Required packages:
Code:
yum install amarok amarok-extras-nonfree PyQt kdebindings easytag libtunepimp-extras-nonfree grip k3b mysql-server lame k3b-extras-nonfree
In order, these packages are: amarok, additional plugins for amarok, requirement for the cover art script, requirement for the lyrics script, program to edit tag data, requirement to fingerprint mp3's with monkeybrainz, cd ripper, cd burner, and requirement for using MySQL, codec for encoding mp3s, k3b mp3 support.
Amarok is, to be quite humble about, the greatest media player ever. (for the non-minimalist, anyway) If you have a huge collection organized by album, it can't be beat.
One of the first cool features it has is that it can use MySQL/PostgreSQL to index your music collection.
Setting up the mysql database
First, turn on the mysql server you just installed above:
Code:
/sbin/service mysqld start
Also set it to be on automatically when you boot next time:
Code:
/sbin/chkconfig mysqld on
And, lastly, create the mysql database that you will be using:
Code:
mysql -u root
create database amarok;
grant all privileges on amarok.* to yourloginname@localhost identified by 'thepasswordyouchoose';
Now, to finish, start up Amarok, select MySQL as the database storage method, and provide the name of the database (amarok) username (your login) and password as above.
Managing metadata with easytag
Amarok will now index your entire collection according to the Artist/Album metadata in the mp3 files. You will probably notice a few misnomers if you haven't been completely tidy about maintaining your music. Here, you will have a few options: (1) Edit the data in Amarok yourself (2) Have amarok look up the music with monkeybrainz (this option is also in the edit tag tab) (3) use easytag.
Using easytag is best for large collections. It's fairly simple but the interface is a little counter intuitive, so I feel it would be a good idea to explain how it works.
You must select files, apply changes, and then save the changes in order to change the data in a file.
If you select a series of files, change metadata, and then hit the very small box next to that metadata field, it will change the metadata for all of the files. Otherwise, you only effect that particular file.
If you select a CD's worth of files, you can look it up in the CDDB database. This is the best way to update the metadata on an album because you don't have to do any typing! (If it doesn't find it and you know the album name, try a manual search.)
Scripts part 1: Getting lyrics
There are a lot of great scripts for amarok available
here .
You can enable scripts by going to Tools->Script Manager..
The first script we would like to use is the
Wiki-Lyrics script. Amarok comes with a lyrics grabber by default, but it only decent, not amazing. I have never found a song that the Wiki-Lyrics script failed to find the lyrics for, so that is what I recommend.
Since you already installed the requirements for it above, now you just need to download it and tell the script manager where to find it. Stop the other lyrics script and start the new one.
Scripts part 2: Saving Album Covers
The first thing here is to make sure you have album covers for all of your music. So go to Context->Music in the Amarok tabs, right click on the album, and choose "Cover Manager." Tell Amarok to go out and grab all the missing artwork.
Now we will load the
CopyCovers script.
The integrated version will copy the covers one by one as you listen to the relevant albums. (Be sure to configure its output to your liking in the Script Manager!)
If you unzip the archive, however:
Code:
tar -jxvf 22517-copycover.amarokscript.tar.bz2
there is a program called "copycover-offline.py"
Invoke it like this
Code:
python copycover-offline.py
and it will automatically traverse your entire collection and save the album art to the respect folders. (Type "python copycover-offline.py --help" to get a list of options.)
IMPORTANT NOTE!
As of this writing, Copycover in the official link is broken for use with mysql databases. If you get an error on line 129 of the file when it parses, then that is still the case.
milianw was kind enough to provide a
fixed version. Use that instead.
Grip
Grip integrates the same kind of automatic tag management of easytag with your ripping process. If you don't know what configs to go with, choose the defaults.
After you set everything up to your liking, it is extremely convenient--all you have to do is sequentially drop CDs in your drive and click the 'rip and encode' button until all your whole collection is ripped.
I recommend the LAME encoder for mp3, but BladeENC is probably as good. You already installed lame above. You also need to change "lame" to "/usr/bin/lame" in the Grip settings--if you choose that codec--because otherwise it doesn't know where to find it.
k3b
Note that Amarok integrates album burning as a feature. k3b is a great standalone, however, and useful for data discs and isos as well. I won't explain it since it's very intuitive--much more so than easytag and grip
Parting wisdom
My main reason for writing this was because I very much love my setup, and some things (trying to find out where to get QtRuby, figuring out the python error from the Covercopy script, etc.) was a serious pain. Hopefully it will make your life easier. I did not, however, explain anything that will be easier to figure out on your own, like how to setup the wildcards for easytag and grip (it's easy, but scary to look at at first!).
Two other problems that cropped up for me, which you *probably* won't experience:
(1) The Amarok global shortcut keys, which are amazingly useful, stopped working in FC7. This happened to be because FC7 mis-detected my keyboard. Make sure you have the right layout selected if this happens to you.
(2) For convenience, I decided to use konqueror (hey, it was already installed) for accessing sites through
tor. It was convenient to set it up to use the proxy and then do all my regular browsing through firefox. But then Amarok could no longer access the internet, even though all my other programs could! It turns out the kde apps have some kind of shared proxy settings in ~/.kde/share/config/kioslaverc. It took me forever to figure this out. So keep in mind that you can't funk up konqueror if you still want amarok to work.
Linear Mode
