Track Redirection & Synchronization 3.4 (2012-10-08) [MM3+]

[ZvezdanD]

In a future release would your consider the possibility for Track Redirection to use a specified filter rather than the active filter?

No problem, but could you explain me first why you need such thing? Maybe it could be better to just add one check box to toggle between the active filer and no filters at all. Choosing some specific filter could have an effect only for the Create Redirections for Duplicates option and even that maybe it could conflict with the Only for selected tracks in main tracklist option. I think that both masters and redirected tracks should be included in the current filtered set of tracks.

[nynaevelan]

I want it because my main filter is set to only show mp3 files but whenever I try ro create new redirections I have to switch the filter to my full library in order for the tracks to show up in the dialog box.

Nyn

[ZvezdanD]

I want it because my main filter is set to only show mp3 files but whenever I try ro create new redirections I have to switch the filter to my full library in order for the tracks to show up in the dialog box.

So, is it enough if I add one check box to toggle between active filter and no filters (when all tracks are included) as I suggested in the previous post?

[nynaevelan]

Yes, I believe that should work.

Nyn

[ZvezdanD]

There is a new update: v3.1 - 2009-08-17
- Added: Filtered tracks option to Create Redirections dialog boxes; if it is turned on, only a set of tracks limited with the active filter are used.

[nynaevelan]

Z:

I am having a little problem in the Maintain Redirections section, if I hit the cancel button and stop the process the next time I close MM I will get an access violation error.

[ZvezdanD]

if I hit the cancel button and stop the process the next time I close MM I will get an access violation error.

Thanks for the report. There is a new release: v3.1.1 - 2009-08-23
- Fixed: error on program exit if Create Redirections/Copy Metadata or Maintain Redirections are entered.

[benzo8]

Using 3.1.1:

1. If I select Create Redirections for Specified Tracks... I get: "Error happened during script execution: Variable is undefined: 'chkFilteredTracks'

2. If I create an .asx using Create Redirections/Copy Metadata, it's all pretty messed up:
2.1. The bitrate isn't correct in the .asx file - it seems to come from the file which is removed, not the file which is kept.
2.2. Track/Album volumes don't seem to bear any resemblance to either file.

Any ideas?

[benzo8]

And a separate question:

What's the best way of creating links to, for instance, a Greatest Hits album, when the various master tracks are all over the place? It's easy enough link the new tracks in the Greatest Hits album to .asx files in the original albums - just select the Greatest Hits album and Create Links... But I want to do the opposite - I want to keep the original files and create the required .asx files in rhe new Greatest Hits album.

At the moment, I'm doing this: Pull the album into the Now Playing window, go through each track individually selecting the "Replace this track with a duplicate from album:" function, then use the Create Links function.

Is there an easier way? Perhaps just a "Swap" button in the Create Links windows which swaps the Master and Redirected tracks?

[ZvezdanD]

1. If I select Create Redirections for Specified Tracks... I get: "Error happened during script execution: Variable is undefined: 'chkFilteredTracks'

Thanks for the report. There is a new release: v3.1.2 - 2009-08-23
- Fixed: error with Create Redirections for Specified Tracks if Filtered option is turned off.

The bitrate isn't correct in the .asx file - it seems to come from the file which is removed, not the file which is kept.

This is an intentional behavior - .asx files contain all metadata of audio tracks that they replace, not metadata of master tracks.

Track/Album volumes don't seem to bear any resemblance to either file.

As I said, .asx files should contain Track/Album volumes from replaced tracks. It works fine with my files. Could you post a part of .asx file with volumes and screenshot of replaced track before redirection where I could see that volume?

[ZvezdanD]

What's the best way of creating links to, for instance, a Greatest Hits album, when the various master tracks are all over the place?

Well, there is no easy way. The fastest you could do is to select Files To Edit -> Duplicate Titles node and to select all master tracks in the main tracklist, then you could choose Create Redirections for Specified Tracks -> Unselected tracks in tracklist or Create Redirections/Copy Metadata -> Duplicates -> only for selected in main tracklist.

[benzo8]

Track/Album volumes don't seem to bear any resemblance to either file.

As I said, .asx files should contain Track/Album volumes from replaced tracks. It works fine with my files. Could you post a part of .asx file with volumes and screenshot of replaced track before redirection where I could see that volume?

I can't quite see why this should be the case for bitrate or track volume. Surely the data that MediaMonkey needs to refer to is that of the file that actually gets played, not of the file that's been deleted?

For instance, I noticed this today because a number of tracks were playing back distorted. In one instance, the Master Track had a ReplayGain track setting of -4.2, and the replaced track had a ReplayGain track setting of +2.1. As the .asx file contained the deleted track's metadata, MediaMonkey applied +2.1 gain to a file that actually needed 4.2 taken away, and as a result it played 6.3dB too loud, and distorted. (6dB, by the way, is a perceived volume almost twice as loud as expected!)

Is this really intentional?

[benzo8]

What's the best way of creating links to, for instance, a Greatest Hits album, when the various master tracks are all over the place?

Well, there is no easy way. The fastest you could do is to select Files To Edit -> Duplicate Titles node and to select all master tracks in the main tracklist, then you could choose Create Redirections for Specified Tracks -> Unselected tracks in tracklist or Create Redirections/Copy Metadata -> Duplicates -> only for selected in main tracklist.

Would adding a Swap button as I mentioned be reasonably simple? That way, you could select the new album, click Create Redirections and let it find the other tracks. Then just click "Swap" and all the Master tracks become Redirecting Tracks, and vice versa. It would add a great deal of flexibility to an already awesome addon!

[ZvezdanD]

I can't quite see why this should be the case for bitrate or track volume. Surely the data that MediaMonkey needs to refer to is that of the file that actually gets played, not of the file that's been deleted?

No, the main purpose of this script was at begin to replace some audio file with much smaller redirecting file which should have same metadata as replaced file. If this small file has same metadata as master track then you would lose its main advantage, so you could use simple .m3u or .pls files instead. If I have two same tracks from two different albums, I want to see different metadata for those two tracks, e.g. metadata of official album and metadata of compilation album. If I put metadata of master tracks into .asx files, then I would lose information about compilation (album name, release year, publisher...).

If I put in .asx files all metadata from replaced files excluding bitrate and track volume then I will get inconsistency with a source of metadata.

In one instance, the Master Track had a ReplayGain track setting of -4.2, and the replaced track had a ReplayGain track setting of +2.1. As the .asx file contained the deleted track's metadata, MediaMonkey applied +2.1 gain to a file that actually needed 4.2 taken away, and as a result it played 6.3dB too loud, and distorted.

Your description seem to be very reasonable and maybe I could make an exception with the track volume, but what about the album volume? If the replaced track had 2.1 dB, when I change the track volume of .asx file to -4.2 dB the album volume of all tracks from that album should change as well. So, I need to calculate that new album volume and to put it into all tracks from that album. This is something that I don't like to do. One more thing, what if some user change mind and decide to apply Remove Redirection from the Track option? The .asx file would be replaced with the originally replaced audio file which have 2.1 dB in your case, but database contains information of -4.2 dB about it taken from master file. So, if the user decide to apply the mentioned option I need to extract the original track volume from the audio file somehow and to put it back into database which is another thing that I don't like.

[ZvezdanD]

Would adding a Swap button as I mentioned be reasonably simple?

Actually, I already though to add such option, but it would complicate things with the table of possible redirections, especially if some song has three or more duplicates. For example:
Master -> Redirected
Track1 -> Track2
Track1 -> Track3
Track1 -> Track4

So, if I swap Track1 with Track2, the Track2 would be set as master and I would get one inconsistency where same Track1 is redirected (Track2 -> Track1) and master (Track1 -> Tarck3, Track1 -> Track4).

Maybe I could enable such option only for tracks which have only two duplicates...