Working with MP3s

ReportCD helps you to manage your music collection. When scanning a new disk, the program can store (if the option is activated) MP3 files informations in the database. ReportCD can read ID3 tag store in the MP3 file (V1 et V2), and can extract also a picture (for ID3 tag v2 only). This picture can represent the cover of the album . To Display the MP3 collection, select the view MP3 (menu Views | MP3 ). By selecting a MP3 in the list, you can see its properties in the bottom panel.

ReportCD can also store in the database a small part of the file (if the option is activated), in order to listen the beginning of the song later, when selecting the file in the MP3 view.

• Add MP3 in database during disk scanning
  In the scan dialog, click on the button Other options and make sure that the option to save MP3 infos in the database is activated. Then, scan your disk. The system will read and extract MP3 informations, if it found MP3 files (files with '.mp3' extension).
• Browse MP3 collection
  Go to the MP3 view : click on the menu View | MP3. You will see the list of the MP3 stored in the database. By default, the list is sorted by singers. Click on a singer name (in the Tree window), the list of all the songs is displayed in the List window. When selecting a song, its properties are shown in the bottom window. You can also filter the songs by style : when selecting a style in the combobox, the program will display only songs with this style. The first combobox is used to define a groupment criteria : Singers group MP3 by singers, Albums group MP3 by album name (useful to see the list of all the albums by singer). You will find also the list of all disks name, in order to display MP3 files stored in these disks.
• Listen a musical extract
  If you want to listen a musical extract of the selected (and if it has been stored when scanning file), right-click and select Play the extract. ReportCD will play the musical extract itself.

Search for MP3s

To search for MP3s, select the view MP3 (menu View | MP3) and click on Search. The search window opens with the tab MP3 selected.

You can specify differents criteria and combine them :

• Artist
• Title
• Album
• Year
• Style
• Associated with a picture or not
• Contains musical extract or not

When the search is done, you will see the list of MP3s found. You can modify their properties and locate the files in the catalog.

Export MP3 collection

ReportCD can export MP3 collection in 2 formats :

• ASCII : to export the MP3 collection in a text file, with a tabular separator for columns.
• XML : To export the MP3 collection in a XML file, with an optional link with a stylesheet file (that can modified).
  

To export the MP3 collection, first select the view MP3 and then click on menu File | Export and select the format to use. You can also use the combobox filter and sort songs by singers, albums or by disk name.