Finished my analysis, gonna consider reporting my experience

Ryan Burt's Avatar

Ryan Burt

Apr 30, 2015 @ 08:55 AM

I procrastinated running the analysis for a while, but ended up running it for a few weeks or whatever. Jumped down from a week estimation down to a few hours yesterday.
I restarted it since I couldn't see my library, but it still didn't show up. It seems to be stuck on a search and says "4 items of xxxxx" selected, but the list is blank. I changed the search term that's been on there for weeks, but still nothing shows up and "4 items selected of xxxx"

So I ran the inspection just to keep myself busy. I don't find the inspection to be ideal. I wish there were better batch options, since I find myself...it's a messy long process I'll never be able to complete.
I go onto the "album artist" one and I manually change the boxes and most end up being Various Artists.
Secondly, many of them end up being a single artist that is slightly misspelled.

What I'd like to suggest is being able to *sort* that list of contradictions, so I can highlight a batch instead of going down hundreds of lists and still having to decide on a batch option. Sort by "number of artists" and different variables whatever...
And I see no option to set "Various Artist" when highlighting multiple as a batch. I'd like to request that you consider some "smart artist guesser" that automates most of the procedure. I prefer the ones that have " ' " apostrophes which is usually the proper item. I also prefer ones with "accent marks" which is usually proper. Yes, yours does have the option for "most common" and I'd like to request these seemingly simple additions.

Some of these large albums/compilations have a similar name. I have "RNB&HipHop Hits 2013-May-12th billboard" and ones very similar. I want to either be able to sort to manually highlight or have a smart automation that groups these.
I might want the option to remain this manual process, but also a few more smart/auto & sorting options. Then, ultimately, it would be wonderful to have a completely auto one if I'm not too worried. But if there's auto/smart, there should be options to select accent&apostrophe preference.

I hope this makes sense. I won't type too much more right now and I doubt there's a need to summarize since you're capable of reading (unlike others). I'll wait to see if restarting beaTunes (or updating from .21 to .22) will make this library become visible.
I might run my Similarity App to de-duplicate a bit more and also MP3Diags to remove any strange streams/whatnot.

As always, keep up the great work. There's a number of great developers and I hope your projects have the success they deserve.
* beaTunes: 4.0.21
* JVM: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM
* Version: 25.40-b25
* Vendor: Oracle Corporation
* OS: Windows 7 6.1, amd64
* Library: FileSystem
* Memory: 92m - 8G
* Registered as: Ryan N Burt

  1. Support Staff 1 Posted by hendrik on May 07, 2015 @ 07:33 AM

    hendrik's Avatar

    Hey Ryan,

    Regarding library not showing up: Does restarting beaTunes fix this?

    Regarding inspections:
    Can you give an example for the apostrophe case (right & wrong)? Just so that I interpret this suggestion correctly.
    The accent suggestion is clear and makes a lot of sense.

    Thanks,

    -hendrik

  2. 2 Posted by Ryan Burt on May 12, 2015 @ 11:34 PM

    Ryan Burt's Avatar

    Let me know of you need any other info to figure out this blank page problem. I could upload my database or try some other thing if you want.
    No big rush and I always appreciate the awesome support. Thanks.

  3. 3 Posted by Ryan Burt on May 25, 2015 @ 07:12 PM

    Ryan Burt's Avatar

    Wow.for some reason I never clicked send on this message.everything below is what I wrote before. I don't have Mich time right now to re-read, so I'll assume I had finished it
    Yeah,I'd been waiting this whole time for a response and could have sworn that I must have sent another message making sure you'd remember. Huh. Anyways

    No, I even tried making a new library of a single folder, but switching
    back to my other one just made it sync forever. I think i had it minimized
    and restarted my computer, but no damage was done, but the library is still
    stuck on "4 items of xxxx# selected"
    I forgot to send logs. I'll attach logs, but I'll assume the database won't
    be necessary to attach.

    Oh, I just opened up beaTunes and I happened to be pressing the enter-key
    (but maybe that's irrelevant) and I got a popup that says "Error(title)
    Failed to open item.(bold) ArrayIndexOutOfBounds(lastline,not bold).

    Now I clicked on inspection and it says "Failed to open item. Failed to
    open song within allotted time." I can reupload the logs including this if
    you want, but the ones attached are the ones prior to this.

    As far as "smart inspection changes" examples, I can't do anything in
    beaTunes to see anything, so I'll try from memory and general expectations.
    Yeah, it was an impossibly tedious process that was never going to get done
    without batch highlighting. The problem was that most of the suggestions
    weren't available in batch highlighting and I'd want smart options also.
    Let's see.
    There's artists and songs that say "Billys Band" and then "Billy's Band".
    I'd want the one with the apostrophe.
    More examples.
    For "The Bottom of the Pit", I'm not sure if I'd prefer it with "of the"
    capitalized or not, but as long as it's uniform across my library.
    For a common tag among a list, I'd want some ways of spreading my decision
    across it if possible. "RNB Hits Playlist Dec2012" and "RNB Hits Playlist
    Nov2013" and onwards to all take action of "tag as compilation".
    I'm not sure if I should leave it organized like above, but I might list
    off any other things to populate my explanation.

    "Flam of the torc" and "Fame of the torch" and "Flame of the Torch" are all
    from the same album and everything. They are found to be nearly identical
    songs. Each has spelling mistakes and the language dictionary will suggest
    that the last is correct. It might be a bit of a leap to start making
    dictionary corrections, but seems safe to choose the most correct.

    Artists have songs in multiple album releases (I'm not sure if the songs
    usually are different somehow). I want only one. Ideally, this would come
    back to my old idea of a song being tagged multiple ways so that it remains
    as one file (for hard drive space) yet shows up under both
    searches/browsing. But that's not going to happen and it isn't worth the
    effort. I'm not sure if it'd be proper to ask the user if they want to
    prefer "compilation Various artist" or "best-of golden hits type albums" or
    "the earliest album release" or "singles version." All of this assuming
    that the song has been identified to be nearly identical.

    But, yeah. The main thing here is having an efficient way that a user can
    actually process a large library without highlighting and actually ruining
    it due to few options.
    Maybe do this by some sort of advanced checklist of preferences?
    Maybe do some sort of advanced if-then variable?
    Just use more options and smart scanning like the original idea?

    (I won't be able to see what the actual options are, but will keep listing
    ideas)
    Consistency issues>
    Same album, different artwork - smart option that chooses highest
    resolution, but makes finding the most accurate image the priority. Example
    is if album-art database is not an option, assume that if the artwork
    appears over a large number of compilations that it is likely not the
    original. If it is high-res and seems to be unique to this 12-song set,
    then that's perfect. A note to consider is that album corrections might be
    best to do prior to this.

    Same album, different release year - You already have options to tag as
    compilation, I think I remember. I can't think of many cases which smart
    scanning would be important here.

    Duplicates. I wonder if you should take a look at the Similarity Program.
    Maybe even just for ideas that it hasn't even done and that would just
    spark ideas for your program.

    Again, remember that I haven't made it down the list due to not being able
    to complete a single correction-type, so I can't say if these haven't been
    implemented. Though my original point remains that batch operations can
    benefit from more options (custom and/or smart).

    In the meantime, I can't use the program at all and I hope that my database
    isn't corrupt. I haven't even gotten to create a single matchlist yet.
    I'll upload the second set of logs in case there's any additional info.
    Maybe ignore the first set.

  4. Support Staff 4 Posted by hendrik on Jun 11, 2015 @ 02:27 PM

    hendrik's Avatar

    Hey Ryan,

    I don't think I ever received the logs you mentioned in your post :-(
    Can you please re-sent them?

    Thanks,

    -hendrik

  5. 5 Posted by Ryan Burt on Jun 12, 2015 @ 01:13 PM

    Ryan Burt's Avatar

    I tried running the sync and this time it did a huge number of popup boxes
    for each item that would open and close in sequence at a fast rate. I took
    a screenshot. I'm not sure if I've shown a screenshot earlier of how the
    bottom of the page says that 4 songs out of XXX (whatever my library count
    is) selected (from when I did a search before it stopped displaying). I
    think it might have frozen on occasion during that popup blitz. I've barely
    gotten sleep, so I'm not at my best right now. I had to shutdown my
    computer after it taking so long and my powerful PC heated up my room too
    much.
    I can load up the program again for another run if you need me to. I can
    also send the library if needed.
    I'd gotten everything scanned and hopefully not lost. It's a bit of a
    disappointment to have a blank list that hides my music, but I'm glad that
    my anticipation will be that much more rewarding.

    As always, I appreciate the top-notch customer service and the flexibility
    of both the software and your development.
    [image: Inline image 1]

  6. Support Staff 6 Posted by hendrik on Jun 13, 2015 @ 03:14 PM

    hendrik's Avatar

    Hey Ryan,

    I think I found something... can you please install this snapshot https://www.beatunes.com/download/beaTunes-4-0-24-SNAPSHOT-x86_64-w... and let me know, whether it makes a difference? Please also attach fresh logs, after you ran it.

    Thank you!

    -hendrik

  7. Support Staff 7 Posted by hendrik on Jun 15, 2015 @ 07:56 AM

    hendrik's Avatar

    Hey Ryan,

    Hope you had a good weekend.
    Did the snapshot make a difference?

    Thanks,

    -hendrik

  8. 8 Posted by Ryan Burt on Jun 15, 2015 @ 09:20 AM

    Ryan Burt's Avatar

    Moving day today. Finally getting out of a bad roommate situation. Will be able to have my PC running without worrying about heating up my bedroom at night. Not sure if it'll take long to sync.  I work most days of the week, a scattered schedule, I'm on dayshift with shorter work days, so I'll have time after work in a couple days.

    Sent from TypeMail

  9. 9 Posted by Ryan Burt on Jul 14, 2015 @ 01:13 PM

    Ryan Burt's Avatar

    I've just now gotten my internet up and running. I'll be ready to download
    that Snapshot to see if it allows me to view my library. Hopefully it won't
    have to synchronize.

    Thanks

  10. Support Staff 10 Posted by hendrik on Jul 14, 2015 @ 01:16 PM

    hendrik's Avatar

    Hey Ryan,

    Please don't worry about the snapshot (that's long outdated) and just download the current version.

    Thanks,

    -hendrik

  11. 11 Posted by Ryan Burt on Jul 20, 2015 @ 08:25 PM

    Ryan Burt's Avatar

    H
    ​ello, sir. I reinstalled my OS and got my internet back on. Hopefully fix
    some performance issues. So, I finally got around to installing the latest
    BeaTunes and registered it, created my symlinks again and edited that
    settings file. I let it sync for a long time (though I hibernated my PC a
    couple times) and got an error popup. I'm pretty sure the data was embedded
    in my music files, so I don't think I need to copy my old database from my
    previous install.

    I uploaded the new database (hasn't fully synced) just in case.
    https://mega.nz/#!2lt0FbyL!Lu-St7QqP5aVMyyO5LEQU-305mysttqk5A-SmROazuw

    ​Thank you.​

  12. Support Staff 12 Posted by hendrik on Jul 29, 2015 @ 11:05 AM

    hendrik's Avatar

    Sorry for the late reply.

    The memory configuration is 512MB and that does not seem to be enough for your library. Please change it to a higher value, like 1G.

    See http://help.beatunes.com/kb/troubleshooting/manually-changing-the-b... for details.

    Thanks,

    -hendrik

  13. 13 Posted by Ryan Burt on Aug 04, 2015 @ 06:45 PM

    Ryan Burt's Avatar

    I noticed some of my music doesn't show mood, color, or sometimes BPM.
    Since mood is derived by a Last.fm lookup, as far as I understand, it's
    reasonable to sometimes be unable. I'm rescanning files that are missing
    either color or BPM and might also look for any other missing fields, but
    this scanning is gonna take quite a while. After making certain everything
    is scanned, hopefully Matchlists will finally work.

    ​A suggestion I have is having a cancel button or pause button on windows
    that pop up for syncing or loading into the queue. I added songs without
    colors, then highlighted ones without BPM to add, hoping it would
    cross-reference and only add ones not already added, but it took too long
    and I ended up forcing beaTunes to close since there wasn't a way to stop
    what I started.

    Also, Bitdefender Antivirus keeps showing popups that say the URLs beaTunes
    is opening for lyrics contain malicious code or something. It doesn't
    bother me, but I thought I'd notify you and I can provide any logs or
    whatnot.

    So, everything's looking good, but I'm still waiting for an estimated month
    for my scanning to complete. I hope your code is efficient that it doesn't
    redo scans that are redundant for the files. I'm hoping to get to try
    beaTunes properly eventually!
    Thanks, Hendrik.​

  14. Support Staff 14 Posted by hendrik on Aug 07, 2015 @ 08:14 AM

    hendrik's Avatar

    A suggestion I have is having a cancel button or pause button on windows that pop up for syncing or loading into the queue. I added songs without
    colors, then highlighted ones without BPM to add, hoping it would
    cross-reference and only add ones not already added,

    I understand the desire. In the case of sync, it's possible to leave beaTunes in a bad state, if it's interrupted. Adding to the queue is definitely interruptible, but on the other hand, it should never take very long...

    but it took too long and I ended up forcing beaTunes to close since there wasn't a way to stop what I started.

    Forcing beaTunes to stop anything database related is almost always a bad idea as it can leave the database in a bad state leading to database corruption.

    Also, Bitdefender Antivirus keeps showing popups that say the URLs beaTunes is opening for lyrics contain malicious code or something. It doesn't
    bother me, but I thought I'd notify you and I can provide any logs or
    whatnot.

    Should never be a problem, as any pages loaded via the lyrics search will never be executed in an actual browser. I.e. the common vulnerabilities like Java Plugins, JavaScript, Silverlight, and Flash don't get to start at all.

    So, everything's looking good, but I'm still waiting for an estimated month for my scanning to complete.

    Are you aware of http://blog.beatunes.com/2015/01/audio-analysis-options-explained.html ?

    I hope your code is efficient that it doesn't redo scans that are redundant for the files.

    If you add the same song twice with exactly the same analysis options, the second add is ignored.

    Cheers,

    -hendrik

    PS: Please don't expect any further answers for about a week—I'm going to be traveling.

  15. 15 Posted by Ryan Burt on Aug 30, 2015 @ 12:56 AM

    Ryan Burt's Avatar

    I'm wondering how I should go about making sure there's no chunks of files
    that were completely missed in my analysis queue or ones that might have
    missed a couple tags.
    I saw some with colors or maybe moods but without BPM, or something along
    those lines. I also gotta make sure they have lyrics after I troubleshoot
    my firewall.
    So, just highlight all my files again and queue them all?

    Secondly, some of them seem to be read-only. I've tried right clicking my
    folders and applying a removal of read-only, even doing so from command
    prompt, but no luck. I'd have to go through every file manually and right
    click to disable read-only.
    I'm not sure if you'd like to add the option to remove read-only in
    beaTunes, since I haven't found any way aside from manually targeting files.

    Once I get some help hitting these read-only files and filling in any
    lacking songs, I can *finally* use beaTunes to make a darn matchlist...!
    I'm still excited.
    Thanks

  16. Support Staff 16 Posted by hendrik on Aug 31, 2015 @ 12:39 PM

    hendrik's Avatar

    I'm wondering how I should go about making sure there's no chunks of files that were completely missed in my analysis queue or ones that might have
    missed a couple tags. [..] So, just highlight all my files again and queue them all?

    Simply order by BPM or whatever field you want to check. Then re-analyze the ones that don't have any values.

    I'm not sure if you'd like to add the option to remove read-only in beaTunes, since I haven't found any way aside from manually targeting files.

    There are many reasons why a file may be read-only. I will not add functionality to beaTunes that tries to mess with that automatically.

  17. 17 Posted by Ryan Burt on Aug 31, 2015 @ 08:23 PM

    Ryan Burt's Avatar

    I was wondering how beaTunes handles a queue, but didn't want to be even more verbose than I was.
    For one example, how much efficiency is lost when adding a number of unnecessary items to a queue? Or simply ones with partial needs and others with other partial needs, though I have selected to "analyze each of these items with all scans"?
    Or is it more efficient to add individual queues, such as ones without BPM and simply scan for BPM, add ones without lyrics, and queue a scan for lyrics?
    My question is what's the most efficient for how beaTunes handles things?
    How does beaTunes handle a queue item with no scanning needs, how does it handle a duplicate full-feature scan of one item? Does it combine an item with a single BPM scan with a single lyrics scan efficiently?
    Basically, any of these would work? And which one works best with how beaTunes handles queueing?

    Would you happen to have any suggestions for read-only attributes? Otherwise I'll do some research, since it is on my end of responsibility.

    Lastly, does beaTunes use an acoustic fingerprint to make matchlists? And what's the prerequisite scan that gets that fingerprint?

    Thanks.

  18. 18 Posted by Ryan Burt on Aug 31, 2015 @ 08:30 PM

    Ryan Burt's Avatar

    I just got an error:

    Failed to create Matchlist.
    (org.hibernate.exception.GenericJDBException: Could not open connection)

    I'll attach logs

  19. Support Staff 19 Posted by hendrik on Sep 01, 2015 @ 06:12 AM

    hendrik's Avatar

    For one example, how much efficiency is lost when adding a number of unnecessary items to a queue?

    beaTunes will make an effort to only compete things that need computing. Whenever you check a replace box, things will be re-computed no matter what.

    Or simply ones with partial needs and others with other partial needs, though I have selected to "analyze each of these items with all scans"?

    Only the parts that need computing will be computed, if possible.

    Or is it more efficient to add individual queues, such as ones without BPM and simply scan for BPM, add ones without lyrics, and queue a scan for lyrics?

    No, I doubt that that is significantly more efficient.

    How does beaTunes handle a queue item with no scanning needs

    It won't do anything.

    how does it handle a duplicate full-feature scan of one item?

    If the same task is already in the queue, it won't even be added to the queue.
    If it is not in the queue, it will check for each task whether computation is necessary.

    And which one works best with how beaTunes handles queueing?

    Just drop your tasks in the queue. Make sure you only check replace boxes, if you really want to replace stuff.

    You can tweak way more with analysis parameters like replace and offline resources than you can with what you throw at the queue. See http://blog.beatunes.com/2015/01/audio-analysis-options-explained.html for details.

    Would you happen to have any suggestions for read-only attributes?

    Not really.

    Lastly, does beaTunes use an acoustic fingerprint to make matchlists? And what's the prerequisite scan that gets that fingerprint?

    In the context of beaTunes, acoustic fingerprints serve only one purpose: identification.
    Clearly, identification is not necessary for matchlists.

    The scan/analysis task for fingerprints is named Take fingerprint.

  20. Support Staff 20 Posted by hendrik on Sep 01, 2015 @ 07:23 AM

    hendrik's Avatar

    Failed to create Matchlist. (org.hibernate.exception.GenericJDBException: Could not open connection)

    A simple application restart should remedy this.

    The root problem should be fixed in in the current dev snapshot:

    Cheers,

    -hendrik

  21. 21 Posted by Ryan Burt on Sep 01, 2015 @ 12:33 PM

    Ryan Burt's Avatar

    Ok, cool. Thanks so much. That's about what I thought or at least hoped.
    I'm wondering what beaTunes does use to decide what matches for a matchlist. Basically using mood, BPM, tags, other parameters in a formula to decide? If so, this gets me wondering about sound-based similarities and if there's anything on the market that does that. I've probably mentioned before that I have a software that finds duplicate songs based on both tag similarity and sound similarity, so I'm wondering if instead of removing duplicates, just lower the threshold and save the results.
    I'm not sure if you'd ever want to implement that kind of thing for duplicate-removal or sound-similarity playlists. It might not align with beaTunes's main goals and the users, but I thought I'd mention it if not even to spark some new ideas.

  22. Support Staff 22 Posted by hendrik on Sep 02, 2015 @ 06:18 AM

    hendrik's Avatar

    I'm wondering what beaTunes does use to decide what matches for a matchlist. Basically using mood, BPM, tags, other parameters in a formula to decide?

    It uses the rules defined in the matching preferences.
    See http://blog.beatunes.com/2015/02/creating-great-playlists.html for more info.

    I'm not sure if you'd ever want to implement that kind of thing for duplicate-removal

    Fingerprints (if calculated) are already used in the duplicates inspection by beaTunes.

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