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Author Topic: Album (auto)  (Read 894 times)

bopz

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Album (auto)
« on: December 15, 2005, 06:42:22 am »

I created an expression that I'll call "Album (auto)"

it's meant to be like [Album Artist (auto)] except for albums,
like when you have a bunch of tracks, sourced from different original Albums and compiled in a Mix, but you want to keep the original Album info, for artwork lookups and such.

I made a custom field called [Album Mix] for these "mix albums"
and since we can't use expressions in a field, I just use the expression
as is in various places:

If(IsEmpty([Album Mix]), [Album], [Album Mix])

maybe there's a simpler way, and it would be nice if [Album (auto)] was a built-in field (or we could put expressions in fields), but it's a workaround for now.
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hit_ny

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Re: Album (auto)
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2005, 08:02:42 am »

I'm not sure what it is you are asking for ?

The way i handle multiple artist albums is to either put VA or the name of the DJ who compiled the album in the Album Artist field. Think of this as an override.I dont like MC displaying (Multiple Artist) at the top of the panes for Album Artist (Auto). The album Artist (auto) is left alone in such cases.

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bopz

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Re: Album (auto)
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2005, 08:23:58 pm »

Well, I'm doing much the same as you. I'm just sharing this expression because I think
     [Album Artist (auto)]
and
     [Album (auto)]
is a good/similar idea.

I can get the hierarchy to be very consistent, in a folder naming structure,
AND in a view scheme, by using

a) for view schemes:
     [Album Artist (auto)]/
            If(IsEmpty([Album Mix]), [Album], [Album Mix])
b) for a directory naming template rule:
     [Album Artist (auto)]\
            If(IsEqual([Album Mix], Unknown Album Mix, 1), [Album], [Album Mix])

It's much better than any of these
     [Artist]/[Album]
     [Album Artist]/[Album]
     [Album Artist (auto)]/[Album]

For example, I can enter "Various Artists" or a DJ/Producer into the [Album Artist] field, leaving the tracks properly credited with [Artist], as you say. This is the whole idea of [Album Artist (auto)] I would guess, so I'm just using it the same way you do, I think. It seems to be what it's designed for.

But the nice thing about the extra expression I've described above, is that it also handles, say, "World Fusion Mix" as an [Album Mix], overriding [Album], but leaves the original [Album] tag. This enables the track info to show the original album (and function with artwork and lyric lookups) but keeps the albums and tracks organized consistently, including any custom [Album Mix] albums I make.

Anyway, I'm just sharing a solution that's a similar concept to [Album Artist (auto)] and seems to make a nice partner for it, for Album names.

As for requests, yes it would be nice to be able to put expressions in fields, so I can make the expression into a custom field and call it [Album (auto)]. Or have it as a built-in MC field.



               
                 
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