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Author Topic: Covert Art - Multiple CD albums  (Read 2052 times)

ldoodle

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Covert Art - Multiple CD albums
« on: June 30, 2012, 11:02:02 am »

Hiya,

For example;

Music\Aaliyah\Ultimate [Disc 1]
Music\Aaliyah\Ultimate [Disc 2]

So the folder names have [Disc n] in them, causing no match to be found. My Title meta data within each audio track matches the folder name.

At the point of doing a right click > Get from internet, can the string be altered to find a match. I'd like to avoid renaming at the back end if I can.

Cheers.
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ldoodle

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Re: Covert Art - Multiple CD albums
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2012, 07:26:15 am »

No guidance/suggestions on this?
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rick.ca

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Re: Covert Art - Multiple CD albums
« Reply #2 on: July 04, 2012, 07:59:01 am »

Remove the [Disc n], do the Get from Internet, then Undo to put [Album] back the way it was. Or use the proper album name for [Album] and record disc numbers in [Disc #] (where they're normally recorded anyway).
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ldoodle

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Re: Covert Art - Multiple CD albums
« Reply #3 on: July 04, 2012, 09:44:34 am »

But then how would I actually store the files - can't have 2 folders with the same name!

In other words, how do other people store music files on the backend - single folder with all discs' tracks in it? How are they then sorted in frontends, because my filenames are in the format 'track number - filename', so '01 - One In A Million.mp3' so that they appear in Windows in track number order rather than alphabetically. The meta data is just the song name though, with the track number being just the numerical value.

But this would mean I'd have it listed in Windows like this;

01 - One In A Million.mp3 <- Disc 1 Track 1
01 - Are You Feelin' Me.mp3 <- Disc 2 Track 1
02 - If Your Girl Only Knew.mp3 <- Disc 1 Track 2
02 - Messed Up.mp3 <- Disc 2 Track 2

etc etc. Which I don't want.
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MrC

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Re: Covert Art - Multiple CD albums
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2012, 10:58:52 am »

Set your Audio Folder rule to be something like:

  [Album Artist (auto)]\[Album]If(IsEmpty([Disc #],1), ,/ Disc [Disc #])\

Tools > Options > File Location > Audio > Folder rule.  You can use the Rename tool then.
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rick.ca

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Re: Covert Art - Multiple CD albums
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2012, 05:54:14 pm »

But then how would I actually store the files - can't have 2 folders with the same name!

Of course not. But why do you want two folders? One of the main virtues of a digital collection is it does away with obsolete shiny discs. I've never found a compelling reason to maintain files according to the disc they came from. An album is an album. If it consists of 20 tracks that filled two discs, I don't really care. It's one album with tracks 1 to 20. One album may have one or more distinct parts. A re-issue, for example, may include the original recordings on disc 1 and alternate versions disc 2. If I wanted to treat those as separate albums (I may or may not), I would distinguish them by what makes them different—[Original] and [Alternate versions], not [Disc 1] and [Disc 2]. Once I've made such decisions and tagged the files accordingly, I change the filenames according to my standard format (which puts each album in a separate folder).

For those who do want to maintain the illusion their library consists of discs rather than albums, it's not difficult to construct views that present them either way. So I'm not suggesting it should be done either way—only that you have a choice.
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ldoodle

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Re: Covert Art - Multiple CD albums
« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2012, 05:20:36 am »

What you say makes a lot of sense actually. So I may have to flatten my structure, but my only concern would then be how to edit the meta data so I don't end up with identical track numbers, so say disc 1 was 10 songs, and disc 2 was 6 songs, disc 2's songs would be track numbers 11-16, so how would I change them all in one go without having to go into each songs meta data and do it manually.
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rick.ca

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Re: Covert Art - Multiple CD albums
« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2012, 06:12:58 pm »

Remove the [Disc n] tags so the tracks are grouped as one album. (If necessary, change the sort order so the tracks remain in the correct order. The easiest way to do that is probably to sort within albums by [Filename] by clicking on it's column header.) Select all tracks and Fill track numbers from list order.
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Frobozz

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Re: Covert Art - Multiple CD albums
« Reply #8 on: July 06, 2012, 06:52:23 am »

Vincent Kars offers another method for handling track numbers of multi CD sets

From this thread: labeling multi CDs
In general I treat multi volume like this
-   Fill in Disc #
-   Apply Math([Track #]-[Disc #]*1000) to the Track #
-   Make the album titles equal

This gives me 1 entry in the album view
Sorts right on the portable
Preserves the original track number
http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/MC14/MC_Expression_multi.htm

An advantage of this method is that multi CD sets will sort properly in track order, even on a portable and dumb devices/software that don't recognize the Disc# tag.

Disadvantage is that sets may not be recognized as complete albums.  MC assumes an album is complete if tracks start at 1 and are numbered 1, 2, 3... etc. without skipping or missing track numbers.  With this method the tracks will start at 1001 rather than 1 and will have non-contiguous track numbers when the disc 2 tracks jump to 2001 and then 3001 for disc 3.
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ldoodle

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Re: Covert Art - Multiple CD albums
« Reply #9 on: July 06, 2012, 09:19:23 am »

Select all tracks and Fill track numbers from list order.

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious  ;D
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ldoodle

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Re: Covert Art - Multiple CD albums
« Reply #10 on: July 07, 2012, 01:00:38 pm »

OK, flattened and renamed for folder structure, but is there a way in MC I can get it to run through my audio library and delete 'space [Disc n]' from the Album tag, and then populate the Disc # tag based on the value of what was in the Album tag?

If not MC, some 3rd party tool?
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rick.ca

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Re: Covert Art - Multiple CD albums
« Reply #11 on: July 07, 2012, 04:48:32 pm »

Quote
OK, flattened and renamed for folder structure...

Hmm. What, exactly, do you mean by this? I would have removed the ' [Disc n]' from [Album] (and set [Disc #] if I cared) and changed the track numbers, then used Rename, move and copy files to update the filepaths (i.e., using the new [Album] and [Track #]).

Quote
is there a way in MC I can get it to run through my audio library and delete 'space [Disc n]' from the Album tag, and then populate the Disc # tag based on the value of what was in the Album tag?

There are various ways this can be done, including using expressions to reduce the number of steps required. Since it's a one-time operation, I would prefer dong it by 'brute force' rather messing with expressions: Use the Search Wizard to select all files with '[Disc 1]' in [Album]. Set [Disc #] to 1. Find and Replace '[Disc 1]' in [Album] with nothing. Repeat for [Disc 2]...
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