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Topic: New to Foobar2000 (Read 2652 times) previous topic - next topic
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New to Foobar2000

Hi,

I'm new to Foobar2000 after about 15 years of intensive WMP use. It seems to be much more customizable so I'm giving it a try.

I'd like to always show the composer field, even when this is empty/unfilled. The purpose is to fill manually every tag of every track of hundreds albums without having to right-click on each track to open the properties tab, which would be way too tedious. I'd like to choose tags I can view in the metadata window in order to fill them quicker using Tab or arrow keys.

Since yesterday, I've read many threads here which mostly helped me but I couldn't find anything about showing empty/unfilled fields of my choice. I tried many things in advanced display preferences I've downloaded and installed Tagbox, thinking this would help me but my problem remains. So after some hours of research, I dare to post here.

Not sure if I'm clear enough with my froggy english... Let me know if there's something you don't understand.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide.

Re: New to Foobar2000

Reply #1 –
Quote from: Clando57 on
The purpose is to fill manually every tag of every track of hundreds albums without having to right-click on each track to open the properties tab, which would be way too tedious.

See below for *showing* the Composer tag. But:

* You don't have to right-click each track to open properties. You can select multiple, and open Properties for all. Then selecting Composer will give you the opportunity to fill in.
* Do other data give you an indication on Composer? fb2k can populate Composer from other fields. But I do not bother to start explaining if you don't have those data ...
* You probably do not want to fill in manually if you can avoid it. I suggest the Musicbrainz Picard tagger. There is a "Classical extras" plugin, but that has some learning curve; try the default and see if it gets you what you want.
* Also, foo_discogs can retrieve tags from the Discogs.com website. https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_discogs .
I think you need to register a Discogs account to use it ... and you will get a Written-By somewhere, which is not the same as populating the Composer tag ...



Then:
To *show* Composer, you want a Composer column in playlists. When viewing the playlist - where you have column headlines like Album, Track no etc - right-click on one of them, and you will get a menu

Columns>
Groups>

Select Columns, and near the bottom, select More. Then you get a configuration page (which you could also have accessed through Preferences) with a "Custom columns" headline.
Add New. Give it pattern %composer%. Call it Composer (that is what _you_ will see). OK.
Then back to right-click a headline and select Columns>.  Then you should see Composer on the list. Click it.
Then you should see Composer as one of the columns. You can move it to the left or right.

Re: New to Foobar2000

Reply #2 –
Thank you for the reply.

I already found how to show the composer column in the playlist tab.

Yes, I've seen the possibility to select multiple tracks to fill in but I have very few tracks from a same composer. I tried to get data from freedb and MusicBrainz but they don't find any information for my tracks. Anyway, I prefer to fill in by myself to be accurate, precise. I'm not looking for a plugin to do this for me, I only need to show the composer value by default in the metadata tab even if the field is empty or unfilled.

Re: New to Foobar2000

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Clando57 on
Anyway, I prefer to fill in by myself to be accurate, precise.
Suggestion: Auto-fill, and then do corrections manually.
I don't think freedb has too much Composer data as MusicBrainz, and I don't think foo_musicbrainz gets composer?!? Not sure.
Try Picard, really. It can also identify tracks by acoustic fingerprint (listening to the songs). Beware that it could then put them in the wrong albums (it is likely better if you hit "Cluster" first, "Lookup" second and then make it listen to the rest). The "easiest" would probably be to make a backup set, put Picard at work, and then copy Composer.
(There are other applications that may listen and auto-tag too. Like this one from the creator of AccurateRip; I have never used it for tagging though, only for AccurateRip verification.)
 

Re: New to Foobar2000

Reply #4 –
Quote from: Clando57 on
I only need to show the composer value by default in the metadata tab even if the field is empty or unfilled.
If you are talking about the right-click track Properties > Metadata tab, the COMPOSER field already shows up with a default install of foobar, even when the field is empty. Not sure why you would not be seeing it by default.

You can add any fields to the Properties window however. This is setup under File > Preferences > Advanced > Display > Properties dialog > Standard fields. (They are listed in the order you want them to appear. The list scrolls off screen so you have to use right arrow key). Somewhere in there you want -

Composer=COMPOSER;

Perhaps though you are talking about the 'Selection Properties' panel in your layout - this is only a viewer and cannot be used to edit metadata. And it only shows fields that have info to show. There are no options to change it.

In addition to above, I'm not sure which of the Playlist Viewers you can use lets you edit metadata inline (without opening a dialog) - anyone? I believe you can do this with Columns UI - NG Playlist. Not sure about EL/ES Playlist or the JScript ones. (Columns UI is a separate UI you would have to learn and make a new layout, if you want that feature)

Cheers :)

Re: New to Foobar2000

Reply #5 –
Quote from: anamorphic on
In addition to above, I'm not sure which of the Playlist Viewers you can use lets you edit metadata inline (without opening a dialog) - anyone? I believe you can do this with Columns UI - NG Playlist.
Anamorphic: you're right, there is the feature "Linked meta field (for inline editing)" in Columns UI.

Re: New to Foobar2000

Reply #6 –
I've tried Picard and foo_discogs. Even if they both retrieve some informations, none satisfy me. Picard doesn't find any information about composers and Discogs doesn't fill them in accurately. As said above, I was really not looking for a plugin that would give approximative results, I wanted to do that perfectly by myself.

Indeed, Columns UI lets me do what I want. Thank you !