News & Changes

New functions in Version 7.2 Professional

CD ripping and MP3/OGG encoding
After identifying a CD, you can now read the CD and encode it as MP3 or OGG Vorbis files. You can configure the file names, the desired bitrate and the setting "quality vs. speed". It is possible to read the complete CD tracks, or just short track clips (useful to identify a song by playing this short clip).
Improved and extended MP3 scanning
When scanning your CDs or harddisk for audio files (MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA, APE, AAC and MID), you can let the scanning function create separate MP3 records for each directory. If you have stored each CD in a separate directory, you will get an own entry for each CD in your database. This is much easier to survey than one single MP3 record with thousands of MP3 files.
Automatic BPM calculation (beats per minute)
When scanning your MP3 files or reading (ripping and encoding) CD tracks, Music Wizard can calculate the BPM value of every file. This is quite useful for dance music (for example TRANCE or TECHNO).

New functions in Version 7.2 Standard and Professional

Database loading accellerated significantly
Music Wizard 7.2 uses an optimized database format. This results in a much higher loading and processing speed.
Word index for offline CD archive
You can create a word index for the offline CD archive. With this index, the search process will be much faster when browsing the archive.
Multiple CD selection when browsing the offline CD archive
When browsing the archive, you can change the view to an extended mode. In this mode, a CD list will be displayed on the right dialog side. This makes it possible to select more than one CD at the same time. In the old version, you had to restart the archive browsing dialog for every CD.
Fuzzy search in offline CD archive
When identifying a CD, the search process first takes the CD index (based on the exact track lengths) in order to find the corresponding CD in the offline archive. If the CD track times are slightly differens (e.g. because it is a copy of the original CD), Music Wizard can now search fuzzy. This means that it extends the search to nearly matching CDs (inexact matches). With the fuzzy search, the CD identification should find nearly any CD.
CD-TEXT support
If a CD has CD-TEXT, Music Wizard reads the CD artist, CD title, and all track titles directly from CD-TEXT.
New database fields
Version 7.2 supports the following new database fields:
· label
· orchestra
· conductor
· soloist
· texter
· musicians
Complete record lists and record search
You can now create a complete record list from all single record lists. Similar to the song search, there is a possibility to search for records (e.g. CDs). The search result lists all matching records. The record search replaces the old filtering function in a single record list.
User defined sorting order
You can now define your own sorting order in all sorting and search functions (song, record and MP3 searching/sorting).

New functions in Version 6.0 Standard and Professional

New database format with additional fields

General:
+ Artist and Title can be up to 100 characters long

Records:
+ additional number
+ composer
+ original artist
+ internet address
+ original CD-cover

Songs:
+ subtitle
+ composer
+ original artist
+ genre
+ notes

MP3 songs:
+ album
+ bitrate
+ sampling frequency
+ mono / stereo
+ track number
Improved MP3 recognition
The MP3 recognition function reads ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags.
It reads the following ID3 fields: album, track no. and comment.
The following MP3 properties are added to the Music Wizard
database: bitrate, sampling frequency and channel info
(mono / stereo / joint stereo).
Columns can be (de-) selected in all lists
The visible columns of recordlists, songlists and MP3-songlists
are now user definable, this means you can select the information
you want to be displayed in all lists.
New Windows XP styles support
Music Wizard 6 supports the visual appearance of Windows XP
(Luna).
Main window background can be configured
+ bitmap or color gradient
+ multi color menus
Creating a manual database backup set
In addition to the automatic backup function, you can now
create a manual backup set. This backup set can be
restored later (e.g. after a new installation of Music Wizard).
freedb support
Because of some problems with the CDDB2-control in Music
Wizard 5, Music Wizard 6 uses the freedb CD database.
The freedb database is nearly as big as the CDDB2 database
and grows very quickly. Because the access to freedb does
not need any dlls (like CDDB2), it is much more reliable.
Extended Offline-CD-Archive format
The Offline-CD-Archive has been extended with the following
fields:
+ Genre
+ Track times
+ CD notes
+ Track notes
The track times are available for all CDs; the other fields only
exist if the "author" has filled them in the freedb database.
The Offline-CD-Archive contains all CDs that freedb has got,
but because of a smarter file format it is significantly smaller
than the full freedb database.
Manual search in the Offline-CD-Archive
Now you have the possibility to browse the Offline-CD-Archive for
songs. This is e.g. useful if you are searching for a specific
song, but you don't know on which album it is.
List printing completely rewritten
The list printing function has been completely rewritten and
has the following features/settings:
+ page borders
+ paper orientation (Portrait/Landscape)
+ List headline editable
+ rows distance
+ optional with border and column/row - grid
+ columns can be (de-) selected
+ page number
+ option to print the complete list or only the current page
Improved CD-Cover printing
+ "CD(-S)" on the spine is now optional
+ spine can have another color than the rest of the backside
+ number on spine can have a different color than the rest of the spine
+ spine can have a color gradient
New record type "DVD"

Additional features in Music Wizard 6.0 Professional

Database statistics
The statistics function gives you an overview over all records and songs in
your database as well as many charts (record types, genres, playing time, ...).
In addition, you can see the most popular artists (counted by records, songs
or total playing time).
Sorting and search function especially for MP3-files and MP3-records
Music Wizard 6 Professional gives you powerful sorting and searchfunctions for
MP3 files. You can e.g. create a complete list of all MP3 songs, or you can
create a list of MP3 files that are encoded with lower than or equal to
112 kBits/sec. It is possible to search for certain MP3 filenames or directory
names, too.
New list type "MP3 song list"
The MP3 sorting and searching - functions create a "MP3 song list". This is a
special song list that contains all information and fiunctions useful for
MP3 files. The special MP3 functions are:
+ Play a MP3
+ Play all songs in the MP3 song list
+ Save as M3U-Playlist (used by Mediaplayer, Winamp etc.)
+ Copy / Move / Delete MP3s
+ Add / Update / Delete ID3 Tags (ID3v1 und ID3v2)
Save lists as HTML table
All lists (song lists, record lists and MP3 song lists) can be saved as a HTML
file with embedded table.
Artist sorting configurable
The new artist sorting functionality solves the problem that artists are
assorted wrong (e.g. Michael Jackson under "M" instead of "J"). This is achived
by recognizing first names in the artist string and moving it to the end of the
artist string (e.g. "Michael Jackson" is converted to "Jackson Michael"). The
record, song and MP3 lists do still show "Michael Jackson", but the artists are
sorted by the special "artist sort string". In addition, "The" or other
articles are ignored, so "The Beatles" are assorted under "B" instead of "T".
Of course the complete artist sorting functionaliy is optional.
User defined record types
Music Wizard Professional gives you the possibility to create new record types.
With this function, you can e.g. create separate CD types for each genre
(classics, rockpop, jazz, ...). Every user defined record type has got a base
record type, so every lists has got its special functions and behaviour
(MP3 functions, CD cover etc.).

Changes in Music Wizard 5.3.2

Problems with download of Offline-CD-Archives
On some systems the Offline-CD-Archives - download did not work properly.
This is fixed in 5.3.2.

New CDDB-Control
Music Wizard 5.3.2 contains the new CDDB Control version 1.2.0.42 (11/05/2001).

Bugfixes in Music Wizard 5.3.1

"WSA-Startup not yet performed"
On some systems Windows 5.3.0 terminated with the error message "WSA-Startup not yet performed"; this is fixed in 5.3.1

Display problem in Windows XP
When running Music Wizard with Windows XP and its new interface, the Music Wizard main window was displayed incorrectly. This is fixed in 5.3.1

Song Sorting/Searching
In the Song Sorting/Searching dialog, some record selection combinations have been processed incorrectly. This is fixed in 5.3.1

MP3 recognition
Some MP3 filenames caused an "Access Violation" error. This is fixed in 5.3.1

New features in Music Wizard 5.3.0

MP3 recognition improved:
- If more than 999 MP3 files are found, Music Wizard assigns the additional MP3 files (1000 upwards) to new MP3 records
- Tracknumbers are filtered (this means they don't appear in the song/artist title anymore
- Artist recognition has been improved
- MP3s can be assigned to a given subrecord number (v5.2 always used subrecord 1)

Record Song Order:
Additional dialog for changing the Song order in the record-edit-dialog

CD recognition:
CD recognition can be started automatically (Music Wizard can recognize when a CD is inserted)

Windows CD-Player:
The automatic launch of the Windows CD-Player (after inserting a CD) is supressed while Music Wizard is running

Archives search / CD recognition:
Music Wizard now remembers the record type that was used the last time

Save/Print record contents:
record notes and record location have been added

Record lists:
New column "record location"

CDDB2 recognition:
when Compilation-Flag is set, but the artist fields are blank, Music Wizard now recognizes this "data error" and uses its Compilation recognition to extract the artist out of the Song Title field

Record numbering:
Numbering option for new records: use first free record number / use max. existing record number + 1

Record copy:
Records can be copied (to the same or another record type)

Song list:
New column "Track" (current song number in record) in song lists

Improved song search dialog:
now includes search for record titles, notes, location and year

Record/New:
Music Wizard now remembers the record type that has been used the last time

Edit:
genre entry can be deleted ()

Additional song list:
Music Wizard can now generate a song list that is sorted by BPM / rating

Song search result list:
Sorting method of the song search result list can now be set in the Music Wizard Options (sort by artist, sort by song title, ...)

Cover printing improved:
- record notes can now be printed to the cover
- double-CD-covers are possible
- cover back text can now be edited
- front/rear cover text can now be deactivated (e.g. for original covers)

Offline-CD-Archives download per mouse click
The Offline-CD-Archives can now be downloaded and installed directly from the Music Wizard interface. Updates should be available every month, these updates can be downloaded and installed by mouse click, too.

Offline-CD-Archives browsing:
when clicking on a CD in the search result list, Music Wizard now shows the track list of the selected CD.

Memo pad:
Songs can now be added to a memo pad from searchi result or sorted song list (right mouse click, "Add to memo pad"). This function can for example be useful for DJs who want to memorize "wanted songs" from "the folks".

New features in Music Wizard 5.2

CDDB2 support
Music Wizard now supports the new CDDB2 database with the possibility to submit your own CDs to CDDB2. CDDB2 offers you a lot of new data fields, which you can view and edit in the Default CDDB User Interface Dialog. The full integration of the new CDDB2 data fields will be available in Music Wizard version 6.

CD Recognition accelerated
With the help of an automatically generated indexfile, searching a CD in the Offline-CD-Archives is now a lot faster (1 to 2 seconds).

Improved Cover/Label printing The print function in version 5.0 had some problems, if you tried to print a pictured cover or label with a Hewlett Packard or Canon printer. This should work in 5.2.

Database Repair Utility integrated In some cases the database table index can get corrupted (e.g. after a program crash). For this reason v5.2 comes with an integrated database table repair utility. This utility can fix most of the corrupted tables.

MP3 recognition You have now the possibility to catalogue your MP3 files with Music Wizard! The new function browses complete directory trees for MP3s and shows them in Music Wizard. Another convenient feature is the possibility to send the MP3 record to your MP3 Player (Music Wizard uses M3U-Files, so this function works with all Players that support M3U filelists.

CD Player improved The integrated Music Wizard CD-Player is now looking better (dot matrix display) and has got new features (Eject-Button, Display of remaining Time).

Assigning a Record to another You can now combine two records: if you try to renumber a record to an existing record number, you can append the record to the other one.

More safety with new backup function Because Music Wizard databases can be compressed up to 10% of their original size, the new backup function saves the backups in ZIP format. The number of backupsets is unlimited, but if you have space problems on your harddisk, you can set a limit for the backup directory (e.g. 20 MB).

Support for Nero / Feurio Covereditor You can now export your CDs as CDC files. The CD writing software Nero and Feurio use this file format for their integrated Covereditor, so you can use the catalogued Music Wizard CDs in this Covereditor.

Sorting Records accelerated The static record sorting function (with new record number assignment) is now a lot faster compared to version 5.0. This is very important for big databases (500 records and more).