After putting it off for ages, I’ve finally decided to accurately classify my 4000+ CDs I have ripped and stored on my UnitiServe by genre.
One of my issues is the absence of a Prog Rock category. A glaring omission I would like to correct. Can anyone tell me if this is possible, or is it ‘hard wired’ into the app?
I wouldn’t mind getting rid of at least 50% of the genres included in the app as standard if possible.
If a spot a ‘wrong’ genre I open the disc folder in Metadatics and change the genre there.
I have a custom genre for my wife’s music and you can create one for Prog Rock.
When you save back to your device (UnitiServe in my case as well) for the first time the genre is then recognised by the Naim app and by n-Serve. You can then alter the genre from the latter, which is easier.
If you don’t have any music in a particular genre it should vanish from the app and n-Serve. I would look at all the ‘odd’ genres in n-Serve and change them. It’s surprising sometimes what genres the lookup allocates. There is a lot of inconsistency between ‘rock’ and ‘pop- rock’, for example (the space after the hyphen is a Naim oddity).
Further thought: you cannot alter the genre on downloads through n-Serve. You have to use Metadatics or similar.
If you mount your Naim music folder on your Mac you can use File/Add in Metadatics to navigate to your cds - with 4,000 it takes a while to load - I have a similar amount. Then drag the folder into Metadatics, alter, then save and remove using the icons at the top of the Metadatics window.
You can just add additional genres within the n-serve app.
Just choose the edit album icon > then the genre > click the + at the top right > type in the additional genre.
This only works for tracks ripped by the Naim device. Anything ripped or downloaded from elsewhere and stored in the download folder or a separate share (i.e. not a Music Store) has to have its metadata amended by a third party app.
Editing metadata outside of the app (for tracks ripped by a UnitiServe/HDX/NS0x) risks corrupting the database.
I know you found a solution, but if you did, the suggestions such as by @Richard above to use a third-party metadata editor would not work; that’s only for files purchased (or rips made elsewhere) and then stored in the Downloads folder of the UServe. You cannot use third-party software to edit rips made by the UServe itself.
I rip 90% of my music using the UnitiServe, and will now use the method suggested by John for editing the genre. The remainder, stored in the Downloads folder, I will continue to edit using my Tag software.