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Author Topic: Is it possible to list the same file or set of files by different names?  (Read 3281 times)

mwmccaw

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I have a lot of albums that are live recordings of concerts.
The official names of the albums do not reference the dates.
I also have a lot of noncommercial copies of concerts by the same bands, organized by (band ID)(ymd)(location).
I'd like to be able to have the commercial albums appear both under their official names, and also in the same format as my noncom recordings.
Is there any way to do this short of putting the whole album on the HD twice?
Any help very gratefully accepted!
Thanks,
Mike
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ferday

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it's possible for sure

What's band ID, location, ymd...are they in tags or just on your hard drive as folders?
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mwmccaw

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Both in tags (at least date, could easily add the other data if needed), and in the file names
What would the procedure(s) be?
Many thanks,
Mike
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ferday

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well, for example i have a lot of remasters etc. as well as multiple recordings from different sources (vinyl rip, HDTracks, CD, etc.)

so i use a custom field called [album info] and i put stuff in it about the remaster
i also have a [source] field that has the source info

albums that aren't remasters have no information in [album info], so i can filter out the originals/remasters very easily

it would be the same thing for your recordings.  just make at least one tag the same between your commercial and non-commercial recordings the same, and then you can sort on that tag.  but make sure at least one tag is not the same for both the com and non-com recordings, so that you can filter out one or the other...

hope that makes sense, if you are more specific about your desired results i maybe could be as well
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mwmccaw

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I was hoping to avoid re-sorting.
I sort the file list by 1. Artist 2.Album (I treat all recordings as albums) 3. track number
I was hoping to find a way to have two album names for the same set of files (maybe find some way for the "album" tag to actually look at two separate tags), so that the same concert would appear as "commercial release name" and "bandname date location (comm rel)" as separate entries.
I always enter dates as yymmdd, so the files sort automatically by date in the second format, making it easy to zero in on the period of interest.

Maybe I'm just overthinking it, and I can set one of the other major categories to sort by an alternate tag that would accomplish the same goal.

Thanks much,
Mike
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ferday

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MC works on files as objects

so you can't list the exact same file twice in a single view

you could make a new field [commercial name]-[bandname date location] and then the information would appear under that single entry...

there are some workarounds that can be done with alternate tagging and careful sorting, but to do exactly as you want (as i understand it) can't be done
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blgentry

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Is this a matter of you wanting to see the same album in two *different* views, in two different ways?

If you could give an example or two, that might help.  If you want two views to show the same files in different ways, that's cake.

Brian.
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mwmccaw

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I was hoping to have the same album (folder, set of files) appear twice in the "files" view, once with the official name and once with the descriptor, but was already coming to the conclusion that it couldn't be done - hence the original question.
I can see how to do it with a separate view.
Now, I really prefer the "files" view to most of the others, because often I'm looking for how an individual piece was performed on a particular day.
Is it possible to make a "duplicate" "file" view - something like "files (1)" and "files (2)"?  That would be nearly ideal.  If not, I can see how to do it using "files" and "albums" as the two vies.

Thanks much for the help and the patience!
Mike
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blgentry

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I was hoping to have the same album (folder, set of files) appear twice in the "files" view, once with the official name and once with the descriptor, but was already coming to the conclusion that it couldn't be done - hence the original question.

Hmm.  That's hard to understand.  It sounds like what you really want is quick access to two different sorting mechanisms:  One by date or something and another that's just alphabetical.  If that's really what this is about, you can easily make a Pane that has preset sorts and just click on the sort type  you want and the whole list will get sorted the way you want it.

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Now, I really prefer the "files" view to most of the others, because often I'm looking for how an individual piece was performed on a particular day.

I don't understand, but that's ok.  Again, it sounds like a Pane that lists dates or date ranges might be really helpful for you.   "Files" is a Panes view, so this is a good start.  It's just that "files" has panes that show location on disk.  Which is mostly useless if you're using good metadata.  "Files" is mostly intended as a maintenance view when you need to work with file locations on disk.

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Is it possible to make a "duplicate" "file" view - something like "files (1)" and "files (2)"?  That would be nearly ideal.

Sure, that's very easy.  Either start from scratch with a Panes view and build it up using the panes you want.  Or copy the files view and modify the copy.

Brian.
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mwmccaw

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I don't understand, but that's ok.  Again, it sounds like a Pane that lists dates or date ranges might be really helpful for you.   "Files" is a Panes view, so this is a good start.  It's just that "files" has panes that show location on disk.  Which is mostly useless if you're using good metadata.  "Files" is mostly intended as a maintenance view when you need to work with file locations on disk.

Sure, that's very easy.  Either start from scratch with a Panes view and build it up using the panes you want.  Or copy the files view and modify the copy.

Brian.
[/quote]

That's very interesting!  I've never tried to (or really been aware that you could) build my own view; just assumed that the ones in the package were what was there.  I've got the panes in "files" arranged  in a logical order, and the file location is off the screen to the right, but reachable if I need to remove duplicates, etc.  I'm so used to using it (ever since MC 14), that I've never thought about being able to build my own.  I'll be looking into that.

Many thanks for the pointers!
Mike
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