Uh-oh! Did I make a mistake? Newbie asks basic questions..

[bethjim]

I just purchased the software - apparently I had tried it long ago so my trial time was used up. I thought I would be able to make use of OCD but now I'm not so sure....

Music Collection:

871 artists, 2034 albums on ReadyNAS PRO
SqueezeBox Server used to control playback on various Squeeze devices
All files are FLAC and tagged (artist,album,title,year,genre,track#,artist sort)
Much time has gone into tagging -especially "artist sort"
-Artist= Bob Dylan
-Artist Sort= Dylan, Bob
I never see Dylan, Bob except when viewing "artist sort" tag
All listings in SqueezeBox Server "show" Bob Dylan but is "sorted" in lists as Dylan, Bob
-------------------------------------------
Why did I buy OCD? I'm beginning to wonder, but the only reason I need any Music DB/Catalog/etc is to be able export listings of the music collection in various sort orders, with/without art to print,web,etc. I thought that a DB (based on my tagging and maybe additional info from the Internet) of the music files would allow me to manipulate the information in a manner to be able to list it any way I wish.

My first issue is:
How do I make OCD use the "artist sort" tag that I have already created to do the sort order in OCD? With 871 artists and more added all the time - I do not want to MANUALLY do the "swap" action in the OCD DB. I need OCD to use MY "artist sort" value on the initial scan.

Is OCD using the tags at all?

Another question:

How does OCD determine if an album is "Live" or "Studio"? Is this another manual entry?

I may have jumped the gun on the purchase - should have posted this first.
Just "assumed" that making use of the "artist sort" tag would be a given for any DB build.

Any info or ideas would be appreciated,
Jim

[bethjim]

Did I make a mistake - YES!

Should have asked for a demo extension!

Should have seen the extent of forum responses before buying = NONE!

Sent same post to "official" support address - no response in the past week!

OK - any chance of getting my money back on this - worthless to me - software?

Jim

[BLOWERS]

Did I make a mistake - YES!

Should have asked for a demo extension!

Should have seen the extent of forum responses before buying = NONE!

Sent same post to "official" support address - no response in the past week!

OK - any chance of getting my money back on this - worthless to me - software?

Jim

Sorry Jim - couldn't let this go ananswered!

I don't know about the 'using the tags' part of your question - Andrei would be the man for that, I think. As for the live/studio part, AFAIK you do enter this manually. There is a checkbox in the RECORDING tab of 'Record Properties'. Not so hard to do as you can multiple select/edit all your live albums.

It's a shame that OCD doesn't meet your instant needs but you might find that a bit of investigation and trial & error will bear genuine fruit. It has its drawbacks, but these are more than made up for by its huge flexibility. Furthermore this is quite a small but friendly community so - occasionally - you will not get instant answers. I hope you can find the patience to give it a fair go: you won't regret it. Good luck!

[andrei_c]

How do I make OCD use the "artist sort" tag that I have already created to do the sort order in OCD? With 871 artists and more added all the time - I do not want to MANUALLY do the "swap" action in the OCD DB. I need OCD to use MY "artist sort" value on the initial scan.

I think your files may use non-standard extension tag that OrangeCD failed to pick up correctly. I would love to investigate and fix this - already did it for a couple of similar issues.

For that, I need a single FLAC file for debugging. Can you send me a smaller file that you know has this problem?

Also, note that you only need to use "Swap" feature once for Bob Dylan and then all the titles by Dylan will be fixed at once. It may be not such a great waste of time as you think.


How does OCD determine if an album is "Live" or "Studio"? Is this another manual entry?
I am pretty sure OrangeCD does not read any FLAC tag for this. If you have one, please provide me FLAC file for testing as well.


I may have jumped the gun on the purchase - should have posted this first.
No worries - I'll refund any time if you decide to stop using it. Of course I'd rather prefer to work on fixing these issues and need your help for that.

Also, what software did you use for tagging FLACs? It may answer my questions about custom FLAC tags.

Andrei

[bethjim]

Andrei...Thanks for the reply.

Swaps - I'm not too keen on typing 871 swaps - I think that is a software chore - "let the computer do it."

That is why I asked about OCD's use of tags. I have put alot of effort into tagging the flac files just to enable a program such as OCD to mine the information. Once "mined" the info would be in a DB that I would be able to manipulate. My main purpose of gathering the data is to arrange/sort it for publishing a music catalog. This output would go to a printer (or the web) and would be able to be sorted for different catalog formats. (list by album/artist, list by genre/artist/album, with/without art, etc)

I use Squeezebox Server 7.4.1 (SBS) to manage and playback my flac library. It makes use of the "Artist Sort" tag. The user always sees Bob Dylan "listed" but it's "sorted" as Dylan, Bob or what ever is in the "Artist Sort" tag. However, I haven't been able to find any plugins/programs that will "mine" the already created MySQL DB in SBS to provide my desired output. SBS presents it well but offers limited output options.

So here's what you asked for:

I use "mp3tag v2.44" to add the "artist sort" tag.
Please, go here to get a flac file -
http://www.adrive.com/public/cbf7924fb6a8a88c100feeba14245c0d3a97d8eacc85258a58 4ba69e1077dc6f.html
(Sorry it's so big - I just discovered that I have no audio editing programs here.)

Thanks for the Refund offer...might still use it!?!

Jim

[andrei_c]

Hi Jim,

I inspected your FLAC file. Indeed, OrangeCD ignored the artistsort tag embedded in Vorbis tag. I fixed the issue and will soon release an updated version that will handle this case correctly.

In the meantime, if you would like to get unblocked and try the fix, I can generate a custom build for you. It is very easy to do - just let me know.

Thanks for your patience.

Andrei

[frederf]

In the meantime, if you would like to get unblocked and try the fix, I can generate a custom build for you. It is very easy to do - just let me know.

Thanks for your patience.

Andrei

So Jim... I know it may have taken longer for a response than you would have liked, but hey... where else would you get a reply like that? ;O)

Fred

[bethjim]

Just loaded up OCD - 6.3.7.14304 and the artistsort is utilized.

Now on to output capabilities...things are looking better.

Once again - thanks
Jim