Strugglig With A Naming Convention

[mav13]

Thank you all for your input. I have been playing around with different combinations and it turns out that the Plex software that I am using to play the ripped music appears to rely on its own metadata once it recognizes the album and tracks. Thus, it does not appear that any of the changes in naming convention that I have tried out has much of an impact on how Plex organizes and presents the music. On one hand, that is a little disturbing since I can't seem to impose my way or organizing things on Plex, on the other hand, I am comfortable with how Plex organizes and presents the music. So I may rip my music using dBpoweramp but allow Plex to manage the results.

Anybody else have experience working with Plex?

[garym]

Plex has never been known as a good music library server (more of a movie server). That said, I doubt that PLEX uses its own metadata. Almost impossible that it does. What is more likely is that PLEX has a database that contains a library of your files metadata that it "ingests" when you first add the files. Changing the metadata in the files doesn't automatically change the PLEX database. (By the way, this is bascially how iTunes works....it reads the file metadata, but then puts in in a separate database within iTunes. Then changes to the file metadata doesn't automatically update the database). You need to somehow force PLEX to reread the file metadata. Does PLEX have some sort of import function for when you add files? To test, try to remove an album that has changed metadata not showing up. Then redo the "scan" of your library with PLEX. When done, that album should no longer be in your PLEX library. Then add back the Album and rescan/import the files with PLEX. There's also the usual advice of getting some help from a PLEX user forum. I"m sure they've dealt with this. Or google "PLEX tag metadata changes" or similar.

[mav13]

Gary, thanks for the comments. Any suggestions for what music server(s) you would recommend to run the files I have ripped onto a NAS? I defaulted to Plex simply because it was pre-loaded on the new NAS I had purchased to hold the ripped files.

[monsterjazzlick]

Hi Mav13,

I started using FOOBAR player as soon as I purchased 'dBpa'. I would never consider using anything else now. I think quite a few members of this forum use FOOBAR.

Paul

[FuturePhantasy]

I didn't really had this problem. Good to know. I use iTunes and have used Foobar in the past, I use a over a year old laptop for ripping CDs. Soon I plan to purchase new hardware

[garym]

Gary, thanks for the comments. Any suggestions for what music server(s) you would recommend to run the files I have ripped onto a NAS? I defaulted to Plex simply because it was pre-loaded on the new NAS I had purchased to hold the ripped files.

There are lots of options depending on what you are trying to achieve. You might be able to install ASSET UpNP on your NAS. ASSET is a program by the developers of dbpoweramp and many people happily use it (I don't as described later).
https://www.dbpoweramp.com/asset-upnp-dlna.htm
https://www.dbpoweramp.com/

You could use lots of different programs running on your computer (that accesses the music files on your NAS) and then streams to your endpoints/stereo, etc.

What I use:

LMS (Logitech Media Server). This was created by logitech related to their networked squeezebox music players. They no longer make these and the LMS software has become more of a crowd sourced program. Also there is software (squeezelite) that serves as endpoints running on computers, or even in raspberrie pi (rPi) microcomputers. piCorePlayer is a turnkey operating system for an rPi, allowing it to both run LMS (with music files on a separate NAS or attached to rPi with USB drive). LMS can also run on your PC, your Mac, or a linux based machine. I use both the rPi, piCorePlayer approach and also have a headless PC with internal 4TB running a linux version of LMS.
https://www.picoreplayer.org/
https://www.picoreplayer.org/main_getting_started.shtml
(Note, I *think* one can also run ASSET on an rPi)


My music server is sitting in a back cabinet out of the way. Then throughout the house I have separate endpoints (in my case squeezebox players, or "virtual" squeezebox players, via squeezelite). I can play different things to each of these endpoints, or I can play the same thing (synchronized streams) to all of them or a subset of them. I play almost any sort of file (local FLAC,mp3, m4a, and others) along with internet streaming (internet radio stations or services like Pandora, Spotify, TIDAL).
If anyone is interested in LMS/Squeeze, they have a very active and helpful user forum:
https://forums.slimdevices.com/

At work, I use foobar2000 software on my PC with attached USB drive containing my music to stream to speakers attached to the PC.

Bottom line, there are numerous good options. Some people like SONOS systems. And there are things like Roon Labs (not free). But essentially you need a music server/library program that will hold, access, and stream your music to "something". These "somethings" are your endpoints connected to your stereo system. Some stereo systems have built-in endpoints (uPnP capable).

14 years ago the words I've written above would be like a foreign language to me. Over time of course I've learned a lot about digital music and digital music players. I made the first rookie mistake (ripping many thousands of CDs to mp3 format instead of lossless like FLAC....a mistake that I'm mostly fixed by reripping everything to FLAC). So all of this is not something you can figure out in a day or two. But there is a lot out there to assist.

But no matter what, you'll need to have digital files with your music. dbpoweramp is the gold standard for that, and my main recommendation is that you rip to lossless (e.g. FLAC) and try to clean up your metadata tagging at the time of ripping. With a well tagged, organized music file collection, the actual music program library server can handle it.

[mav13]

GaryM:

Thank you for all of the insight about server options and software managers. I will definitely explore those over the next few days.

My "end points" are driven by Savant, i.e., all of my audio equipment is controlled by an iPad running Savant. So I need to find a software that can manage my music and be accessed through Savant. I know that Savant has the ability to run Plex, which is why I started there. But I am seeing some limitations in how I can manage my music with Plex, so I will start exploring other software systems that can be managed by Savant.

Thanks again.

[garym]

GaryM:

Thank you for all of the insight about server options and software managers. I will definitely explore those over the next few days.

My "end points" are driven by Savant, i.e., all of my audio equipment is controlled by an iPad running Savant. So I need to find a software that can manage my music and be accessed through Savant. I know that Savant has the ability to run Plex, which is why I started there. But I am seeing some limitations in how I can manage my music with Plex, so I will start exploring other software systems that can be managed by Savant.

Thanks again.

Not familiar with Savant. I wouldn't entirely give up on PLEX. see some of my earlier messages. I suspect that PLEX stores the metadata in its own database, so you need to make sure it updates that database after changing any files. Removing and re-adding the files is the "hammer" way to do it. But probably some option within Plex to rescan file metadata. My advise is to find a PLEX user forum and ask how you can get PLEX to update your file metadata tags after you've edited the tags.

[GaryG45]

PLEX does have a forum, which is helpful. There is a music setting "Prefer local metadata" that will allow it to use your embedded metadata. I believe there are some restrictions on the library/folder format that you have to follow too. If you go to PLEX Support > Articles there is an article titled "Getting started with PLEX Music" that should be helpful. I only use PLEX for digitized VHS videos and ripped DVDs, so I don't know much about the music feature. For music I use Foobar and JRiver.