BEFORE I GET STARTED QUESTIONS
I have a number of questions before I let anything touch my library which has taken years to curate.
1. I don't want the program to alter ANY of my metadata. That means leave my Genres, Year, Composers, Album Titles, Artist Name, Track numbers and so forth alone. How do I set up the program so all it does is analyze the music based on BPM, Mood and some of the other interesting things I see that the program does. I saw in reviews and demonstrations that you can select whether or not to check these metadata things but I don't see it when I'm getting ready to execute things before analyzing fully. Where in the program is that done?
2. Will the program change my existing XML file?
3. I just want to be able to let the program analyze and then make playlists based on things the output finds as I've seen on demonstrations. Can that be done?
4. Can I just analyze a segment of songs to test the program first before turning it over to a full-on examination?
5. I am working off a NAS and my iTunes library (Preferences/advanced/location) points to that (\\volume1\MUSIC). Does the program work with a NAS? None of the music resides on my computer itself. Can the program work in that environment? If not, this program will not work for me.
6. Can I install this on desktop 1 computer that I use to test things and use it there? Then if all is satisfactory, install it on desktop computer 2? I would ultimately only use on desktop 2 if everything works as I'm hoping. I did see some questions on this in the Forum and it says as long as I don't use it at the same time I'd be okay. But what does that mean exactly? Just having the program installed on one only? I'd just like some confirmation on this.
7. I see in setup that you can adjust Analyze/Add genres to Exclude, but when executed there is no list to choose from. I'm not sure I'd use this but wonder what this is for.
Sorry. This seems a better way to get to the heart of things instead of creating a forum for each. I have searched the forums and haven't really gotten the answers I am looking for.
Keyboard shortcuts
Generic
| ? | Show this help |
|---|---|
| ESC | Blurs the current field |
Comment Form
| r | Focus the comment reply box |
|---|---|
| ^ + ↩ | Submit the comment |
You can use Command ⌘ instead of Control ^ on Mac
Support Staff 1 Posted by hendrik on 16 Aug, 2022 07:42 AM
Hi,
When you click on Analyze or select Analyze All from the menu, you are presented with the Analysis Options dialog. There you can choose what beaTunes analyses and writes to your files. Note that beaTunes analysis is a bulk operation and that there is no undo.
It seems to me that you want to avoid using the import metadata task, as its purpose is to add or replace data like album, artist, year, etc. If you are tempted to use import metadata, do not use the replace option.
The iTunes XML file? Indirectly. That XML is always read-only. But when a software asks iTunes to change some data (e.g. BPM), iTunes will export a new XML file and it will contain the new value. The same is true for titles, album names etc.
Yes.
You can analyze individual songs (select songs, right-click, click analyze), playlist or the whole library. I highly recommend to test your analysis settings on test songs first, so you understand what your are doing.
It should not be a problem. However, analysis on music residing on a NAS may be very slow.
You can install beaTunes on as many computers as you like, but you may run it only on one computer at any given time.
For example, you may not want to analyze any tracks of genre "podcast", because it does not make sense.
I understand that your collection is very valuable to you. Please ensure that you understand beaTunes analysis options, especially when bulk analyzing. If in doubt, make sure to keep a backup you can fall back to (actually, that's always a great idea!). Rather than just trying something out on many files, try it on a few files first or ask a question here before you do it.
Also, analysis performance depends a lot on which analysis task you chose and where the music files are stored. Selecting fewer tasks lead to faster analysis. Files stored on a fast local disk also lead to faster analysis.
Last, but not least, if you are unhappy, please ask for a refund.
Hope this helps!
-hendrik
2 Posted by William Richard... on 22 Aug, 2022 08:04 PM
I have waited over a week for a reply - which you said would take 24 hours
usually. Can you please reply to my original email?
Support Staff 3 Posted by hendrik on 22 Aug, 2022 08:20 PM
Did you receive my reply http://help.beatunes.com/discussions/questions/16873-before-i-get-s... ?
Was there another question?