how to organize the library

[cst]

Hello,

I’m a new user with a ZenMk3, I see that with the Sense app. there are several ways to sort and view the library, and I especially love that I can see / access the music library via my computer file browser. But this seems like it could be dangerous...

Is it possible and or advisable to organize the library through the desktop? I would like to organize with a simple hierarchal folder system – music collections by style of music such as folders titled Classical, Pop, Jazz, Film Scores, etc. Each with a hierarchy such as Classical > concertos> by artist / by composer> song

Does this even sound like a good idea? I recently inherited close to 2000 Classical CD’s, a collection curated by a music historian, I don’t want to begin to digitize until I understand how to not destroy the Zen’s directory.

Thanks
Craig

 

[Stephen Healy]

Hi Craig, it is fine to manually move the folders around if you want - basically, absolutely any folder structure will work as long as it is the main MUSIC folder. Moving existing folders around should not do any harm, Sense should react and update in real time.

 

[Jfuquay]

A related question from a new user. I don’t see a “Composer” sort option. Is there one or can I create one? Thanks.

 

[Stephen Healy]

A related question from a new user. I don’t see a “Composer” sort option. Is there one or can I create one? Thanks.

On the Sense app, go to the MUSIC tab, then go to ARTISTS, then in the top-right corner you have a sorting option to arrange by Composers:

 

[Jfuquay]

Great. Thank you!

 

[cst]

Hi Stephen,
Thank you for the response. Now that I have played with Sense a bit, I have a better understanding of the organizational system. However, I have a follow up question.

Other than playlists, and Genres & Tags, is there any other way to sort the library? – for easy access. Playlists are great for listening to a playlist, but if you simply want to browse a category is the selecting a tag or genre the only way?

The easiest way for me to describe with I mean is to mock-up what I’d love to have in the interface. I’ve added a Collections / My Music folder to hold my preference of organization. Inside Collections / My Music would be simple bins that I could browse through without having to select genre or tag in the Genres & Tags. Take a look, see what you think. Thanks again

 

[Stephen Healy]

Hi Stephen,
Thank you for the response. Now that I have played with Sense a bit, I have a better understanding of the organizational system. However, I have a follow up question.

Other than playlists, and Genres & Tags, is there any other way to sort the library? – for easy access. Playlists are great for listening to a playlist, but if you simply want to browse a category is the selecting a tag or genre the only way?

The easiest way for me to describe with I mean is to mock-up what I’d love to have in the interface. I’ve added a Collections / My Music folder to hold my preference of organization. Inside Collections / My Music would be simple bins that I could browse through without having to select genre or tag in the Genres & Tags. Take a look, see what you think. Thanks again

At the moment, the best workaround I could suggest would be to have all that music arranged into a folder structure to do this, and then use the FOLDER browsing mode. It is fine to rearrange the folders within the main MUSIC folder of the ZEN via your PC, this will not disrupt the functionality of Sense and your overall ARTISTS and ALBUMS will remain unchanged - these categories are based on metadata, rather folders.
What you are suggesting sounds like a more advanced filtering mechanism or what i might describe as 'bookmarks' which are basically categorised sections of your library. This is actually probably the better solution for users who are amassing playlists containing thousands of tracks. We do not have a feature for this at the moment, but is something that has been requested over on our Feedback Zone so do feel free to add your vote:

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feedback.innuos.com

 

[cst]

Stephan,

Of course. a simple work-around. Thank you.

 

[cst]

Hi Stephan,
I have a quick question about the Auto Import function.
The files sourced from the computer are titles (as an example; “Rhapsody in Blue.wav”)

As prompted by the Auto Import, I name the import and the album shows up in the main music library. Then as there is no associated data with these .wav files, I click EDIT to add album clover art work. In the Edit window, each of the song titles are only the first letter of the song / file name. Such as, R for Rhapsody in Blue Any way around this issue? ~500gb worth of entering song titles could be painful.

As always, thank you
Craig

 

[Stephen Healy]

Hi Craig,

The applying of only a single letter/character for the song name is not something by design of the Innuos, so unless this is an unknown bug on our part i would speculate that this is just what's present on the WAV files as they came in. May I ask where these WAV files were originally sourced from?
Either way, it sounds like they are missing a lot of their metadata - even the album name and artist names were probably missing but Auto Import can insert this information during import by looking at the containing folder names.
You're going to need a tool to bulk process all of these files to restore their information correctly. It's still going to be quite a large process to sort out but your best bet will likely be to look at MusicBrainz Picard which is quite an effective tool for 'analysing' the files to determine artist/album etc, and can then integrate all the metadata. It has a bit of a learning curve but is the best thing i can suggest for now.

 

[mikehughescq]

May I join this conversation? I’ve been intrigued by folders for a while but, despite this thread, I haven’t been able get my head around how one might use them in an obviously advantageous way. Some questions:

• Can folders only be created edited on a computer? Can it be done on an iOS device? I no longer have need for a work laptop and will be getting a more up to date iPad Pro as I can do everything on that I can on a PC. So…
• I find searching an artist by singles/EPs painful as there is a clear bug in Sense which never returns you to All unless you press Albums etc. first. Would it be possible to create a Singles folder and move all CD singles and, where appropriate, Qobuz and Tidal singles into it?
• How does that work in practice? Does one drag and drop? Do the originals move location or are you creating a duplicate?
• What does the “unsorted” folder mean? If stuff is in there but also in CD Quality does that mean I’ve more than 1 copy (as appears to be the case with some numbered CDs ending in a (1) etc? See iPad Pro screen shot below.

 

[mikehughescq]

No-one?

 

[Stephen Healy]

Hi Mike, to try and cover your line of thinking in a few key points:
- Moving folders around within the server is okay, you will not duplicate them unless you specially 'Copy and Paste'
- Although I am not entirely in the Apple ecosystem, an iPad Pro is still and iPad, and therefore is not as well equipped as file management and manipulation as a PC.
- The unsorted folder is something that goes way back to innuOS 1.x and can be largely ignored now, but any music folders you place in there will still appear in Sense. Use it how you wish, it is functionally the same as the main Music folder.

Keep in mind, even if you were to extract all the various folders of EPs and Singles into a new dedicated 'EPs & Singles' folder, this will only work when you browse by FOLDER mode within Sense. But otherwise, under the normal view within Sense of Artists and Albums, they will still be presented the same way.
Does this help?

 

[mikehughescq]

Thanks @Stephen Healy. It’s something I’m beginning to think about now I have time on my hands.