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Author Topic: MC11 and processing empty tags  (Read 1462 times)

rhom

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MC11 and processing empty tags
« on: May 13, 2005, 05:09:56 am »

processing empty tags has changed, eg; renaming a file from properties

if the rename pattern is [album artist]\[album]\[track]. [name]

and the [album] was blank/missing

MC10 generates abba\01. song.mp3
MC11 generates abba\Unknown Album\01. song.mp3

basically any missing/empty tags used in MC11 are now replaced with "Unknown <library field display value>" text instead.

personally i liked the smarter processing from MC10, any chance we can get that back?
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coolblue

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MC11 and processing empty tags
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2005, 08:16:43 am »

processing empty tags has changed, eg; renaming a file from properties

if the rename pattern is [album artist]\[album]\[track]. [name]

and the [album] was blank/missing

MC10 generates abba\01. song.mp3
MC11 generates abba\Unknown Album\01. song.mp3

basically any missing/empty tags used in MC11 are now replaced with "Unknown <library field display value>" text instead.

personally i liked the smarter processing from MC10, any chance we can get that back?

I noticed this as well, and miss it. What seemed to happen in MC10 is that, in the tagging scheme [artist] - [album]\[track] - [name], if both an album artist and artist were specified, album artist would trump. This was handy for me because typically I  like my folders arranged like:

Bauhaus - Burning from the Inside
...
Beastie Boys, The - Paul's Boutique
...
Young, Neil - Harvest
Young, Neil - Mirrorball
...

while the ID3 tag artist names are fine as Bauhaus, The Beastie Boys and Neil Young.

I have fields available for both [artist] and [album artist] when ripping. When completing information before ripping The Beastie Boys or Neil Young I would fill the [album artist] field with "Beastie Boys, The" and "Young, Neil" respectively, but leave [album artist] blank for Bauhaus. As I said above, my directory rule for ripping (in MC10) was [artist] - [album] and my Filename rule was [track #] - [name] and this got me the results I wanted. (MC 10 would fill [artist] with [album artist] if supplied, otherwise it would use [artist].)

This was even more useful in multiple-artist CDs. I specified "Various Artists" as the album artist and the individual tracks' artists in the artist field. (for these my filename rule changed to [track #] - [artist]-[name].)

MC11 negated that "smart" behavior (as the previous poster described) and now in order to get the same thing I have to specify my directory rule as [album artist] - [album] and always fill in the album artist field.

Is this a tragic turn of events? No. Is it an inconvenient - and somewhat mystifying - change in behavior from MC 10? Most definitely. Is it a "bug"? I don't know.

While I don't buy CDs often, when I do I tend to buy quite a few at once, and having to rip 20+ discs was basically easier with MC10 than it is now.

Sorry for the ramble. I hope this was at least somewhat coherent.

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Deivit

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Re: MC11 and processing empty tags
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2005, 08:54:31 am »

I may be wrong, but if I recall correctly, this feature was changed following up a request  ::)

Using the new expressions would do the trick, though.

Take a look a this thread:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=27340.0
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Matt

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Re: MC11 and processing empty tags
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2005, 08:56:18 am »

I may be wrong, but if I recall correctly, this feature was changed following up a request  ::)

That's correct.  The new implementation is by design, and preferable to some people. (myself included)

Try a path rule like this instead:
IsEmpty([Artist],,[Artist]\)[Album]
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

coolblue

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Re: MC11 and processing empty tags
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2005, 10:02:15 am »

That's correct.  The new implementation is by design, and preferable to some people. (myself included)

Try a path rule like this instead:
IsEmpty([Artist],,[Artist]\)[Album]

I admit I haven't delved much into expression. Can they be used during the ripping process?

I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing, or maybe we're talking about more than one thing... The original poster's concern was about missing fields; mine is about MC trumping [artist] with [album artist] in the *directory rule* field for ripping, if [album artist] was supplied.

Basically, [artist] meant 2 things for ripping (in MC10), depending on whether it was used in a Directory Rule or Filename Rule. In the Directory Rule, MC10 would use [album artist] in place of [artist] if [album artist] was specified, while in the Filename Rule [artist] meant [artist] period.

Why was this more convenient? It meant that I could basically leave my Directory Rule alone: [artist] - [album] and my Filename Rule was [Track #] - [Name] for single artist CDs or [Track #] - [artist]-[name] for multiple-artist CDs. My view scheme for ripping exposes fields for both [artist] and [album artist].

 Here are some examples as to how this *used* to work:

To rip U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" [artist]="U2" and [album artist]=nothing. The folder structure is

U2 - How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
  01 - Vertigo.mp3
  02 - Miracle Drug.mp3
  ...

The artist ID3 tag is "U2" and all is well. (for all practical purposes the [album artist] field is disregarded post rip.)

Next example: To rip Chaka Khan's Classikahn [artist]="Chaka Khan" and [album artist]="Khan, Chaka". Without changing my Directory Rule or Filename Rule, after ripping my folder structure is

Khan, Chaka - Classikahn
  01 - Hey Big Spender.mp3
  02 - Hazel's Lips.mp3
  ...
while the artist ID3 tag is still "Chaka Khan".

Last example: To rip Verve Remixed 3 (a multiple-artist CD) I supply the track artist's name in the [artist] field (this will vary from track to track) and set [album artist] to "Various Artists". I change the Filename Rule to [track #] - [artist]-[name] but leave Directory Rule alone (it still says [artist] - [album], notice how [artist] appears 2x but the value substitued depends on context). After ripping, my folder structure looks like this:

Various Artists - Verve Remixed 3
  01 - Nina Simone-Little Girl Blue (Postal Service Remix).mp3
  02 - Billie Holliday-Speak Low (Bent Remix).mp3
  ...

What this really meant was that I had to minimal fiddling with my file naming rules AND had a streamlined approach to tagging: fill in [album artist] if different from [artist] for directory collating purposes.

In the new approach I set my Directory Rule to [album artist] - [album] and I have to supply [album artist] *always*.

To some people this probably makes more sense, and I never mentioned it because I've honestly spent more time explaining it than it is really worth. In the end, MC10 did something clever and smart (by moving [album artist] into [artist] in the Directory Rule) that MC11 doesn't. I doubt that this confounded anyone (I think any MC user would have quickly figured out what was going on) and it was a convenient feature. If it can be resurrected that would be great, otherwise, I've adapted to the new scheme.
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rhom

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Re: MC11 and processing empty tags
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2005, 04:42:34 am »

Try a path rule like this instead:
IsEmpty([Artist],,[Artist]\)[Album]

just in case anyone else finds this, the above does not work when naming or renaming files. IsEmpty() just returns a 0 or a 1 no matter what i try.  it needs to be wrapped in If() to generate something useful.

this is what i have now;

path: If(IsEmpty([Source]),Unknown,[Source])\[Media Type]\If(IsEmpty([Album Artist]),,[Album Artist]\)If(IsEmpty([Album]),,[Album])

filename: [Track #]. If(IsEmpty([Name]),Unknown Track,[Name])

[Source] is a user field.  it's a lot longer than what i used to have but at least it now works the may it used to.  i also had to put the same formula in the settings for ripping path and filename.
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