B2 uploading/indexing of compilation and box sets.

[Ian Barber]

Hi Guys,

I have,so far uploaded about half of my collection of single/double albums etc to my new b2. Ok, so I really need a smallish tablet for controlling this ,and Amazon Fire  tablet has already been suggested. Hopefully, I will be getting something suitable for or before Xmas, with any luck. Now, the question is this, I have dozens and dozens of cd box sets  by various artists as well as a few by just one artist, with up to 5 individual cd's within the sets. So, rather than just have a track name and the artist shown as 'various' on these box sets etc( per this forum ) what is the procedure for uploading these and inputting the artists and track names on to the B2, so that they will show-up on replay, please ?

I thought that I had better ask you first, though I suspect that the task will be much simpler once I have a tablet to work from. Any help would be much appreciated, and the track count is already 4,500 so I may not have the room to put many on the 2TB B2, once I have finished uploading the ordinary albums ? Cheers  Ian

[JFBUK]

Hi Ian,

The B2 does not provide any granular control of track naming.

You need to follow a process as described by myself and Peter in the responses to your previous post.

https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/brennanb2/c/8FtMUYl5dlM

John

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

The best way of addressing this is by accessing the B2 as a NAS from your PC using file explorer on the PC..

Fred.

[Daniel Taylor]

You can load box sets, and other multiple disc sets, onto the B2.  You can have all the tracks in the same "album" folder, or you can have a separate "album" for each disc. After each disc is loaded, you'll have to do one of two things:  either rename the album folder to reflect which disc it is, or rename each track adding the disc number to the front of the track number (like 1-01, 1-02... or 201, 202, 203). 

Remember that the B2 stores the music in a folder named for the Artist, which contains all the folders named for the Albums, which each contain all the track files for that album.  The Artist folder does not have to be an Artist name - you can name it anything you want.  Same for the Album folder.

For example, I have a 4-disc box set names like this:

Artist folder = R&B - 25 Years, '65-'68 (1997)

and then that Artist folder contains these album folders:

25 Years of R&B - 1965 (Disc1)

25 Years of R&B - 1967 (Disc2)

25 Years of R&B - 1968 (Disc3)

25 Years of R&B - 1969 (Disc4)

Some of us find it easier to rip the discs on our computer and then upload them to the B2 when we have everything arranged and named as desired.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Ian,

Just a thought, but considering you have uploaded 4,500 tracks already, I hope you have made an "Export to USB A or C" (ie a backup) of your work so far. It is important to do this considering the effort it takes to rip the CDs in the first place.

I think your 2Tb B2 will be large enough - for instance this is my B2 statistics. (People on this Forum have larger collections!)

Fred

[Ian Barber]

Hi Guys,

Many thanks to all of you for your help with this, which is much appreciated.

I don't own a PC as all our computers are exclusively Apple, and these are not compatible with Android file systems etc once the cd's are uploaded to iTunes ( now called Music ). So, I don't see a way of doing this at present, but I will probably get hold of a small tablet for control of the B2 etc at some point in the near future. It looks like I will have the room to upload all my compilation albums and boxed sets, based on Fred's status above, but there is only one way of finding out....... My Wife does already have an iPad that she uses exclusively,so I don't think I can get my hands on it for the B2 !! Would it work with the B2, though ?

Cheers

Ian

[Rik]

Yes, I use my iPad to control the B2. It’s very good.

An much cheaper. Amazon Fire  would do the job too. The latest HD 10 plus is a very decent tablet too. 

[Davywhizz]

I use an Amazon tablet to control my B2; this is the second one I've had and both have done the job very well. I've sometimes used a very old iPad, which also does everything you'd expect. 

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Ian,

While I am no a Mac user I know that:-

1)  iPad that she uses exclusively,so I don't think I can get my hands on it for the B2 !! Would it work with the B2, though ? - Yes
2) I don't own a PC as all our computers are exclusively Apple.   - That OK it is possible to mount the B2's NAS from an Apple computer.

Fred

[Peter R]

Ian,

Perhaps I don't fully understand what you are trying to achieve, but I didn't follow your comment about Apple and Android. I managed to rip a load of CDs on my Macbook Pro and then either copy them to USB stick for putting them onto the B2 or use the WebUI from the Macbook to upload them to the B2. All you have to do is to delve into the file system on the Mac to see where the music is stored.

I did similar with a load of Amazon albums I have - just download them to the Mac and copy across to the B2.

Peter

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Peter,

As I understand it Ian only has a desktop Mac at home and, at the moment, no hand held device with which to bring up the B2's UI. He is thus doing everything from the B2 remote and front panel.

He has loaded the simple CDs and is now about to tackle a whole load of "boxed sets" and "compilation" CDs and wants to know how to handle these in terms of Album/Artist/Track naming.

On the Forum we are trying to give him "flexible" options to help, but my first concern is that he has not yet told us he has a backup of the work so far!

and following on from that I think that trying to sort out the rest of the CDs from the remote and front panel is going to be a real pain. I am therefore trying to explain that he can see the B2 music from his Mac as a NAS. 

As I am not a Mac user, it would be helpful of you could guide Ian though connecting the B2's NAS to his Mac.

Fred

[PMB]

Hi Ian,

You can run the B2's web UI on your MAC - open a new Safari page (or whatever browser you use to search the internet) and type the IP Address shown on the B2 (see the smaller scrolling text below the clock) into the address bar of the browser. This should open the web UI.

Concerning running NAS mode on your MAC please see these instructions from Peter Lowham - 

There have been quite a number of queries about getting a NAS (network attached storage) connection established from a Mac OSX computer to the B2.  Having just acquired a used MacBook Pro from eBay, I got the NAS function running fairly quickly, so I thought sharing those setup steps might help others.

First, enable 'NAS' on the B2.

On the B2 front panel, select 'Settings' --> 'Maintenance' --> 'Start NAS' and click on this.

I would also recommend that you check that your B2 software is up to date, at the time of writing that is 'B2B Jul 21 2020' or 'B2 Jul 21 2020'

From the Mac desktop:

1. Click 0n the 'Apple' icon (top left icon)

2. Click on 'Select Preferences'

3. Click on 'Sharing' icon

3.5  At the bottom left of the window click on the icon 'Click the lock to make changes'.

3.6  A new sub window opens up asking you for your user password; type this into the 'Password' field.

4. In left side menu of the 'Sharing' window, tick 'File Sharing' box; the status should show  'File Sharing: On' with a green indicator showing in the middle of the window.

5. On the right hand side of the 'Sharing' window, click on the 'Options' button

6. In the new sub window that appears, tick the 'Share files and folders using SMB' box.

7. Towards the bottom of this window under 'Windows File Sharing:', where 'Account' is displayed, tick the 'On' box for your Mac user name.

8. A sub-window 'Authenticate' shows.  Enter your Mac user password in the 'Password' box.

9. The sub-window will close, and then in the 'Sharing' window, click on the 'Done' box.

10. You can close the 'Sharing' window now.

11. On the desktop, open up 'Finder'

12. In the left side window, click on 'Network'

13. You should now see 'brennanb2' listed in the right side window.

14. Highlight and click on 'brennanb2'

15. You should see a status of 'Not connected' (this is correct)

16. On the top right of the window you will see a button 'Connect As ...'

17. A window will open up 'You are attempting to connect to the server 'brennanb2'

18. Click on the 'Connect' button

19. A new window opens up showing 'Enter your name and password for the server 'brennanb2'

20. Then click on the 'Registered User' button.

21. In the 'Name' box, type in 'root' (without the quotes)

22. In the 'Password' box, type in 'brennan' (without the quotes.

23. Tick the 'Remember this password in my keychain' box.

24. Click the 'Connect' button.

25. A window will open up showing your music folders on the B2.

Now that you have established the NAS connection from your Mac to the B2, each time you start up or reboot your Mac, the 'brennanb2' should appear in the network section of 'Finder'

I have noticed that, after a reboot of the Mac, it may take five minutes or so for the NAS connection to be re-established, so that's the time to put the kettle on!

Also, if you have a lot of music files, the directory listing might take a minute ot two to appear on the screen.  You might see the 'loading' icon spinning for a little while.

However once the list is showing, the response times are good when you are manipulating files and folders.

I have tested this on 'High Sierra' and 'Catalina' versions so far.

I have only owned the Mac for a few days and am not familiar yet with Apple products, so if you find any errors or omissions in these instructions then please let me know and I'll apply the changes.

Let us know how it goes.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Peter R]

I can confirm that the Web UI works fine on a MacBook using safari browser.

NAS is also very simple.

Make sure NAS is enabled on the Brennan. 

On the Mac open a Finder window and select 'Network' under 'Locations'. You should see the Brennan listed (as brennanb2) along with other network devices, although it might take a little time after switching on NAS on the Brennan. 

Double click on brennanb2 and at the top right of the Finder window click on "Connect As".

Enter the Brennan login details (Name= root  Password= brennan) and select the "Remember this password in my keychain" box.

Click on Connect.

You will now the the Folder 'Music'.

Double click on that and you will see all of your music collection. It will take a few seconds to load.

I've just done this for the first time as I was writing this, so these settings work for me, MacBook Pro, Big Sur. I've rebooted the Mac to test, and the Brennan showed up in the network as before and the password did not need entering again.

Peter

[JFBUK]

Hi Ian,

I know you are being hit with lots of advice at the moment but that's just indicative  of that the fact that there are multiple ways of achieving what you want to do.

To further add to the info, DbPoweramp does run on an Apple Mac so earlier advice about its use to edit your track names can still apply.

It is possible to upload/download from/to the B2 to iTunes (Music) on your MAC once you have NAS working.

John

[Mark Fishman]

mp3tag also now has a Mac-native version -- unlike dbPoweramp, which is also a ripper, mp3tag is ONLY for tagging and renaming functions. See

https://mp3tag.app/

[Ian Barber]

Wow! Thanks Guys, all this support is very much appreciated so thanks to all of you for taking the time to let me know what works for you.

I am still uploading cd's to the B2, and doing a backup every 5 pigeon holes in my racking. This equates to between 100-120 albums on average and between 350 and 500 tracks. When the B2 counts the number of albums, presumably it  does not count the number of cd's in the albums ( usually between 1 and 6 ) ?

I, currently, upload any music that I think will be good to dance to etc,etc to my iMac when bought in hard copy only. These get ripped to Music( iTunes that was) as WAV's, and I bring my iPod classic up -to-date( running out of space despite it's 160gb, but changed to mp3  ), followed by my Macbook Pro. The Macbook then gets copied to Pioneer's Rekordbox which is also loaded on the Macbook for my dj-ing system. Unfortunately,at present Pioneer dj replay equipment will not accept Itunes/Music in it's current form as the replay equipment does not recognise the format, though it will play Music as a simple list without any other controls. It all has to be format-changed to Rekordbox and copied -over from one to the other for the Pioneer replay equipment to work properly. So, at present, I have around 16,000 tracks on my 2TB iMac all on Music and WAV files and the same number on Music and Rekordbox on the 750GB Macbook Pro. These computers are old models, running on Catalina but I shall have a go with your suggestions once I have finished the run of standard albums, which may be a while yet. Once again, many thanks for your help Guys.

Cheers  Ian