Seperate Classical Music tree node is a TERRIBLE IDEA

[kieseyhow]

I need to get rid of this separate tree node for Classical Music genre!

Tell me what to do to get rid of this separate node completely.

I want Classical Music a normal genre listed with the rest of them. Whoever came up with this separate node idea obviously have a very limited music library and is not a power user.

I use multiple sub-genres for most of my library and as such any sub genres of Classical (which overlap other genres) have been moved from the full genre list into the stupid Classical Music tree node
Classical; Choral
Classical; Orchestral
Pianoforte; Classical; Orchestral
Choral; Classical; Soundtrack Movie
Cello; Orchestral; Classical
Classical; Choral; Violin; Orchestral
etc.....

All the cross-linked genres (overlapping genres) show up as separate sub-genres inside the Classical Music/Genre section of this new tree and they are NOT visible in the main genre tree! Also, if you try to edit the genres, you only get the list of sub-genres currently in the Classical Music/Genre section, not ALL the genres in the full library.

I have about 120,000 tracks (yes you read correctly) I have just about any genre you can image, and some I had to create because no one was wise enough to use them. The new Classical Music tree node breaks the feature of having multiple genres on the same track. ANYTHING that has the Classical genre has been MOVED into the Classical Music tree node!

What do I do to remove this separate tree node for Classical Music completely from MediaMonkey? Apart from this ONE complain this is the BEST media library management software available period.

The only workaround I can see at the moment is to scrap the classical music genre completely and come up with a new name! This is ridiculous! Auto DJ also does not work with this new tree node. This is a serious bug in the latest release of MM. I even installed the Magic Nodes addon and none of this exclusion and moving happens there. Perhaps you need to have the creator of that addon come on board to show you how to code properly?

[lowben]

I ran into this issue too and it caused me some grief for a bit. I am not so much unhappy with the new Classical node as that MM assigned my music to it without my permission during the upgrade. I have my knickers in a knot over that.

There is a relatively easy fix; however. All you have to do is go the the Entire Library node to use the Search box to find all the tracks that have Classical in the Genre. Then multi-select all the tracks found and open the properties (Ctrl+Enter). Near the top of the dialog (just under the file name) you will see a combo box called Type. Change the value from Classical to Music (leave the box to the right checked), OK the dialog and all the selected tracks will no longer be assigned to the Classical node, but the Music node instead.

Alternately; you can do the same thing if you use the Classical node and multi select the tracks from there. You make actually find this easier. At the end; just make sure you reassign the Type for any track you don't want to show up in the Classical node. If you do want some tracks in the Classical node, you have to make sure you don't reassign those.

If you have a lot of tracks, you may want to do them in smaller batches

The process is relatively painless as MM will change many tracks at one time using the method described.

[kieseyhow]

I have found a workaround or dare I say even a fix!

Here are the steps so that anyone may effect this simple and complete "repair" to MM4:

1) Select all the tracks in the Classical Music tree node.
2) Then called up the combined Properties for all of the selected tracks (that took awhile)
3) In the Properties dialogue box I clicked the drop down list named Type then, I changed the Type from Classical Music, to Music and crossing my fingers, I clicked OK
After a while of my hard drive grinding away and MediaMonkey appearing to frozen
(leave everything alone whenever this happens in Windows!) the Classical Music tree node VANISHED!
4) All the tracks have now reappeared in the main genre list under classical, and so have all the other missing genres also!

I admit to panicking and I was ready to seek out and hunt down the moron who decided that EVERYONE must have their classical music in a separate tree node (breathes), but now I have calmed down and repaired the problem myself.

Auto-DJ also works again on ALL the library tracks!

I must apologize to the various people I may have insulted, I am not saying the insult was wrong, just that I am apologizing for it now that I realize the coding of the program is even MORE flexible than I previously thought.
MediaMonkey has now reattained its status of perfect for me again!

On a side note. I have MM handling my extensive Audiobook library(over 100 books), almost 1000 movies, various podcasts, all my online radio (even old ones I had to dig up in bookmarks and playlists). I strongly suggest you use VLC along with MM and have MM hand off the unplayable obtuse filetypes to VLC.

[lowben]

Error in previous post. Get to the Properties dialog with Shift+Enter or the right click menu

[Lowlander]

Simpler is to change the Music Collections criteria to include Type = Classical Music and disable the Classical Music Collection under File > Manage Collections (Gold Feature).

[kieseyhow]

Simpler is to change the Music Collections criteria to include Type = Classical Music and disable the Classical Music Collection under File > Manage Collections (Gold Feature).

Thank you for your suggestion, but I wanted to make sure the fix I posted was usable for everyone, not just the elite Gold users ..

[scott967]

What I ended up doing was leave the classical collection alone, I changed music to be music only, then created a new collection of music + music video + classical. Seems to work. I only paid something like 15 bucks for my gold license when they had the sale last year, not sure that puts me in "elite" status yet.

scott s.
.

[theta_wave]

I don't think that it was a terrible idea to demonstrate how collections could be added based on user preferences or their flexibility. However, what I found discouraging was that there wasn't a less cumbersome way for non-Gold purchasers to change the default behavior, where MM4 automatically categorizes anything with "Classical" in its genre to the type "Classical Music."

[Lowlander]

PS.: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=8974

[kieseyhow]

Well, I think that all is well, that ends well. I am always tinkering and rummaging around in my media library. I find that when you have as many tracks as I do, you cannot possible remember everything. I am constantly rediscovering tracks that I had forgotten about. No other media system (It is more than a player) gives me that. There is always something to do with the library.

Regarding the separate Classical Music tree node, it would have been all fine if the Classical and sub-genres and cross-linked genres had also remained in the main Genre tree node. There should be a setting in the options that allows you to toggle redundant listings in the various filters of the database. For instance, you could allow redundancy listings to set everything up and look for errors, then when everything is good, toggle that off and have the cleaner results presented. I would be a useful feature.

[Guest]

Just bring up "Entire Library" under media tree works fine for me.

[Thankomatic]

Simpler is to change the Music Collections criteria to include Type = Classical Music and disable the Classical Music Collection under File > Manage Collections (Gold Feature).

Beautiful solution. Thank you!!