Music Genres & database issues.

[Terry Beech]

Hi, I am reasonably new to the B2 and I have learned so much in the last month since I purchased it, mainly through the help that I have received through this forum. I have so far ripped around 620 albums of an approximate 1000 CD collection.

The problem that I have is that I have a very diverse collection of all sorts of Genres.  Given that the B2 doesn't seem to make use of TAGS does any one have any suggestions of how to catalogue the B2's artists/albums into GENRE other than creating dozens of different playlists? I understand that there are several good programs that allow you to manipulate MP3 tags but I am not sure how or if these will work with the B2.

Also, I have found around 10% of my albums cannot be found in the music database that the B2 uses. As I have spent considerable time typing in the required info by hand is there a way to update the database. Several times I have found that when looking up a double CD album it finds one CD but not the other. Is this a deliberate ploy by some aggrieved users??

Thanks in advance. Regards, Terry.

[Daniel Taylor]

The best way that I know of to handle genres on the B2 is to create a playlist for each genre - that's what I've done.

The MusicBrainz database that that B2 uses to lookup titles, is populated by civilians.  So we're at the mercy of how well the information is entered.  For albums that don't show up in the database, I recommend ripping them on your computer to the desired format and then transferring the music to the B2 by one of the three methods available:  USB Import; WebUI Upload; or NAS copy followed by Scan Disk.

[JFBUK]

Hi Terry,

In addition to Daniel's suggestion one idea is to incorporate the genre into your Album names, Track names, or even Artist names.

You can then use the B2 web UI to search on the genre as a keyword. 

I  already use a similar process to add the artist to my track names

A couple of issues:

-  some genres often appear in names anyway e.g. Rock, Blues, Jazz etc. so you may get additional hits in a search

-  it will make the names longer and that may push you up against the Brennan name length constraint of 140 characters 
You can get round the first issueby choosing genre names that are more unique e.g. G-Folk, G-Rock, etc.

05 Jumpin' Jack Flash [ Rolling Stones ][G-Rock]

Rolling Stones [G-Rock]

09 All This Useless Beauty [ June Tabor ][G-Folk]

Then you can search for G-Rock

To avoid this being a very manual task you can rip your CDs on a computer with something like dBpoweramp which allows you to choose names

for folders and files which incorporate the values of the metadata tags.

You can then upload the ripped tracks to your B2

To retrofit tags and amended names to already ripped tracks then MP3Tag might be a better software choice

For those albums you cannot seem to find there is a trick with dBpoweramp that may help whereby you can import the album details from the online web music catalogue

Discogs.com

The dBpoweramp manual metadata search allows you can name the tracks using the appropriate Discogs URL (just the part up to and  including the Discogs database number)

If you need more clarification or help with any of the above just shout 

John

[PMB]

Hi Terry,

The problem with the B2 not finding CD titles listed on MusicBrainz appears to be a lack of a 'Disc ID' - this stage gets missed quite often when CDs are added to the database.

You need the actual disc to produce a 'Disc ID' and if you would like to add missing ones please see this page - link - on the MusicBrainz site.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Terry Beech]

Hi All, Once again many thanks for your replies and suggestions. Much food for thought.

Regards, Terry.

[Terry Beech]

P.S. Someone previously mentioned in a different thread MusicBrainz Picard.  What is the difference between this and the standard MusicBrainz please?

Regards, Terry.

[JFBUK]

Hi Terry,

In essence...

Musicbrainz is the online public database which catalogues the media including tagging data. This is the bit that Brennan uses to get info on CDs

Picard is a software package/tool developed by the team behind Musicbrainz.

It has a lot of functionality, particularly in regard to identifying and tagging digital audio media.

Other software can do the same things but obviously Picard works well with Musicbrainz.

John

[Terry Beech]

Sorry John I didn't realise that I'd replied privately, that was unintentional. What I meant by suggestions/tweaks was -  is there a place for users to make suggestions for improvements etc.for future versions of the software?

For instance, I've been ripping off in batches of 10-20  or so and leaving it overnight to compress etc. When I look the next day, via the WUI, I usually find that I have to make a few edits. The problem I find is that the centre panel of the WUI shows the order that the CD's were ripped -  if the Alpha Sort is turned off. However when I make one edit to an entry at the end of the list, the list returns to the top and then I have to scroll all the way to the bottom again, which is quite tedious, especially if a lot of tracks need to be edited. I have found a way around this by putting all the new entries into a playlist but I wondered whether the sort order could be reversed so that all new entries are at the top of the list, perhaps by another toggle button.

Regards, Terry.

[Daniel Taylor]

Hi Terry,

I think most of us have experienced the incovenience of having to continually scroll to the bottom of the long list.  Your idea to have a reverse order option I think is a good one, and shouldn't be too difficult to implement.  You've got my vote.

[JFBUK]

Hi Terry,

No problem.

for completeness here is our exchange via email

Many thanks for the explanation John. I may have a look at that in due course. I'm still ploughing on with getting my collection ripped first. 

One question you might be able to answer, where is the best place to suggest slight modifications/tweaks?

Regards, Terry.

Hi Terry,

I think the best place for minor tweaks to individual track names, album names or artist names is to use the rename functionality in the Web UI.

It keeps it simple and the B2 will automatically update its index of music. Note that it does not update any existing playlists that may be impacted though.

Once you have your music ripped and a backup then if you have more radical or comprehensive changes to your ripped files you can look to use a software tool to make the changes less manual. Plenty of help on the forum on what to use and how.

In terms of making suggestions, just post to the forum, Paul from Brennan will pick these up and add to the wishlist as appropriate.

If you are finding you are making the same/similar change to multiple tracks then editing the track details on a computer using suitable piece software might be worth exploring

John

John

[PMB]

Hi Guys,

I have added sticky cursor (goes back to the same place after editing) and reverse order to the Wishlist.

Paul

Brennan Support.