N Stream album display
Posted by: JohnL on 17 December 2013
Hi, sorry if this has been posted before but not very good with modern technology. I rip cd's with Db poweramp to a QNAP 212 serving an NDX. The folders in the nas drive are in artist folders but displayed on N Stream in album alphabetical order, ie the artists are scattered. I realise I can change to Artist on N Stream but this often breaks up tracks from individual albums. My question is, is there any way I can re-name my albums in QNAP so that they appear in N Stream (in albums folder) with all albums from the same artist together ?. I hope that makes sense, any help greatly appreciated. Many thanks, John
Hi, sorry if this has been posted before but not very good with modern technology. I rip cd's with Db poweramp to a QNAP 212 serving an NDX. The folders in the nas drive are in artist folders but displayed on N Stream in album alphabetical order, ie the artists are scattered. I realise I can change to Artist on N Stream but this often breaks up tracks from individual albums. My question is, is there any way I can re-name my albums in QNAP so that they appear in N Stream (in albums folder) with all albums from the same artist together ?. I hope that makes sense, any help greatly appreciated. Many thanks, John
I'm not so good with modern technology either, but I got dBpoweramp (DBA) to work for me - eventually. There are plenty of posts on the forum about using it and how best to organise your data on the NAS.
The key to ripping software is in the initial set-up - what sort of files you want to rip to (flac, wav etc), where you want them to go, compression levels. My preference is for flac files at level 5 compression, but, again, there is plenty of debate on this subject. DBA rips each track to a file.
If your are happy with location, file type etc then the next thing to consider is the meta-data. This is information stored with the ripped file which enables other software (e.g. n-Stream) or hardware (e.g. Uniti) to sort the files out in intelligent and useful ways. This could be by e.g. date, artist, album artist. The meta-data can be, and is usually, a part of the individual file though I believe the Uniti-serve stores meta-data as a separate file within the album folder.
When you boot up DBA and insert a CD, it will attempt to fill in all the fields on the screen. These fields are used for folder and file names and also, crucially for meta-data. You can edit the fields if you like.
For example, if you insert Prefab Sprout's new album Crimson / Red, DBA will fill in the fields e.g. Album, Genre, Disc, Album Artist, Comment, Album, Year, Compilation, Composer at the top of the screen, with the Track Names etc in the middle window. Check that you have these fields filled in properly and you haven't ticked compilation by mistake.
At the bottom left is the part that tripped me up for longest! It is possible to store the folders/files by ANY of the meta-data. The best way to do this for pop/rock etc is again the subject of some debate but artist/album works well for most people. Don't get me started on classical music - this continues to be a major headache for most!
Rip to and path are fairly self-explanatory, it's the naming field which is the key. I use the following string (which I think is one of the defaults):
[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][artist][][]\[album]\[track] [artist] - [title]
This rips the files into the album artist folder which it takes from the album artist field (NOT the artist field which could be different) and then into separate folders for each album by that album artist. If I've ticked the compilation box, the folder will be Various Artists.
E.g. for my example:
Prefab Sprout\Crimson-Red\01 Prefab Sprout - The Best Jewel Thief in the World
(Album Artist\Album\Track)
N-stream can view the data in a traditional folder/file structure (view By Folder) but it is capable of showing views by meta-data). So if you search the NAS by album artist, you will see the above structure. If you search by artist and this is different from the album artist you will see a different structure.
Hope this helps.
Vlad
John,
The folder structure on your nas will not effect the way that nStream shows the albums. It's the tags (metadata) associated with the files, and how the server sends that metadata.
I for one have (embarrassingly) never straightened out the Artist vs. Album Artist thing. I do not like seeing one cd show up as multiple cd's because different 'Artists' are on different tracks. So I just edit the metadata. This is especially a problem for compilations and sound tracks. I still do not get those to display properly, meaning I don't have the right tagging system in place.
Hi John
I don't use a QNAP (or n-stream for that matter) but have a Synology. On the Upnp server settings it allows you to change the way it presents the music. For example I have Album Artist/Album as my first entry, then Artist/Album then Album, etc.
The first option groups albums by the "Album Artist" then by album and this sounds like what you're looking for. Have a look at the settings for the QNAP Upnp software I should think it will have something similar.
Basically this is the same thing Vlad said just phrased differently. Hope it helps.
Thanks everyone, I'll try those at the weekend and report back, John