Managing metatags, best practice

Hello… new to Audirvana (v.3.5 on 10.14.6). Love it!

Am I right in thinking that, when I change - say - the Composer field in the right hand side Tags pane in the Audirvana Library, doing so permanently modifies the original (in this case, FLAC) file(s) on my filesystem?

If so, is there another way to (batch) edit such attributes/metatags outside Audirvana; some sort of ‘FLAC Editor’, or similar software; or would you advise always doing so in my Library?

TIA!

I use Yate from 2manyrobots.com, it has a lot of functionalities to massively edit tags, you can build your own macros and so on, give it a try.

1 Like

Thanks, @stefano_mbp!

I’ll do as you say :slight_smile:.

Preferable to Jaikoz?

No danger of it compromising the integrity of the environment in which Audirvana works?

You quick help much appreciated…

I started with Yate and tried Jalkoz but didn’t like it.
In Yate you can find an Audirvana specific custom mapping
https://2manyrobots.com/YateResources/docs/AudirvanaMapping.html
It works in perfect synergy with Audirvana

2 Likes

Much appreciated. Will investigate… :slight_smile: .

Super!!! Will try to fiddle around with the Audirvana-specific mapping! Will let you know how it goes.

1 Like

Si I downloaded the template for Audirvana custom field definitions. I highlighted the link in the screen shot. Is this the correct one?

Then after downloading I get an AudirvanaMapping.plist. Where is this to be loaded into? I can’t drag it into the ‘Action Manager’ pane.

Can you help? Thanks!!!

1 Like

You should follow these instructions
https://2manyrobots.com/YateResources/docs/AudirvanaMapping.html

1 Like

… yes, it is the right one

1 Like

You can call me dim but I just can’t figure out how to get to the Custom Panel Editor. The manual says ‘You enter the Custom Panel Editor by right clicking on any edit panel preset button and choosing the Edit Custom Panels… menu item’ but I just don’t get it.

A bit of a cryptic manual!

Thanks for help!

Regards

1 Like

right click on any panel, then click on Edit Custom Panels, the custom panel will open then click on import/export

1 Like

The steps which it seems (to me; I agree - not intuitive!) as though you need to take next are these:

  1. as @stefano_mbp says, right/CTRL-click on a panel (I tried ‘Info’ at first; not a good idea - I restored it) - maybe the fifth on the bottom under ‘Audio’ because it’s blank… I assume this is Custom field 10
  2. dismiss the ‘Custom Panel Editor’ popup - possibly checking the box not to show again
  3. navigate to the folder in which you’ve downloaded the Audirvana template
  4. select it and import it
  5. it will then tell you that there are no other choices but to accept the default values
  6. you seem to have to click on the accept button several times, which shows the various correspondences (have just discovered that these seem to correspond to an Advanced Preference > Custom Fields)

I may have missed some steps, or not described them properly - especially #s 5, 6 - because I’m not yet clear on the relationship between Panels and Custom Panels yet; not to mention Layouts! I’d like to refine this and notate a proper workflow, but I can’t seem to remove the mistake I made at #1 even by ‘Reset Default Layout’ :slight_smile:

A parallel question has to be now: (why) does it matter which Panel you right/CTRL-click on to bring up the Edit Custom Panels?

Are we aiming to edit one or all ten Panels?

IOW does the process which @stefano_mbp describes and I’ve tried to continue (not very well, I fear: my apologies) replace just one of the ten panels with the Audirvana template? Or does the inclusion of the Audirvana template create a new set of ten panels?

If the former (changes only, say the tenth panel), then:

  • why can’t I get any text to appear in the tenth (fifth to the right on second row) panel
  • what happens to the other nine; and why?

If the latter (all ten panels new), then how does the Audirvana template comes into play?

In either case, if I successfully create an Audirvana Custom Panel, I can’t yet see how to display its fields as desired… right-clicking in the main display’s Headers does produce a list of fields to display with all those currently visible checked/ticked; how to force the dedicated Audirvana fields just loaded from the 2manyrobots template - and then what to do with them - is unclear (to me)!

It appears (from the ‘The Custom Panel Editor’ Yate Help topic) as though it may be necessary to change settings in the List Preferences; though it’s not immediately clear (to me) how and whether this could potentially compromise other aspects of display.

And - even then - how and whether this has a permanent effect on your music files, or just the Yate database. I guess the former, otherwise we wouldn’t be doing this for the Auridvana library.

Have registered on the 2manyrobots forum to see if this is dealt with there. Happy to report back here if it is and I can understand it :slight_smile:

At first glance, the topic does seem to be discussed. One thread is from 2014. More later…

In the long run - assuming that the Audirvana-Specific template accurately amends the audio/music file to suit Audirvana - it all comes down to how to save the changes from that Custom field!

Thanks!!! Got it. It is indeed a bit hidden, no way I would’ve found it. I need to get better into Yate’s software structure.

1 Like

Thanks for the infos, much appreciated. For the moment, I am still digging into Yate’s software architecture, which I struggle to grasp.

So far, I had my albums loaded into Yate and went the route -> Actions -> MusicBrainz Wizard …

This, I guess, pulls in all info from the MusicBrainz databank and the metadata then appears in Audirvana, though, not the entire set.

I’m working on grasping Yate, not to speak about metadata in general!

1 Like

@Sailor,

I agree, Yate is complex and not very well documented.

I’m new to this (and to Audirvana).

I wish MusicBrainz were more accurate for Classical music… I fear that manual ‘tidying’ may always be necessary.

Even though I’ve set up a Panel as directed earlier (by @stefano_mbp - thanks!), I can’t see either:

  1. how its corrected fields can be saved back into my files for Audirvana, or
  2. how to add the additional fields of which Audirvana is capable of handling.

When you change some value in the tags on the left of the file, in the central file list, you’ll see a red dot that means something was changed in that file.
When you have done your changes just “save” the files, all the metadata changes will be written inside the file.
To customize a panel, refer to my previous screenshot (the second), click on the panel name (Custom 2 in the screenshot) to select which custom panel you want to customize, then right-click on any “unused” box and a list of tags will appear, chose which tag you need, once you have filled the panel with your desired tags save it.
In my second screenshot you can find how I’ve customized the “Custom 1” panel
Hope this can help

Thanks again, @stefano_mbp!

I did follow what you kindly suggested (in your most recent post and the one with the screenshots)

The Yate Audirvana template, however, has fields only for ‘Conductor’, ‘Audirvana Display Title’ (not sure what that is), ‘Soloist’, ‘Instrument’, ‘Style’ and ‘Period’.

I discounted adding more - which I suppose I can do (?) - because I assumed that the Yate template was already matched to Audirvana.

So two questions, please:

  1. can either those fields be changed to correspond to Yate’s fields (Audirvana has no ‘Soloist’, for instance) - or vice versa?
  2. how do I map the resulting set of fields - having performed either of the changes in 1, above - onto Audirvana’s fields once the metadata in/of original files have been rewritten back into them?

Thanks again for your patience in talking us through this!

… you should have imported the Audirvana Plus Mapping, downloaded from here
https://2manyrobots.com/YateResources/YateResources.html#Templates
as described in previous post
This will create the specific tags ‘Ensemble’, ‘Soloist’, ‘Instrument’, ‘Style’ and ‘Period’
You can verify the mapping is ok going to
Preferences/General/Basic/Custom fields


you can see in the attached screenshot the mapping already done
Those tags will be then available in the panel customization

1 Like

@stefano_mbp - Yes :slight_smile:!

I had done that successfully and have the template exactly as in your screenshot (thanks).

What’s confusing me is this, please. In Yate’s Panel (top right), am I:

  1. replacing all the data (‘Info’, ‘Sorting’, ‘Artwork’, ‘Lyrics’ etc) and all ten fields?
  2. replacing all the data in just one of the ten fields… in your example yesterday you (first) right-clicked on ‘Artwork’ - but seemed (second) to be adding/replacing (?) ‘Custom 1’ (which I think is the Yate Audiovarna template) to the default field - second to last on second row, in mine that’s 'URL’s?
  3. adding data (the Yate Audirvana template: ‘Conductor’, ‘Audirvana Display Title’, ‘Soloist’, ‘Instrument’, ‘Style’ and ‘Period’?

Then how do these changes (1, 2, or 3) relate to the columns in Yate and hence to Audirvana?

Once I see how the model works conceptually, I’m sure I’ll be able to proceed :slight_smile:

Be patient, tomorrow I shall solve your doubts … I hope, in this moment I have my Mac busy for some massive changes …

1 Like