

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Yup, Great info Anti, power user indeed, thanks. Muiscbee is powerful if you know how to use it. But I still see that the ability to add another inbox folder and name it to you liking much simpler with less know how for the average user. The simple drag drop and rename will be pretty much a two click process

Does/Can a playlist function like the inbox folder? If it does then there is no need for this feature.
Last Edit: December 29, 2011, 07:45:37 PM by beehive

Anti

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> Does/Can a playlist function like the inbox folder?

I think the STATIC playlist interface is exactly like using the inbox. So is the now playing list.
The real difference is that tracks moved to the inbox are temporarily removed from your library database until you drag them back to it.
Whereas, tracks in playlists (and the now playing list) are still available in your library the whole time.

AUTOplaylists are different in that they have a sorting order - you can't drag/drop the order as you can above.
But you can load the autoplaylist and then send it to a static playlist (or now playing list) for editing.

I should state, I'm not against the idea of an 'edit box', but simply that I've been managing OK with the inbox and playlists.
Last Edit: December 29, 2011, 09:16:10 PM by Anti