# Preferences - MusicBrainz

This panel provides access to options used to control the behaviour of the MusicBrainz wizard. The MusicBrainz settings are divided into various tabs.

## General

Use per track artist names implies that artist names stored with individual tracks should be used as opposed to the artist information stored with an album. If you want a single value for the artist field of each track on an album with multiple artists, you can uncheck this option. You can then use the original artist as presented in the presented metadata or edit the value to be whatever you wish.

On a per track basis in a release, MusicBrainz lists the artists associated with each track. Sometimes the artist as credited on the release differs from the artist associated with the recording. If the Prefer release artist names option is set, Yate will use the release name, when available, as opposed to the recording name. Note that this option is only available if the Use per track artist names option is enabled.

The MusicBrainz guidelines state that artist sort names should be represented in Latin script. Yate can use this fact to obtain Latin based names when an artist name cannot be represented in Latin script. When Latin artist names is checked, Yate will check if a name can be represented in Latin characters. If it cannot and a Latin based sort name is available, the sort name will be saved to the artist name. Note that an attempt will be made to do some reconstruction on the sort name to get it closer to unsorted form.

Use per track artist URLs is the same as Use per track Artist names except it pertains to the URLs which reference artists on the web.

On a per track basis in a release, MusicBrainz lists the titles associated with each track. Sometimes the title as described on the release differs from the title associated with the recording. If the Prefer release titles option is set, Yate will use the release name, when available, as opposed to the recording name.

If the Save Import Time option is set, a UDTI named MusicBrainz Import Time will be set whenever data is imported from MusicBrainz.

When importing, if you do not want empty MusicBrainz items to overwrite file items, select the Do not import empty values option.

The Auto add files option, will automatically look for files to match the number of tracks presented in the MusicBrainz wizard file mapping panel. For example, you have one file selected in the file list and the release you've located via the MusicBrainz wizard has ten tracks. When this option is checked, Yate will automatically look for a total of ten files. It first searches for files with the same album name as the selected file. If sufficient tracks cannot be located it will search again for tracks with the same album name or containing folder. When this option is not checked you must manually change the file selection and the MusicBrainz wizard will adjust on the fly.

You can automatically prepend genres to the Mood field, if they are not already present. Simply check the Merge genres into mood option.

Releases may have more than one genre. Yate can handle this situation, but other applications such as iTunes may not properly display multi value items. Checking Ignore all but first genre will make sure than only one genre is imported.

It is possible that a release's release-group contains additional information not present in a release. This is especially true for relationship URLs. When the Always load Release Groups option is set, the release-group will always be loaded so that extra information can potentially be extracted. Note that if the Aggressively Search for Discogs Release Id option is also set, the release-group will be loaded at most once.

When the Show filename to title Score column in the file mapping table option is enabled, the displayed column will describe a percentage score based on a fuzzy comparison between the MusicBrainz title and:

- the title contained in a track's metadata
- the track's filename
- the track's filename run through all available File to Tag templates. This is used to extract the title from the filename which may contain other metadata components.

Three colours are displayed with the score as follows: 0%-49% red, 50-99% yellow and 100% green. The fuzzy comparison ignores alphabetic case, accents and will discard all words in the Weight Exception set. Removing the words in the Weight Exception set improves the accuracy. eg. If the word the is in your weight exception list, matching The Best of nnn against Best of nnn will result in a 100% match.

If there is disambiguation text for an album name, the wizard will by default append it to the to the Album field as: Album Name (disambiguation). You can suppress this modification of the album name via the Do not append album disambiguation setting.

MusicBrainz credits which are not marked as Instruments, Composer, Conductor, Lyricist or Remixer are by default placed in Involved People. When the Normalize role names setting is enabled, roles will be established by looking them up in the Combined Credits Editor list of Known Credits. If found, the credit type, capitalization and possible alias name will be substituted for the extracted credit. If a credit cannot be matched, the credit will be used as extracted.

## Shared with AcoustID

These items are used by AcoustID as well as MusicBrainz. The settings are the same as found on the Preferences - AcoustID panel.

Artist, album artists, labels and media formats may all have more than one value. If Combine multiple value items into a single value is checked, Yate will combine all of the values into a single item which can be displayed properly by other applications. This option is shared with AcoustID processing. The value is the same as the same setting's value in AcoustID preferences.

When combining multiple value items into a single value or when assigning multiple names to a single role in Musician Credits or Involved People, a join sequence is used to separate the items. The join sequence may be specified in the MusicBrainz data or assigned a default value by Yate if one is not. If you wish to always use your own join sequence (separator), you may specify one via the Join override option. Note that spaces are significant. If you want to resume using the default join sequences, completely empty this field. Note that an equivalent option exists in the Discogs preferences. If you are using both services it makes sense to use the same join override for both. This option is shared with AcoustID processing. The value is the same as the same setting's value in AcoustID preferences.

The presence of commas in person fields such as Artist, Composer, Involved People, Musician Credits, etc. can be annoying as the comma character is used in various contexts as a separator. You can elect to leave commas unchanged, to substitute the visually similar Alt Comma character (\_) or to substitute a smart space. A smart space is a space character that is only inserted if required as a separator. eg. A space will be inserted for "A,B" but not for "A, B". This option is shared with AcoustID processing. The value is the same as the same setting's value in AcoustID preferences. Note that this setting is ignored when accumulating genres and moods.

## Artwork

The Import all artwork option controls what is automatically imported or marked for import. When running the MusicBrainz Wizard, this option controls which artwork gets marked for import. When the option is set, all artwork will be marked for import. When the option is not set, only the first loaded artwork item will be marked for import. When accessing MusicBrainz functionality via an action in the Batch Procecessor, the option, when set, will cause all available artwork to be loaded and imported. When not set, only a single loaded artwork item, if any, will be imported. Note that this is an application level setting. If the Artwork metadata item is not marked for import when viewing a release in the wizard, no artwork will be imported.

The Import all artwork option works in conjunction with the Cover Art Archive popup button when not Batch Processing. When not Batch Processing you can specify how many artwork items get preloaded from the MusicBrainz artwork source as follows:

> Do Note Preload Artwork
>   Artwork will be identified, but not preloaded.
> Preload Single Artwork Item
>   A single artwork item, if available, will be preloaded.
> Preload All Artwork
>   All available artwork will be preloaded.

Yate attempts to retain only one copy of an image. When importing artwork from MusicBrainz, if it is determined that an image is a duplicate it will not be imported. However, the original picture type and description will be retained. If Always use imported artwork metadata is checked, the MusicBrainz metadata will overwrite the metadata stored with the image already already present.

## Discogs

When looking for a Discogs Release Id, the functionality looks in the MusicBrainz data for the release being examined. If an associated Discogs Release ID cannot be found, it is possible that the MusicBrainz release's release-group has the association. When the Aggressively Search for Discogs Release Id option is set, a release-group will be loaded if required.

When the Use Discogs data when Available option is set and a Discogs release id is available, an attempt will be made to extract genre and mood from Discogs. The final Genre data is constructed as follows:

- If Use Discogs data when Available is not set, genre will consist of the MusicBrainz data.
- If only one of MusicBrainz or Discogs has genre data, that data will be used.
- If both sources had genre data, the Genre sources setting controls the behaviour:
  MusicBrainz First
    The genre data consists of the MusicBrainz data followed by the Discogs data. Duplicates are removed.
  Discogs First
    The genre data consists of the Discogs data followed by the MusicBrainz data. Duplicates are removed.
  Prefer MusicBrainz
    The MusicBrainz genre data is used.
  Prefer Discogs
    The Discogs genre data is used.

After the above manipulations the Ignore all but first genre option will be applied if set. The final Mood data is constructed as follows:

- If Use Discogs data when Available is not set
  - If Merge genres into mood is not set, the Mood data will be empty.
  - If Merge genres into mood is set, Mood will be a duplicate of Genre.
- If Use Discogs data when Available is set
  - If only one of MusicBrainz or Discogs has genre data, Mood data will consists of that data followed by the Discogs Mood data.
  - If both sources had genre data, the Genre sources setting controls the behaviour:
    MusicBrainz First
      The mood data consists of the MusicBrainz genre data followed by the Discogs genre data followed by the Discogs mood data. Duplicates are removed.
    Discogs First
      The mood data consists of the Discogs genre data followed by the MusicBrainz genre data followed by the Discogs mood data. Duplicates are removed.
    Prefer MusicBrainz
      The mood data consists of the MusicBrainz genre data followed by the Discogs mood data. Duplicates are removed.
    Prefer Discogs
      The mood data consists of the Discogs genre data followed by the Discogs mood data. Duplicates are removed.

The Use Discogs data when Available option also enables the import/loading of artwork referenced by the associated Discogs release. The Discogs Artwork popup button has the same values as does the Cover Art Archive Artwork popup button already discussed. Note that a setting of Preload Single Artwork Item in either or both of the preload popup buttons is interpreted as a desire to preload at most one artwork item from any source.

## Advanced

You can elect to automatically run an action after importing data from MusicBrainz. Check the Run action after import option and choose an action to run.

When mapping files to MusicBrainz tracks you can have Yate search for missing tracks which might be incorrectly tagged elsewhere in your library. This is done by weighing each of the tracks in your library based on the MusicBrainz data associated with the missing track. In order to enable this functionality you must have produced a Track database. Select the Use track database option and use the Choose button to select the database you have previously produced.

For more information on searching for missing tracks read the Locating Missing Tracks in an Album topic.

If you wish to use an alternate server for the MusicBrainz data you can specify a full URL in the Alternate server field. Alternate servers will not be rate limited unless they reference a MusicBrainz server. Warning: changes to this setting only take effect the next time Yate is started. If you are directly accessing a MusicBrainz mirror, /ws/2 must be appended to the URL.

The MusicBrainz wizard allows you to filter releases after a search. One of the filters is Country which enables the hiding of all releases not associated with the selected country. The Preferred country codes for filtering setting can contain a list of two character country codes, optionally separated by spaces, to set your preferred countries. Note that alphabetic case is ignored. Unlike the on the fly filters which can be chosen from the Country filter control, this setting can enable multiple countries. Whenever this setting is not empty, a search in the wizard will preset the Country filter to Preferences which implies this setting. At any time you can change the filter via the Country control. You can use the supplied disclosure button to display a menu containing a limited number of countries whose associated country code will be appended when selected. More information on two character country codes can be referenced at the following links:

> Nations Online
> ISO