Editing the genre pull-down menu

[dbarnby]

When I go to %Userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\dBpoweramp on the internet and look at the .txt file I can edit the default list as I want and everything looks fine; however when I click on the pull-down menu at Genre in dbpa the list of genre that drops down has three blank spaces at the top before the list starts (otherwise it's just the way I edited it). How do I get rid of those three blank lines?

Thank you,
dbarnby

[Dat Ei]

Re: Editing the genre pull-down menu

The genres file is a local file, not one on the internet. You have to paste the path %Userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\dBpoweramp in the file explorer, not the internet explorer. Which editor do you use? Delete blank lines (maybe at the end if the file).


Dat Ei

[GaryG45]

Re: Editing the genre pull-down menu

I don't understand why you keep using Internet Explorer to access this file. On Sunday in your other thread I provided instructions on how to use Notepad to check and edit the file, if needed. Have you tried those instructions?

[GaryG45]

Re: Editing the genre pull-down menu

Don,
I noticed that the default genres.txt file is in random order, and when you use the dropdown in CD Ripper, the list is in alphabetical order. Therefore some processing most be done to the file before it is displayed. I did some experiments, and found that when I had blank lines at the end of the list I could recreate your problem. Look at your genres.txt file and make sure there are no blank lines at the end of the list. Hopefully that is causing the problem.

Gary

[Allan M]

Re: Editing the genre pull-down menu

GaryG45 -- Do these instructions, along with those in your post in "set up for ripping" *340, still apply for the most recent version of CD Ripper? It is unfortunate that it is so cumbersome to edit the drop down menu. Many of us have our own tags. I have been copying and pasting that each time I rip a CD, but it is a pain, so I will try to edit the text file myself.

Many thanks for your response.

[Dat Ei]

Re: Editing the genre pull-down menu

And even editing a textfile seems to be so cumbersome, that you prefer to write a post in a two year old thread to just try the described soultion.


Dat Ei

[GaryG45]

Re: Editing the genre pull-down menu

Allan M - This was a test I performed for Don, who was struggling with how to organize his music and how to use dbpa. After I received no reply from Don I went back to the default list. My workflow was to rip the CD with dbpa and later use Mp3tag to add tags using a web source that obtained information from Discogs. If I wanted to make a change to the genre, I would do it while in the Mp3tag phase of processing. My guess is that it works the same but you'll have to test for yourself.

Regarding post *340 in "Set Up For Ripping", that is mville's reply and there was a lot of information in the reply. Is there a particular part of the reply you are interested in? I have done very little ripping since these posts and my version of dbpa is 16.6. If you do have specific questions about *340, it would be best to start your own thread because it seemed like we went around in circles many times in "Setting Up For Ripping".

Gary

[Allan M]

Re: Editing the genre pull-down menu

I posted in a two year old thread because this was the most recent post I found on the topic. So it seemed reasonable to find out if anything has changed.

Gary,thanks very much for your response. It seemed sensible to ask the experts before tampering with the files that drive the program.

The sarcasm of Dat Ei was unnecessary. A real jerk. If that is what qualifies as a guru in this forum, I am using the wrong program and posting in the wrong forum. If you aren't responding to the question, why bother to take the time to post at all?

[dbarnby]

Years ago, I received good advice from this forum regarding use of DBPA to rip my CDs. Life interrupted that process but I’m now back on track. I want to thank all the good people who’ve responded to my long-ago questions. I’ve reviewed the many notes I took from those times and would now like to finalize a few issues before proceeding with the task. I’ll be most appreciative if one or more of you would speak to my remaining issues so I can now get on with the task.
My system: Windows 11 desktop PC, Synology NAS, Blue Sound Player, iPhone remote controller for player. Except for iPhone, the system is wired with Ethernet.

ORGANIZATION AND NAMING STRING
1) Is it true that the DBPA Naming String writes to my File Explorer (FE)? In other words, I manually establish a root folder (say CD Music) and after doing so, DBPA will automatically fill in all the information in my FE according to directions given it by the Naming String which I set up in DBPA? This would include all “primary” folders, sub folders, and sub sub folders. Except for setting the root folder, “CD Music” I enter nothing manually into my FE.
Related to this, how far in sub folders will this process go, given that there are many tags in the metadata that is captures from a CD?

2) I note that it is not uncommon to have more than one Naming String (perhaps one for Classical and one for Non-Classical music). How do these interact in creating the FE tree since a given “level” of the tree could be different between the two. For instance, how would a Naming string that produced Genre > Album > Composer > Artist work together with one that produced Genre > Album > Artist > Composer? It seems to me this would screw up the FE tree organization.
Does the system simply create two separate tree organizations in FE or does it somehow blend them into one? If it creates two, doesn’t this confuse the player?

3) A related question is, what would happen if, during ripping, one of the tags, say Album, were left blank? Would the next level down (Composer or Artist) simply slide up to the position normally used for Album? What happens in this case?
4) I want to organize my music by Genre; I know this has been recommended against but I forget why.
My approach is that I’m sitting in my living room and want some music. I may be in the mood for opera, or for country music, or jazz. Just as in the good old day of vinyl records, Genre is the first thing on my mind. Then I want to go from there. I am, however, open to hearing and learning why that’s a bad idea.

5) I think I see how to fill in most of the DBPA screen(s), at least after most of the questions that follow are answered, but my key ignorance remains the understanding of how to construct a naming string. I’ve studied Spoon’s Illustrate articles (although they’re quite a few years old now) but still, my head spins. I would appreciate a clearer description of how to accomplish this key step, or perhaps some help achieving it.

COMPILLATION
6) Another confusion for me is that of Compilation. Does Compilation refer to Composers, Artists, or Works?

7) It seems there are two Compilation check boxes: One in the main header of the screen, the other in the lower left screen under Naming>set>. Are these linked? Are there any other places I need to enter Compilation?

8) When Compilation is checked, where all the places that “Various” show up? Does this do the job or do I need to type “various” anywhere”

DOWNLOADS
9) I have never bought or downloaded music on-line. If I do, how does downloaded music show up and mix in with my other music in my FE?
Do I have a separate organization tree for my downloaded music or is it somehow integrated into a single FE organization tree?

10) I assume downloads bring all Tags and Cover Art along with the music. Is that true?

11 Can I set the tags (particularly Genre) in my downloaded music to match my own preference, BEFORE downloading? Do I edit tags afterwards?

12) Do I put what amounts to a DBPA Naming String into a download so it is written properly into my FE?

Thank you all,
Don

[schmidj]

Be aware of what dBpoweramp is and is not. It is an excellent program for ripping CDs. It can, in most cases (if configured for secure rips) tell you if the rip is or is not a bit-perfect copy of what is on the tracks of the CD. (if it is not, that may or may not matter. it could be there are dropouts or skips making the track unlistenable, or often there could be some minor bit errors you'll never hear. Listen to the bad rip to find out. If the rip is bit-perfect, you don't have to listen to it to make sure it is good).

The software package also includes a reasonably good tag editor you can use after ripping to correct or add tags to the ripped files. Note, this is not a file name editor, use Windows Explorer (or the equivalent on a Mac)to do that. Fixing mistakes with the tag editor won't fix the same error in the filename.

Finally, it includes a pair of excellent converters, which can for instance convert your master FLAC files (Best on a Windows machine to rip to FLAC for a number of reasons, including fidelity and tagability) to mp3s to put on your phone or play in your car. They can also do a number of DSP tasks like recalculate/adjust the loudness of the tracks.

It does not include a library system to store your tracks and allow you or player software to find the tracks you want to play. It doesn't build playlists you might want to play a number of tracks always in the same order without having to select them individually. And it doesn't include a player to play the music files on whatever device you are using to listen to them.

dBpoweramp does not deal with downloaded files. You'll basically use Windows Explorer to give them an appropriate filename and then move them to whatever directory you want them in. My experience in the few downloaded files I've bought is that the tagging is poor to absent. You'll have to enter all the tags manually, including the artwork. Others may have had better luck.

There is another (free) program many of us use to edit tags, not from the dBpoweramp people, but another individual. The name is mp3tag, but don't be fooled, it can edit tags for almost any filetype from WAV to FLAC to m4a to mp3 and many others. (but it doesn't include a ripper or a player). One reason I mention it here is because if you keep your filename system relatively simple, it can generate (change) filenames for a tagged file with a single click. dBpoweramp can edit filenames with a DSP plug-in (provided) but by no means will it be a single click.

You can't edit the tags on a file you haven't downloaded, they are part of the file and you don't have the file to edit them in.

Make sure you understand the difference between filenames and tags. I'm sure you are familiar with filenames and you can, with serious limitations, use file and directory names to organize and select from your music library to play from. But tags are another animal. They are typically stored as a part of the file, either before or after the music, according to one or another metadata standard, pretty much dependent on the format (FLAC, mp3, etc) you use to store your digital copies of the music. And tags are much more flexible. Filenames and directories have limitations. There are limits on how many characters they can contain, depending on the operating system and storage device. Before I took steps to avoid it, I had classical tracks just "disappear" because the long artist, composer names and titles of the tracks got longer than the operating system would deal with. But within reason there are no limitations on the number of characters in a tag. Depending on your operating system , there is a long list of "illegal" characters you can't use in file names. You can use all of them in tags.

Where do tags come from when you rip A CD? The CD itself doesn't contain any information about what is on it, except for the printing on it or the inserts in the jewel case (other than the poorly implemented and only spasmodically used CD text supplement that was added to the CD standard by Sony long after most CDs were already issued and not much used by other manufacturers). So you can manually enter them when you rip the CD but there are a number of websites that have tagging data available on line. dBpoweramp provides access to several of those website providers and will attempt to look up the tags from those sites after you have put your CD in the drive and before you rip it.

But the system ids far from perfect. Detecting what CD you have inserted is based on the number of tracks on the CD and the length of each, based on the information on the CD that tells your CD player where to begin playing each track. With the millions of different CDs that have been issued, there are duplicates, particularly on CDs with only a few tracks, so the metadata provider website may sometimes come up with information for the totally wrong CD. And most of the data from the providers was crowd sourced or provided by the record companies, with basically no quality control. It is riddled with errors. If you want your library to be accurately searchable you will spend some time with each rip reading the metadata, and correcting it before you rip. (and I can guarantee that errors will still get in). Yes, you can correct the metadata in the files after they are ripped, but it is usually far easier before ripping. I'll also comment that the more popular the CD, the more likely that most of the errors in the online metadata will have been corrected. Obscure CDs, good luck if there is any on-line metadata, and if there is, it is more likely to be wrong.

And then there are your personal tastes in searching. Do you want the artist to be Beatles or The Beatles, or Beatles, The? If it is "The Beatles", it will be stored in the "T"s, not the "B"s There are ways of dealing with this, but it is an issue. And then you have the one that erroneously has it as Beetles. If you have a large collection, you'll be chasing metadata errors forever, even if you are careful.

Also be aware that almost all libraries and players are built to search tags, not filenames Yes, many have means of searching by filename but it is slow and awkward. The tags are "indexed" in most any library system, so you can find what you are looking for very quickly, even if you have a large collection. The only exception is the radios in older cars (and I gather some newer cars) where you play music from a thumb drive, and they may only provide the filenames. But just about all the players on computers, smart TVs, phones and such are designed to work well with tags.

Keep your file system simple. Since the library will let you search by tags, the artist, the genre, the album name, etc. no matter what order the actual files are in or what they are named. (Theoretically you could give each file a 8 digit number filename, nothing more, all in one giant directory, and your library and player will be perfectly happy letting you search for the artist, title, genre, etc, it will only search behind the scenes to find the actual file to play.) The only reason for having filenames that you can decipher is if one has a problem and gets corrupted so you have to replace it or such, then you want to be able to easily find it. In my file system, I have two master directories, one for all my lossless (FLAC) files, and one for mp3s and m4as, basically as reminder to keep my eye out for lossless copies of the lossy files (which make up only a small fraction of my collection) The filing system beyond that is only two layers deep. The directory name is album artist - album title, and each file (track) in that directory is track number - track artist name - track title. Everything is in the tags, including such things as genre, so I don't need it in the filename.

Most people consider compilations to be albums with most every song by a different artist, like "best of" albums. I, with occasional exceptions. list the album artist on compilations as Various Artists. 20-20 hindsight, I should have enclosed it in quotes or something, so all the compilations would be in their own place in the alphabet, not in the middle of the "V"s. I might eventually tackle the task of editing all the tags that say Various Artists to say "Various Artists". Some day...

Different folk have different ways of dealing with multi-CD albums. I handle each disc as a separate album, adding "disc 1" or "disc 2" etc. to the album name. Others lump them in the same directory, using the discnumber tag to tell them apart, and/or using track numbers like 101, 102 for the first disc, 201, 202 for the second. Personal taste, but that may effect your naming scheme.

Classical records are even more of a mess, because the most common tag names were decided on for pop music, not classical Early tagging systems didn't have a tag for the composer, so for classical albums, many people put the composer in the artist tag. But then how did you know if it was the Boston Symphony version or the San Francisco version? Now, there are composer tags available, so you are generally better off putting the artist or performers in the artist tag and the composer in the tag now provided for it, but watch the downloaded metadata, it sometimes has them reversed. And something unique I do, for each classical track put the composer followed by a colon and a space before the title of the track. Why, because I listen to a lot of my music in the car, playing from my cell phone by Bluetooth to the car radio, and the display on the car radio doesn't show composers. Is that Beethoven I'm hearing, or Mozart?

One important consideration in any file naming system is to avoid duplicate names. You'll, at the minimum, get two albums in the same directory, and at the worst have files overwritten when you rip a second CD that generates the same filenames. That's why it is important to include track numbers as part of the file names. The other place that can mess with is "Best Of" CDs. You'll find more than one "best of" CD for many popular artist, usually (but not always) by different record companies. So, whenever ripping a "best of" CD I'm careful to see what already exists, and typically put the record label name in parenthesis following the album title - like The Best of The Rolling Stones (Columbia) and The Best of The Rolling Stones (RCA).


You didn't bring this up, but best you rip to FLAC (or possibly ALAC if using a MAC. FLAC is like zip files for audio, they are lossless but take up somewhat less space than WAV. Why not rip to WAV? Because there is no real standard for tags for WAV files, Microsoft came up with the WAV standard before anyone saw the need for tags.

By all means, rip to a lossless format like FLAC, not to a lossy format like mp3 or m4a. You may not hear the difference much in a first generation copy, but if you go down a couple of generations the sound will get worse, like making copies of copies of VHS cassettes. Storage is cheap, so save the lossless copies and back them up, use them to listen at home. If you need/want a copy for your phone or car, you can use the file converter that comes with dBpoweramp to make a separate mp3 or m4a library to use in the portable device which doesn't have the storage space for FLAC. Ignore this and you'll probably be ripping everything a second time later on. Been there, done that. Originally ripped mp3s for an Ipod. then wanted to listen on a home music system, they didn't sound too good, they were down another generation or two by then. Started ripping all over again.

You asked about blank tags? blank tags will remain blank until and if you edit them But the naming string may not do what you want if it is using a tag which you left blank as a part of it. That depends on how you coded the naming string.

Please, please don't try to generate your own naming string unless you have a degree in computer science and programming experience. You will waste a lot of time, get fed up and put it on the back burner again Use the string that comes as a default with dBpoweramp (only setting the directory where you want to store the files) or use one that already works that one of us here who have used for some time and gotten any issues out of. We will be happy to give you one to try. I have been writing software since the 1960s and using dBpoweramp for over 10 years. I still fight the syntax on the rare occasion I need to play with the naming strings.

Rip a few CDs using the default (current, not a 10 year old version of dBpoweramp) naming string. Figure out whose library you want to use on the synology? I'm not familiar with the options there, I'm on a QNAP, but use Asset, not the QNAP provided library systems) Make sure to rip a few compilation albums, rip a multi-disc one if you have one. Rip some classical if you have that. 20 or 30 CDs, get them on to the Synology (you are "safer" ripping them on to the computer that is running dBpoweramp and then copying them to the Synology at least to start). Play with the player, selecting different things by genre, or by artist, or by year (if you included that) or whatever. Then you'll have a better idea what is important. Then rip a hundred or 2 CDs and play again. I don't know how large your collection is, but if you have thousands of CDs you really want to figure out what works for you when you are listening to music before ripping then realizing you should have done it differently and either having to rename tons of files, fixing tagging issues or at worse ripping all over again.

But do play with it. That's how you'll better understand how it works. Sorry this is so long, but you asked a lot of questions which you need to work through.

Good luck and enjoy the music

[garym]

Excellent advise. Here's the naming string I use (windows, if using MAC the backslashes should be changed to forward slashes). It automatically deals with compilations and multidisks. I create subfolders for multidisks under the album folder (e., "Disc 1" and "Disc2")

[MAXLENGTH]240,[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album][IFMULTI]\Disc [disc][]\[track] - [title] - [artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI]\Disc [disc][]\[track] - [title][][]

This version uses track number with disc number up front(1.01, 1.02, 2.01, 2.02, etc.) instead of separate subfolders for multiple discs:

[MAXLENGTH]240,[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album]\[IFMULTI]\[disc][].[track] - [title] - [artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[IFMULTI]\[disc][].[track] - [title][][]

[dbarnby]

Spoon, Garym, thank you for your rapid and wide-ranging answers to my issues. With your permission, I’d like to get some very narrow answers to specific question that still lurk in my head.

1) DEFINITIONS: To be sure we are on the same page I feel the need to very explicitly understand/define some terms:
a) Filename: Is that the information that shows in the FE? If not, where does it show up?
b) Library: Similar issue; what is it? Where does it reside?
c) Directory: same
d) Catalog: same

2) When We speak of “organizing” Filename (?) or Library (?), what are we referring to and where does that occur? Where do I see that organization?

3) If I use dbpa to rip a multi-COMPOSER CD, do I automatically get “various” or “various Composers” on the header slot for Composers, but the actual Composer’s name in the track slot?

4) If I have a CD that is a compilation, AND I CHECK THE COMPILATIONS CHECK BOX, will I automatically get “various” in the ARTIST box both at the top header of the screen and the lower-left under Naming>set? Are these linked?

5) I still don’t understand the connection between the Naming String that is put into dbpa and what shows up in my FE (or iPhone). Is the FE info written automatically by dbpa according to the Naming String? If so, how many sub-folders deep? If the Naming String is not creating/writing the FE, what is it doing? (Please see “Organization and Naming String,” item 1, in my original post)
Thank you for your caution against trying to fashion my own Naming String. I whole-heartedly accept your offer to do it for me. However, before I decide how I want that to be I must understand what it does and where it is made manifest and how it matters.

6) As previously indicated (Original post, Item 4), I think of my music in terms of first genre (classical, vs. non-classical), then, if Classical the type of classical I want (opers, symphony, concerto, etc.); if non-classical, I think of the type of non-classical (jazz, country, 40s & 50s music, etc. After that Artist (Sinatra, Scruggs, etc.). I’m unclear how much of this sequence of thought process should be built into the Naming string and/or the FE. I need help here.
Many posts seem to drop Genre to a low position in selecting music. I don’t know why but am willing to learn. For me Genre is primary. In fact, in order to effectuate my thought process, it seems to me to be a good idea to establish a detailed listing of Genera so that when I search on my iPhone under Genera, I can zoom directly in on what I am wanting. To that end, my Genera listing would be organized by a leading “C – “ for classical and a leading “N – “ for non-classical. Then, each genus would look like:
C – Opera
C – Concertos
C - Symphonies
N – Boogie Woogie
N – Country
N – Modern Jazz
I could take this a step further by showing genre for multi-composer discs and multi-artist compilations as: “C --- ” and “N --- “.
How do you think this would work? I get the feeling that some gurus would be “horrified.”

7) One further non-dbpa issue you may have a suggestion on is that when I print out the replies I get from the dbpa Forum, the right-hand margin chops off a word or two. Does anyone know how to remedy that? I like having a printed copy of the good advice I’m getting.

Thanks,
Don

[schmidj]

Hi Don,

In an attempt to sort out your questions:

First, you may have me confused with Spoon, as he has not been part of this thread at least yet. Spoon is the person who developed dBpoweramp, he works for/owns Illustrate, the company that sells it. I'm John Schmidt, just another satisfied user like Gary who tries to help other users out. I do have a long background in engineering, particularly audio engineering and IT, dating back to the 1960s, but would never begin to attempt to develop software of the complexity of dBpoweramp or most of the software you will use to store and play the audio from your CDs. I've had pretty good luck configuring it, and have already made most of the mistakes others make.

Now some definitions, as I used the terms:

Filename, the short answer: The name that your computer uses to store a file on the storage media, probably a disc drive. When you save for instance a document you wrote in Word, you gave it a name, that becomes its filename. If you search for it (often using Internet Explorer on your PC but not necessarily) that is what you see in the list (often stored alphanumerically) that appears in Internet Explorer Most, but not all filenames have a period (dot) and then 3 or 4 characters at the right hand end which is supposed to tell the computer which software to use by default to open the file with. This is called the file extension. (.doc probably opens Microsoft Word, .wav .mp3 .flac open one or another audio players, .exe runs the file as a program, etc.

Directory or Folder (the words are more or less interchangeable) A group of files or directories defined by some name as stored on the storage media on your computer. Windows lets you stack directories some large number of directories deep depending on how the storage media was initially set up, but there are also limitations, usually around 260 characters on the length of the whole path name including the directory or string of directories in the path. The directory(s) and filename are separated by a slash "/" in the Windows Explorer (and most other Windows software) listings. (in computerese, we call the slash a delimiter.) So a song on your PC's main disc drive might appear as C:/User/Don/Music/Rolling Stones, The - Beggars Banquet/01 - Rolling Stones, The - Sympathy for the Devil.flac If you used dBpoweramp to rip that CD, and had the tags for the CD with those entries for the album artist, album, track, artist (for that track), and title (for that track) with those entries, and if you used my naming string entered in Naming in dBpoweramp and entered C:/User/Don/Music/ as the Path. that is what you'd see in Windows Explorer as the path. C:/ is the drive letter, everything between two slashes is a directory (or folder, you'll see the terms interchanged), and the part starting with 01 and ending with .flac is the filename.

There will be a separate entry in Windows Explorer for each and every file, one per song, in Windows Explorer. In my case, I have almost 140,000 songs Finding the ones I want by searching Windows explorer becomes impractical. That's one reason you should really use tags to search.

So now the term Library. The library is like the (book, etc) library where you live. It has all your music (and/or other media) in it. In your case it will live on your NAS. But think again of that (book) library. All those books are on the shelves in some order, and to look through all those books, even having to open them up in many cases to find out what date it was written, the full name of the author is, etc. would be a pain. For that the library has an index, we used to call it the card catalog back before it was digitized. The card catalog has means of searching by subject (think genre for music), by author, by whatever. It told you where to find the book in the library by whatever numbering scheme (Dewey Decimal?) the books were shelved in. The Dewey Decimal number was their version of what you call a directory path and file name.

There is software that you run on your NAS to index all your music (or other media) to allow you to find it. That is the library software and interfaces with or may be part of your player to display a catalog of your music. If you have your music well tagged, a good player and library combination will let you sort by any genre, by an artist name, by album names, by song titles, by date, whatever you entered a tag for (depending on the flexibility of the library software and particularly of the player). Many will also allow you to select music you just recently added to your collection or play music chosen at random.

It does this by generating a database of the filenames (which were generated by the naming string when the CD was ripped) and all (or most of) the tags for each song. These entries are what we call "indexed" like your old card catalog was indexed by subject in the library. Except using a database we can have indexes for each different tag, album title, genre, year, artist name, etc. It matters not at all what the directory and file structure of your library is (as long as you don't end up duplicating a filename, because then the original file will be overwritten when you rip the new one, and be erased). But you will enter what ever you are looking for (genre, artist name, whatever) into the player screen and the software looks up the filename in the library database (or catalog) and tells the software to play it. You never have to know the actual filename. Very simple and it works well if you have a good player and remote control.

Windows Explorer tries to do some of its own cataloging by displaying some of the tags for media files, which may be useful but it is the wrong tool for the purpose. Proper media library systems have more flexibility and are easier to use.

So the library is all your music, on your NAS, the catalog is the database indexing all your music. It might live on the NAS or be part of the player. (which may also live on the NAS or be part of a home theater system. You may also hear the term renderer, which we haven't mentioned yet. This is the device which reads the music file and turns it back into audio. If you were listening on your phone by headphones, it would be in the phone. If you are listening in your home, it could be part of a smart TV, a A/V receiver which is connected by Ethernet or WiFi to your NAS or a separate device, data in, audio out.

Yes the naming string determines what the file structure on windows explorer is. It can be as many levels deep as you can figure out how to program it to do. The practical limit is you'll never get it to work the way you want with anything more than a few levels. (and it may well be that your library software or player will only work with a few levels of depth.) But don't do your genre sorting in the naming string (except possibly with a whole different library/catalog for Classical, ripped with a different profile in dBpoweramp with its own naming string and path.) Do all of that in the library catalog software. A good library system will let you do it with a lot less pain than trying to get a naming string and file structure to do it.

Incidentally, if you are running player software that includes its own library catalog, you may find it stopping and saying indexing or something like that when you add music to your collection. That is when it is updating the indexes in its database to let you find the new music.

Illustrate, the same people who wrote dBpoweramp have library software called Asset which I'm sure with a little bit of your effort can sort your library collection any way you want no matter the file names. I think here is a version which runs on at least some Synology NAS's I use it on my QNAP. But I'm sure there are others, probably one or more already available for installation by download from Synology's app store. Perhaps someone already on Synology can make suggestions.

I hope this has clarified some of your questions, it can be quite confusing if you don't have an IT background (and sometimes even if you do, but most of us who do aren't too afraid to experiment until we get what we want).

John

[schmidj]

One other thing, why not just use Opera as the genre for the Opera, Concerto for the Concertos, Boogie Woogie for that, etc. There is no reason nor need to abbreviate. You can have as many genres as you want in both dBpoweramp and all the current modern tagging standards. There is a way to edit (somewhere) the pre-stored genres that dBpoweramp displays but you can always just type whatever name you want for the genre into the box on the screen.

To me, genres are a personal thing. (don't go crazy with too many variations, you'll never remember what genre (or genres, you can have more than one genre for a given song) you used. In my case I have a large Caribbean collection, some of it is steeldrum or steelpan music. So I have a genre I call Steelband, for songs where all the musicians are playing steeldrums (more correctly called steel pans) and another genre I call steelpan where the lead artist is playing a steeldrum but the background instruments are conventional instruments like the guitar, keyboard, electric bass, etc, and yet another called pan jazz which is jazz with a pannist in the combo. But, fr instance I don't subdivide jazz like some do into Bop, post bop, big band, etc. Mine is just jazz. The same with classical. No symphonies, concertos, choral, opera. Just Classical for me.

There has somewhat recently been a tag called style which, for instance would be used for the subdivisions of jazz, or Rock, etc. But the online databases are just a mess with style tags, so I have style blocked off in my saved tags (a setup in dBpoweramp). Too much confusion.

[schmidj]

In my post above where I wrote:

Hi Don,

If you search for it (often using Internet Explorer on your PC but not necessarily) that is what you see in the list

it should read Windows Explorer (or File Explorer, same thing) not Internet Explorer, a different animal. Internet Explorer is now very dead, replaced with Bing, Windows Explorer or File Explorer is still alive and well, and is what i think you were referring to. Excuse my mistake.

Incidentally I don't see any way of editing a post once you have posted it. and see an error. but possibly I'm blind. It would seem desirable if the BB software made provision for posters to edit after posting.

Further update, it lets me edit this post but not my older ones, perhaps there is a timeout??