The Music Library FAQs
MP3 Database
Tag and Field Editor
Rename Utility
Audio Database
Album Info Editor
General
You only need to save a database when it's first created. The default database name is "Untitled.dbd". This is a temporary database and will be deleted when you exit the program. From the "File" menu, select "Save As". Enter a name other than "Untitled.dbd", then click on "OK" to save the database. Please note that you don't need to save an existing database, because it's updated automatically every time you made changes to it. If you want to create a copy of the database, please select a DIFFERENT file name, fail to do so will erase all records in the database.
Select "Export" from the "File" menu to bring up the "Export Database" window, then select the proper option to export the database.
Music Library supports it's native export format ".dbv". It allows you to transport your MP3 database to other computers. The audio database is also exported if it contains records. If a database contains only audio records, you do not need to export it. it can be viewed and edited on other computers directly.
Music Library also allows to export your database to a tab or comma delimited text file so it can be imported to other programs.
Q: How to open a ".dbd" file in MS Access?
The Music Library database files can be viewed and edited directly with MS Access. In Access, select "Open" from the "File" menu to bring up the "Open" window, set file type to All Files *.*. select the file to open it.
Q: How to merge two databases?
The "Merge Database" function in Music Library allows you to append an existing database to the current database. From menu select "Tools" then "Merge Database". In the "Merge Database" window, select a table (MP3 or Audio") to merge, then select a database to merge from. Click on the "Append" button to proceed.
Q: Can I use MS Access to edit my database?
Yes. The only thing you need to pay attention to is the field type. the numeric fields has to be filled with numeric values.
Q: What is the "Album Artist" field?
The "Album Artist" field is used to display compilation albums in the "Treeview". When scan Mp3s, the default value of album artist field is the track artist. To display the album properly, you must use the same value for all tracks in the album. (For example: "Various Artists"). You may use the "properties" window or the "Tag and Field Editor" to set the field.
Q: How to associate lyric to a track?
The lyric is associated to a track by it's artist name and track title (case sensitive). The lyric database work with both MP3 and Audio. To enter a track to the lyric database, you may use the "Track Properties" window for MP3 database and "Edit Track" window for Audio database. Use the "Lyric Database Maintenance" under "Tools" to browse and edit the lyric database.
MP3 Database
Q: How to create or add volumes to MP3 database?
To create a MP3s database, switch to " MP3 Explorer" tab if you are not on it. If you know where your files are, select File / Add Volume from menu. Then select the folder or drive to start the scan. After scan, select File / Save As from menu to save the database. You MUST save the database to a name other then "Untitled.dbd". The "Untitled.dbd" is a temporary database, it will be deleted when you exit the program. If you don't know where the files are or you don't want to select folders one by one, you can simply select File / Update All from the menu. Program will scan all your hard drives (and network drives if any connected) for MP3s. Save the database when scan is finished. You only need to save a new database. After that all operation will be updated automatically.
Note: Do NOT exit the program during a scan. Cancel the scan then exit.
Q: What does the "Compare" function do?
The "Compare" function allows you to compare two MP3 databases and display the differences in the playlist layout. You can then save it to a playlist file.
Q: How to attach cover image to an album?
It's easy to attach cover image to an album. You may simply select a track in the album and bring up the "Properties" window.( Select a file then right click to bring up the popup menu. Then select "Properties"). Click on the "Browse" button in "Properties" window to select an image file. Click on the "Update" button, Music Library will update all tracks with the same "Album Artist" and "Album title". For compilation albums, the album artist field must have the same value (For example: "Various Artists") in order to associate the image properly. Supported image formats are: BMP, GIF, JPG.
Track rating can be set using the "Properties" window or the "Rate Track" window.
Q: How to list all my playlist files?
You may scan for playlists files on your hard drives automatically or select them manually. To list all playlists, select File \ Add Playlist \ Search Hard Drives from menu. To add a playlist manually, File \ Add Playlist \ Manual. Playlists are listed under "My Playlists" in the "Treeview".
Q: How to append a playlist to my current playlist layout?
Simply drag a playlist file in "Treeview" and drop it into the playlist layout.
Q: I have MP3s on CDs without tags, will Music Library display track information?
Yes. Use the "Tag and Fields Editor" to enter track information and use the "Write Field" option to update the database.
Q: Does Music Library support audio formats other than MP3?
Yes. Music Library supports all common audio file formats. To select file types, select "Preferences" under "Tools" to bring up the "Preferences" window. Click on "File Type", check the types to include in your database.
Q: Can Music Library catalog the tracks I don't have (wanted tracks)?
Yes. You can add "wanted" tracks in the "CDDB Lookup" window. Do a search on the album, then select the track you don't have and click on the "Add to wanted list" button. Since the files do not exist, you must enter a virtual name for the file. The default file name is "Artist - Title.mp3", you may enter your own file name instead.
All "wanted" tracks are listed under a virtual folder called "C:\Wanted Tracks\". The files do not exist on your hard drive so they will be shown in red.
To create a report on wanted tracks, just select the "Wanted Tracks" directory for location in the report windows.
Tag and Field Editor
Q: How to edit id3 tags and fields in my database?
Select files from File List in "MP3 Explorer", from menu select "MP3" then "Edit Tag (Fields)" to bring up the files in "Tag and Filed Editor".
Select the "Apply to Selected" radio button if you want to edit an individual track. Click on a track and edit information in the text boxes. Changes will be done on the fly.
Select the "Apply to All" radio button if you want to apply changes to all files. Enter information in the text boxes and click on the "Arrow" buttons next to them to update the corresponding columns. Or you may check the "Auto complete when apply to all" box, all changes will be done on the fly.
Click on the "Write Tag" button in toolbar to write tags to files and update the database. Click on the "Write Field" button if you want to update the database only. Please note that if there are files on removable media, only the "Write Field" button is available.
Q: How to extract field information base on file names?
Most MP3 file names are formatted in a certain way (For example: Artist - Title). The "Tag and Field Editor" allows you to extract fields base on the file names.
The most commonly used separator is " - " (space-hyphen-space). In such case, you may use the "General" options. Simply click on the "Use File Names" button, the program will parse the file names and put fields in different columns. The default order is Artist - Album - Comment (Track #) - Title. If the file names are not in such order, you may use the "Swap" buttons to swap the columns.
The "Advanced" option can recognize literally any format as long as fields are separated by characters other than "space". You may define templates base on the file names. Ten most recent templates are saved. To define a template is easy, simply replace the actual fields with valid field names. Available fields are: "Artist", "Album", "Title", "Comment", "Genre" and "Year". The following examples will give you a pretty good idea how it works.
Example #1:
Name: Eagles-Greatest Hits - 01 - Hotel California (1989)
Template: Artist-Album - Comment - Title (Year)
Please note the first separator is "-" without the spaces.
Example #2:
Name: (Eagles) - Greatest Hits - [01] Hotel California (1989)
Template: (Artist) - Album - [Comment] Title (Year)
Example #3:
Name: 01 - Hotel California - Eagles
Template: Comment - Title - Artist
Example #4: (Sometimes even space can be recognized if the field only contains only one word.)
Name: Eagles - 01 Hotel California
Template: Artist - Comment Title
Rename Utility
Q: How does the "Auto Mode" work?
The "Auto Mode" allows you to rename files with just a single click. To do this, you must let the "Rename Utility" know what to do. Click on the "Rules" button to bring up the "Preferences" window. In the "Auto Mode" frame set the options you like. Options are explained below:
In the "Replace the following with space" box, enter the characters you want to trim off. All characters must be separated by a comma (without space). End the string with a comma.
Some users prefer to lower case words such as "the", "in" etc. Check the "Lower case these words" box then enter the words in the text box below it. All words must be separated by comma (without space), and end the string with a comma.
Select "Capitalize" radio button to set first character of every word to upper case and the rest to lowercase.
Select "Upper Case All" button to set all words to uppercase.
Select "Lower Case All" button to set all words to lowercase.
Check the "Use Id3 Tag" box if you want to rename your files base on tag information. Select or define a template in the Use Id3 tag (Manual and Auto) frame. Please keep in mind that all other options still apply when this option is selected.
Check the "Replace " " with "_"" box if you prefer to replace spaces with underscores.
It's always a good idea to use the "Preview" button to preview the results first. When you see the results you wanted, click on the "Start" button to rename the files.
Q: How does the "Manual Mode" work?
Sometimes you might want to use "Manual Mode" instead. All options are designed to deal with most commonly used file formats. Without bothering to set the rules, a few clicks will get the job done. Options are explained below:
The "Replace" button:
Enter the text string you want to replace in the "Replace" box, then enter the text string you want to replace with in the "With" box. All occurrences will be replaced.
The "Replace Once" button:
Same as above except it only replaces the first occurrence of the specified text.
The "Insert Text" button:
This option allows you to insert text at the location you specified. To set the location, select a file in the list, the file name will be placed in the text box above. Click on the file name at the location you want to insert the text at. Enter the text you want to insert, click on the "Insert Text" button to proceed.
The "Trim 1" button:
This option trims the specified text and replaces them with spaces.
The "Trim 2" button:
This option trims off the specified text.
The "ABC > abc" button:
This option sets all words to lowercase.
The "abc > ABC" button:
Sets all words to uppercase.
The "ab cd > Ab Cd" button:
Capitalizes all words (First character to uppercase).
The "Artist <=> Title" button:
Swaps the artist and title in file names (must be separated by " - ").
The "Trim Numbers" button:
Trims all numeric characters.
The "Use Tag" button:
Set new file names using tag information base on templates.
The "Start" button:
Renames files.
To define a template is very simple. You may use the valid field names and any combinations of separators. The available field names are: "Artist", "Album", "Title", "Comment", "Genre", "Year", "Bitrate" without the quotes. The following examples will give you a pretty good idea how it works:
Example # 1:
Template: Artist - Album - Comment - Title
Name: Eagles - Greatest Hits - 01 - Hotel California.mp3
Example # 2:
Template: Artist - [Album Comment] - Title (Year)
Name: Eagles - [Greatest Hits 01] - Hotel California (1989).mp3
Audio Database
Q: How to create or add volumes to Audio database?
Switch to "Audio Explorer" tab, from menu select "Audio". Then select "Add Album" to bring up the "Album Info Editor". Insert CD into the selected drive. Click on the "Disc TOC" button from toolbar, you should see a long string of number in the "DiscToc" box. Then Click on the "Disc Info" button from toolbar to access CDDB. Downloaded information should be shown in the track list box. If you are manually adding tracks to the album, right click on the track list box to bring up the popup menu. Select "Add" from the popup menu to bring up the "Add Track" window, enter track info then hit "OK" to add the track to the album. When finished, click on the "Add to DB" button in toolbar to add the album to the database.
Q: Why Music Library does not recognize my CD drive?
That's because you have multiple CD drives on your system. Go to the main window and select "Tools" from the pull down menu. Then select "Preferences" to bring up the "Preferences" window. In the "General section, you'll find a drop down box "Default CD Drive". Select a drive as the default CD drive for scanning CDs. Click OK to save the setting.
Q: How to attach album cover to an album?
In "Album Info Editor" window, click on the button with "folder" icon to select an image.
Q: Can I create my own genres?
Yes. The genres in audio database are defined by CDDB. You may simply type in your own genre in "Album Info Editor" or "Edit Track" window. Please note the genre you created is not saved to the genre drop down box.
Album Info Editor
The first time you try to access CDDB, you will be prompted to register CDDB. The service is FREE from end users like you. Click on "Yes" in the prompt to bring up the "CDDB Registration" window and follow the instructions.
You may change your CDDB registration information at a later time. To change your information, select "CDDB" from the menu, then select "Register" and follow instructions.
In "Album Info Editor" window, select "CDDB" from menu, then select "Options". Enter proxy setting there. You must complete all fields.
Q: I am trying to add a home made CD, can Music Library scan the disc and fill in the information automatically?
Music Library will not scan home made CDs because they are not in the CDDB database. However, you may scan the CD for track info such as track number and time. To do that, insert the disc and from menu in "Album Info Editor", select "Tools" then "Read Disc". The track information will be listed. Use the "Edit Track" from the menu to edit information for each individual track. If you have the MP3 playlist file that you create the CD from, you may simply use the "Open Mp3 Playlist" from the "Tools" menu.
Q: Is there a easy way to enter albums on media other than CD?
Yes. You may use the "CDDB Lookup" to search the CDDB database. Most likely the album is available in CD format. Enter artist name and album title in "Album Info Editor", then from menu select "Tools / CDDB Search" to bring up the "CDDB Lookup" window. Select the matched album and track, click on the "Add" button in "CDDB Lookup" window toolbar to add the selected track to your layout.
Q: What does the "<>" button next to the "Artist" box do?
Some users prefer to use the "Last name, First name" format, use this button to swap the last and first name. For example:
"Jackson Browne" will be "Browne, Jackson".
Q: What does the ">" button do?
Click on the ">" button will set the corresponding track field to the album field. For example, if the "Album Artist" is "Various Artists", the ">" button will set all track artist fields to "Various Artist".
Q: How does the CDDB batch mode work?
The "CDDB Batch Mode" allows you to scan your discs for "TOC" first and download the information all together.
To add a disc to the batch, insert the disc and hit the "Add" button, you will see the TOC listed in the list box. When the "Auto detect and eject" box is checked, the program will constantly look for disc in the CD drive and try to retrieve the disc's TOC. Use the eject button on your CD ROM to open and close the CD drawer. Every time you insert a CD, it will calculate the TOC and eject the disc automatically. Do not use the "Close" and "Eject" button in the toolbar.
You may save the batch to a text file for later download. Click on the "Start" button to start the download.