MX Linux Forum

Hello MXers.

Has anyone used another music software other than Clementine/Strawberry that comes with MX? I had seen Guayadeque being used on antiX in the past but there is not much on that package here in the forums. I searched "guayadeque" on both this MX forum and the antiX forum. Got nothing at the antiX forum and about half dozen threads here.

I have been using streamtuner2 for internet radio but it has been flakey recently and I am looking for something else. And I thought I would like more of a music manager like Clementine, instead of a directory scraper, but I want it lighter weight and I want to put it on antiX also.

Guayadeque seems like a likely candidate for me. Does anyone here use it regularly? I tried to install it on antiX and it won't automatically add to the menu and I have to start it from the console. There is some permissions issue. And it is crashing when I try to play some of the same feeds I am able to play in streamtuner2 and SMPlayer.

Something else? It has to be lightweight. I like PMRP in antiX but I can't figure out how to add a feed for streaming. That is a text based program so maybe there is a text based config file I need to edit?

I am happy with Clementine on MX when I have a computer that can handle it (usually run MX on at least a 2-core and 2GB RAM). But if I only have 1GB RAM or a Pentium class I use antiX. I would like to learn only one music software if I can, instead of one for MX and a different one for antiX. (I have several old computers and I am setting up a LiveUSB stick that I can use on all of them with both antiX and MX - just in case you were wondering why I want a lightweight system).

Thanks for any suggestions.

Seaken64

when I set one up, I use a mpd (music player dameon) server/client combination. there are several clients, both console and X-gui based. there are even versions for the phones.

short list here: https://www.musicpd.org/clients/

My favourite one is Quodlibet, very light and tweakable. It's shipped with its intuitive audio tag editor Exfalso.

I second Quodlibet, but I also like Sayonara and Gmusicbrowser. Can't seem to settle on one yet because I want one that lets me easily search and embed covers into the file itself, rather than just save a cover to the directory like clementine and some others seem to do. For that I am still using Kid3, but I am thinking that the others listed could do that to if I could figure out how to work them reliably.

I have newer versions of quodlibet, plus guayadeque, in my OBS multimedia repo that should be compatible with antiX. Guaydeque is in the main MX repo, current quodlibet 4.2.1 in test repo.

I like pragha. I think there's a newer version in Test Repo.

I like Lollypop.

oops wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 4:16 am I like Lollypop.

That is my favourite as well but the OP asked for more lightweight suggestions.

i like deadbeef. i tried others but i always come back to deadbeef (i don't know why). You can also easily use deadbeef with conky with the --nowplaying option.

seaken64 wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 3:49 pm I am happy with Clementine on MX when I have a computer that can handle it (usually run MX on at least a 2-core and 2MB RAM). But if I only have 1MB RAM or a Pentium class I use antiX.

I assume you mean 1GB RAM, 1MB would barely run 1% of a really light Linux! :D

Clementine is pretty good for music management, but for lightweight I'd recommend Cantata which is a nice mpd client.

DeadBeef is my favourite player which I use every day, but it's not a music collection manager.

sunrat wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 5:47 am

seaken64 wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 3:49 pm I am happy with Clementine on MX when I have a computer that can handle it (usually run MX on at least a 2-core and 2MB RAM). But if I only have 1MB RAM or a Pentium class I use antiX.

I assume you mean 1GB RAM, 1MB would barely run 1% of a really light Linux! :D

Clementine is pretty good for music management, but for lightweight I'd recommend Cantata which is a nice mpd client.

DeadBeef is my favourite player which I use every day, but it's not a music collection manager.

Oops! Yes, I meant to type 1GB. I made the correction in the original post.

Don't forget to check the test repo to see if you can get a newer version there, too!

https://repology.org/project/cantata/versions

Thanks for all the leads on players and/or music managers.

I have started trying some of these out. But I have noticed that there is quite a bit of stuff being downloaded and added. For now I have been using an MX-18 install. But I do eventually want to install whatever I like on antiX.

Am I going to get my system messed up if I install and then delete these programs? I've tried out both guayadeque and gogglesmm so far and they both installed a lot of extra packages. (I started to look at RadioTray, which was not mentioned here but I saw it elsewhere. That package was going to install a lot of additional packages. I said no and did not attempt it.) I'm just not sure of what I am doing. I am using a machine for testing these out that I don't really care if it gets messed up. But the machine I want to keep in service is limited to using a LiveUSB with persistence. My plan is to try the package out and if I don't like it I will delete it.

Seaken64

I'm not sure about the server/client approach. Can I install the server and client on the same machine? If so, that may work out okay. Not sure if I want to have it on the network.

Seaken64

seaken64 wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 2:32 pm I'm not sure about the server/client approach. Can I install the server and client on the same machine? If so, that may work out okay. Not sure if I want to have it on the network.

Seaken64

yes, it doens't really need a network, although it can be used that way.

You can remove the players you don't want and then run
to remove all the extra stuff they pulled in.

Thanks Bluesguy, I'll check out Audacious.

So far I've tried:
Guayadeque - won't install to menu, some permissions problem. Streams start playing but then quit after a few seconds. I like this interface and wish I could get it to work.

Gogglesmm - it played the stream nicely. But I could not figure out how to add a stream to a list. Crashed when I tried the "New Radio Station" menu selection.

gzine - plays stream nice. The playlist menu added the link to my stream on it's own, using my filename that I used when I downloaded the link. Not bad. But a player only.

Sayonara - nice player. Running list of the titles as they are played ends upon the Playlist area. Can create a streams drop-down list and save it. The window does not fit my screen and had to use Maximize to see everything.

Gmusicbrowser - couldn't figure out how to play internet radio streams.

Cantata/mpd - this is the best so far. Not as nice looking as guayadeque or Clementine but servicable. It works good and has the nice music management features. It has Shoutcast built in which is nice, similar to what I use in streamtuner2. Lightweight. Probably a keeper.

Could not get the following installed:
Quodlibet - missing dependencies
pragha - not in standard antiX repo
Lollypop - not in standard antiX repo
deadbeef - not in standard antiX repo

Seaken64

Bluesguy wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 9:23 pm Yeah, you should really give Audacious a shot. I also use Cantata for really hi-rez audio output ... the sound quality is great ... I have my reservations regarding it's lightweight capacity on older hardware though, try it though ... then use both ... Audacious (basics)+Cantata (great internet-radio support) ... forget the other stuff ... once you've decided, let me know and I'll help you easily clean-out the other stuff you've experimented with ...

Ok, thanks. I'll get back to this tomorrow. Watching the BB tournament.

Seaken64

Stevo wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 1:35 pm Don't forget to check the test repo to see if you can get a newer version there, too!

https://repology.org/project/cantata/versions

I tried to use the newer version from the test repo. But it threw up an error about dependencies. This was on antiX. The version in the standard repo works.

The newer version installed fine on MX.

Bluesguy wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 9:23 pm Yeah, you should really give Audacious a shot. I also use Cantata for really hi-rez audio output ... the sound quality is great ... I have my reservations regarding it's lightweight capacity on older hardware though, try it though ... then use both ... Audacious (basics)+Cantata (great internet-radio support) ... forget the other stuff ... once you've decided, let me know and I'll help you easily clean-out the other stuff you've experimented with ...

Yes, Audacious is a good player. And it is easier than SMPlayer to add internet radio stations. The interface is a little harder for me. I think the tabs need to stay in place? I could not find a "section" or separate "listing" for radio stations. Just set up playlists on tabs.

I like Cantata because it allows browsing sources inside the program. With Audacious I can save files outside of the program and then add them. But in Cantata I can add the stations I want from inside and add to "favorites".

Part of the equation for me is that I am setting up the music player for the store, where I am not the user everyday. I don't want to have to set everything up before hand. If my wife want to look around and play something I did not set up for her it is easier to do that in Cantata (like in streamtuner2).

But, yes, I think I will setup both. Audacious will be setup with a few stations, by me, and can be used as a backup. Currently they are using AccuRadio through the browser. It works but it pegs the CPU at 100% all the time. I think Cantanta is light enough. It is only one program at a time. The computer is not used for anything else but playing the music.

So, the winners are ... Contata/mpd and Audacious.

Seaken64

I ended up using a LiveUSB and turned off persistence. So I avoided the clutter by just rebooting. Now that I have chosen my packages I will install them on the LiveUSB and remaster.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions and help.

Seaken64

seaken64 wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2019 8:19 pm

Stevo wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2019 1:35 pm Don't forget to check the test repo to see if you can get a newer version there, too!

https://repology.org/project/cantata/versions

I tried to use the newer version from the test repo. But it threw up an error about dependencies. This was on antiX. The version in the standard repo works.

The newer version installed fine on MX.

antiX users can install the updated cantata from the same OBS repo I've mentioned earlier in this thread, along with a lot of other multimedia applications.

Stevo wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2019 8:33 pm antiX users can install the updated cantata from the same OBS repo I've mentioned earlier in this thread, along with a lot of other multimedia applications.

Forgive me for being such a dolt. I looked at that link but I could not figure out how to use your OBS repo. I will read it again.

Seaken64

Ok, I figured out to add the OBS Repo. I copied and pasted from the website you linked me to and added it to the "various.list" file. I updated and then installed mpd and cantata. Both were updated to the latest. I then used the Control Centre Repo Manager and turned if off and then updated again.

Cantata is working good on antiX on my secondary laptop at home. It is a DualCore Pentium with 2GB RAM. Hopefully it will work well on the Pentium 4 laptop with 1GB RAM. I'll test it this weekend.

I wonder if guayadeque from your repo might work. I will try it. The install I attempted before only half worked.

Thank you again,
Seaken64

What visualizations are included ?john

seaken64 wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:56 pm I wonder if guayadeque from your repo might work. I will try it. The install I attempted before only half worked.

No, guayadeque does not play Shoutcast streams. It did install correctly this time with the menu entry. And the database updates. But the streams only play for about 8 seconds and then it stops. Same as before.

Seaken64

golden45 wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2019 11:05 pm What visualizations are included ?john

Cantata visualizations seem to be limited. I haven't found any yet.

Audacious has three. 2 Spectrum Analyzers, 1 Blur Scope.

Projectm is used in clementine have you tried these?john

golden45 wrote: Sun Mar 31, 2019 11:33 pm Projectm is used in clementine have you tried these?john

I do use Clementine in MX on my more powerful systems. But I wanted something else for use on an old single-core P4 laptop running antiX-32 bit. Cantata and Audacious fit the bill. I don't care about visualizations. I just need to get music into the store's stereo.

Seaken64

I did have some problems with Cantata on antiX

i’ve had mixed results with the installation of Cantata. The first time I installed it was on an MX-18 system and it had no problems. I wanted to put it on an antiX LiveUSB 32-bit. I had a LiveUSB of antiX already working so I installed it on that stick. The install went fine and the program was entered on the IceWM menu. But when I clicked it, it did not start. I opened the terminal and typed “cantata”. I got a message about using qt5ct plugin and it did not start and returned to the prompt.

Next, I entered “sudo cantata”, and this time it started up. I tested it and it played music. When I closed the program the music continued to play. I opened up “top” and noticed mpd was still an open process. I used the terminal to kill the process and the music stopped.

I can’t remember exactly now but I did get it to work on that stick. I think I removed the persistence files and made new ones and then did a full update and upgrade, then reinstalled from Stevo’s OBS multimedia repo. I chalked it up to some errant bits on the USB drive.

I tried installing Cantata again on another LiveUSB I had that I made about a year ago but is fully updated. I added Stevo’s OSB Multimedia repo and installed Cantata. It installed fine and I tested it and it worked good. And it properly shutdown. I opened “top” while running and could see both mpd and cantata running. When I quit the program both processes went away.

Next, after having practiced the setup successfully three times, I attempted to put Cantata on my LiveUSB that I use on my music player laptop for the office. I did an update and upgrade and did a remaster. That went fine. Then I added Stevo’s repo and installed mpd and cantata.
Same thing. Could not launch from menu. It would launch from terminal with sudo. Seems there is some permissions issue similar to what I had on that first USB.

I tried starting over with the latest 17.4.1 iso. I recreated the LiveUSB with MX LUM. I booted it and made the persistence files. Then I updated and upgraded and added the OBS Multimedia Repo and installed Cantata. The install went fine and the program launches from the IceWM menu and I can modify the interface settings. But when I try to play anything it just starts for one second then pauses. If I click play it does the same thing. I can’t get it to play. It does close down properly.

I researched the permissions issue and tried using chmod to change the file permissions for cantata but it didn’t make a difference. When I used “ls -l” I could see that Cantata was owned by root. But that shouldn’t matter as my user is a sudo user. Anyway, I could not figure it out. And I was wondering why it was working on several other installation but not this one.

Finally, I had the idea to use the “Clone” option in the live-usb-maker. I started up my frugal antiX install on my main laptop and put in both the working USB and the non-working USB. I fired up live-usb-maker and selected the non-working USB as the target. I was a little confused at first about how to select the source USB but I figured it out. I selected the mount location for the working USB (in the /media folder) and then clicked on start. live-usb-maker proceeded to make the new LiveUSB writing over the non-working stick. After it was done I shutdown and booted the newly created LiveUSB (clone), It worked! Cantata works normally. I moved the newly cloned LiveUSB back over to the music laptop and tested. It works! So now all I have to do is change the user and wallpaper and add some launchers to the desktop.

I do not know if it is significant but both of the sticks I had trouble with were Sandisk brand. I do have Cantata working on both of these sticks now but it took some doing. The other two sticks were a PNY and a Lexar. I also had no problems installing Cantata on two hard disk frugal installs. I also installed Audacious on all the same installs. Audacious always worked with no problems. Cantata twice failed. But it is not consistent and I did eventually get Cantata working on all systems.

Seaken64

I did solve my permissions issues with Cantata.

As you might have guessed it was user error on my part. I was choosing the "Single User" setup when Cantata first started. When Cantata starts for the first time it presents a dialog where you have two choices, either "Standard" or Single User". I was using the Single User option and that is why I was having problems when I tried to run from a second user I added to my system. It worked fine as long as I was the only user but after I added the second user and tried to use Cantata from that new user it failed.

I removed both mpd and Cantata and deleted the config files from both users. Then I re-installed mpd and Cantata. I then launched Cantata and selected "Standard" this time. It worked fine on user number one. Then I logged off and logged in as user number 2 and launched Cantata, again selecting "Standard". It worked! I can now use Cantata with both users.

This is going to work out just fine for my purposes. Cantata remembers where you left off and will show the last playlist used. This will be easy for my wife to use and I setup a bunch of playlist files in her users Music folder. If she wants she can browse the Streams directories for something new. I'm very pleased.

I will continue to learn more about setting up Cantata as my own music manager. But for now it is working fine as an internet radio stream music player for our store stereo.

Seaken64

Thanks for the update, and glad you found how to fix your problems! That'll help other users.

Stevo wrote: Tue Apr 02, 2019 4:02 pm Thanks for the update, and glad you found how to fix your problems! That'll help other users.

Thanks Stevo. I appreciate your help. I used your OBS repo to update both Cantata and Audacious. I'm still learning how to set it all up but I'm farther along than I was a week ago.

Seaken64

Spoke too soon. Now I am getting some errors:

“Failed to send command to “Default” (localhost:6600) - not connected”

I put mpd in default log mode. It was telling me that it could not find /var/log/mpd/mpd.log. I created the directory and an empty file. I restarted mpd and then restarted Cantata. No more error message.

But now I have a similar problem I had seen before where the music starts to play but then goes off and the pause icon is on the playlist track name.

I reset the mpd log to “verbose” and tried again. The error message this time was:

“Decoder is too slow, playing silence to avoid xrun”

I did a lot of reading on this error but I couldn’t decipher most of it. I thought maybe it was a hardware issue. I uncommented the line saying “Device” in the ALSA block for the audio outputs in the mpd.conf file. This was pointing to the “hw:0,0” device. Then I saved mpd.conf and restarted the mpd service. Then I restarted Cantata and tested. This time the streams played without going silent. And they seemed to come up faster. When I was having the problem there was a delay before it started to play and then it would play for awhile and then go silent. Now it playing quickly and continues until I click on stop.

I looked again at the mpd.log and I noticed there were no more errors about the decoder being too slow. But I also noted that it said it was changing the format to 44100:16:2, from 44100:24:2. So, apparently this hardware likes 16-bit audio? Being an idiot in these matters, I’m not sure. I am at my office and using the LiveUSB for this setup. I will put this LiveUSB in the target machine when I get home and see if it still behaves.

Anyway, I seem to be back in business. But this shows the difficulties in setting up a music client-server application. I had no issues with Audacious at all. It just plays the streams with no hiccups. But Cantata takes a bit of dexterity in setting up. I’m sure I’ll learn to use the settings and config files to get the most from Cantata in the future.

When I got home I put the LiveUSB that I am setting up with Cantata in my Thinkpad R61i to test it. (This is not yet the target machine. It's my easy chair laptop in my living room). When I started up Cantata it worked fine, except the Volume slider on the toolbar was greyed out. I then went back in to the mpd.conf file and put the comment hash mark (#) back in front on the “Device” line, which was the default setting. I restarted mpd and Cantata.

Again, Cantata works fine. And I can control the volume from the taskbar icon or mixer, even though the volume slider is still greyed out. I checked the log and there were no errors, and this time the log said that the format for the audio was being changed from 44100:24:2 to 44100:32:2. Again, I don’t know what this means but it does seem that mpd reacts to different hardware and that may have been why I got poor results in the past.

So, I can’t say for sure that I have really been having any issues with Cantata. I think these issues were more related to my mpd settings and that I did not make the necessary settings to fit the hardware that mpd is running on.

Interestingly, I have installed Audacious along side Cantata each time I tested and Audacious has never failed to play, no matter what computer I was on. So Audacious must be using a different approach to handling the different hardware than mpd. I also wonder if some of the issues I had with Guayadeque could be related to some of the hardware in the same way that mpd is reacting. I’m not very good with the details of setting up the audio in Linux. These are all just guesses. But it does appear that I have to be more careful in setting up mpd for each set of hardware before I go blaming a client player like Cantata.

Cantata has been working good, and I put it on the final target machine last night and it is playing everything with no trouble and the volume slider is working normally. Conkey reports that the CPU is less than 10% and memory use is low. Contrast this to playing AccuRadio on the SeaMonkey browser which puts the CPU at 100%. I would say that mpd/Cantata is a good choice for this old P4 with 1GB RAM.

Seaken64

Just an update to say I've found "moc" player to be very useful on my lower powered older machines. I can use it from a console only install without X.

Of course moc is not a music manager like Cantata. But I have been using moc a lot for playing streams, instead of firing up Cantata. I will stay with Cantata as my music manager but may be using moc more as my player.

Seaken64

seaken64 wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 1:08 pm Just an update to say I've found "moc" player to be very useful on my lower powered older machines. I can use it from a console only install without X.

I haven't read the thread, but noticed you've just found moc, & from another thread, see you aren't afraid of the command line, so thought I'd just mention that I often use mc & mpg123 to manage & play my music at the command line.

mxer wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 2:37 pm

seaken64 wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 1:08 pm Just an update to say I've found "moc" player to be very useful on my lower powered older machines. I can use it from a console only install without X.

I haven't read the thread, but noticed you've just found moc, & from another thread, see you aren't afraid of the command line, so thought I'd just mention that I often use mc & mpg123 to manage & play my music at the command line.

Was that a typo or is mc another player? And I've seen mpg123 on the list but haven't tried it yet. I've been trying to get ncmpcpp to work with mpd but so far have not been successful. I still need to learn more about setting up mpd. Is mpg123 more of a manager or only a player?

Seaken64

seaken64 wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 2:48 pm

mxer wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 2:37 pm...so thought I'd just mention that I often use mc & mpg123 to manage & play my music at the command line.

Was that a typo or is mc another player? And I've seen mpg123 on the list but haven't tried it yet. I've been trying to get ncmpcpp to work with mpd but so far have not been successful. I still need to learn more about setting up mpd. Is mpg123 more of a manager or only a player?

mc is midnight commander, a powerful console file manager. mpg123 is an mp3 player which I think only plays mp3 format. mp3 is an inefficient legacy format for which there are now much better options such as AAC and Ogg Vorbis, while opus is better still but yet to gain much traction.

Bluesguy wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:09 pm Nice console-based player ... more features than MOC .... good documentation too ....
https://cmus.github.io/#home

Good summary for console players here:
https://opensource.com/life/16/8/3-comm ... yers-linux ... don't bother with RipIt (console CD ripper) discussed at the bottom of the article ...

Nothing beats abcde for command line CD rip/encode ...
https://abcde.einval.com/wiki/

Thanks Bluesguy,

I've seen cmus mentioned before. I'll check it out. Also going to try out abcde,

Seaken64

Yes, sorry, mc is midnight commander, a file manager, amongst other things, & mpg123 is an mp3 music player.
I use this combination as you can select which files to play from the file manager screen, by marking them, using the 'insert' key on your keyboard, then playing them all by typing mpg123 %f in the box at the bottom of the mc screen.

You can use ogg123 to play ogg files.

(There are other possibilities using mc too, very versatile program.)

mxer wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 5:07 am Yes, sorry, mc is midnight commander, a file manager, amongst other things, & mpg123 is an mp3 music player.
I use this combination as you can select which files to play from the file manager screen, by marking them, using the 'insert' key on your keyboard, then playing them all by typing mpg123 %f in the box at the bottom of the mc screen.

You can use ogg123 to play ogg files.

(There are other possibilities using mc too, very versatile program.)

Thanks for that. I'm familiar with the mc file manager. But I have not used that feature. I look forward to trying that out.

Seaken64

38 music players for Linux:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dfeaixm_tbA

Raitsa wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 11:34 am 38 music players for Linux:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dfeaixm_tbA

Worth watching if you have 50 minutes to spare, although I used the slider to skip through a lot. It's cute how he mispronounces so many words - G-nome, "Adocious", Sayonara etc. Guayadeque made me chuckle.
Spends too much time on players that don't work properly for him, but good video to get an idea of which ones not to waste time trying!. Amarok is a QT4 application not updated for QT5 and has been dropped in Debian testing/sid. Not even worth including. And he missed out Cantata! It did remind me to check out Elisa again which has now made it to Debian unstable.
He also didn't get how to use Design Mode in DeadBeef which is one of its best features.
It's interesting how many of the players, particularly the more basic ones, are almost identical in functionality. I guess coding a music player must be a right-of-passage for neophyte developers.
Overall a pretty good overview but has basically shown me that I should stick with my current player choices:
Audacious
Cantata
DeadBeef
gmusicbrowser
MPV
QMMP
Strawberry

and for parties - Mixxx DJ player

DeaDBeef is my favorite player for one zillion reasons.

If you already have mpd installed, give Ario a try. I prefer it for playing local music files, although Cantata is the better choice for streaming

what happend to visualizations post for clementine?

For command line, mps-youtube is just incredibly fun to play around with. Need to be sure you have youtube-dl installed as well, it isn't handled as a dependency on MX, but mps-youtube won't work well without it.

I use VLC b/c it's one of the few apps that lets me play music and video streamed by the MINIdlna server hosted on my Libreelec with a bunch of USB disks attached.
I'm currently looking for the Linux equivalent of Tag&Rename that can run locally, but can "see" and edit files shared on SMB shares on my LE box

bpr323 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 10:41 pm I'm currently looking for the Linux equivalent of Tag&Rename that can run locally, but can "see" and edit files shared on SMB shares on my LE box

Search the stable repo for "tag" and you'll find several mp3 id3 tag editors. If you can access your music files in Thunar you should be able to do so in your tag editor too.

bpr323 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 10:41 pmI'm currently looking for the Linux equivalent of Tag&Rename that can run locally, but can "see" and edit files shared on SMB shares on my LE box

I've used EasyTag for years. It is a bit quirky but it does a lot of things. Once you learn it will become indispensable.

JayM wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 10:47 pm

bpr323 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 10:41 pm I'm currently looking for the Linux equivalent of Tag&Rename that can run locally, but can "see" and edit files shared on SMB shares on my LE box

Search the stable repo for "tag" and you'll find several mp3 id3 tag editors. If you can access your music files in Thunar you should be able to do so in your tag editor too.

Jay, my question wasn't "where to find installation packages for ID3 tagging, but specifically anything even close to Tag&Rename.
Out of a dozen of existing Linux apps, only 2 allow manipulating media files located on network shares and only 1 remotely matches functionality (but no network API).
Kid3 can read FLAC tags and can "see" files on network shares, but is buggy and limited in its ability to bulk file editing (e.g. change the "genre" tag on 20 MP3 files in a folder)
I ended up setting up a Win 8.1 VM just for 1 program - Rag&Rename. If you're even remotely interested in music media librarys (and I have 4Gb of music in lossless format) - check out Tag&Rename - it's available in portable form for Windows

sunrat wrote: Fri Nov 01, 2019 2:38 am

bpr323 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 10:41 pmI'm currently looking for the Linux equivalent of Tag&Rename that can run locally, but can "see" and edit files shared on SMB shares on my LE box

I've used EasyTag for years. It is a bit quirky but it does a lot of things. Once you learn it will become indispensable.

One can use refined beetroot sugar if they don't have (or have never had a taste of) honey. EasyTag is for local files only - can't read samba shares.

bpr323 wrote: Fri Nov 01, 2019 9:03 am Kid3 can read FLAC tags and can "see" files on network shares, but is buggy and limited in its ability to bulk file editing (e.g. change the "genre" tag on 20 MP3 files in a folder)

I've been using kid3-qt for a decade now and there's no trouble changing the genre (or any common tag) on a whole folder of ogg files with no problem. And while it is indeed slow saving changes over smb, I haven't encountered any truly buggy behavior.