Missing artists and titles in MS v4.40 display window

[Retro Man]

I have created a new folder on an external drive with about 300 \\\"active\\\" karaoke songs in the MP3+G format. The MP3 file and the CDG file for each song are identically named, except of course for the corresponding file extension. All file names have identical, legal field orders, and all naming conventions have been applied consistently.

After \\\"adding\\\" this folder to MS using the \\\"Add\\\" button (it\\\'s the only folder in use), and allowing MS to scan my folder, all 300+ songs do promptly appear in the MS display window, but I find that about half of the rows contain no data under Time, Title, or Artist. The filename column is fully and correctly populated for all 300+ songs, but the title and artist data have seemingly not been parsed from all the filenames and placed into the T and A columns. The ability of MS to play all 300+ songs, display lyrics, change keys, etc. is not affected in any way. It\\\'s just a visual anomaly in the display window.

Any ideas?? Thx.

[Retro Man]

Retro Man here, again.

I performed one follow-up test. I renamed Hoster\'s songs.mdb, opened Hoster with a blank database, and imported the full complement of 326 songs from the same active folder described previously. Using Hoster\'s search feature, I quickly loaded all 326 songs into a new Hoster playlist. In Hoster, all 326 songs displayed properly in the playlist, including the new Book IDs, Disc IDs, titles, artists, and song durations.

In other words, the \"missing titles and artists\" issue reported above a few moments ago seems limited to Microstudio and does not carry over to Hoster.

[Roy Dennis]

Were these files just the Mp3 and CDG file with no KMA or KHH header files ?

If just the mp3 and matching cdg file then the Tools/Define field order needs to match the file name.

If you choose a folder that includes the kmh or kma files then it gets the proper name from those files and ignores the define fied order.

Be sure to press the refresh button if trying them again with a new define field order or it will just relist them as previously shown.

Hope that helps.

[Retro Man]

Thank you for the input, Roy. The CDG and MP3 files were created from ZIP files with no kmh/kma. Hence, my new folder contained only CDGs and MP3s ... no KMH or KMA files. I have checked the field order for all the files and believe them to be consistent, but it\'s worth another check. What particularly confuses me is that Hoster created a playlist from the same folder and files, and all title and artist attributes are 100% correct, which seems to verify that the field orders had been properly defined. I\'ll try refreshing again.

[Roy Dennis]

But have you set the field order different in Hoster to Microstudio ?

Also in Hoster do you have the define field order radio button selected for (Look in Audio files for Artist and Title) ?
If that is ticked it will over ride the define field order if that info is found in the mp3 file. That option is not available in microstudio.

[Retro Man]

Thank you again, sir. I will check all those items.

[Retro Man]

Dear Roy,

I might never know for sure what was really going on, but after a couple more open/close cycles and a few refreshes, I was able to get all the titles and artists to display in MS 4.40.

My biggest takeaway from your remarks is that MS will use KMH data, if it\'s there. I had no idea. Initially, there were no KMH files, of course ... just the CDG and MP3 matched pairs. However, after I indexed the same folder for Hoster 5.50.05, which created KMHs - and then corrected a single typo in a paired CDG/MP3 filename, I had clear evidence that MS indeed used the old KMH to supersede the corrected Windows filenames for that song. Very helpful and good to know.

[Now, on a different topic, if I can just figure out how to open songs.mdb (Hoster) using Access 2010 (or at least make the file not read-only), I\'ll be all set. LOL.]

[Roy Dennis]

Warning, editing the songs.mdb in Access will not make permanent changes and is not recommended.
If you ever rebuild the database any changes you made in access would be lost.
That is because when you build the database it reads the kmh or kma header file, editing the name in access does not wright that change back to the header file. Permanente changes need to be done in Hosters edit dialog.

If you want to open the songs.mdb for some other reason best just to copy it to another folder first then open it from there you should then be able to write to it an save it as well.

[Retro Man]

Understood.