JRiver tips and techniques: user experiences repository

[MikeK]

You were right Ted - the issue was tags.

 

While the JRiver application itself did not worry about 'Album Artist' being missing it looks like Gizmo is a bit more fussy.

 

Now all I need to do is get RDP access to Win2012 working so I can do all the tags from the comfort of my listening chair...

[DougElerath]

<snip>

All this being said, my main reason for using JRIver is still its sonics (yes, I use a different engine with it in one setup, but listen to direct JRiver in two other setups, and find it to sound way more musical than anything else that has a GUI. Some terminal based stuff sounds as good, but gimme a break.). And a close number two reason is JRemote, the best ipad app there is.

 

I have a GigaPort HD+ sound card, which provides 8 channels of output. I have four stereo amplifiers scattered around the house, each feeding a different room, each with equalizers setup for the speakers and acoustics of each particular room. Essentially whole house audio but with room-by-room tailoring.

 

I have found only two software packages which allow me to output the same stereo signal to each of the four pairs of channels to feed the amps. One of these has a GUI which I personally can't deal with. The other is jriver MC.

 

Yay J River!

[hifitubes]

All my music is stored on a Synology NAS, and I also have a drive letter "M:" mapped to the main shared folder on the NAS. I've noticed that roughly half of the files in my library have their file names start with "\\SYNOLOGY\Music\....." while the rest have "M:\...". I guess that what file gets what file naming path is/was dependent on how I imported my music. Sometimes I import a single folder that I browse to in JRiver, sometimes I use autoimport, and often I right-click in Windows explorer to add to Media Center. I'd prefer to use the "M:" filename path as it's shorter and more flexible.

 

So I'd like to edit all the files that start with "\\SYNOLOGY\Music" in the filename tag to "M:" but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do this. At first I thought it would be as simple as changing the tag using "=Replace([Filename],/#\\SYNOLOGY\Music#/,/#M:#/)" but it turns out that JRiver wants to move/copy the files and coughs up a furball telling me that the file already exists at that location. Yes, of course it does!

 

The Library Tools->Find and Replace function has the same effect.

 

I just want to edit the tag, not actually do any file moving/copying. Can anyone suggest a way to accomplish this?

 

You may have unknowingly imported via the network location via Windows Explorer. It's easy to do, and it happens to me all the time.

 

You can use find and replace but make sure you select right option from the top drop-down (Update Database):

 

• 

[EdmontonCanuck]

@HiFiTubes

 

Thanks for the tip Since I posted that question, I've managed to fix the database. You're right of course, I needed to pay attention to how I import stuff, and also to the different options available to me when for renaming files/updating database. It's all good now

 

Cheers!

 

Dave

[jriver]

MC19 has an option for ignoring articles like "the".

Definite Articles (non English ones)

[astrotoy]

Sorry, I am a latecomer to the thread, having just gotten JRiver and JRemote, which are wonderful. My old ipad 1, which had been lying idle, has a great new use! Anyway, my question - if already answered, please just direct me to the answer. I am trying to set up a second zone on JRMC19 for my Mac Mini, so I can play mch DSF files through my E28. The first zone is set to run 2 channel through my BADA2 and its USB. I cannot figure out the settings to use in zone 2. In particular, I find things like channel offset totally baffling. Could someone give me the correct settings for JRMC19 for mac (I have an i7 with 8GB RAM and Mavericks) to run the E28 in mch? Thanks. I am running the E28 through a 5.1 preamp (CJ MET-1) which is completely separate from my 2 channel preamp. I have a custom switch that allows me to go from 2 channel to 5.1 using the same 2 channel amps and Speakers. Right now, I switch from 2 channel to mch by closing JRMC19 and opening A+ where I run the mch. Works fine, but I would particularly like to use JRemote for both.

 

Thanks,

 

Larry

[Jim Sylva]

Does anyone know whether a smartlist can be evoked from within a pane? If so, can you explain how to implement it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ted_b]

Does anyone know whether a smartlist can be evoked from within a pane? If so, can you explain how to implement it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

If you want to see smartlists in panes then go to panes view, right click on the pane of choice, click the "edit" pulldown, choose playlist group then choose smartlists. Is that what you meant, though? By the way, same can be done when you create a new view.

[Jim Sylva]

If you want to see smartlists in panes then go to panes view, right click on the pane of choice, click the "edit" pulldown, choose playlist group then choose smartlists. Is that what you meant, though? By the way, same can be done when you create a new view.

Thanks, Ted. Your instructions worked flawlessly, but my question lacked needed detail.

 

I have a pane of Type=Library Field and the field specified is Genre, which includes Classical. I would like to evoke a smartlist when clicking on the genre Classical, which would expand the selection to include Period subdivisions. I doubt if this is possible, but J. River is so configurable, I don't know.

[ted_b]

Thanks, Ted. Your instructions worked flawlessly, but my question lacked needed detail.

 

I have a pane of Type=Library Field and the field specified is Genre, which includes Classical. I would like to evoke a smartlist when clicking on the genre Classical, which would expand the selection to include Period subdivisions. I doubt if this is possible, but J. River is so configurable, I don't know.

 

How about just creating a classical view (panes style) with periods, artists and albums as panes, and with a rule that basically is "genre is classical" or pick multiple classical-like genres like chamber, etc. Like here (and you could then import it to JRemote):

 

Sorry but I have like no Period tags.

[Jim Sylva]

How about just creating a classical view (panes style) with periods, artists and albums as panes, and with a rule that basically is "genre is classical" or pick multiple classical-like genres like chamber, etc.

 

Sorry but I have like no Period tags.

Good idea. Your smartlist in a pane solution would work too. Would one method be preferable for use with JRemote?

 

Another question: Is there a way of calculating the number of tracks composed by each composer in a library, and subsequently using the count to limit a list of composers to those that dominate the library?

[ted_b]

For Jremote, custom views are simple to import (see video tutorial or just this)

 

I'm sure there is a way to do the composer thing. I'd make a simple view that had composer and track as two of the panes. Then list the composers by number of tracks (probably a rule). That may take some thinking. Seems a bit over-engineered though....no offense. Why do that?

[Jim Sylva]

For Jremote, custom views are simple to import (see video tutorial or just this)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10726[/ATTACH]

 

I'm sure there is a way to do the composer thing. I'd make a simple view that had composer and track as two of the panes. Then list the composers number of tracks (probably a rule). That may take some thinking. Seems a bit over-engineered though....no offense. Why do that?

 

I really appreciate all your help and timely responses. I understand the over-engineering notion. I have been adding the Period field and a Uniform Composer Name field for Classical composers based on the U.S. Library of Congress Name Authority field. The Uniform Composer Name field's significance is, for instance, reflected by the personal name variations one finds for Russian composers, and any name using diacritics. It's been a very tedious and time-consuming process. This task has revealed that about 25% of the classical composers in my library are responsible for over 90% of the tracks, and about 2/3 of the composers penned one track only. With nearly two hundred classical composers in the library, I would be needlessly overwhelmed if all were listed. Ironically, I find myself complicating things in order to simplify.

 

As a classical music neophyte, this project was conceived as a pedagogical tool to help me get a feel for the timeline and development of classical music and its composers.

[ted_b]

Ahh..now i understand. Let me mull it over (composer and track count).

[Jim Sylva]

Ahh..now i understand. Let me mull it over (composer and track count).

 

Thanks Ted.

[ted_b]

Got it (although composer field will show all spellings, so Rachmaninoff and Rachmaninov will each have track counts):

* create new view, empty view (you can delete this view once your tagging project is done)

* make it a pane view

* add composer and name (track)

* for composer, sort by number of files (pulldown)

 

The number of tracks shows as each composer is highlighted, and the composers are sorted highest track numbers to lowest.

 

[Jim Sylva]

Got it (although composer field will show all spellings, so Rachmaninoff and Rachmaninov will each have track counts):

* create new view, empty view (you can delete this view once your tagging project is done)

* make it a pane view

* add composer and name (track)

* for composer, sort by number of files (pulldown)

 

The number of tracks shows as each composer is highlighted, and the composers are sorted highest track numbers to lowest.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10727[/ATTACH]

The field I created named "Uniform Composer" resolves the issue of separate track counts, since its value will be "Rachmaninoff, Sergei, 1873-1943" for both the Rachmaninoff and Rachmaninov "Composer" value records, and "Uniform Composer" will be used instead of the Composer field when performing operations. The problem I have is I don't want to sort by "Number of Files." I want to sort on the "Uniform Composer" field, but only list the composers with "x or more" number of files (tracks). I thought using a rule within my smartlist involving "Number of Tracks" would give me what I wanted, but it did not. So much fun.

 

I have really benefited from all your help and you showed me there are many ways to "skin a cat" in JRMC.

 

By the way, my wife teaches third grade, and a couple of years ago she used the term "skin a cat" in the classroom, and the students without exception reacted with expressions of horror.

[ted_b]

Jim,

 

The view I showed you was not intended to be a daily use view, but simply one where you could begin to identify those lesser composers.

 

Since your new field (Uniform Composer) works, then simply decide what is the lowest number of tracks you are willing to deal with and then highlight all the composers below that number (say "20") and remove those files from the library (not permanently from the hard drive, of course, just this library). Then once that is done, your pruning of lesser composers is done and set your "Uniform Composer" field sort option back to alphabetical (or whatever).

[Jim Sylva]

Jim,

 

The view I showed you was not intended to be a daily use view, but simply one where you could begin to identify those lesser composers.

 

Since your new field (Uniform Composer) works, then simply decide what is the lowest number of tracks you are willing to deal with and then highlight all the composers below that number (say "20") and remove those files from the library (not permanently from the hard drive, of course, just this library). Then once that is done, your pruning of lesser composers is done and set your "Uniform Composer" field sort option back to alphabetical (or whatever).

 

Of course! I misunderstood its purpose.

 

I added my smartlist as a pane, and it is much more convenient to access.

 

Thank you for starting this thread, and your willingness to share your expertise here and via your videos. Given the degree to which one can configure JRMC, the application warrants its own thread.

[GoldenEarDigital]

I wanted to share a new technique for browsing multi-composer albums that has been a huge improvement in how I browse my classical collection. BIG THANKS TO MrC at JRiver, who developed this solution and many other incredibly useful tools!

 

So, we all know the importance of having each track tagged with its respective composer. But, that means when we browse by composer and browse to "Brahms, Johannes" we end up narrowing down our collections exclusively to tracks by Brahms. So, we may end up seeing only tracks 1-3 of our "Brahms/Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos (Heifetz/Reiner)" album. But what about the rest of the album? Of course, you can do a "Library Tools>Locate>Album" in JRiver Media Center, or in JRemote you can fairly easily pull up the rest of the album with a few clicks. But, it's really nice to be able to browse by composer in a way that preserves albums in their original sequence without additional steps. It promotes rediscovering works which you may not have thought to search for deliberately, but the producer or artist deemed worthwhile additions to their album!

 

Here's how to do it: (If anyone has developed other ways of achieving the same goal I'm sure we'd all love to hear about it)

*First things first: before you can execute this, you must have each individual track tagged with its composer.

 

1. You'll want to make sure that each track title ("[name]") has the composer's last name added to it as a prefix. This is important because you'll be viewing an entire album and you'll need to be able to see the difference between "Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major..." and "Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major..." in the track names themselves. IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A SYSTEM FOR ADDING COMPOSER NAME TO THE TRACK TITLE, SKIP THIS STEP.

• Go to Tools>Options>Library & Folders>Manage Library Fields>Add New Fields and build yourself a new field. Call it "Name with Composer." Flag it for Audio (or whatever other media you want it to apply to). Under Data, click "Calculated Data" and paste the following expression:
  

ifelse(!regex([Name], ^listitem([composer], 0, /,)), listitem([Composer], 0, /,) )[name]

 

This expression will not change a track name that already has the composer's last name as the first word of the title, as that would be redundant.

 

• Select/highlight all the tracks you wish to rename with the composer name added (start with one album). Right click the selected tracks and hit Library tools>Move/Copy Fields>Source: "Name with Composer", Destination: "Name", Action: "Copy (Leaves Source)". OK, check.
  

 

2. Follow the same steps as before (first bullet point above) to create a new field called "Composers (Album)"

• Again, make it a calculated data field using this expression:
  

=load(composers_[album])&datatype=

 
3. Now, right click on the "Audio" node (in the left column that displays all your views) and select "customize view."

• Under "Included Files" hit "Set rules for file display", press the Import / Export button and add (via copy/paste) the following:
  

[=1save(,composers_[album])]=1 [=1save(listcombine(load(composers_[album]), [composer]), composers_[album])]=1

 

 

 

• Hit Ok, and go ahead and select "overwrite" (you did back up your library before you started this, right?)
  

4. Now just replace the "Composer" field with "Composers (Album)" everywhere you browse by composer (including in your custom view in the JRemote app) and go back to enjoying full albums!

 

IMPORTANT: The calculated values in your new "Composers (Album)" field will only be valid after you've visited the "Audio" node upon each instance of opening JRiver Media Center. Lest you forget to do so, it's a good idea to go to Tools>Options>Startup and select "Location: Audio" under "Startup Interface."

 

*Also, as always, make sure to back up your library before you get under the hood like this!

 

Finally, shameless self-promotion alert: Ari at Golden Ear Digital (hey, that's me!) does this and more professionally and would love to help you with your music library. Please visit Golden Ear Digital - Home for more info!

[ted_b]

Nice tip, Ari. And yes, kudos go to MR C for a lot of very detailed help with JRIver. He is the one who, amongst other things, helped me build a perl script and work flow to take Excel files and import tags into raw DSF files for my technical advisor work with NativeDSD.com He is a real expert in this stuff.

 

P.S. Keep Matt (Ashland, JRiver CTO) in your continued thoughts and prayers. He is progressing slowly but surely, has been upgraded to the new rehab hospital now for a week or so, and will likely get his smaller trach removed soon so he can continue increasing his speaking/communicating daily. It's a very long road, but he's making amazing progress. We will get him back in no time.

[Jim Sylva]

I wanted to share a new technique for browsing multi-composer albums that has been a huge improvement in how I browse my classical collection. BIG THANKS TO MrC at JRiver, who developed this solution and many other incredibly useful tools!

 

So, we all know the importance of having each track tagged with its respective composer. But, that means when we browse by composer and browse to "Brahms, Johannes" we end up narrowing down our collections exclusively to tracks by Brahms. So, we may end up seeing only tracks 1-3 of our "Brahms/Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos (Heifetz/Reiner)" album. But what about the rest of the album? Of course, you can do a "Library Tools>Locate>Album" in JRiver Media Center, or in JRemote you can fairly easily pull up the rest of the album with a few clicks. But, it's really nice to be able to browse by composer in a way that preserves albums in their original sequence without additional steps. It promotes rediscovering works which you may not have thought to search for deliberately, but the producer or artist deemed worthwhile additions to their album!

 

Here's how to do it: (If anyone has developed other ways of achieving the same goal I'm sure we'd all love to hear about it)

*First things first: before you can execute this, you must have each individual track tagged with its composer.

 

1. You'll want to make sure that each track title ("[name]") has the composer's last name added to it as a prefix. This is important because you'll be viewing an entire album and you'll need to be able to see the difference between "Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major..." and "Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major..." in the track names themselves. IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A SYSTEM FOR ADDING COMPOSER NAME TO THE TRACK TITLE, SKIP THIS STEP.

• Go to Tools>Options>Library & Folders>Manage Library Fields>Add New Fields and build yourself a new field. Call it "Name with Composer." Flag it for Audio (or whatever other media you want it to apply to). Under Data, click "Calculated Data" and paste the following expression:
  

ifelse(!regex([Name], ^listitem([composer], 0, /,)), listitem([Composer], 0, /,) )[name]

 

This expression will not change a track name that already has the composer's last name as the first word of the title, as that would be redundant.

 

• Select/highlight all the tracks you wish to rename with the composer name added (start with one album). Right click the selected tracks and hit Library tools>Move/Copy Fields>Source: "Name with Composer", Destination: "Name", Action: "Copy (Leaves Source)". OK, check.
  

 

2. Follow the same steps as before (first bullet point above) to create a new field called "Composers (Album)"

• Again, make it a calculated data field using this expression:
  

=load(composers_[album])&datatype=

 
3. Now, right click on the "Audio" node (in the left column that displays all your views) and select "customize view."

• Under "Included Files" hit "Set rules for file display", press the Import / Export button and add (via copy/paste) the following:
  

[=1save(,composers_[album])]=1 [=1save(listcombine(load(composers_[album]), [composer]), composers_[album])]=1

 

 

 

• Hit Ok, and go ahead and select "overwrite" (you did back up your library before you started this, right?)
  

4. Now just replace the "Composer" field with "Composers (Album)" everywhere you browse by composer (including in your custom view in the JRemote app) and go back to enjoying full albums!

 

IMPORTANT: The calculated values in your new "Composers (Album)" field will only be valid after you've visited the "Audio" node upon each instance of opening JRiver Media Center. Lest you forget to do so, it's a good idea to go to Tools>Options>Startup and select "Location: Audio" under "Startup Interface."

 

*Also, as always, make sure to back up your library before you get under the hood like this!

 

Finally, shameless self-promotion alert: Ari at Golden Ear Digital (hey, that's me!) does this and more professionally and would love to help you with your music library. Please visit Golden Ear Digital - Home for more info!

 

Post #73 of this thread is another approach to the same or similar concern.

[edorr]

I thought it might be a good idea, for us J RIver users, to have a go-to-place where we can show (or ask about) the tips, shortcuts and techniques used to get the most out of this hugely flexible and powerful tool. I'm a newbie, so if others have better tips I'm all ears (and eyes).

 

Tagging tips

Best practices for setting up views

Options setups for various DACS, etc

 

I'll start

 

_____________________________________________________________________

 

The ability to create views, then use them in jremote, is a huge deal with me. Here is a small primer I've started.

 

I've circled, in red, anything appropriate

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2332[/ATTACH]

 

Create view

* First click on Audio tree, then go to view_>add view->add library view, and pick empty one

* give it a name (mine is "24 bit hirez")

* change "view as" to categories (so you can see album art)..it's a pull-down pick

* add sorted fields. the sort order is the view order (i.e mine shows artists, then you pick albums, then if albums are available in multiple sample rates, you pick them). Experiment.

* add any rules under "set rules for file display" (my only rule was bit depth. My DSD view differs simply in that my only rule was "file type is DSF", and I had no sample rate field).

* add "show alphabet" if you have large lists to browse

Done!

 

Then import to jremote: To make this view available to JRemote, you'll want to simply customize the WebGizmo views (Tools > Options > Media Network > Advanced > Customize views for Gizmo & WebGizmo...). You just add a new section under Audio, selecting this "Library Item from Standard View".

 

If you want the longer, more detailed version, this post over on the J RIver forum, is a great one

Customise Current View v17 Expounded

 

__________________________________________________________________

 

Some advanced (for me) bulk tagging techniques:

 

1) the expression language. things like =fixcase([field-name]) will remove all caps that often come from DSD rips, etc. So highlighting an album, or set of albums, whose song names are all caps, and putting =fixcase([name]) in the tag area for name takes on the default capitalization rule (Capitalize first letter of important words).

 

Media Center expression language - JRiverWiki

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2333[/ATTACH]

 

2) shortcuts for adding or appending to field names, like album names. That way searches are so much easier, especially if you have albums that are available in a variety of versions.

Example:

=[Album] /(DSD/) puts (DSD) after the album name. So, when I import several albums i simply highlight them all and put that command in the tag area for album. As long as you start with the equals sign it will not over-write the album name. If you mess up, just go up to edit and "undo". The forward slashes escape using the parentheses (cuz parentheses, by themselves, are metacharacters and mean something in the expression language). So this changes Sea Change to Sea Change (DSD), and allows me to see my Sea Change, Sea Change (24/88) and Sea Change (DSD). It's great for huge bulk appends.

 

Ted, you're a genius. Just started ripping all my Blu Ray concert videos and the standard video views are useless to organize this content (Genre -> Artists -> Album -> Track). Created view as explained here and viola, Jremote picks it all up on the iPad and I'm in business! Thanks.

[robbbby]

Is anyone using, or found a way to do mass tagging using some sort of database, specifically for genre.

 

Over the years my music collection has grown, and the larger it gets the less motivated I am to properly tag anything, which then becomes a pain while trying to browse.

 

My issue with genre tagging is that I don't think any one piece of music has a single genre, they all have sub genres or styles and I like being able to browse my music that way. I have found the allmusic database is a great resource for genre/subgenre/style.

 

I started tagging my collection using the allmusic database and it works great, I was using the genre tag in the following way

 

I'll use a made up album as an example

 

Genre Tag

 

Jazz/Jazz Instrument/Piano Jazz; Jazz/Contemporary Jazz; Jazz/Free-Jazz/Avant-Garde Jazz; Blues/Modern Electric Blues

 

 

Using a tag as such, when I browse my library via genre which is 98% of the time, this specific album would come up in Jazz, the sub genres of jazz such as jazz instrument and piano jazz and also contemporary jazz, free-jazz and even in this odd instance blues.

 

I find it gives a ton of flexibility for the genres and the all music database is darn accurate in my opinion, but as you can see i'd probably spend the rest of my life genre tagging my library.

 

So, has anyone found a godd resource/database/method to help accurately expedite the process of genre tagging? Any and all help/opinions would be greatly appreciated.

[hifitubes]

It's a tough project. I have been using Jaikoz to pull from Discogs and Musicbrainz. I am never quite satisfied though. I just use about 12 hyper-generic Genres and trying to pull genre into style/sub-genre.

 

Is anyone using, or found a way to do mass tagging using some sort of database, specifically for genre.

 

Over the years my music collection has grown, and the larger it gets the less motivated I am to properly tag anything, which then becomes a pain while trying to browse.

 

My issue with genre tagging is that I don't think any one piece of music has a single genre, they all have sub genres or styles and I like being able to browse my music that way. I have found the allmusic database is a great resource for genre/subgenre/style.

 

I started tagging my collection using the allmusic database and it works great, I was using the genre tag in the following way

 

I'll use a made up album as an example

 

Genre Tag

 

Jazz/Jazz Instrument/Piano Jazz; Jazz/Contemporary Jazz; Jazz/Free-Jazz/Avant-Garde Jazz; Blues/Modern Electric Blues

 

 

Using a tag as such, when I browse my library via genre which is 98% of the time, this specific album would come up in Jazz, the sub genres of jazz such as jazz instrument and piano jazz and also contemporary jazz, free-jazz and even in this odd instance blues.

 

I find it gives a ton of flexibility for the genres and the all music database is darn accurate in my opinion, but as you can see i'd probably spend the rest of my life genre tagging my library.

 

So, has anyone found a godd resource/database/method to help accurately expedite the process of genre tagging? Any and all help/opinions would be greatly appreciated.