Watch Folder
Lexicon has a watch folder. This folder is constantly being watched by Lexicon and any music file added to it will automatically be imported into Lexicon.
The default watch folder is Music/Lexicon/Watch Folder. You can choose a different folder with the Watch Options button (sliders icon) on the Incoming page.
Only audio files are picked up. Playlist files like M3U are not imported from the watch folder; drag those onto your playlists instead, see Playlists.
Lexicon waits until a file is completely written before it imports it, so you can copy whole folders or download straight into the watch folder. Unfinished browser downloads (such as Safari's .download folders), and trash, system and hidden folders inside the watch folder, are skipped.
A file whose location is already in your library is skipped. The same track in a different location is imported as a new track, you can clean those up with Find Duplicates.
The Watch Folder is available on the Ultimate plan. The Incoming page is available on the Essential and Ultimate plans.
Incoming Tracks
Tracks that are imported from the watch folder are called incoming tracks and you can find these in your Incoming page (Sidebar ➡ Tracks ➡ Incoming). This page gives you a great opportunity to process incoming tracks. For example, you can clean up tags, add cue points or add them to one or more playlists.
When you are done processing one or more tracks, you can select them and press Selected done. Or set the entire list as done by clicking All done. With more than 10 tracks, Lexicon asks you to confirm first.
When there are no incoming tracks, the page shows your watch folder with a Refresh button and Open folder. Refresh scans the watch folder again for new files.
Hiding incoming tracks from the library
By default, incoming tracks also show up everywhere else in your library. If you want to process them first, turn on Hide incoming tracks from the library in Watch Options on the Incoming page. Incoming tracks then only show on the Incoming page and in playlists until you mark them as done. The track browser, smartlists, search, statistics and full syncs leave them out. This setting takes effect after a restart of Lexicon.
Deleting
You can delete tracks from the incoming list by selecting them and choosing Delete selected. This deletes the selected tracks from your library. To also delete the files from your computer, turn on Delete from disk in the confirmation window.
Workflow
When you press the Selected done button, Lexicon will automatically load the next track in the list and select it. You can bind this button to a hotkey in the settings. This will let you speed up the process with the right hotkeys.
These Incoming hotkeys have no key by default, you can set them in the hotkey settings:
Incoming: Mark selected done: the same as Selected done.Incoming: Mark all done: the same as All done, including the confirmation with more than 10 tracks.Incoming: Refresh watch folder: scans the watch folder again.
When a hotkey is set and the Show hotkeys setting is on, the button shows it.
Auto Move & Rename files
Any incoming track can automatically be moved to a destination of your choice. The move is performed when the track is marked as done.
Moving only happens if a target folder is set in the settings. If no target folder is set, track will not be moved and will stay in your watch folder. You can still rename files without moving them.
You can let Lexicon automatically create a subfolder inside your target folder based on the "pattern". This pattern can be changed in Watch Options on the Incoming page. There are three patterns that decide the name of the first, second and third subfolder. All three are optional.
Example: If you choose Genre as the first pattern, your tracks are going to be moved in subfolders with the name that is taken from the genre field from that track. It will look like this:
C:/Users/Christiaan/Music/House/track.mp3. If your second pattern is BPM it would look something likeC:/Users/Christiaan/Music/House/128/track.mp3
Most patterns work the same here with the exception of First tag. With the first tag pattern, the first tag that is in your first tag category is used as subfolder. You can change the category order on the Tags page. Whichever category is first, that is the category that is used.
If a field is empty, then the track will still be moved to the target folder but without extra subfolder.
File Rename Pattern
Lexicon can also change the filename of tracks automatically. To do this, you have to set up a filename pattern. If you only want to rename your files without moving them, simply don't set any target folder.
You can create a pattern by using field names surrounded by %, e.g. %artist%. You can combine these with normal text to create a pattern, e.g. %artist% - %title%. This would result in Daft Punk - Get Lucky.
You can choose from the following fields: artist, title, albumTitle, label, remixer, mix, composer, producer, grouping, lyricist, comment, key, genre, bpm, rating, color, year, durationSeconds, bitrate, playCount, sizeBytes, sampleRate, trackNumber, energy, danceability, popularity, extra1, extra2
You can also surround a field name with curly bracket { } to make it optional. When a field is optional, anything within the curly brackets is only added to the filename if the field value exists. For example, a pattern of %artist% - %title% (%key%) on a track without a key would normally end up as Daft Punk - Get Lucky (). By adding curly brackets, e.g. %artist% - %title% {(%key%)} a track without key would be Daft Punk - Get Lucky.
Here are some basic pattern examples to get started:
| Pattern | Result | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
%artist% - %title% |
Daft Punk - Get Lucky | The two tags are replaced by the artist and title tags found in Lexicon |
%artist% - %title% {(%key%)} |
Daft Punk - Get Lucky (12M) | The key and parenthesis are only added if the track has a key. If not, the parenthesis will not be added either |
%artist% - %title% {%key%}{|%bpm%} |
Daft Punk - Get Lucky 12M|128 | The key and BPM are only added if the track has them. |
{%genre% -} %artist% - %title% |
Pop - Daft Punk - Get Lucky | Genre is added at the start of the filename, if there is a genre. |
(Favorites) %artist% - %title% |
(Favorites) Daft Punk - Get Lucky | A static text is added at the start of the filename. This is not based on a variable so it will not change. |
Special Patterns
There are a few special patterns.
Bitrate (higher/lower 320kbps)
Bitrate is sorted in two possible folders:
320+ for all tracks that have a bitrate of 320 and higher.
320- for all tracks that have a bitrate lower than 320.
First tag
Uses the first tag on that track from the first tag category. You can which tag category is used here by making sure the category you want is the first visible one on the Tags page.
Current year
Uses the current year.
Current month
Uses the current month as a number with a zero padded on the left, e.g. 01 up to 12
Current decade
Uses the current decade, this will show as year ranges in the form of 1990 - 1999.