Songs-DB is a GREAT program, but I encountered the following bugs/errors in the new Songs-DB v1.1 (Build 0.286):
SystemOS: WinXP Pro / 512MB Ram
1. When I 'surf' around in the Artist section (left pane), I have to press Refresh (F5) to get the first entry in the right pane to display correctly. It always displays the Artistname of the Artist I browsed before the current one. This is only with the first song in list. The rest looks OK.
2. When I click on 'Songs' in the left pane, the names of the artists are next to the songtitle of the artist displayed UNDER the current.
The info is not in line with another.
ABOVE ERRORS OCCUR ALSO IN OTHER PLACES IN THE VARIOUS SECTIONS OF THE PROGRAM ==
3. When I click on the [+] before 'Albums' in the left pane, it shows the 'Single Artist'-albums fine, but the 'Various Artists'-albums are displayed over and over again with the artistsname at the end of the albumname. This may not be a bug, but is VERY annoying, when you want a proper overview of your albums.
4. When I want to scan a CD, it sometimes displays an TOC-error. When I eject the MP3-CD, and load it again, everything goes fine.
That's it 4 now! Thanx in advance for the support.
4 Bug/Errors found in the new Songs-DB v1.1 (Build 0.286)
Moderator: Gurus
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smoryobemag
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2002 5:04 pm
Thank you for the report,
ad 1-2. That is quite strange. I will review the code that fills data in the list.
ad 3. Your are right, that actually isn't a bug. Problem is that Songs-DB can't decide if it is actually the same album or something completely different. It can't join all songs with the same album name into one album, because there are often albums with same names, but made by different artists (like "The best of..."). Possibly .m3u playlists could be used later to make some guess.
However there is a possibility how to join these songs. You have to select all the songs of an album (for example in the folder where this album is located) and select "Songs|Join songs to album" from the main menu. In the following dialog just enter appropriate artist name (Various by default) and songs are joined.
You may also need to execute "Actions|Database management" later with the option "Remove unused albums" checked. It is because unused albums (with zero songs) are not removed automatically (on purpose).
ad 4. Do you mean just MP3-CDs or Audio-CDs too? Isn't it just a problem of the CD drive? It looks like that the drive just isn't ready in the moment. Did you retry the action without ejecting the CD?
I hope that it helps...
ad 1-2. That is quite strange. I will review the code that fills data in the list.
ad 3. Your are right, that actually isn't a bug. Problem is that Songs-DB can't decide if it is actually the same album or something completely different. It can't join all songs with the same album name into one album, because there are often albums with same names, but made by different artists (like "The best of..."). Possibly .m3u playlists could be used later to make some guess.
However there is a possibility how to join these songs. You have to select all the songs of an album (for example in the folder where this album is located) and select "Songs|Join songs to album" from the main menu. In the following dialog just enter appropriate artist name (Various by default) and songs are joined.
You may also need to execute "Actions|Database management" later with the option "Remove unused albums" checked. It is because unused albums (with zero songs) are not removed automatically (on purpose).
ad 4. Do you mean just MP3-CDs or Audio-CDs too? Isn't it just a problem of the CD drive? It looks like that the drive just isn't ready in the moment. Did you retry the action without ejecting the CD?
I hope that it helps...
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smoryobemag
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2002 5:04 pm
RE: Possible causes of problem & NEW 'bug/error'
Thank you for your answers,
A. Is it possible the incorrect display of lines I mentioned in 1&2 are caused by a specific version of the Borland Database Engine? Is there a certain version that has to be installed to get it to function properly?
Maybe that's the problem? Because on my other PC (with another database-program) the display of those lines are OK.
B. The joining of the albums went OK, but now, for what I can see, only the 'Various' albums are NOT displayed under 'Albums'. The other albums I've joined are displayed correctly. So what can be the problem here?
!! EDIT 13:15: When you change 'Various' into 'Various Artists' the albums are displayed under 'Albums' !!
C. In according to the TOC-error: I've only tested MP3-CD's. But now I've discovered that the problem ONLY occurs when you press the 'Scan path'-option BEFORE the CD is completely accessed. So after inserting a CD you have to wait until the CD-led is off. By than the CD is readable and the 'Scan path'-option will work OK.
Maybe it's a possibility to add a wait-routine, so the CD will be scanned when it's accessable and the program doesn't display an error?
D. I also have another idea: I use WhereIsIt (http://www.whereisit-soft.com) for cataloging CD's OTHER than MP3-CD's. When I doubleclick a file in that database, it has to launch. BUT, when the CD's not inserted it displays a message to insert the CD with volume 'VOLUMENAME'. After that CD's inserted in one of the drives, the program automaticly detects it and launches the file. You DON't have to press something like 'OK'.
Can you do this with Songs-DB? Now the program displays an ugly dialogbox that looks like a big error, and you have to press 'RETRY', 'ABORT' or 'IGNORE'.
Thats it for now.
I'm curious for your answer.
Thanks again.
A. Is it possible the incorrect display of lines I mentioned in 1&2 are caused by a specific version of the Borland Database Engine? Is there a certain version that has to be installed to get it to function properly?
Maybe that's the problem? Because on my other PC (with another database-program) the display of those lines are OK.
B. The joining of the albums went OK, but now, for what I can see, only the 'Various' albums are NOT displayed under 'Albums'. The other albums I've joined are displayed correctly. So what can be the problem here?
!! EDIT 13:15: When you change 'Various' into 'Various Artists' the albums are displayed under 'Albums' !!
C. In according to the TOC-error: I've only tested MP3-CD's. But now I've discovered that the problem ONLY occurs when you press the 'Scan path'-option BEFORE the CD is completely accessed. So after inserting a CD you have to wait until the CD-led is off. By than the CD is readable and the 'Scan path'-option will work OK.
Maybe it's a possibility to add a wait-routine, so the CD will be scanned when it's accessable and the program doesn't display an error?
D. I also have another idea: I use WhereIsIt (http://www.whereisit-soft.com) for cataloging CD's OTHER than MP3-CD's. When I doubleclick a file in that database, it has to launch. BUT, when the CD's not inserted it displays a message to insert the CD with volume 'VOLUMENAME'. After that CD's inserted in one of the drives, the program automaticly detects it and launches the file. You DON't have to press something like 'OK'.
Can you do this with Songs-DB? Now the program displays an ugly dialogbox that looks like a big error, and you have to press 'RETRY', 'ABORT' or 'IGNORE'.
Thats it for now.
I'm curious for your answer.
Thanks again.
Answers
ad A: No, it is not problem of BDE, because Songs-DB uses ODBC to access database (there are well known problems with BDE, so I prefer ODBC).
ad B: Do you mean, that when you join songs into an album and enter 'Various' as an artist name, you don't see this new album in the 'Albums' node? I tried it and it was ok. Please try it more and let me know about the results.
ad C: You are right, I wasn't aware of this problem. I will try to solve it soon.
ad D: Good idea, I will try to add it soon (as C.
). Actually this dialog (at least in its current version) is a little obsolete, it was used in this form when WinAmp was the only supported player. Now, because Songs-DB has an internal player starting from v1.1, you can enqueue a song even when it is not accessible at the moment, the necessary media can be inserted later.
Thank you again for you help.
ad B: Do you mean, that when you join songs into an album and enter 'Various' as an artist name, you don't see this new album in the 'Albums' node? I tried it and it was ok. Please try it more and let me know about the results.
ad C: You are right, I wasn't aware of this problem. I will try to solve it soon.
ad D: Good idea, I will try to add it soon (as C.
). Actually this dialog (at least in its current version) is a little obsolete, it was used in this form when WinAmp was the only supported player. Now, because Songs-DB has an internal player starting from v1.1, you can enqueue a song even when it is not accessible at the moment, the necessary media can be inserted later.Thank you again for you help.
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smoryobemag
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2002 5:04 pm
RE: Feedback on problems, 1 NEW problem & 3 NEW idea's
EDIT 15:24
A. I'll await your review of the code...
B. That's right! I don't enter a value, because 'Various' is already entered by the program. When I apply the change, and after that execute the Database Manager, those albums are gone. But when I do the same thing again, but change 'Various' to 'Various Artists' everything goes fine and the album is added again.
EDIT 15:24:
I think above error has something to do with the word 'Various', which is NOT listed in the Artist-section (because it is only used to bundle 'Various Artist'-CD's to one) I think this because when I use 'Database Management' with the option 'Remove Unused Artists', all the albums that are bundled to 'Various' are gone from the 'Albums'-list!!!! Maybe this can help you solve the problem?
C. NEW PROBLEM: Titles are cut off too soon. In SETUP DIALOG - OPTIONS, the settings are: ID3 v1&2. EXAMPLE:
The file 'The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire).mp3' .
Although the ID2 tag is 'The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)' the song is listed in Song-DB as 'The Christmas Song (Chestnuts'. This is MUCH shorter than it has to be.
This also occurs with long Album titles and Artist fields.
D. Some NEW ideas:
1. An option to JOIN ARTIST, just like JOIN ALBUM. Why? Because for example you can have a track by 'Boyz II Men' and a track by 'Boyz-II-Men'. [Or you maybe misspelled it, like 'Boys ii Man') It's a slight difference between the names, but they are in fact one and the SAME artist. In this way, you can bundle the tracks of a certain artist under ONE name, like 'Boyz II Men'. Also it's handy to bundle for example 'George Michael & Elton John - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' under 'George Michael', because Elton John is the guest singer here...
[Even better is an option to group such a track under BOTH artists]
2. An export option to export selected fields [Artist/Album/Genre/etc...] to TXT/XLS/DOC/etc... Maybe it's possible using the %A and %T kind of strings?
3. Eject CD after scanning with the possibility of inserting a new CD to scan. In this way you can scan a lot of CD's at once.
A. I'll await your review of the code...
B. That's right! I don't enter a value, because 'Various' is already entered by the program. When I apply the change, and after that execute the Database Manager, those albums are gone. But when I do the same thing again, but change 'Various' to 'Various Artists' everything goes fine and the album is added again.
EDIT 15:24:
I think above error has something to do with the word 'Various', which is NOT listed in the Artist-section (because it is only used to bundle 'Various Artist'-CD's to one) I think this because when I use 'Database Management' with the option 'Remove Unused Artists', all the albums that are bundled to 'Various' are gone from the 'Albums'-list!!!! Maybe this can help you solve the problem?
C. NEW PROBLEM: Titles are cut off too soon. In SETUP DIALOG - OPTIONS, the settings are: ID3 v1&2. EXAMPLE:
The file 'The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire).mp3' .
Although the ID2 tag is 'The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)' the song is listed in Song-DB as 'The Christmas Song (Chestnuts'. This is MUCH shorter than it has to be.
This also occurs with long Album titles and Artist fields.
D. Some NEW ideas:
1. An option to JOIN ARTIST, just like JOIN ALBUM. Why? Because for example you can have a track by 'Boyz II Men' and a track by 'Boyz-II-Men'. [Or you maybe misspelled it, like 'Boys ii Man') It's a slight difference between the names, but they are in fact one and the SAME artist. In this way, you can bundle the tracks of a certain artist under ONE name, like 'Boyz II Men'. Also it's handy to bundle for example 'George Michael & Elton John - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' under 'George Michael', because Elton John is the guest singer here...
[Even better is an option to group such a track under BOTH artists]
2. An export option to export selected fields [Artist/Album/Genre/etc...] to TXT/XLS/DOC/etc... Maybe it's possible using the %A and %T kind of strings?
3. Eject CD after scanning with the possibility of inserting a new CD to scan. In this way you can scan a lot of CD's at once.
Last edited by smoryobemag on Thu Jan 17, 2002 9:29 am, edited 2 times in total.
ad B: Ok, now I understand. There is a problem in removing unused artists - these who don't have a song assigned but have an album (like 'Various' artist) are removed while they should not be. It will be corrected in the next release.
ad C: Please check if the song really has ID3v2 tag. If yes then the problem seems to be in ID3lib, that is used by Songs-DB to tag songs. It seems there are some problems with ID3Lib (thus with tagging and reading tags) and I hope to solve them soon.
ad D1: It is possible now. You can drag&drop (or copy&paste) songs which artist you want to change and put them to the node of artist you want to use (like 'Artists\Metallica'). Another possibility is to select such songs, show their properties and correct the artist's name for all of them. And actually the third method is to rename the artist directly in the tree. In all cases artist is automatically joined into one and you may need to execute database management to get rid of unused artists...
ad D2: Yes, export is needed, but it will take some time finish it...
ad D3: Scanning will be changed quite a lot (like the possibility to select filetypes to scan - e.g. exclude WAVs) and a feature like this can be added to.
BTW, I'm out the next week, so please be patient for the updates...
ad C: Please check if the song really has ID3v2 tag. If yes then the problem seems to be in ID3lib, that is used by Songs-DB to tag songs. It seems there are some problems with ID3Lib (thus with tagging and reading tags) and I hope to solve them soon.
ad D1: It is possible now. You can drag&drop (or copy&paste) songs which artist you want to change and put them to the node of artist you want to use (like 'Artists\Metallica'). Another possibility is to select such songs, show their properties and correct the artist's name for all of them. And actually the third method is to rename the artist directly in the tree. In all cases artist is automatically joined into one and you may need to execute database management to get rid of unused artists...
ad D2: Yes, export is needed, but it will take some time finish it...
ad D3: Scanning will be changed quite a lot (like the possibility to select filetypes to scan - e.g. exclude WAVs) and a feature like this can be added to.
BTW, I'm out the next week, so please be patient for the updates...
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smoryobemag
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2002 5:04 pm
RE: Feedback on problems and A COMPLIMENT!
Thanx for the answers.
C. The ID3 v2 Tags are all OK. (Checked with WinAMP & Tag&Rename). So the problem must be in the ID3lib you mentioned.
D1: Indeed it is possible, but what would be nice is to see 'George Michael & Elton John' disappear from the 'Artist'-section, but APPEAR in 'George Michael' and/or 'Elton John'. This isn't possible without renaming the artist to 'George Michael' or 'Elton John', otherwise it will turn up in the 'Artist'-section as 'George Michael & Elton John'.
EDIT 18/01/2002 - 13:18:
-- When I join a various artist-album, the songs are removed from the individual artist field. The album 'Let's Go Disco' contains a track by Gloria Gaynor. Now I've joined the albumtracks, the song is removed under 'Artists' - 'Gloria Gaynor'. --
TIP: Maybe it's possible to add an 'Album-Artist'-field, so those problems are solved.
BTW: I have to say it's GREAT that the BEST SOFTWARE for cataloging MP3 is FREEWARE!!!! Keep the good work going!!!
Thanx for the QUICK reply's.
Everybody should download this program!!!
C. The ID3 v2 Tags are all OK. (Checked with WinAMP & Tag&Rename). So the problem must be in the ID3lib you mentioned.
D1: Indeed it is possible, but what would be nice is to see 'George Michael & Elton John' disappear from the 'Artist'-section, but APPEAR in 'George Michael' and/or 'Elton John'. This isn't possible without renaming the artist to 'George Michael' or 'Elton John', otherwise it will turn up in the 'Artist'-section as 'George Michael & Elton John'.
EDIT 18/01/2002 - 13:18:
-- When I join a various artist-album, the songs are removed from the individual artist field. The album 'Let's Go Disco' contains a track by Gloria Gaynor. Now I've joined the albumtracks, the song is removed under 'Artists' - 'Gloria Gaynor'. --
TIP: Maybe it's possible to add an 'Album-Artist'-field, so those problems are solved.
BTW: I have to say it's GREAT that the BEST SOFTWARE for cataloging MP3 is FREEWARE!!!! Keep the good work going!!!
Thanx for the QUICK reply's.
Everybody should download this program!!!