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View Full Version : File explorer vs. MMC tag editing; MMC column sorting



Unregistered
10-15-2002, 01:49 AM
Hi all,

I have a couple of questions/suggestions. I am currently using the latest beta of dBpowerAMP (dBpowerAMP-r2-beta8.exe), but some of the features/bugs reported below are in the stable release as well.

Here's the context. I am running Windows ME. All my files are .ape (Monkeys audio). I needed to add a couple of additional tags, like 'Tempo' and 'Canta'.
(I am currently working with my argentine tango CDs. It is very common to have the same song/composition interpreted by different artists. Some will have a singer, some will not. As a result I frequently have files with the same Track [name], but different Artist, different Tempo, instrumental or with different singers (his/her name in the "Canta" tag).)


1. File explorer tag editing vs. MMC tag editing:

If I am in MMC, on right-click to "Edit Tag" I get a Tag editor with separate "General" and "Details" screens/pages; I _cannot_ add my new tags in it. However, if I right-click on the same file(s) from a file explorer, I get a different tag editor that has "ID Tag" and "File Details" in the same window; it also has "Create New", "Delete Selected" and "Delete All" buttons. In this latter Tag editor, I _can_ create my two new tags without a problem. The new tags and their values seem to get written to the file.

Is this difference in tag editing between file explorer and MMC a feature or a bug? I would have liked it if I had the File explorer Tag editor in MMC because in file explorer I cannot sort the files by track number (having the files sorted by track number like in MMC is useful because the stuff I add is listed by track number on the CD)

This feature/bug is present in the stable release as well.


2. MMC column sorting (related to the above):
I have been playing with the MMC Beta release. Having MMC remember the column widths and re-arranging column order is great! However, remember that I now have two additional ID Tags. They do _not_ show up on the list in MMC when you go to Collection->Preferences. And I really need them because the whole point of adding them was that I can also sort files by singer (Canta) and by Tempo. Spoon, can you make the "column order editor" read all the tags, including the new ones, and put the new ones at the end of the list? Or, since the editor probably does not read the tags at all and just assumes what they are, maybe have a "create column" button just like in the ID Tag editor and then let MMC find the Tags and read their values?

3. If I take an .ape file with these new tags in it and convert it to an mp3 (lame) file, the new tags do not transfer well. I get the values OK, but the names of the new tags change to "user-defined-text" or something silly like that. Is this a bug in dMC or a limitation of the ID tag protocols?

Many thanks for any help in this.

Spoon, thanks again for the wonderful programs!

Best regards,
KZ

Spoon
10-15-2002, 03:17 PM
MMC both the editor and displaying only know about certain fields (the ones shown), it is not a dynamically sizing database - it was decided for speed the data stored about each track would be fixed in those fields. If it had to display the tag info from the file then it would be as slow as Winamp 3 ;)

RE 3 - you have to use a standard name in your ape files, id3v2 only has standard fields they are (straight out of the source code :) ):

static ID3_FrameDefSP ID3_FrameDefsSP[] =
{
// short long tag file
// frame id id id discrd discrd field defs description
{ID3FID_AUDIOCRYPTO, "Audio encryption"},
{ID3FID_PICTURE, "Attached picture"},
{ID3FID_COMMENT, "Comments"},
{ID3FID_COMMERCIAL, "Commercial"},
{ID3FID_CRYPTOREG, "Encryption method registration"},
{ID3FID_EQUALIZATION, "Equalization"},
{ID3FID_EVENTTIMING, "Event timing codes"},
{ID3FID_GENERALOBJECT, "General encapsulated object"},
{ID3FID_GROUPINGREG, "Group identification registration"},
{ID3FID_INVOLVEDPEOPLE, "Involved people list"},
{ID3FID_LINKEDINFO, "Linked information"},
{ID3FID_CDID, "Music CD identifier"},
{ID3FID_MPEGLOOKUP, "MPEG location lookup table"},
{ID3FID_OWNERSHIP, "Ownership frame"},
{ID3FID_PRIVATE, "Private frame"},
{ID3FID_PLAYCOUNTER, "Play counter"},
{ID3FID_POPULARIMETER, "Popularimeter"},
{ID3FID_POSITIONSYNC, "Position synchronisation frame"},
{ID3FID_BUFFERSIZE, "Recommended buffer size"},
{ID3FID_VOLUMEADJ, "Relative volume adjustment"},
{ID3FID_REVERB, "Reverb"},
{ID3FID_SYNCEDLYRICS, "Synchronized lyric/text"},
{ID3FID_SYNCEDTEMPO, "Synchronized tempo codes"},
{ID3FID_ALBUM, "Album/Movie/Show title"},
{ID3FID_BPM, "BPM (beats per minute)"},
{ID3FID_COMPOSER, "Composer"},
{ID3FID_CONTENTTYPE, "Content type"},
{ID3FID_COPYRIGHT, "Copyright message"},
{ID3FID_DATE, "Date"},
{ID3FID_PLAYLISTDELAY, "Playlist delay"},
{ID3FID_ENCODEDBY, "Encoded by"},
{ID3FID_LYRICIST, "Lyricist/Text writer"},
{ID3FID_FILETYPE, "File type"},
{ID3FID_TIME, "Time"},
{ID3FID_CONTENTGROUP, "Content group description"},
{ID3FID_TITLE, "Title/songname/content description"},
{ID3FID_SUBTITLE, "Subtitle/Description refinement"},
{ID3FID_INITIALKEY, "Initial key"},
{ID3FID_LANGUAGE, "Language(s)"},
{ID3FID_SONGLEN, "Length"},
{ID3FID_MEDIATYPE, "Media type"},
{ID3FID_ORIGALBUM, "Original album/movie/show title"},
{ID3FID_ORIGFILENAME, "Original filename"},
{ID3FID_ORIGLYRICIST, "Original lyricist(s)/text writer(s)"},
{ID3FID_ORIGARTIST, "Original artist(s)/performer(s)"},
{ID3FID_ORIGYEAR, "Original release year"},
{ID3FID_FILEOWNER, "File owner/licensee"},
{ID3FID_LEADARTIST, "Lead performer(s)/Soloist(s)"},
{ID3FID_BAND, "Band/orchestra/accompaniment"},
{ID3FID_CONDUCTOR, "Conductor/performer refinement"},
{ID3FID_MIXARTIST, "Interpreted, remixed, or otherwise modified by"},
{ID3FID_PARTINSET, "Part of a set"},
{ID3FID_PUBLISHER, "Publisher"},
{ID3FID_TRACKNUM, "Track number/Position in set"},
{ID3FID_RECORDINGDATES, "Recording dates"},
{ID3FID_NETRADIOSTATION, "Internet radio station name"},
{ID3FID_NETRADIOOWNER, "Internet radio station owner"},
{ID3FID_SIZE, "Size"},
{ID3FID_ISRC, "ISRC (international standard recording code)"},
{ID3FID_ENCODERSETTINGS, "Software/Hardware and settings used for encoding"},
{ID3FID_USERTEXT, "User defined text information"},
{ID3FID_YEAR, "Year"},
{ID3FID_UNIQUEFILEID, "Unique file identifier"},
{ID3FID_TERMSOFUSE, "Terms of use"},
{ID3FID_UNSYNCEDLYRICS, "Unsynchronized lyric/text transcription"},
{ID3FID_WWWCOMMERCIALINFO, "Commercial information"},
{ID3FID_WWWCOPYRIGHT, "Copyright/Legal infromation"},
{ID3FID_WWWAUDIOFILE, "Official audio file webpage"},
{ID3FID_WWWARTIST, "Official artist/performer webpage"},
{ID3FID_WWWAUDIOSOURCE, "Official audio source webpage"},
{ID3FID_WWWRADIOPAGE, "Official internet radio station homepage"},
{ID3FID_WWWPAYMENT, "Payment"},
{ID3FID_WWWPUBLISHER, "Official publisher webpage"},
{ID3FID_WWWUSER, "User defined URL link"},
{ID3FID_METACRYPTO, "Encrypted meta frame"},
{ID3FID_METACOMPRESSION, "Compressed data meta frame"},
{ID3FID_NOFRAME}
};

Unregistered
10-15-2002, 07:56 PM
Spoon, thanks for your reply! The tag fields listing is a nice reference to have!

I am not sure I undestand about the dynamically-sizing database in MMC. I don't mean to have different number of tags across my files - they will all have the same number of tags, only with these two extra ones (I will use standard names) as well. Does that make it easier (not having the number and name of tags vary across the files) ? The number and names of tag fields are still fixed for the entire database, just having more fields than your present version. Is this doable? With an option to check if I want to do that? I don't mind the possbile delay if this will get me the benefit of being able to sort by the new fields...

Bottom line is, if I can't sort by these new tags, why would I bother adding them..

Thanks again!
KZ

Spoon
10-16-2002, 02:48 AM
It is not do-able :(

Unregistered
10-17-2002, 04:54 PM
Thanks for the reply, Spoon. Too bad it is not doable, I really needed this feature. Is there any other player/music collection editor that will do that? Sorry to ask this sort of a question here.. I still love and continue to use your programs but will appreciate having this functionality of sorting - by another program in a separate window along dbpoweramp's player.. so this quesiton is not to put down your programs or anything..

Thanks so much for any info.

Cheers,
KZ

Unregistered
10-18-2002, 03:21 PM
Spoon, never mind, I figured out how to sort by singer and by tempo (bpm) in MMC (without sacrificing the info in any other field). It works great! I also took a look at winamp3 sorting capabilities (while I was waiting for a reply re other editors that can sort the way I wanted), and... sheeesh, now I appreciate much more how flexible your program(s) are :-) So I am very happy to have figured out how to stick with dbpoweramp and have all the functionality I wanted :-D

Thanks,
KZ