Multiple Genre & Library

[Kees van Loenen]

Hi Simon and readers,

I'm loving Minimserver for its huge flexibility. Actually most is working fine. I've got 2 questions for which I've been digging through all stuff on this forum.

Question 1: multiple genres
I'm tagging with the tool 'MP3 tag'.
- (FLAC files) when using multiple genres then Minimserver is using them perfectly.
- (MP3 files) when using multiple genres in an ID3v2.3 (storing both ID3v1 ID3v2.3) file, only the first genre is found (I've also tested this behaviour with a limited number of files and letting Minimserver logging the tag info to a file).
In both scenarios, FLAC and MP3, I've multiple separate GENRE tags.

Question 2: family
Minimserver runs on a NAS where only 1 instance can be installed. What would be the best way to split my music collection into 3 libraries (targeting wife, kids & myself) without:
- using the genre field
- introducing a new tag to every music file

Many thanks in advance,
Kees

[simoncn]

(14-10-2017 21:09)Kees van Loenen Wrote:  Hi Simon and readers,

I'm loving Minimserver for its huge flexibility. Actually most is working fine. I've got 2 questions for which I've been digging through all stuff on this forum.

Question 1: multiple genres
I'm tagging with the tool 'MP3 tag'.
- (FLAC files) when using multiple genres then Minimserver is using them perfectly.
- (MP3 files) when using multiple genres in an ID3v2.3 (storing both ID3v1 ID3v2.3) file, only the first genre is found (I've also tested this behaviour with a limited number of files and letting Minimserver logging the tag info to a file).
In both scenarios, FLAC and MP3, I've multiple separate GENRE tags.

This is caused by Mp3tag writing ID3v2.3 tags with multiple values in a nonstandard way that isn't compatible with the ID3v2.3 specification. If you convert your files to ID3v2.4, it should work as expected.

Quote:Question 2: family
Minimserver runs on a NAS where only 1 instance can be installed. What would be the best way to split my music collection into 3 libraries (targeting wife, kids & myself) without:
- using the genre field
- introducing a new tag to every music file

Many thanks in advance,
Kees

If there is no overlap between the 3 libraries, you can put them under separate top-level folders, then browse using [folder view] followed by >> Tag View to enter each library. If there is overlap, you would need to add new tags to the files.

[Kees van Loenen]

Simon,

Many thanks for your fast responses!! I may be wrongg but thought .3 is most compatible. So I will try to find a substitute for MP3 Tag then. I've been using Musicbrainz Picard and only use MP3 Tag to insert the GENRE fields.

Thanks again, cheers, Kees

[paulgj]

Also consider contacting the author of MP3tag, I think he would be open to changing the program to fix this non-compliant behavior.

(15-10-2017 07:36)Kees van Loenen Wrote:  Simon,

Many thanks for your fast responses!! I may be wrongg but thought .3 is most compatible. So I will try to find a substitute for MP3 Tag then. I've been using Musicbrainz Picard and only use MP3 Tag to insert the GENRE fields.

Thanks again, cheers, Kees

[simoncn]

I did send the author of Mp3tag an email about this. He didn't respond.

[simoncn]

(15-10-2017 07:36)Kees van Loenen Wrote:  Simon,

Many thanks for your fast responses!! I may be wrongg but thought .3 is most compatible. So I will try to find a substitute for MP3 Tag then. I've been using Musicbrainz Picard and only use MP3 Tag to insert the GENRE fields.

Thanks again, cheers, Kees

The problem is caused by the ID3v2.3 specification, not by Mp3tag. In ID3v2.3, only certain fields are allowed to have multiple values and GENRE isn't one of these fields. In ID3v2.4, all fields are allowed to have multiple values.

How does Musicbrainz Picard handle multiple values for the GENRE field in ID3v2.3?

[Kees van Loenen]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your thorough investigation (on a Sunday!) around tagging capabilities for all versions of ID3, much appreciated.
About your question around Musicbrainz Picard, GENRE is the only field I always fill in manually using either Pop, Jazz, Classic or Kids. When I open an mp3 with multiple genres the separator is semicolon, just like other programs represent the nullbyte.

I'm running Minimserver on a Synology NAS (213+), an older model. The existing DS Audio Station software is a slow and (much) less configurable compared to Minimserver, however it's capable of handling multipe genres in an MP3 file (id3v2.3). I've only got a couple of MP3 files and will do some further testing converting files to v2.4 and check if they will play on other devices (I read somewhere that v2.4 is not supported by iTunes, but that may be old or incorrect information).

Have a great Sunday and keep up the good work!

Cheers K

[simoncn]

iTunes does support ID3v2.4 but I believe Windows Explorer does not.

The Synology server (and some others) accept the nonstandard ID3v2.3 format for multiple values that is used by Mp3tag and some other tagging programs. The problem with this is that a file that has been encoded according to the ID3v2.3 specification could produce incorrect results in these servers. This isn't very likely in practice but it is the reason why MinimServer currently doesn't accept the nonstandard format.

[timalina]

(14-10-2017 22:18)simoncn Wrote:  

(14-10-2017 21:09)Kees van Loenen Wrote:  Hi Simon and readers,

I'm loving Minimserver for its huge flexibility. Actually most is working fine. I've got 2 questions for which I've been digging through all stuff on this forum.

Question 1: multiple genres
I'm tagging with the tool 'MP3 tag'.
- (FLAC files) when using multiple genres then Minimserver is using them perfectly.
- (MP3 files) when using multiple genres in an ID3v2.3 (storing both ID3v1 ID3v2.3) file, only the first genre is found (I've also tested this behaviour with a limited number of files and letting Minimserver logging the tag info to a file).
In both scenarios, FLAC and MP3, I've multiple separate GENRE tags.

This is caused by Mp3tag writing ID3v2.3 tags with multiple values in a nonstandard way that isn't compatible with the ID3v2.3 specification. If you convert your files to ID3v2.4, it should work as expected.

I have just converted a load of flac files to MP3 using Foobar, which I understand usew ID3v2.4 by default, but my semi-colon-separated tags are showing single values; so where I have a tag value of "Rock; Pop" in a flac file, I can filter using either the Rock or Pop tags, whereas the MP3 file has a tag called Rock;Pop (note that the space after the colon has disappeared).

Any ideas on how I can fix this so the tags work as intended on the MP3 files?

I use BubbleUPNP as a controller.

[Hanu]

(20-02-2023 13:57)timalina Wrote:  I have just converted a load of flac files to MP3 using Foobar, which I understand usew ID3v2.4 by default, but my semi-colon-separated tags are showing single values; so where I have a tag value of "Rock; Pop" in a flac file, I can filter using either the Rock or Pop tags, whereas the MP3 file has a tag called Rock;Pop (note that the space after the colon has disappeared).

Select files, properties, genre right click split values

May you have to change or add a tag, save and do a rescan