Author: Zas

A very important announcement

In these troubling times (New Roman) it has come to our Attention that our Esteemed program “Picard” (from now on known as “The Captain”) is written with Very Silly™ code. This will just not do!

The MetaBrainz Foundation is a very serious organisation! It will not stand for such Silly™ things as Moose, Tissues or Membranophones!

The program (from now on known as “Sir Patrick”) has in addition to pythonesque codings also several oblique references to: burlesque starships, electronic hair-colour, Monty (including “the full”), several references to technologically minded stick-figures, John Cage, and disused towels left by your mother!

For now the program’s (from now on known as St. Paddy) most recent new release (version 2.45!§🥷) vil quickly bee retracted (bzzt!) and replaced by Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Picard (from now on known as (♫♪♬) (version 2.4√-1€DONTBLINK;)) – this to Prevent excesses such as: Rock climbing Monkies, Tobogganing Dates, Breakdancing Pastries and–

Right, that’s enough of that, we apologise for the previous part of this blog post, it is Very Silly™ and the MetaBrainz Foundation is a very serious organisation which does not abide with such silliness!

We will now return to our regular scheduled blog post! –

Now look here!

What? Stop this at once!

That’s it, I quit!

Picard 2.1.3 released

Picard Team is proud to announce MusicBrainz Picard 2.1.3 is now officially released.

It includes a lot of bug fixes, and few improvements, but no major feature.

Thanks to all developers, translators, testers and users who contributed to this version, and especially Philip Wolfer (phw/outsidecontext).
Here is the complete changelog:

Bug

  • [PICARD-323] – Only the discid of the first disc in a release is written to tags
  • [PICARD-455] – Picard setting cover art height, width and depth to 0 for FLAC files –> breaks libFLAC
  • [PICARD-729] – Tracks get stuck at “[loading track information]” on Bad Gateway errors
  • [PICARD-938] – Need two left-arrow key presses to go from track with file to album
  • [PICARD-1178] – Images tagged with extra types that the user has chosen to ignore should not be shown as ‘modified’
  • [PICARD-1288] – Folskonomy tags / genre fallback on album artists tags not working
  • [PICARD-1422] – Windows: Uninstall 32 bit Picard before upgrade
  • [PICARD-1447] – When releasing a new version, appdata should also be updated
  • [PICARD-1460] – Windows installer does not detect running instance
  • [PICARD-1461] – Crash when running with Spanish language
  • [PICARD-1463] – Picard crashes on startup on Windows
  • [PICARD-1469] – Force close when adding songs to larger albums
  • [PICARD-1471] – Artist searches do not show begin and end area
  • [PICARD-1473] – AcoustId lookup fails if fingerprint already in tags
  • [PICARD-1474] – Windows installer shows outdated version string in file properties
  • [PICARD-1475] – Cover art sources do not support HTTPS
  • [PICARD-1476] – Filled up thread pool prevents metadata box updates
  • [PICARD-1478] – Changing MB server requires a restart
  • [PICARD-1480] – Search line input clear button icon is too small

Task

  • [PICARD-1459] – Remove OptionsPage.info method
  • [PICARD-1472] – macOS code signing on Travis CI fails for xcode7.3 image

Improvement

  • [PICARD-1242] – Consider the number of AcoustID sources for linked recordings
  • [PICARD-1457] – “Check for Update” should be in the Picard menu
  • [PICARD-1458] – “Check for Update” should have an ellipsis at the end
  • [PICARD-1470] – Make warning about Qt locale loading less prominent

As usual, packages will be available from Picard website and from GitHub release pages

Bugs can be reported on Picard bug tracker.

Picard 2.1.2 released

Picard 2.1.2 includes just few changes over Picard 2.1.0, but fixes some annoying bugs, so it is recommended to upgrade:

Bug

  • [PICARD-1382] – macOS packaging script ignores all errors
  • [PICARD-1451] – Redirects of authenticated requests fail with 401 error
  • [PICARD-1454] – Crashes when adding action to toolbar in options

Task

Improvement

  • [PICARD-1450] – Fix language label for zh_CN and zh_TW

As usual, packages will be available from Picard website and from GitHub release pages

Bugs can be reported on Picard bug tracker.

Picard 2.1 release

MusicBrainz Picard 2.1 is finally here. This version includes a lot of fixes and improvements over previous stable version (2.0.4). It is recommended to upgrade of course.

Most notably, it includes following changes:

  • support for MusicBrainz genres
  • new convenient script functions: $title and $delete
  • new command line option (-P, --no-plugins) allowing to skip plugin loading, which may help when a plugin is crashing Picard at start and to identify if an issue is due to a plugin or the main program
  • improve tags support, better compatibility with other applications, wider range of audio files supported
  • better stability and performance

I’d like to thank all developers, translators, testers and users who contributed to this version, kudos to Philip Wolfer (phw).

Binary packages from OSx and Windows are available from Picard Github releases page and from Picard website.

Here is the complete change log:

  • [PICARD-105] – Picard won’t load non-album tracks from fingerprints
  • [PICARD-421] – Releases in private collections are not shown as being in them
  • [PICARD-518] – Sliders without labels in “Options – Metadata – Preferred Releases”
  • [PICARD-637] – $matchedtracks is broken
  • [PICARD-875] – AIFF does not support any of the compatid3 tags
  • [PICARD-949] – Track can be placed in the incorrect spot on the release after using Scan
  • [PICARD-1013] – False file save error in specific circumstances
  • [PICARD-1060] – Collections menu not displayed correctly anymore
  • [PICARD-1112] – Cannot save tags that were previously deleted from file
  • [PICARD-1133] – Plugins list doesn’t load automatically after setting proxy
  • [PICARD-1162] – Solo vocals are tagged wrong
  • [PICARD-1219] – Picard creating empty ID3 TIPL / TMCL / IPLS frames
  • [PICARD-1245] – Set field “Grouping” doesn’t work as expected
  • [PICARD-1275] – After uninstalling a plugin Picard needs to be restarted for it to be reinstalled
  • [PICARD-1281] – Picard has wrong version string on macOS
  • [PICARD-1320] – Black text on a dark theme
  • [PICARD-1332] – Deleted tags for matched files stay deleted
  • [PICARD-1336] – MP4 reports “bpm” as unsupported tag
  • [PICARD-1339] – Removing unclustered files can be very slow
  • [PICARD-1340] – File info doesn’t display Mono / Stereo in Channels field anymore
  • [PICARD-1341] – Cluster track order misinterprets disc/track numbers
  • [PICARD-1346] – Move additional files fails if multiple patterns match
  • [PICARD-1348] – Keyboard shortcuts broken due to localization
  • [PICARD-1350] – Drag and drop on cover image box does not always work as expected
  • [PICARD-1355] – Setting or unsetting album for non-album tracks does not work
  • [PICARD-1359] – Crash with tagger integration when using DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
  • [PICARD-1364] – picard.exe has no version tag
  • [PICARD-1368] – Info messages are not shown on logging level Info
  • [PICARD-1369] – Crash on Python 3.7.0 opening URLs
  • [PICARD-1370] – Windows installer to add “Quick Launch” icon no longer supported on Win10
  • [PICARD-1371] – Windows installer does not warn when installing on 32 bit system
  • [PICARD-1373] – Source distributions are unusable
  • [PICARD-1374] – Picard crashes while typing a regular expression in some cases
  • [PICARD-1375] – Metadata sanitation before move-script execution fails
  • [PICARD-1376] – Error saving Ape files with tag marked for deletion that does not exist
  • [PICARD-1381] – Test results depend on execution order of tests
  • [PICARD-1397] – Do not save tags marked as unsupported
  • [PICARD-1398] – Snap package is missing locale files
  • [PICARD-1405] – Pasting formatted text into scripting window shows formatting
  • [PICARD-1410] – Loading Vorbis file with invalid rating value fails
  • [PICARD-1412] – Deleting tag counts not as important metadata change
  • [PICARD-1414] – Image errors lead to crash in info dialog
  • [PICARD-1415] – Open Containing Folder and Open with MusicPlayer does nothing for UNC paths
  • [PICARD-1418] – Display localized default dialogs and keyboard shortcut hints
  • [PICARD-1420] – Can not save wma file. TypeError: sequence item 0
  • [PICARD-1428] – Removing tags which are only in original file metadata not possible
  • [PICARD-1430] – “Authentication required” dialog does not trigger authentication
  • [PICARD-1431] – Some ID3 frames gets deleted even if the corresponding tags are shown as unchanged
  • [PICARD-1434] – Tag acoustid_id can not be removed or deleted in script
  • [PICARD-1436] – Text extraction of “title” and “label” for translation.
  • [PICARD-1437] – After reload file is being shown as changed
  • [PICARD-1438] – Message box buttons Yes/No aren’t translated
  • [PICARD-1439] – Newline character in cover art naming script causes exception on saving

New Feature

  • [PICARD-490] – Allow tagging AAC/ADTS files with APEv2 tags
  • [PICARD-1043] – Support reading & writing iTunes Classical tags
  • [PICARD-1045] – Check for new version
  • [PICARD-1268] – Support concertmaster recording relationships as performer:concertmaster
  • [PICARD-1273] – Add an option to exclude new cover art type “Raw / Unedited”
  • [PICARD-1319] – Provide cover art metadata to cover image naming script
  • [PICARD-1344] – Add $delete function
  • [PICARD-1352] – Add a command-line option to skip plugin loading
  • [PICARD-1354] – Allow using vocals and instruments as credited
  • [PICARD-1367] – Allow opening searches in browser when using search dialogs
  • [PICARD-1384] – Add AppStream data
  • [PICARD-1386] – Add $title function
  • [PICARD-1395] – Support genres from MusicBrainz
  • [PICARD-1440] – Support loading and renaming Standard MIDI Files (SMF)

Task

  • [PICARD-1333] – Run CI tests agaist oldest supported mutagen
  • [PICARD-1347] – Refactor script.py to avoid code duplication
  • [PICARD-1365] – Allow building with PyQt 5.11 or later
  • [PICARD-1442] – Support new Audio Play secondary type

Sub-task

  • [PICARD-1407] – Save originalalbum / originalartist to ASF/WMA
  • [PICARD-1408] – Save originalalbum / originalartist to APE

Improvement

  • [PICARD-664] – When dragging a recording, show the actual file name instead of the path
  • [PICARD-792] – Package a start menu tile for Windows 10 on the windows version
  • [PICARD-1039] – Use forward delete instead of delete button on macOS
  • [PICARD-1049] – Picard should use TXXX:WORK rather than TXXX:Work
  • [PICARD-1068] – Picard should use MP4 ©wrk for Work rather than generic text field
  • [PICARD-1244] – Refresh list of plugins after uninstalling or installing a local plugin
  • [PICARD-1285] – There is no Close menu item in Picard 2.0 on macOS
  • [PICARD-1313] – Refactor plugin UI
  • [PICARD-1325] – Allow disabling new version update checking for packagers
  • [PICARD-1338] – Picard should be more resilient if it gets invalid responses from servers
  • [PICARD-1358] – Use macOS style widgets in the user interface of the macOS version of Picard
  • [PICARD-1363] – AcoustId submission for matched files is impossible when musicbrainz_recordingid is unset
  • [PICARD-1366] – Show Python version in about
  • [PICARD-1379] – Port astrcmp to new Python C Unicode API
  • [PICARD-1383] – Use MCN / barcode read from disc to improve DiscId lookup
  • [PICARD-1393] – Change the application ID
  • [PICARD-1416] – Should store ID3 Artists field as TXXX:ARTISTS not TXXX:Artists
  • [PICARD-1417] – Only show plugins with compatible API version
  • [PICARD-1424] – Translate AppStream data
  • [PICARD-1425] – Support all movement tags for APE, Vorbis and MP3
  • [PICARD-1426] – Map musicbrainz_originalalbumid and musicbrainz_originalartistid to MP4 and WMA
  • [PICARD-1443] – Sort secondary release types in UI alphabetically

Picard 2.1.0dev2 release

Picard team is working hard on the upcoming 2.1.0 version, we decided to release a preliminary version for all to test and to let time for translators to work.

We’ll accept patches that actually fix current features until the final release which is planned in 2 weeks.

Translators can update translations on transifex as usual, strings shouldn’t change (but if we can’t avoid it) anymore until the final release.
It should be noted a new resource picard_appstream was added for the translation of appdata.xml file (PICARD-1424).

This version includes a lot of fixes related mostly to features added in 2.0.x, plus new features related to MusicBrainz changes (like genres support), tag compatibility with other apps, and file formats.

Here is the change log:

Sub-task

  • [PICARD-1407] – Save originalalbum / originalartist to ASF/WMA
  • [PICARD-1408] – Save originalalbum / originalartist to APE

Bug

  • [PICARD-105] – Picard won’t load non-album tracks from fingerprints
  • [PICARD-421] – Releases in private collections are not shown as being in them
  • [PICARD-518] – Sliders without labels in “Options – Metadata – Preferred Releases”
  • [PICARD-637] – $matchedtracks is broken
  • [PICARD-875] – AIFF does not support any of the compatid3 tags
  • [PICARD-949] – Track can be placed in the incorrect spot on the release after using Scan
  • [PICARD-1013] – False file save error in specific circumstances
  • [PICARD-1060] – Collections menu not displayed correctly anymore
  • [PICARD-1112] – Cannot save tags that were previously deleted from file
  • [PICARD-1133] – Plugins list doesn’t load automatically after setting proxy
  • [PICARD-1162] – Solo vocals are tagged wrong
  • [PICARD-1219] – Picard creating empty ID3 TIPL / TMCL / IPLS frames
  • [PICARD-1245] – Set field “Grouping” doesn’t work as expected
  • [PICARD-1275] – After uninstalling a plugin Picard needs to be restarted for it to be reinstalled
  • [PICARD-1281] – Picard has wrong version string on macOS
  • [PICARD-1320] – Black text on a dark theme
  • [PICARD-1332] – Deleted tags for matched files stay deleted
  • [PICARD-1336] – MP4 reports “bpm” as unsupported tag
  • [PICARD-1339] – Removing unclustered files can be very slow
  • [PICARD-1340] – File info doesn’t display Mono / Stereo in Channels field anymore
  • [PICARD-1341] – Cluster track order misinterprets disc/track numbers
  • [PICARD-1346] – Move additional files fails if multiple patterns match
  • [PICARD-1348] – Keyboard shortcuts broken due to localization
  • [PICARD-1350] – Drag and drop on cover image box does not always work as expected
  • [PICARD-1355] – Setting or unsetting album for non-album tracks does not work
  • [PICARD-1359] – Crash with tagger integration when using DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
  • [PICARD-1364] – picard.exe has no version tag
  • [PICARD-1368] – Info messages are not shown on logging level Info
  • [PICARD-1369] – Crash on Python 3.7.0 opening URLs
  • [PICARD-1370] – Windows installer to add “Quick Launch” icon no longer supported on Win10
  • [PICARD-1371] – Windows installer does not warn when installing on 32 bit system
  • [PICARD-1373] – Source distributions are unusable
  • [PICARD-1374] – Picard crashes while typing a regular expression in some cases
  • [PICARD-1375] – Metadata sanitation before move-script execution fails
  • [PICARD-1376] – Error saving Ape files with tag marked for deletion that does not exist
  • [PICARD-1381] – Test results depend on execution order of tests
  • [PICARD-1397] – Do not save tags marked as unsupported
  • [PICARD-1398] – Snap package is missing locale files
  • [PICARD-1405] – Pasting formatted text into scripting window shows formatting
  • [PICARD-1410] – Loading Vorbis file with invalid rating value fails
  • [PICARD-1412] – Deleting tag counts not as important metadata change
  • [PICARD-1414] – Image errors lead to crash in info dialog
  • [PICARD-1415] – Open Containing Folder and Open with MusicPlayer does nothing for UNC paths
  • [PICARD-1418] – Display localized default dialogs and keyboard shortcut hints
  • [PICARD-1420] – Can not save wma file. TypeError: sequence item 0
  • [PICARD-1428] – Removing tags which are only in original file metadata not possible
  • [PICARD-1430] – “Authentication required” dialog does not trigger authentication
  • [PICARD-1431] – Some ID3 frames gets deleted even if the corresponding tags are shown as unchanged

New Feature

  • [PICARD-1043] – Support reading & writing iTunes Classical tags
  • [PICARD-1045] – Check for new version
  • [PICARD-1268] – Support concertmaster recording relationships as performer:concertmaster
  • [PICARD-1273] – Add an option to exclude new cover art type “Raw / Unedited”
  • [PICARD-1319] – Provide cover art metadata to cover image naming script
  • [PICARD-1344] – Add $delete function
  • [PICARD-1352] – Add a command-line option to skip plugin loading
  • [PICARD-1354] – Allow using vocals and instruments as credited
  • [PICARD-1367] – Allow opening searches in browser when using search dialogs
  • [PICARD-1384] – Add AppStream data
  • [PICARD-1386] – Add $title function
  • [PICARD-1395] – Support genres from MusicBrainz

Task

  • [PICARD-1333] – Run CI tests against oldest supported mutagen
  • [PICARD-1347] – Refactor script.py to avoid code duplication
  • [PICARD-1365] – Allow building with PyQt 5.11 or later

Improvement

  • [PICARD-664] – When dragging a recording, show the actual file name instead of the path
  • [PICARD-792] – Package a start menu tile for Windows 10 on the windows version
  • [PICARD-1039] – Use forward delete instead of delete button on macOS
  • [PICARD-1049] – Picard should use TXXX:WORK rather than TXXX:Work
  • [PICARD-1068] – Picard should use MP4 ©wrk for Work rather than generic text field
  • [PICARD-1244] – Refresh list of plugins after uninstalling or installing a local plugin
  • [PICARD-1285] – There is no Close menu item in Picard 2.0 on macOS
  • [PICARD-1313] – Refactor plugin UI
  • [PICARD-1325] – Allow disabling new version update checking for packagers
  • [PICARD-1338] – Picard should be more resilient if it gets invalid responses from servers
  • [PICARD-1358] – Use macOS style widgets in the user interface of the macOS version of Picard
  • [PICARD-1363] – AcoustId submission for matched files is impossible when musicbrainz_recordingid is unset
  • [PICARD-1366] – Show Python version in about
  • [PICARD-1379] – Port astrcmp to new Python C Unicode API
  • [PICARD-1383] – Use MCN / barcode read from disc to improve DiscId lookup
  • [PICARD-1393] – Change the application ID
  • [PICARD-1416] – Should store ID3 Artists field as TXXX:ARTISTS not TXXX:Artists
  • [PICARD-1417] – Only show plugins with compatible API version
  • [PICARD-1424] – Translate AppStream data
  • [PICARD-1425] – Support all movement tags for APE, Vorbis and MP3
  • [PICARD-1426] – Map musicbrainz_originalalbumid and musicbrainz_originalartistid to MP4 and WMA

Philip Wolfer (outsidecontext/phw) did (again) a fantastic job on this release. Thanks also to Mineo and all contributors, bug reporters, testers, translators and, of course, users !

We’ll update Picard website soon, in the meantime you can download OSX and Windows packages on GitHub release page.

Picard 2.0.4 released

This is a minor release that fixes a lot of issues, most notably few annoying crashes and a bunch of audio file formats-specific bugs.

I’d like to thank Philip Wolfer (outsidecontext/phw) for the fantastic job he did on this release.

As usual, you can find the latest downloads on Picard’s Website.

Here is the complete changelog for this release:

Bug

  • [PICARD-803] – tagging “8½ Minutes” with “replace with non-ascii characters” results in a directory being created
  • [PICARD-1216] – Does not display version information
  • [PICARD-1267] – 2.0.0dev6 crash in debug mode on Windows April Update (1803)
  • [PICARD-1281] – Picard has wrong version string
  • [PICARD-1294] – Crashes every time Picard connects to MB server.
  • [PICARD-1310] – Picard crashes on clearing log
  • [PICARD-1318] – RuntimeError: dictionary changed size during iteration
  • [PICARD-1321] – CD drive selection not working on Linux
  • [PICARD-1322] – Crash in options on “Restore defaults”
  • [PICARD-1323] – Restore defaults does not restore CAA types
  • [PICARD-1324] – Default locale not working reliable
  • [PICARD-1326] – Picard Save Changes 5.1 Mix Type
  • [PICARD-1327] – Loading TAK files fails
  • [PICARD-1328] – Loading OptimFROG files fails
  • [PICARD-1329] – Picard fails saving ID3 tags with iTunNORM tag
  • [PICARD-1331] – Picard crashes on error during plugin install

 

Picard 2.0 dev available via PyPi

Sambhav’s GSoC project is all about Picard 2.0, and among progress made the devel version is now installable via PyPi: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/picard_dev

To install the dev builds you need to have a Python 3.5 or greater. At the moment it is mainly a port of 1.4.x to Python 3 and Qt5, with support for HiDPI and new icons !

Please note that Picard Dev version uses a different config file than your stable Picard installation. As such the settings and plugins will be on their default configuration.

To use your stable config with the dev version, simple copy your “Picard.ini” file from your MusicBrainz user folder to “Picard Dev.ini” which can be found in the same folder.

Since testers may want to run a stable 1.4.x version along the 2.0 dev one, the executable is named “picard_dev”.

Of course, we encourage people to test this version on every platform they can, and report any issue.

Thanks to Sambhav Kothari for the fantastic job he did on this ! And stay tuned, more to come !

Picard 1.4.2 released

Official MusicBrainz cross-platform music tagger Picard 1.4.2 is now out.

This is mainly a bugfix release, the only notable improvement is related to TOPE/TOAL tags.

Users can get Windows and MacOSx packages from Picard website downloads section.

Bug

  • [PICARD-1053] – Picard does not stop analyzer while moving
  • [PICARD-1055] – picard hangs with: RuntimeError: maximum recursion depth exceeded in cmp
  • [PICARD-1070] – The “Convert Unicode punctuation characters to ASCII” function only works in certain tags
  • [PICARD-1077] – ID3v2.4 text encoding settings are not saved correctly

Improvement

  • [PICARD-969] – Search dialog webservices get queued behind matched album requests
  • [PICARD-1034] – Picard not seeing TOPE and TOAL