Music Library Help

                       Version 1.0 ,  March, 2000

             For latest updates, please visit our web site:
              http://www.wensoftware.com/MusicLibrary/

Content

1. Installation
2. Using CDDB
3. The Main Window
    MP3 Explorer
    Audio Explorer
4. The Menu
    File
    Audio
    Playlist
    Edit
    View
    Tools
    Options
    Controls
    Help
5. The Rename Utility
6 The Tag and field Editor
7. The Add Album and Edit Album window
8. The Properties window
9. The CD Player
10. FAQs

Installation

To install Music Library, simply unzip the "zip" file to a temp directory. Then run "Setup.exe" and follow instructions.
If you downloaded the EXE only version, simply create a folder (For example: "C:\Music Library") on your hard drive.
Unzip files into that directory. That's it. Double click on "Musiclib.exe" to run the program.

To uninstall, go to Windows' Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs. Select Music Library from the list then
click remove. Follow instructions. If you had the EXE only version, simply delete the folder and all files.

Using CDDB

Music Library uses the CDDB2 Disc Recognition ServiceSM (DRS) from CDDB, Inc. to get the artist, title, track,
credit, and other information about the CDs you play.  This service is FREE and automatic.  The first time you use
the service, you must register with CDDB.

 

To register with CDDB, just add a CD (from menu select Audio/Add) using the "Album Info Editor" to  Music Library

audio database. You will be asked to register, click "Yes" to launch the CDDB Registration Wizard.  Follow the screens

for a “New Registration” to select a “nickname” and password.  The remaining information is optional, but does help

CDDB provide better service. Once you register, you do not have to re-register, unless you want to change your

registration information or settings.

To change your CDDB registration information launch the "Album Info Editor". Click on Register button, then
follow instruction.

To see or edit the full CDDB2 information for a CD, switch to the "Audio Explorer" tab, change to "Album" view. (To do
this, simply select "Album" from the view selection box on top of the Treeview.) Select the album you want to edit.
From menu, select Audio / Edit to bring up the "Album Info Editor" window. Click on the Disc Info button to show CDDB disc
info.
 

The Main Window

The "MP3 Explore"
Treeview: Displays directories, albums, artists and genres when the corresponding view selection is selected in the view selection
                 dropdown box above it.
File List: Displays files.
Playlist: Displays songs in your open playlist or working playlist.
Cover Viewer: Displays album cover image when a track is selected in "File List Pane" if there is an image associated with the file.

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The Menu

The "File" Menu

"New Database": Start a new database.
"Open Database": Open a new database.
"Import": View an import database file (".dbv"" file"). You can export your database to a "dbv" file, so other people can browse your
               collection just like the files are on their computers. Use this menu to view the "dbv" file.
"Export": Export your database to an "dbv" file and share your collection with others.
"Compare": Compare your database with others', generates a wanted list in seconds. The files not present in your database will be
                 shown in the "Playlist Pane", you can save the list as a "m3u" file. When the other person open this playlist file, he
                 exactly where the files are.
"Save As": Save the current open database as a copy.
"Add Volume": Scans selected drive or folder for MP3 files and add to your database.
"Add Playlist/Search Hard Drives": Scan hard drives for ".m3u" and add to your database.
"Add Playlist/Manual": Manually select ".m3u" and add to your database.
"Update/Selected": Updates selected folder or drive only.
"Update/Recurse": Updates selected folder or drive and sub folders (Recursive).
"Update All": Updates your hard drives and network drives (if any connected) with a single mouse click.
"Open/Close CD": Open or close CD ROM door.
"Exit": Close and exit program.

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The "Audio" Menu

"Add": Brings up the "Album Info Editor" window. Use it to add an album to your database.
"Edit":  Brings up the "Album Info Editor" window. Use it to edit an existing album in the database.
"Delete": Use it to delete an album from your database.
"Report": Creates an report of your audio collection.
"CD Player": Launch Music Library CD Player.
"Properties": Use it to show selected album's information.

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The "Playlist" Menu
"Open": Use it to open a playlist file.
"New": Start a new playlist.
"Save": Use it to save the playlist.
"Save as": Use it to save the playlist as a different copy.
"Delete": Use it to delete a playlist.
"Select Songs/Add Selected": Adds selected files (in "File List") to playlist (the "Playlist").
"Select Songs/Add All": Adds all files listed (in "File List") to playlist (the "Playlist").
"Select Songs/Recurse Folder": Add all files in selected folder include sub folders (in "Treeview") to playlist.
"Select Songs/Recurse My Hard Drives": Add all files on your hard drives to playlist.
"Select by Rating": Add songs with rating you specified to playlist.
"Delete": Delete selected playlist from your hard drive and database.
"Remove": Use it to remove selected tracks from you working playlist (Selected files in "Playlist Pane").
"Clear": Use it to clear all files in the "Playlist Pane".

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The "Edit" Menu

The "Edit" works with the "Treeview Pane" and the "File List Pane".

"Copy to": Use it to copy selected files to a folder.
"Move": Use it to move selected files to a folder.
"Rename": Use it to bring up the "Rename Utility" window and rename the selected files.
"Edit Tag": Use it to bring up the "Tag and Field Editor" window and edit tags or fields of the selected files.
"Delete": Use it to delete selected folder from database in "Treeview Pane" or delete selected files in "File List Pane".
"Remove Record":Use it to remove records of selected files in "File List Pane".
"Rate Tracks":Use it to "Rate Tracks" window.
"Select All": Use it to select all files in "File List Pane".
"Invert Selection": Invert the selection in "File List Pane".
"Enqueue Selected": Queue selected files into Winamp's internal playlist.
"Enqueue All": Queue all files in "File List Pane" into Winamp's internal playlist.
"New Folder": Use it to create a new folder under the selected folder.
"Edit Disk Label": Edit selected removable disk's label.
"Properties": View folder properties when a folder is selected in "Treeview" or a file's properties when a file is selected in "File List".

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The "View" Menu

"All": Show all panes.
"Folder + File + Playlist": Show Treeview, File List and Playlist panes.
"Folder + File": Show Treeview and File List panes.
"Folder + File + Cover": Show Treeview, File LIst and Image panes.
"Up One Level": Move to parent node of the current selection in "Treeview".
"Collapse Drives": Collapse all nodes except drive nodes.
"Expand All": Expend all nodes in Treeview.
"Find": Find first item that matches the search word in Treeview.
"Find Next": Find next item that matches the search word in Treeview.
"Refresh": Refresh the "File List" pane.
"Always on Top": Keep the main window always on top.

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The "Tools" Menu

"Search Database": Brings up the "Search" window.
"Text Report": Brings up the "Text Report" window.
"HTML Report": Brings up the "HTML Report" window.
"Compact Database": Use it to reduce the size of your database file if you have a lot of empty fields in your database.
"Erase Database": Empty the open database.
"Compose CD": Brings up the "Audio CD Composer" window.

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The "Options" Menu

"Settings": Brings up the "Options" window, use it to set program settings.
 

The "Control" Menu

Remote controls for Winamp. Winamp as your default player is required.

The "Help" Menu

Access help file, links to web site, etc.

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The Rename Utility

Renaming files can be a nightmare. With the Rename Utility, rename you files can be a piece of cake. The Manual Mode is
actually not so "manual". It just puts all the controls in your hands. With Auto Mode, you can set your own rules and rename files
with a single click.

"Undo": Undo rename.
"Close": Close and exit utility.

Manual Mode:
"Replace": Replace all occurrences of specified text with new text.
"Replace Once":  Replace first occurrence of specified text with new text.
"Insert Text": Insert text at specified location.
"Trim 1": Trim all occurrences of specified text and replace with spaces.
"Trim 2": Trim all occurrences of specified text.
"ABC > abc": Lower case all characters.
"abc > ABC": Upper case all characters.
"ab cd" > Ab Cd": Change first character of every word to upper case and the rest to lower case.
"Reset": Start over.
"Artist <=> Title": Swap Artist and Title. (Must be separated by " - ".)
"Trim Numbers": Trim all numeric characters.
"Use Tag": Use tag as new file names. You can define your own templates and choose any fields in any order.
"Start": Rename all files in the list.

Auto Mode:
"Rules": Brings up the "Options" window to set rules.
"Preview": Preview new file names.
"Start": Rename all files in the list.

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The Tag and Fields Editor

The Tag and Field Editor allows you edit tags and fields in the easy way. You can get the results you like with a few mouse clicks.
See results before action. Field editing allows you to correct any mistakes you made after you burn your file on CDs. Album artist
field let you use "Various" for albums with various artists. When scanning, default album artist is the track artist.

Tag - id3 tag in MP3 files.
Field - The fields in your database, such as Artist, Title, Album, etc.

"Use File Name": Fill fields with file name. Acceptable format: Artist - Album - Track - Title.
"Artist <=> Title": Swap items in Artist and Title column.
"Title <=> Album": Swap items in Title and Album column.
"Album <=> Com": Swap items in Album and Comment column.
"Erase Tag": Erase id3 tags in all files listed.
"Write Tag": Write id3 tags to all files.
"Erase Field": Clear all fields of all files listed.
"Write Field": Write fields of all files listed.
"Close": Close and exit.

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The Album Info Editor Window

The Add Album, Edit Album Window allows you to add albums to the database or edit an existing album. You can actually
catalog any music media you have. Music Library is a CDDB2 (The newest enhanced CDDB service) enabled program,
You can retrieve all most all information about a CD (internet connection is required). No more typing! You can even catalog
your home made CDs, all you need to do is open the playlist you create the CD from. All fields will be filled automatically.

Toc: Table of contents of a CD.

"Add Track" button: Add a track manually.
"Edit Track" button: Edit a existing track.
"Add to DB" button: Adds album to your database.
"Update DB" button: Update the database after you edit the album.
"New Album" button: Starts a new album.
"Exit" button: Close and exit.
"Get Toc" button: Calculates the toc* of a disc.
"Disc Info" button: Connects to CDDB and get disc information.
"Submit Disc" button: Launch CDDB Submit Disc form.
"Registration" button: Brings up the CDDB registration information window.
"Eject" button: Opens CD door.
"Close" button: Closes CD door.
"Open Playlist" button: Get your home made CD's information from the playlist.
 

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The Properties window

The Properties window let you view or edit a track's information, attach cover images and rate tracks.

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The CD Player

The Music Library CD Player is a stand alone fully featured CD Player. It not only plays CDs, but also
displays detail information of what your listening to. Whenever you insert a CD, it will recognize the disc
and query your database to retrieve disc information, automatically! It's still under development, more
features will be added soon!

To display track information, you need to associate a database with the player. To do
this, click on letter "O" in the upper left corner to bring up the option window, select a
database that contains the disc information. Next time you run the player, every time
you insert a disc it will detect the disc and display disc info automatically. If disc is
not in the database, it will just display "Unknown" and "Track 01".

To enter or edit comment of a playing album, click on the "Album" icon to bring up the
"Album Comment" window, click the "Update" button to update your database.

To enter or edit comment of a playing track, click on the "Track" icon to bring up the
"Track Comment" window, click the "Update" button to update your database.

To refresh album and track info if you made changes to the playing album, simply
click on the "Artist" icon.

To make it always on top, click on the letter "P" on the upper left corner of the display.

To continuously play a CD, click on the letter "C".

To play a specific track, click on the track number on top of the display.

To change time display, simply click on the playing time to toggle "Time elapsed" ,
"Time remaining", "Total elapsed" or "Total remaining".

To view detail track info, click on the white arrow beside the logo (bottom right corner).

To view cover image, click on the left arrow beside the logo (bottom right corner).

To change to Control Bar mode, click on the "diamond" on upper right hand corner or
simply double click on any empty area.

To reset to Normal mode, click on the "square" (second box from the right) or simply
double click on any empty area on the bar.

To go to any location of the playing track, click on the location on the status bar. Or you
can "drag" on the status bar and release at location you want to go to.

To control it form system tray when minimized, right click on the icon to bring up the
menu.
 

 


The FAQs:

Q: How to create a database?
Q: How to add a removable disk to my database?
Q: How to attach cover image to an album?
Q: How to input rating of a song?
Q: How to add a playlist to my database?
Q: How to append a playlist to my working playlist?
Q: How to export a "dbv" file?
Q: How to import a "dbv" file?
Q: How to compare databases?
Q: How to update a database?
Q: How to select songs for my playlist?
Q: How to copy files using Music Library?
Q: How to move files using Music Library?
Q: How to rename files?
Q: How to edit Id3 tags?
Q: How to create a new folder?
Q: How to edit a disk's label?
Q: How to use the "Address" dropdown box?
Q: How to use the "Quick Lookup" dropdown boxes?
Q: How to open the separate Cover Image Viewer?
Q: Does Music Library support other players?
Q: Why some fields show "0" or "00:00"?
Q: Why when I switch to "Artist" view, I see same artist show up twice?
    (For example: "Ace Of Base" and "Ace of base")
 
 

(More to be added)
 

Q: How to create a database?
A: 
To create a MP3s database, switch to MP3 Explorer tab if you are not on it. If you know where your files are, select
File / Add Volume from menu. Then select the folder or drive to start the scan. After scan, select File / Save As
from menu to save the database. You MUST save the database to a name other then "Untitled.dbd". The
"Untitled.dbd" is a temporary database, it will be deleted when you exit the program. If you don't know where the
files are or you don't want to select folders one by one, you can simply select File / Update All from the menu.
Program will scan all your hard drives for MP3s. Save the database when scan is finished.  You only need to
save a new database. After that all operation will be updated automatically.

Note: Do NOT exit the program during a scan. Cancel the scan then exit.

One of the unique feature of Music Library is you can track almost all your music collections with one database.
Why use two programs to do one thing? Of course you can create two databases. One for MP3 and one for audio.
You can do it whatever  way you like.

To create an audio database, switch to Audio Explorer tab. Select Audio / Add from menu to bring up the
Add Audio Window. If the album is on a CD, insert the disc when drive is ready, click on Get Toc button to
calculate the Toc of the disc. Then click on the Disc Info button to download information from CDDB database.
(Assumed you are online already). If there is a exact match, the Disc Info window will show up. Hit  the Accept
button to accept the information. If there are multiple matches, the multiple match window will show up, select
one from the list, wait for the Disc Info window to show. Hit the Accept button. The tracks will be list on the
Add Audio window. Add or edit if you want, then click on the Add to DB button to enter the album to database.

Back to FQAs

Q: How to add a removable disk to my database?
A:
If you burn you MP3s on CDs, you can track them with the database also. From the menu, select
File /  Add Volume. Select the CD or removable drive to start the scan. That's it. The disk will be listed
under the drive letter where you scan the disk from.

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Q: How to attach cover image to an album?
A:
Select one of the tracks in an album, select Edit / Properties from the menu to bring up the Properties
Window. Click the Browse button to locate the image file. Then hit Update button to update the
database. Next time when a track is selected in File List or Playlist, the image will show up in the
Cover Image Viewer.

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Q: How to input rating of a song?
A:
Select songs from File List then select Edit / Rate Tracks from the menu to bring up the Rate Tracks
window. Listen and rate the songs. Click on the Done button to update the database. Or you can
enter rating from the Properties window.

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Q: How to add a playlist to my database?
A:
From menu. select File / Add Playlist / Manual to select a playlist or select File / Add Playlist / Search
Hard Drives to find all "m3u" files on your computer. Playlist files are listed under the "My Playlists" node
in the Treeview.

Back to FQAs

Q: How to append a playlist to my working playlist?
A:
Simply select a playlist file in Treeview, drag and drop it into your Playlist layout.

Back to FQAs

Q: How to export a "dbv" file?
A:
Open or create a database. Select File / Export from menu and enter location and file name to save it
as a "dbv" file.

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Q: How to import a "dbv" file?
A:
Select File / Import from menu to open a "dbv" file. With this feature, you can view other people's collection
just like the files are on you computer, select tracks you like and save the list as "m3u" file. When the other
person open that playlist file, he knows exactly where the files are, even on CDs. How? Because
Music Library uses virtual paths for files on removable disks. For example, if the actual path is:
D:\Aerosmith - Greatest Hits\Dream On.mp3 (D: is your CD drive) and the CD label is "Albums (01)", the
virtual path is: D:\Albums (01)\Aerosmith - Greatest Hits\Dream On.mp3.

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Q: How to compare databases?
A:
With your own database open, select File / Compare from menu. Select the "dbv" file you want to compare
with. The compare process will start. Files not present in your database will be listed in Playlist. Remove or select
songs, save it as "m3u" and thats you instant "Wanted List".

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Q: How to update a database?
A:
To update all hard drives, select File / Update All. All hard drives will be updated. To update a folder, select
File / Update / Selected Only or File / Update / Include Subfolders.

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Q: How to select songs for my playlist?
A:
Too many ways. For example, drag and drop "m3u" from Treeview, select by rating, search database, recurse folder
or drives, etc.

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Q: How to copy files using Music Library?
A:
Select files in File List or Playlist,  from menu select Edit / Copy to, select destination folder. Database is updated
automatically.

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Q: How to move files using Music Library?
A:
Select files in File List or Playlist,  from menu select Edit / Move, select destination folder. Database is updated
automatically.

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Q: How to rename files?
A:
Select files in File List, from menu select Edit / Rename to bring up the Rename Utility window.

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Q: How to edit Id3 tags?
A:
Select files in File List, from menu select Edit / Edit Tag (Fields) to bring up the Tag and Field Editor window.

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Q: How to create a new folder?
A:
Switch to "Location" view so directories are shown, select the folder your want to create the new folder under.
From menu select Edit / New Folder , then enter folder name.

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Q: How to edit a disc's label?
A:
Select the disk in Treeview, from menu select Edit / Edit Disk Label, enter new label.

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Q: How to rate songs?
A:
Select songs in File List, from menu select Edit / Rate Tracks to bring up the "Rate Tracks" window. Listen
and input your rating.

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Q: How to use the "Address" dropdown box?
A:
The "Address" box keep tracks of the latest 20 folders you've visited. So you can go to a folder quickly, select
a folder, the view will be switched to "location" view and the folder will be highlighted.

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Q: How to use the "Quick Lookup" dropdown boxes?
A:
The "Quick Lookup" boxes give you a way to locate album or artist quickly. If you want to locate an Album
starts with letter "B", select "Album" in the left box and select letter "B" in the right box. All albums start with
"B" will be listed in the "File List" pane. Double click on an album to see tracks. You can do the same to locate
an artist too.

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Q: How to open the separate Cover Image Viewer?
A:
The cover images are normally shown in the Cover Image Viewer, to see images on a separate window, simply
click on the image to bring up the separate Image Viewer.

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Q: Does Music Library support other players?
A:
Yes.
Music Library also works with other players. It supports any players that support "m3u" files. To play MP3 with
your favorite player, simply associate "mp3" and "m3u" extensions with your player in Windows. Please note that the
Control in menu and toolbar is only for Winamp.

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Q: Why some fields show "0" or "00:00"?
A:
That means Music Library is unable to determine information like bitrate, time, sample rate etc. This rarely happens.
In over 8,000 MP3s we tested, only 3 or 5 is bad. Most likely the file is not encoded properly. In the rating field, "0"
means the track is not rated.

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Q: Why when I switch to "Artist" view, I see same artist show up twice?
    (For example: "Ace Of Base" and "Ace of base")
A:
That's because when the program building nodes, it's case sensitive. When you click on a node (an artist or an album),
the program is case insensitive (You'll see same files show up when click on two different nodes). So it's a good idea
to keep you tags or fields in an uniform format. With all the tools provided, it should be an easy task.

Back to FQAs


Copyright 1999-2000, Wensoftware. All rights reserved.

CD-related data through the Internet from the CDDB™ Music CD Database, Copyright 1999, 2000 CDDB, Inc.  CDDB Client Software, Copyright 1999, 2000 CDDB, Inc.
CDDB-Enabled, CDDB, CDDB2 and the CDDB Logo are trademarks of CDDB, Inc.  Disc Recognition Service and DRS are service marks of CDDB, Inc.