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[Grayson]

Hello:

How do I add a single folder to Tree View in MC17?

The folder already exists as part of the Main Library, but is buried far down in the directory structure.

I would like to more easily access the folder.

I have searched the forum for similar posts, but could not find the solution.

Thanks,

Grayson

[rick.ca]

• Select your view. Right-Click and select Customize View > Save this view... to save it.
• Right-Click any item in the Tree and select Add Library View... Select the view you saved, and change the Location to '(Root)'.

[Grayson]

Hi Rick:

Thanks for the reply.

I followed your instructions and I now  have a folder named Grayson's Music.

It has a directory structure identical to that under Audio > Files.

One of my music folders has path:  D:\Libraries\Music\Compressed Music\FLAC

Is it possible to have only the FLAC folder listed in Tree view?

It is becoming pretty tedious having to drill down through the entire folder structure to get at music.

Thanks,

Grayson

[MrC]

If it is a panes view, add as your first column:

 Type: File path
 Select Path: D:\Libraries\Music\Compressed Music\FLAC

But really this begs the questions... Are your file tags insufficient to drive views?  What are you trying to do generally?

See this post and its attached image re: some ideas of what you can do with the various Filepath components:

   http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=71090.msg480106#msg480106

[Grayson]

Thanks for the info.

I have managed to get the folders in the tree view.

To answer your question, my music library has a physical structure in which I keep my music in multiple codecs and formats (including HD audio), hence the need for the folders to facilitate ready access.

My problem with using either the Artists view or Albums view has been duplication of albums, particularly with soundtrack music or musical compilations.

For these, my metadata shows Various Artists under the Artist field, and the artist's name under album artist.  So my Artists view is OK.  However, I can't seem to get rid of the multiple instances under Albums view.

I have posted about this earlier, but have found no solution to this problem.

I am relatively new to MC (about 2 months), so any other assistance is greatly appreciated.

Perhaps I should start a new thread?

Thanks,

Grayson

[MrC]

Thanks for the info.

To answer your question, my music library has a physical structure in which I keep my music in multiple codecs and formats (including HD audio), hence the need for the folders to facilitate ready access.

My problem with using either the Artists view or Albums view has been duplication of albums, particularly with soundtrack music or musical compilations.

For these, my metadata shows Various Artists under the Artist field, and the artist's name under album artist.  So my Artists view is OK.  However, I can't seem to get rid of the multiple instances under Albums view.

I have posted about this earlier, but have found no solution to this problem.

Perhaps I should start a new thread?

You're welcome.  Sorry someone didn't see/respond to your other thread.

It is easy enough to create a view that allows grouping by file type (lossless/lossy) or other aspect so that you can select which you want to deal with at any given time.  Stacks are another mechanism, which you can explore as a possibility as well.

See the Ftype (File Type) column in the image located at the link I posted above.  You could, instead of using the File Tree as we've been discussing, use File Type or an Expression column to provide you with a pick list of the file types you want.  I tend to select first by artist or album, and once I see the files available, select the file type if there are multiple formats available.  But you can invert this - always selecting, say FLAC, and then selecting your album or artist, etc.  Also, views can be bi-directional, so you can switch on the fly with re-selecting.

If you can describe how your ideal view would look (Panes or Categories), let's see if we can work through a good solution.

Note: probably your Artist tag should be the track artist, and if you want to override for multiple artist / compilation albums, use Album Artist.

[Grayson]

Hi:

Well, the filetype is a bit of a problem.  I rip my music CDs using Exact Audio Copy to  16-bit, 44 kHz FLAC files.  I also listen to HD 24-bit, 96 kHz FLAC files.  So both filetypes are FLAC.  I distinguish between them in my physical folder structure as FLAC and HD FLAC (hence the reason for the folders in the tree view).  I am attaching a screenshot of my Album view.  As you can see, there are multiple images for the Grammy compilation albums (probably one for each Album Artist, even though Artists for each track in the album shows Artists as Various Artists.  I would simply like to get rid of the multiple images for each album.

[MrC]

It won't matter how you ripped, or if we use File type.  A multitude of metadata can be used and combined to show you a layout that makes sense for your use.

Did you set the List Style in the drop-down just above your album covers?  Set it to Album Thumbnails.

I can't quit make out the screenshot.  There's no need to attach it to PDF; image files are supported as attachments.  Can you email me a full sized screen capture?

[MrC]

I received your screenshot.

If you can send me an exported list of your a couple albums, I'll be able to help more quickly.

From this Album view, can you enter:

  Amadeus

into the search box (upper right) to narrow the results.  Then, use File > Export Playlist... and set these values:

 Save in...: Browse to your Desktop folder

 Format: Text File (CSV delimited)
 Included Fields: All Fields
 Output Range: Selection

it will create a file names Albums.csv on your Desktop.  Email that to me.

[rick.ca]

To answer your question, my music library has a physical structure in which I keep my music in multiple codecs and formats (including HD audio), hence the need for the folders to facilitate ready access.

I agree with what MrC is trying to tell you. You've probably put at lot of work into organizing your collection in the file system. That will continue to serve you well, but not as a means of selecting and browsing your collection in MC. Restricting yourself to a rigid hierarchical structure when you have an easy-to-use and extremely efficient database (the MC "library") at your finger tips is a waste.

Consider the attached screenshot as an illustration of the sort of thing you can do with a Panes View. The specifics as to what are included in such a view are completely flexible and easily changed to suit your personal preferences and changing needs. For example, it took me all of 10 seconds to add the 'Type\Sample Rate' nested pane—to illustrate something that seems important to you.

To wean yourself off using folders, add a 'File Path' pane that gives you exactly the same thing, but not in the same restrictive way the tree does. Such a pane allows you to select multiple nodes, and still make selections in whatever other panes are included in the view. The panes also instantly update to show only the values applicable to the currently selected files—making them a useful source of information as well as a means of selecting files.

It makes sense to populate as many fields as you can. They're easier to work with and more efficient, even if the same information exists in the file path. But even if you felt that isn't worth the effort, you would still be able to create views that extract the information directly from the file path. That certainly is worth the effort—as it gives you useful views for selecting and viewing your collection by an combination of multiple criteria rather than a fixed folder structure.

[MrC]

That's a very nice screenshot rick.ca.

I'll summarize how the fields are being used if/when I receive an export playlist.

[Grayson]

Hello Gentlemen:

Thanks for taking both the time and interest in my situation.

Earlier this evening, i spent about three hours trying to clean up the tag data for Album Artist and Artist fields in my library in an effort to correct the multiple instances under the Album View.  Unfortunately, my main MC library may have become corrupted.  I restored the library to an earlier one (about one day).  That still had some problems.  I cleared the library and re-imported the music.  However, it seems that all my work from earlier today is now gone.  Should I work at getting the tag data cleaned up for the Artist and Album Artist fields before proceeding any further?

Thanks,

Grayson

[MrC]

There's probably going to be some back and forth until you feel comfortable with what's going on.  Views help you decide how to tag, and tags help you define your views.

Best bet would be to avoid thrashing.  MC has many tools that can help you maintain and organize, and often new users work against the tools rather than let the tools make things easier.

Another best bet would be to not try to organize everything at once.  Pick an album or two, and work with those to get the hang of things.  Select all the tracks for 1 album, and set the Album tag.   If there is one Artist, set the Artist tag.  Then Genre.  The default views will generally work well with just this.  You can organize and refine from there.  And there are lots of shortcuts to making this all really fast and easy.

The default views are nice, but I feel they often trip new users because the meta data for their files is not consistent, so they work hard to try to force the matter (a common issue - why are my albums split into many "folders"?).

You can probably intuit by now that some of us enjoy Panes views.  When tagging and organizing, panes views are typically the best choice.  Since you're just starting, create a new blank Panes view, adding Album, Artist, Genre, etc.  From here, continue to customize so you can learn how MC groups, sorts, and allows you to filter and select your tracks.

Here's a good view helper to at least give you some ideas of what's possible:

Views:  http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=68960.0

[Grayson]

Actually, I came to MC from MediaMonkey (from a couple of weeks before).  I had previously tagged most of my library there. 

However, I did not make any provisions for Album Artist.  Do I need to clean this up first?

Grayson

[MrC]

See if this helps clarify:

   http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Album_Artist_and_Album_Artist_%28Auto%29
   http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=68609.msg462218#msg462218

[MrC]

Ok, you have mixed Album Artists.  Take the album:

   Amadeus (Disc 1)

Each track has Artist set to:

   Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields

but Album Artist varies across the tracks:

   Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
   Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
   Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
   Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
   Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Academy Chorus; Felicity Lott
   Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Ambrosian Opera Chorus
   Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Imogen Cooper; Anne Queffelec
   Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Levon Chilingirian; Csaba Erdelyi

Swap Artist with Album Artist using Move & Copy Fields (Flip Flop mode).

See how this works out.

[Grayson]

   This seems to work for some albums I quickly tried.  I am heading out of town and will be back later.

I will investigate further.  Does this mean that I had inncorrect data in the Artist field?

Many thanks,

Grayson

[Grayson]

Hi:

I made the changes as suggested, and the duplicates have been eliminated.

One other question.  Is there an easy way to modify/update the tags in the same library on another computer with MC17?

Many thanks,

Grayson

[MrC]

Hi:

I made the changes as suggested, and the duplicates have been eliminated.

One other question.  Is there an easy way to modify/update the tags in the same library on another computer with MC17?

Many thanks,

You're welcome.  Good to hear things are looking up.

See: http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library_Server_Sync

Might be best to create a new thread with any future questions no longer related to this one, so that other eyes might be cast upon its many wonders.