How can I exclude tracks from MM library?

[napoca]

Hello,

I've tried to search for a similar topic but probably I ran out of patience. I apologize if the same question had been previously asked.

I have an extensive collection of music – more than 2000 albums – in lossless format, and most of them are albums I would listen to and treat them like a whole: music, lyrics and artwork together. I am trying to rate my music, the problem is most of the CDs, have bonus tracks, which I personally consider them being out of place. Therefore, I don’t bother rating them for the only reason they can influence the overall rating of the album, which I don’t want to happen.

My dilemma is what I can do with these tracks? I could simply delete them from the folder where the albums reside, but this is an option I wouldn’t consider. What I tried to do was to delete the tracks from MM library only (not from computer), but every time MM scans the monitored folder, it adds back previously deleted tracks from library. Is there any solution to exclude tracks from the MM library but not physically delete them from hard drive? What I would like to do is to keep the tracks on hard drive but have MM to totally ignore them, which means I wouldn't like to see them nor in album tracks list when almbum is played, neither in Files to Edit/Unknown Ratings node.

Thank you.

[oldtimer]

Delete them from within MM. You can opt to just delete them from the database. However, if you rescan they will come back. To avoid that you would need to put then in a place you will not scan. Put them on a different drive or keep all your music to be used on MM in a folder and store the bonus tracks in a different location. There is no function I know of that you can tell MM to ignore certain files. That would be very cumbersome and very rarely used.

I don't understand your rating system. MM rates tracks not albums. Do you have a script that creates a report with average ratings for an album? After saving the post I did think of something. Change the album name to read album name + 'bonus track(s)'. That will put them logically in a different album without having to physically move them. They would be out of the node and excluded in what ever rating system you have (I think, you didn't explain your rating system).

I do not consider 2000 albums very extensive I have about 10 times that. Thank god for the digital revolution. I can store the originals in the attic and never touch them. Plus I can actually find something in minutes vs days. However, I am an old fart so I and most everyone I know has bought albums for decades. I consider the bonus tracks part of the album. I usually don't play entire albums but rather play lists to suit a mood so I have no interest in rating albums. Sorry I can't be more sympathetic. I do believe you should do what ever turns you on as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

Good Luck!

[Lowlander]

Go to Tools > Options > Media Tree and create a Collection with Criteria Rating <> Unknown and the unknown rating files won't be shown. They're still in your Library and using Entire Library they still can be seen and used and rated (for those files that you still need to rate) but in the new Collection (or if you choose to modify the Music Collection in that Collection) you won't see them.