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Originally Posted by mrwizard
Bryan,
Thanks for the heads up. I look forward to this release and to the upcoming one that will let us add MP3+G to the database. In the mean time, do you or anyone know what program (if any) to use to look up a song by artist or title that is stored on my hard drive? Is there something that will work with Hoster? Thanks!
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Currently we are not aware of anything that can do this job.
Let me ask you to do something for us. 
Look at your MP3+G files. There are 5 data fields that Hoster requires to be identified before it can add a song to our Songs Database. These are:
1-Brand/Mfgr
2-DiscID
3-Track#
4-Song name
5-Artist name
How many of these are identified in ALL your MP3+G songs, and are these fields all in the same format (1-2-3-4-5), or do they vary (4-2-5-1-3, etc.)?
After having spent tens of hours studying and trying various schemes to add MP3+G and ZIP files into our Songs Database, and never have problems that users could create accidentally, we have made a decision.
We will format-shift MP3+G and ZIP files into our KMA format. That way, they perfectly fit into our structure, can be edited as to the fields above, and are not going to get disasterously changed by you or a program you may run.
When you open your MP3+G and ZIP files in the Import Screen, you must identify where Hoster can find the 5 fields and the order they are in. For example, are they in the Filename, or in an ID3 header?
Once identified, we will then "import" them into our KMA format and add them into the Songs Database. Then they can appear in the Song Book, the Search dialog, and added to the Playlist by BookID or Brand.
It is too dangerous to try to directly use the native MP3+G and ZIP files. We realize that some users will object to this probably forever, but it is too risky for us to add these any other way.
Please do not assume I am accusing you of having illegal files, I DO NOT mean to imply that in any way.
There are MANY users who have obtained free MP3+G and ZIP files from various sources and/or conversion programs and they are in various formats we cannot support, neither can any other "off the shelf" product. You want to search your songs on your hard drive, say by song name. So... where does the program look for the song name? If you have files from different sources or converted from various programs, they will likely have the song name in different locations, not consistantly the same in every song. That's part of the delima.
Hoster is a very robust product. We plan to keep it that way without spending a small fortune trying to support all varieties and ways MP3+G and ZIP files were created and fields identified.
We have created, processed and played audio files on computers since 1968. We are the first in the world to develop and ship a Digital Audio Workstation. Mix Magazine put that in print in the "Audio Industry: 20 years" special issue in September 1997.
Our KMA format was created from careful engineering, and from our 37 years of audio and computer experience and knowledge.
Hoster will remain robust, while allowing you to add your songs into our database. 
In case you are wondering, we will still allow you to play your MP3+G and ZIP files just as you can now. However, to add them to the Songs Database will require shifting them to our KMA format.
