Netgear Readynas Ultra 2 plus

[DavidHB]

(29-10-2017 10:25)ClausDK Wrote:  ...thanks for the tip about mp3tag, I’ll give it another chance then. The last use was changing tags on only 2 songs in the same album, and it took some 20minutes... in fact I thought it had stopped running. It was with Ethernet from pc to nas (or both to router) ... But it might be a solution to copy folders from nas to pc, edit tags there, and copy back to nas

That's really weird. A a test, I have just opened a 36 track album on my ReadyNAS 2 in MP3Tag on my PC. The album opened in five seconds or so. I'd suspect that either something is wrong with your network or security software on the PC is playing up. If you can copy reasonably easily between the PC and the NAS, that is the answer, as it makes sure you have a backup copy of your precious music library. As I said in my previous post, a USB backup drive attached to the laptop should do the job very well.

(29-10-2017 10:25)ClausDK Wrote:  Why use synctoy instead of simply copy?

Short answer: because Synctoy was designed to do the job. But you may also find the long answer interesting.

I first came across Synctoy 12 or 13 years ago when I was trying to reorganise my digital image library, and was getting file corruption in large copying operations. I learned that this was a problem with the Copy command at that time, and that Microsoft had produced SyncToy to make large batch copying operations more reliable. As far as I know, the issue with the Copy command has long been fixed, but it seems sensible to go on using SyncToy for the job for which it was designed.

When, four years ago, I established my music library for Hi-Fi use (at which point I already had the Netgear NAS), I adopted a variant of the system that had worked with my images. I did all the processing (downloading, ripping, folder organisation and tagging) on the PC, using a consistent 'workflow' or sequence of actions for each addition to the library. At Simon's suggestion, I also installed a copy of MinimServer on the PC, so that I could rescan the changed library and check in the MinimServer log that there were no problems with the new accessions. An error-free rescan is a good indication that the new material can be copied over to the NAS.

Synctoy uses pre-defined tasks, which it calls 'folder pairs'; the 'left' folder is the source, and the 'right' folder is the destination, and they are selected in the usual way. There are different copying schemes, or 'actions'; for my music library, I use the 'Echo' action, which identifies all the changes (additions, amendments and deletions) made since the last update in the source folder, and 'echoes', or mirrors, those changes on the destination. As the folder pair tasks are pre-defined, I can can use a task as many times as I want, simply by opening Synctoy and selecting that task.

This all means that there are identical copies of the library in the two locations; in fact I now keep four copies - the master, a backup on a drive attached to my PC and a copy on each of my NASs. Both NASs have MinimServer installed. so I can play music from both, and switch instantly from the one to the other if necessary.

(29-10-2017 10:25)ClausDK Wrote:  Oh yes, each album has its own folder. I have considered putting operas on 2-3 cd’s in the same folder, and use track numbers from 21-39 for tracks on cd 2 and 41-59 for cd 3. Or arrange after the acts in the opera in stead of cd nr. If so I would have to change album in the tags accordingly as well.

I've done all of those things. You can also use disc numbers as well as track numbers to keep things in order; disc numbers are a bit easier to use, as you can change them in many files at one go. Or, of course, you can use the auto numbering wizard. I also always prefix my file names with the track number (or, as necessary, the disc and track numbers) to keep the files in order. If this is not already done by the ripping program, MP3Tag (Convert > Tag to File name) will do it very easily.

(29-10-2017 10:25)ClausDK Wrote:  Pc is Asus Notebook with 8gb ram. Not terribly slow, but not very fast either. Anyway, when editing only 2tracks at a time pc should not be a limiting factor.

I agree.

David