music management systems - which ones can show me artist folders?

[julsay]

After a lifetime of LPs, reels, cassettes, DATs and CDs, I'm now trying to understand and try out this computer audio thing.  I have a 6 TB drive with 1,100+ albums, connected to my Mac laptop via USB.  I then have the Mac connected to my LAN via an ethernet cable.  On the other end, I have a Bricasti M-1 DAC also connected to the LAN via ethernet.  

 

I downloaded trial versions of Audirvana and J-River, and although this setup sounds great, I hate the way each of these music management systems looks.  It appears that I cannot view "folders" of artists...each album sits on its own.  So if I have 300 artists comprising 1,100 albums, I have to browse through 1,100 albums rather than 300 artists.  Furthermore, "The Beatles" files under "T" rather than "B".  Really annoying.

 

My question: is there a way to correct these issues in either Audirvana or J-River?  If not, are there other music management applications that can sort the way I want?

 

 

[kumakuma]

In JRiver:

 

- From the Albums view, type the name of the artist into the search box in the upper right.

 

- From the Artists view, click the little triangle and scroll down to the artist you are interested in.

[MetalNuts]

I am sure JRiver can browse in many different ways including artists and albums.  I used years ago and I always look up by way of artists mostly.  

 

 

[Allan F]

2 hours ago, julsay said:

After a lifetime of LPs, reels, cassettes, DATs and CDs, I'm now trying to understand and try out this computer audio thing.  I have a 6 TB drive with 1,100+ albums, connected to my Mac laptop via USB.  I then have the Mac connected to my LAN via an ethernet cable.  On the other end, I have a Bricasti M-1 DAC also connected to the LAN via ethernet.  

 

I downloaded trial versions of Audirvana and J-River, and although this setup sounds great, I hate the way each of these music management systems looks.  It appears that I cannot view "folders" of artists...each album sits on its own.  So if I have 300 artists comprising 1,100 albums, I have to browse through 1,100 albums rather than 300 artists.  Furthermore, "The Beatles" files under "T" rather than "B".  Really annoying.

 

My question: is there a way to correct these issues in either Audirvana or J-River?  If not, are there other music management applications that can sort the way I want?

 

Welcome to Audiophile Style, julsay.

 

There are some very helpful resources regarding JRiver at this site, thanks to ted_b: (click) JRiver Tips & Techniques

Note that, at the bottom of ted_b's first post, there are links to two JRiver video tutorials that he prepared. While they were created for earlier versions of JRiver, most of the information is still applicable.

 

Good luck,

Allan

[rn701]

In JRiver (Windows version anyway), on the menu on the left side of the screen under "Audio" you should see an option for "Artist." This will display your library grouped by artist.

 

The Beatles should sort under "B." Check Tools->Options->Tree & View->Sorting->Articles. This holds the list of articles like 'the', 'a', 'an', etc. that will be ignored when sorting. It should have 'the' already listed when you install, so not sure what's up. (This is for the Windows version, maybe Mac is different?)

[rn701]

Also, Roon has a very nice artist display that shows a picture of the artist (instead of an album cover like JRiver). It also sorts correctly (ignoring "the, etc.), which JRiver should also do if setup correctly. Roon is also more expensive, but really nice and worth it to some.

[WAM]

In Audirvana:

 

Go to Library, Tracks, and you can select an artist (or genre, or grouping, whatever).

 

You can also use the search function: type the name of the artist, and only the albums of the artist you selected appear.

 

Simple comme bonjour.

[julsay]

Thank you for all your help.  Using J-River, I am now able to convert "The Rolling Stones" to "Rolling Stones", and "John Hiatt" to "Hiatt, John".  I now also see how to view by artist and then click through for the individual albums by the artist.  So thanks.

 

I still have one big problem:  I cannot output the audio to my Bricasti M-1 DAC.  As mentioned in my initial post, I have my Mac connected to my LAN via an ethernet cable.  On the other end, I have a Bricasti M-1 DAC also connected to the LAN via ethernet.  When I select Tools > Options > Audio > Audio Device, the only choice is "Built-In Output {Core Audio}. 

 

When I use Audirvana, which I am not liking at all for many reasons, I see an audio output option for "M-1".  When I select that, I can hear the music played over my system.  I therefore know that there's nothing wrong with my Mac, ethernet cables, the M-1 or any of its settings.

 

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[Daccord]

You need to turn on the Media Network feature in Media Center. You'll also want to configure the DLNA settings to match the capabilities of your DAC. I think they default to converting everything to mp3, but I could be wrong.

[Innocent Bystander]

Julsay, this is a problem with the otherwise wonderful Audirvana - I have asked before on the official Audirvana thread, and others have pursued this on Audirvana’s own forum, apparently to no avail.

 

For those of us with missing, incomplete, inconsistent or incorrect metadata, varying across large numbers of files, metadata-based searching simply doesn’t work well: With Audirvana some of my music doesn’t appear at all, which is hopeless if you simply want to browse through what you have and pick something that catches your eye, as not everything shows up. Then some albums are strangely split into two or more, not necessarily appearing in the same view, making it challenging playing as a complete album. I think about 80% of my music generally appears acceptably in A+, though not always where I would expect it. For browsing, or to find one of the missing things, I use a workaround, going into Finder, doing my browsing there, then copying the album I want into Audirvana’s play queue. It works, but is not neat, and my wife simply gives up, which is a great shame.

 

I have tried various metadata editors, and, yes, I can add/amend to my heart’s content - but it is a laborious, time-consuming, and if you have hundreds of albums to do soul-destroying process. Some people my enjoy it - others of us do not, and do not have the time or energy to do so. I did a trial of Roon a couple of years ago, not for use to play, but because it claimed to be able find all music files and add any missing metadata; it failed - indeed it didn’t recognise much of my music.

 

I keep hoping that one day @damien78will recognise the issue and enable searching and browsing via file structure, which, after all, is simple, logical, readily tailored by any individual to suit their preferences, fits well with those of us who built collections before being aware of metadata and its significance, and doesn’t require time to check and amend or add metadata when a new album is added. Simple, convenient and it would make Audirvana shine as the most user-friendly software as well as the best sounding when used as a renderer.

[Innocent Bystander]

On 1/17/2019 at 4:14 AM, julsay said:

When I use Audirvana, which I am not liking at all for many reasons, I see an audio output option for "M-1".  When I select that, I can hear the music played over my system.  I therefore know that there's nothing wrong with my Mac, ethernet cables,

I’m a bit unclear how you’re trying to connect here: do you mean feeding the DAC direct from the USB output of the Mac? (Elsewhere I understood you to say you were feeding via network.) If you are talking about feeding direct, I found the optimised setup as given in the A+ manual gave excellent sound quality and commend that  - BUT given the inevitable RF contamination of the Mac’s output (even with fancy power supplies), using direct to a DAC requires either the DAC to be immune to RF, or you need to use an effective blocker in between.

 

I now use Chord Dave DAC, which has been designed specifically to be as immune as possible from adverse effects due to RF, but when I originally used A+ with a Hugo, it didn’t sound good direct. I ended up feeding through a Gustard U12 converter/isolator, which is an inexpensive unit that fixed the problem, and it sounded great.

[StephenJK]

With JRiver click on the main Audio selection on the left side display window - from the drop down menu you can then select either Albums, Artists, Files, etc.  Albums will sort by the album name, Artists by the artists name, etc.  

 

With a selection of Albums or Artists that title will then appear above your music listing on the right side display window.  Clicking on that will give you a "Sort By" selection - I use Name for both Albums and Artists.  

 

To ignore the article "The" go to Tools > Options > Tree & View > Sorting and check the box for "ignore articles".

 

JRiver is a great program but the intent was for us to carefully tag all of our music by genre, throw everything into a single library and then sort by genre if desired.  I don't care for that approach and tend to use different libraries.  I never liked genres, the hard rock of today is easy listening tomorrow.

 

I have a total of six for CD's Rock, Classical, Jazz & Folk and again for LP's Rock, Classical, Jazz & Folk.  I do have to change libraries to be able to select what I want to listen to, but there's really no limit to how many libraries you can have and to suit your tastes.  Changing libraries isn't a major issue but if you're using a remote program such as JRemote it won't support that function, you have to hike back to your laptop or computer and do that manually.  

 

I'm not going to question your tagging scheme and you haven't mentioned whether the file format you're using can support embedded metadata.  I use FLAC, and have always been very careful of the syntax that I use for ripping CD's or for digitizing LP's.  If the software doesn't support the naming convention I like to use then the files in any folder can be group edited with dBpoweramp's Edit ID Tag function.

 

Back to your example of The Beatles.  I use a folder structure that has Album Artist > Album Title and then the files with Track Number > Artist > Track Name.

 

That gives me Beatles, The > A Hard Day's Night > 01 - The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night.flac

 

Not all software has a separate field for Album Artist and Artist.  dbPoweramp with their CD rip program does.  The LP mastering program I use is VinylStudio, with that I use Artist/Performer for The Beatles and Artist Alias for Album Artist.  Either way I get what I want although with VinylStudio I sometimes need to edit the Album Artist field with the Edit ID Tag function.  

 

Edit:  I see I'm responding to an old post!  I'll have to get in the habit of checking the OP date!

[fragoulisnaval]

On 4/22/2019 at 1:22 PM, Innocent Bystander said:

Julsay, this is a problem with the otherwise wonderful Audirvana - I have asked before on the official Audirvana thread, and others have pursued this on Audirvana’s own forum, apparently to no avail.

 

For those of us with missing, incomplete, inconsistent or incorrect metadata, varying across large numbers of files, metadata-based searching simply doesn’t work well: With Audirvana some of my music doesn’t appear at all, which is hopeless if you simply want to browse through what you have and pick something that catches your eye, as not everything shows up. Then some albums are strangely split into two or more, not necessarily appearing in the same view, making it challenging playing as a complete album. I think about 80% of my music generally appears acceptably in A+, though not always where I would expect it. For browsing, or to find one of the missing things, I use a workaround, going into Finder, doing my browsing there, then copying the album I want into Audirvana’s play queue. It works, but is not neat, and my wife simply gives up, which is a great shame.

 

I have tried various metadata editors, and, yes, I can add/amend to my heart’s content - but it is a laborious, time-consuming, and if you have hundreds of albums to do soul-destroying process. Some people my enjoy it - others of us do not, and do not have the time or energy to do so. I did a trial of Roon a couple of years ago, not for use to play, but because it claimed to be able find all music files and add any missing metadata; it failed - indeed it didn’t recognise much of my music.

 

I keep hoping that one day @damien78will recognise the issue and enable searching and browsing via file structure, which, after all, is simple, logical, readily tailored by any individual to suit their preferences, fits well with those of us who built collections before being aware of metadata and its significance, and doesn’t require time to check and amend or add metadata when a new album is added. Simple, convenient and it would make Audirvana shine as the most user-friendly software as well as the best sounding when used as a renderer.

 

Buy an external hard disk, copy all your music files and send it to me to do the metadata editing.

[Dan Gravell]

On 4/22/2019 at 11:22 AM, Innocent Bystander said:

Julsay, this is a problem with the otherwise wonderful Audirvana - I have asked before on the official Audirvana thread, and others have pursued this on Audirvana’s own forum, apparently to no avail.

 

For those of us with missing, incomplete, inconsistent or incorrect metadata, varying across large numbers of files, metadata-based searching simply doesn’t work well: With Audirvana some of my music doesn’t appear at all, which is hopeless if you simply want to browse through what you have and pick something that catches your eye, as not everything shows up. Then some albums are strangely split into two or more, not necessarily appearing in the same view, making it challenging playing as a complete album. I think about 80% of my music generally appears acceptably in A+, though not always where I would expect it. [...]

 

But maybe if you isolate what the issues are you can fix that long term...

 

- Missing metadata can normally be filled in automatically, or at least with a single confirmatory click, in most metadata editors

- Inconsistent metadata, or metadata not stored in a way that is suited to A can be converted in an automated way (e.g. in MP3Tag you can save "actions")

So I'm interested - are there consistent rules which you should follow to ensure A displays consistently? I could write an article about that, I'm sure @damien78 would give me any technical pointers.

[Innocent Bystander]

On 1/15/2019 at 3:53 AM, julsay said:

It appears that I cannot view "folders" of artists...each album sits on its own.

 

On 4/22/2019 at 11:22 AM, Innocent Bystander said:

Julsay, this is a problem with the otherwise wonderful Audirvana - I have asked before on the official Audirvana thread, and others have pursued this on Audirvana’s own forum, apparently to no avail.

 

There is a partial solution, advised by Jud, which I have just tried.

 

See post 600 on the Audirvana Plus 3.5 thread:

 

[paultaylor]

This may be of interest to you @julsay

 

SongKong Music tagger now supports adding artist images (as well as album images), and this includes images for composers and conductors and performers not just the main artist