Album Art Downloader XUI, A tool for downloading cover art Options

[AlexVallat]

The Amazon script is not working with umlauts/accents.

Thanks for that. I've updated the Amazon scripts with your suggested changes. I don't know whether this is something they've recently changed, or if it never worked properly, but in either case it should be working right now.

@dbkb: I'm afraid I don't have much to add to what's already been said. There is a small possibility that the issue you are seeing is graphics driver related - is there any chance it stopped working after you upgraded your drivers?

Alex

[dnx]

How can i get the same name as the .mp3 file?

A sample:

Ben Klock, Dettmann - Dawning - Original Mix.mp3

Ben Klock, Dettmann - Dawning - Original Mix.jpg


I tried: %title%, %track% etc. Nothing works!

Who can help me?

[AlexVallat]

How can i get the same name as the .mp3 file?

Sorry, but there is no way of doing this. In general, an album may consist of multiple mp3 files, and the filenames may not even be known to AAD (all you need to do a search is the album and artist name).

Alex

[dnx]

Thank you for the fast reply!

But how do you add covers to multiple mp3 files?

I'm trying to do this with mp3tag.


And what about album names with / ' ? and other signs??
It changes to --> _

This post has been edited by dnx: Dec 26 2010, 15:13

[AlexVallat]

But how do you add covers to multiple mp3 files?

If you are talking about embedding artwork within mp3 files, AAD does not do that, it saves one cover file for one album. mp3tag can, though. A quick search threw up this: GeekTonic guide, but I'm sure there are others.

And what about album names with / ' ? and other signs??
It changes to --> _

Yes, yes it does. All characters that are not allowed in filenames are replaced by _ instead.

Alex

[dnx]

Thank you!

Will different characters support later?

I will also thank you very much for this program!!

This post has been edited by dnx: Dec 26 2010, 15:59

[AlexVallat]

Will different characters support later?

Thanks for your comments. There's a feature request for that here: #2022984, if you want to track it. It hasn't been a priority for me, though. If you explain how you would want to use such a feature, it would help.

[blackspawn]

Hello, It seems to me that "Include subfolders when searching for audio file" isn't working...

With the following filter: \%artist%\[*] %album%\* and with the option mentioned checked files in \%artist%\[*] %album%\CD1\something.flac and \%artist%\[*] %album%\CD2\something.flac aren't found.

However if I change the filter to \%artist%\[*] %album%\*\* it finds them ok. Maybe I'm missing the meaning of the "Include subfolders when searching for audio file" option but shouldn't AAD find the files with the first filter? (using 0.37.1)

This post has been edited by blackspawn: Jan 1 2011, 20:14

[AlexVallat]

It seems to me that "Include subfolders when searching for audio file" isn't working...

Perhaps this isn't as clear as it could be, I'll think if there is a better way it could be presented.

"Include subfolders" refers to the path specified in "Search for audio files in". Unless you only want to look for files directly in that folder, leave it checked.

The "Use file path pattern matching" box doesn't affect where files are searched for at all. It just affects how the album and artist name are determined from the path (as opposed to from tags within the music files themselves). Further, * in the pattern matches only within one level of folder or file name, %album%\* does not include album\cd1\something.flac. You can actually force a complete wildcard by using a regex fragment: ".*" (including " marks) so \%artist%\%album%\".*" would match anything at all, but probably not be what you want unless you prefixed it by the name of the parent folder, something like: \music\%artist%\%album%\".*"

If you don't need the name of the audio file to play any part in the matching process, you're probably better off matching just against folder names and not bothering with looking for files, it will be faster. You can do this by ending the pattern with a ., so \music\%artist%\%album%\. (where music is the name of the parent folder)

Easiest of all is to just use the tags from files option, but I suppose you've already tried that?

Alex

[blackspawn]

Ahh ok know I understand the meaning of the "include subfolders when..." option, and thanks for the tip :-) the dot operator was exactly what I wanted to match my albums (including ones with more that one CD).

Yes I've tried searching based on tags but it is much much slower that way than when matching based on file/folder structure by way of regex.

[einmus]

Bravo, excellent work! Save me from a lot of labor!

[dbkb]

The Amazon script is not working with umlauts/accents.

Thanks for that. I've updated the Amazon scripts with your suggested changes. I don't know whether this is something they've recently changed, or if it never worked properly, but in either case it should be working right now.

@dbkb: I'm afraid I don't have much to add to what's already been said. There is a small possibility that the issue you are seeing is graphics driver related - is there any chance it stopped working after you upgraded your drivers?

Alex

Thanks for the help. FYI, it did turn out to be a graphics driver related issue. I eventually found that something called SndTVideo had installed itself as a video device on my computer. After removing that device, everything worked fine.

[AlexVallat]

Thanks for the help. FYI, it did turn out to be a graphics driver related issue.

Thanks for letting me know, I'm glad you got it to work eventually!

[jobin007007]

Hi,

I would like to report a bug with Album Art Downloader.

I use the program to download Album art automatically.If more than one music file is in the folder, then the album art jpeg file Folder.jpg gets overwritten again and again by different album arts. So the jpeg for only one music gets stored. So only the last music file in the folder has its jpeg successfully saved.

Any Help on this?

Thanks for the software!

[g.p.m.]

After working hours to find my almost perfect solution to pick up album art and include it into my mp3 files I decided to make up a little tutorial how I did it.
Because I'm really noob this maybe can be refined by others with more knowledge than me.

What you need:
Mp3Tag - latest version can be found here.
Album Art Downloader - latest version can be found here.


Install both progs. For Album Art Downloader it may be required also to install the MS .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (except for Windows 7). During install choose your appropriate scripts for searching album art. Never mind to install all, you can choose later which of them you want to use.

Run AAD, leave all settings as is.
Open "File" -> "New" -> "Search Window..." click on Options.




Check "Open search results in new window", "Automatically close after saving" and "Automatically download full-size images - Never". Leave the "Save images to:" field untouched, this will be filled in later automatically.
In the right panel choose your preferred scripts to search for album art. When done click on the ... besides of each script. There you can choose the results limit (I set it to 5, default is 10), whether to download full-size images from this source and "Search first".
This option means that this source is run initially on search (you can have more than one source with "Search first"). After the "Search first" is done and you are not satisfied with the results expand the search with simply clicking the search button again which is then called "Expand search". This will do a search through all other sources you've selected but have not the "Search first" button checked.
When all preferences are checked close both AAD windows. This will save your preferences.

Run Mp3Tag.
Open "Tools" -> "Options...", got to "Tools" section (or hit Control+O).



Click "New".
Give your new tool a name, for example "AAD Album".
At "Path:" click on the folder icon and go to where your AlbumArt.exe is stored and click on it.
At "Parameter:" put exactly the following line:
/ar "%artist%" /al "%album%" /p "$replace(%_path%,%_filename_ext%,)%%album%%.jpg"



You can make up another tools for incomplete tagged files which have, for example, no album tag. So you can search for pictures of the artist or for songs released as singles or from samplers:

Search only artist parameter:
/ar "%artist%" /p "$replace(%_path%,%_filename_ext%,)%%artist%%.jpg"

Search (artist and) title parameter:
/ar "%artist%" /al "%title%" /p "$replace(%_path%,%_filename_ext%,)%title%.jpg"
(Notice the single % signs at the title parameter!)

Back in the main window of Mp3Tag go to "Actions" -> "Actions" (or hit ALT+5), click on "New".



Forgive a name for the new action, for example "%album%".



Click on "New", choose the action type "Import cover from file". The format string for image filename should read "%album%.jpg" (without the "..."). Choose whether to delete existing cover art, click ok -> ok -> close.

Do the same for %artist% and %title%.

Now you're prepared for the first run!

In the list of files in the main window of Mp3Tag right click on a song, select "Tools" -> "AAD Album".



The AlbumArtDownloader pops up, correctly filled in the artist and album name and (hopefully) some appropriate results.
The download path for the images is also automatically filled in, it's always the same as where your mp3 file is stored and the file name will be the same as the albums name. So you can simply hit the save icon at the best image and your done.



For seeing an image in its original size click on it and hold the mouse button.
Give it a try and choose your other tools, "AAD Artist" and "AAD Title". You will see slightly different search results and the file name will be the same as the artist name or the song title.




So you're able to save up to three different images for one song.

When your images are chosen and saved close the AAD window and your back in the main window of Mp3Tag.

Now select the files which should have the album art stored in. Click on "Actions" -> "%album%. This will import the album art with the same name directly into the mp3 file and save it.
(Or choose one of the other actions you have prepared to store the image with the artist's or title's name.)

This can of course be done with multiple files selected.

This way you only have to:
1. select one file from each album and run the AAD tool
2. select all files and run the %album% action
and you're done.

Have fun!

This post has been edited by g.p.m.: Jan 23 2011, 18:17

[AlexVallat]

g.p.m.: Thank you for posting that detailed tutorial. I would like to include a copy of it on the Album Art Downloader Wiki, if that's OK by you?

If more than one music file is in the folder, then the album art jpeg file Folder.jpg gets overwritten again and again by different album arts. So the jpeg for only one music gets stored.

Naturally, only one file called Folder.jpg may exist in any one folder. If you need to have multiple art files in the same folder, you will need a more complex naming scheme. You could, for example, choose to include the artist and album name in the art filename. To do this, if you are starting from the File Browser, click the Options link, then in the "Path to find images" box, replace the contents with, for example: %artist%-%album%-Folder.%extension%

That would give you art files named like: "Muse-Absolution-Folder.jpg".

[g.p.m.]

g.p.m.: Thank you for posting that detailed tutorial. I would like to include a copy of it on the Album Art Downloader Wiki, if that's OK by you?

Absolutely OK.

Glad to this!

Greetz

This post has been edited by g.p.m.: Jan 23 2011, 22:23

[ypcyc]

Hello! Can you please add scipt to support coverlandia.net ? Thanks!

[AlexVallat]

Hello! Can you please add scipt to support coverlandia.net ? Thanks!

Coverlandia is an interesting one. As most of the results will be fan-made covers, which is probably not what an average AAD user will be expecting, I won't be including this source by default. I will, however, make this script available here for those who do want fan-made covers: coverlandia.boo

Alex

[mowo]

When I search my mp3 library, using either AAD's Foobar Browser or AAD's File Browser, folders containing files named "AlbumArt*.jpg" are not recognized as containing artwork. The result is always "Not Present" in the "Artwork Status" column. Here's my search string:

Folder%preset%.%extension%|Cover%preset%.%extension%|AbumArt*%preset%.%extension%

I have lots of folders containing files with names like "AlbumArt_{4116F628-D72F-4CBB-8A26-B38C9C4340CF}_Large.jpg" that I've acquired through various means. Only image files named "Folder.jpg" are successfully recognized by AAD, including in folders that contain "Folder.jpg" as well as "AlbumArt*.jpg". I've also tested the case of renaming the file to just "AlbumArt.jpg" (stripping off the UID part), as well as changing the search string to just "AlbumArt.jpg"; doing either does not make any difference.

What am I doing wrong? Everything I've read says that AAD should honor and correctly interpret the "*" wildcard character, as well as honor whatever filename pattern I specify, but it just doesn't seem to do so. Any ideas on this problem?



This post has been edited by mowo: Feb 21 2011, 21:41

[AlexVallat]

Here's my search string:

Folder%preset%.%extension%|Cover%preset%.%extension%|AbumArt*%preset%.%extension%

[...]
Any ideas on this problem?

If that's a copy and paste of your search string, then I think I see the problem. You've missed out the "l" in "AlbumArt". If that's not it, then I don't know why it isn't working. I've tested that search string here and it picks up the example filename you gave just fine.

Alex

[mowo]

Here's my search string:

Folder%preset%.%extension%|Cover%preset%.%extension%|AbumArt*%preset%.%extension%

[...]
Any ideas on this problem?

If that's a copy and paste of your search string, then I think I see the problem. You've missed out the "l" in "AlbumArt". If that's not it, then I don't know why it isn't working. I've tested that search string here and it picks up the example filename you gave just fine.

Alex

Alex -- Well I feel completely foolish -- yes, that is a copy/paste of my string and I can't believe I misspelled "AlbumArt". I stared at that string for so long, and yet I couldn't see the missing "l"! Well, I'm at work now, but will certainly try your "fix" this evening. Thanks for your graciousness!

[mowo]

Here's my search string:

Folder%preset%.%extension%|Cover%preset%.%extension%|AbumArt*%preset%.%extension%

[...]
Any ideas on this problem?

If that's a copy and paste of your search string, then I think I see the problem. You've missed out the "l" in "AlbumArt". If that's not it, then I don't know why it isn't working. I've tested that search string here and it picks up the example filename you gave just fine.

Alex

Alex -- Well I feel completely foolish -- yes, that is a copy/paste of my string and I can't believe I misspelled "AlbumArt". I stared at that string for so long, and yet I couldn't see the missing "l"! Well, I'm at work now, but will certainly try your "fix" this evening. Thanks for your graciousness!

Yep, just as you observed, AAD is not clever enough to work around my typos!

[groen]

Great software and i have been using it for a while now with great results. One way that i think you could increase usability is if you could create an option and then enable a different way of saving images. For example, when i am saving front, back, cd and inside in to a specific folder where the music already is. I have to click save as then find the folder for each type of images. If i use the menu (front, back, cd, inside) it just saves it in to a c:\users directory. So if there was an option where you could click and then it changes the save preference so that each search it remembers the directory location of the first save after the search. That way i could make use of the front back inside right click context menu options.

[Der Internet]

im not absolutely sure how to do that, but one small hint will be :

a doubleclick on the cover will save it the way you defined it in yor options.

my configuration:

Filebrowser: Use ID3 tags from file

path to image: %type(Cover,Cover,Back,Inside,CD)%.jpg

the double Cover is for saving "unknown" artwork as default cover.jpg