Consolidating Music for a back up system & KMA Vs. KMH

[ddouglass]

To add to that the only ones that must be KMH now are video types.

[xxyzz]

Well I thought I had this whole thing figured out but I don't so here is what I did. I created a folder call karaoke music, I put my folder containing all my KMA files in there then created another folder containing all my zip files. I then went to import, and tried importing all my zip files which it did but with thousands of duplicate book id's.
I thought I would just wind up with a lot of dupliactes then I would try and weed out the KMA ones and keep the smaller KMH files.

Afterward I went to verify all my songs were still there and it seems that some songs were actually gone. I don't know why. Bottom line is I spent all day trying to get my file sizes under control but wound up just deleting all the zip files back out before I lost all my KMA files in the process.

Is this problem because of the duplicate book id's? Could I delete the song database and start all over.

Heck I don't even know if I am explaining this right.

[Roy Dennis]

Originally Posted by xxyzz

Well I thought I had this whole thing figured out but I don't so here is what I did. I created a folder call karaoke music, I put my folder containing all my KMA files in there then created another folder containing all my zip files. I then went to import, and tried importing all my zip files which it did but with thousands of duplicate book id's.
I thought I would just wind up with a lot of dupliactes then I would try and weed out the KMA ones and keep the smaller KMH files. .

By the statement I highlighted it seem you are still misunderstanding the size issue of kma & kmh. There is no real size difference, I was only saying that if you import your zip files as KMA then you have 2 copies of the same song, 1 kma and still the original zip.

If you have all your existing files that you imported via disc as kma then keep them at that. (I hope you haven't deleted these from your hard drive)

Originally Posted by xxyzz

Afterward I went to verify all my songs were still there and it seems that some songs were actually gone. I don't know why. Bottom line is I spent all day trying to get my file sizes under control but wound up just deleting all the zip files back out before I lost all my KMA files in the process.

Is this problem because of the duplicate book id's? Could I delete the song database and start all over.

Heck I don't even know if I am explaining this right.

Assuming you are using 5.05 and have not actually deleted your kma files from your hard drive follow this to get back to your original configuration.
Open the Build songs database dialog (Tools/Songs Database/Build Database) In the bottom left window below the add folders button where your folders are listed, Highlight the folder or folders containing your zip files then press the Exclude folders button, this will remove those folders from the rebuild but not delete any files from your hard drive.
Now make sure the folders containing all your original kma files are still in the list, you can see if any of the folders are empty by highlighting them and their contents will be displayed in the right hand panel.
Assuming all your kma files are still present press the rebuild button.
This should at least get you back to where you were before you tried importing the zips.
Let us know if this is successfull before continuing to try and import zip files. Then we will try and guide you on.

[xxyzz]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

By the statement I highlighted it seem you are still misunderstanding the size issue of kma & kmh. There is no real size difference, I was only saying that if you import your zip files as KMA then you have 2 copies of the same song, 1 kma and still the original zip.

If you have all your existing files that you imported via disc as kma then keep them at that. (I hope you haven't deleted these from your hard drive)

Assuming you are using 5.05 and have not actually deleted your kma files from your hard drive follow this to get back to your original configuration.
Open the Build songs database dialog (Tools/Songs Database/Build Database) In the bottom left window below the add folders button where your folders are listed, Highlight the folder or folders containing your zip files then press the Exclude folders button, this will remove those folders from the rebuild but not delete any files from your hard drive.
Now make sure the folders containing all your original kma files are still in the list, you can see if any of the folders are empty by highlighting them and their contents will be displayed in the right hand panel.
Assuming all your kma files are still present press the rebuild button.
This should at least get you back to where you were before you tried importing the zips.
Let us know if this is successfull before continuing to try and import zip files. Then we will try and guide you on.

This was successful.

[Roy Dennis]

Glad to know your back with all your original songs.
If you still want to import zip files to your database bear in mind the Merge duplicates button won't merge files that have an identicle DiscID to files that already exist in your database, it only merges songs that have an identicle Book Id.

Now to avoid the chance of importing these duplicated Disc Id's I would say it's best to import them from the Index HD Files dialog (Import Songs tab then Index HD Files button) rather than the quicker Build songs database dialog, this is more time consuming way but will enable you to check the files before they actually import. Also select the Single rather than the Batch option again so you can monitor what is being indexed.

Now if you don't care if it imports duplicated songs you can set the Field & track seperator boxes for Disc ID and Track to Ignore, then either enter your own unique Disc Id in the box for DscID (this could be the original Disk id but with an added # or letter on the end to make it different from your existing) or leave Hoster to create it's own which would be something like XYZxxxx. It will then import upto 99 tracks per BookID.

Should you not want it importing Discid you already have then select the Disc id and track fields in the seperator boxes correct then check before pressing the import button that the disc ID is not already in your database. I'm not sure, you may see a message that the disc id is already in use other wise manually check before importing. When you find the duplicated files you may want to open the folder in explorer and either move them to another folder or delete them so that they do not keep appearing in the import list.

One other point before you try re-importing these zips, Open the folder containing them in explorer, if they have the kmh files still with them from your previous attempt at importing them, delete the kmh file. To make this easier right click in window select Sort By Choose "Type" if you don't see Type listed select "More" then tick the option in that dialog.
This should list all the kmh files seperated from the zip making it easier to delete multiple selections.

[xxyzz]

[quote=Roy Dennis;110165]

Now to avoid the chance of importing these duplicated Disc Id's I would say it's best to import them from the Index HD Files dialog (Import Songs tab then Index HD Files button) rather than the quicker Build songs database dialog, this is more time consuming way but will enable you to check the files before they actually import. Also select the Single rather than the Batch option again so you can monitor what is being indexed.

I just purchased a large amount of songs in .zip format. Here is my question. Based on what you said above it is best to import them from the Index HD files dialog box.

Also I was under the impression that if I had all my files in one folder all I would have to do is scan that one folder and in would scan all the folders that were inside and include all the files. Now I am thinking that I have to included each and every folder that contains files???

[Roy Dennis]

Originally Posted by xxyzz

I just purchased a large amount of songs in .zip format. Here is my question. Based on what you said above it is best to import them from the Index HD files dialog box.

Yes. because you can monitor what is going to import.

Originally Posted by xxyzz

Also I was under the impression that if I had all my files in one folder all I would have to do is scan that one folder and in would scan all the folders that were inside and include all the files. Now I am thinking that I have to included each and every folder that contains files???

You can have all your zip files in 1 folder, if you have multiple sub-folders in the main folder you can put a tick in the "Include Sub-folders" box and it will find all the files in those sub folders.
When it imports them they will then be listed in the "Build Database" list in separate folders. If you rebuild the database afterwards it will build the database on all the files that are listed. The Rescan button only works on the folders that you select in the list along with the type of file you highlight, For example if none of the type buttons are selected it will just scan for previously indexed kma & kmh files, but if you were to select the zip type button it would add any of these to the database but it would probably only enter them as the file name and not separate all the artist & title fields correct and possibly duplicate Disc Id's. If the mp3 part of the files have their ID3 tags correct it will list them correct but from my experience not many ripped karaoke tracks have any id3 tags data.

It depends a bit on how your zip files are stored, with mine each Disc ID has its own folder which creates a long list in the Build database folders list. You can just have all your zips in a single folder then it will only list a single folder in the Build database list.
It's something you will have to decide yourself what 's best for you.

You could just do a test run via the build database dialog, highlight the zip type button and use the Add folder button to add it to the list, it will index that folder, then open your edit dialog or use you search button to see if it indexed the artist and title correct if not delete the info via the Edit dialog and proceed by using the import hd files dialog as mentioned before.

You can make a backup before you start of your complete Hoster folder,(Found in C:/MTU/Hoster) Its only about 140mb, thats what I do, then if things go wrong replace the complete Hoster folder that contains all your playlists, songs.mdb & singers .mdb etc.