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Author Topic: Combining Tracks Into One File  (Read 2806 times)

rrrun

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Combining Tracks Into One File
« on: February 14, 2013, 07:28:02 pm »

I've got a multi-disk set of music with multiple artists.  I want that to appear as "one" CD in the media library.

I renamed the album to one title, assigned disk #s to each disk ... looked fine.

I then moved the files into one folder ... and then the single icon blew up to being one album icon per artist as opposed to one album icon per 10 CDs.  No clue what I did to cause this (well, moving the files did it, but why?). 

More importantly, how do I switch it back without losing the metadata edited so far???
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glynor

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2013, 12:51:43 am »

Can you post some screenshots?

You may also want to look in the forums (and on the Wiki) for information on Customizing Views.  I just posted this starter thread (which is really more about tagging, but includes some basic view manipulation) over here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=78206.msg531771#msg531771
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rrrun

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2013, 08:56:23 am »

Here you go.
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glynor

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2013, 10:21:54 am »

Hmmm, now...

That's odd.  Those shouldn't be showing like that, unless something weird is turned on... Can you do this for me too?

Right click on Albums in the tree and pick Customize View.  Then, post a screenshot of the dialog box that appears.

EDIT:  Ahh, wait... It is the disc number.  Easily solved by configuring the view.  Post the screenie like I mentioned.  Also, if anything is enabled under the drop down next to the "Album tab" up at the top of the view (next to the refresh button), post a screenshot of that if you can (especially anything turned on under Group By).

Thanks.  We'll get it sorted.
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rrrun

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2013, 10:50:27 am »

Here's the 2nd batch of screen shots.

Thanks for your help!
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MrC

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2013, 12:53:34 pm »

Clear your Album Artists for all the tracks.  Only set Artist for each track to the track's artist.  Only set Album Artist to a single artist that you want shown for a compilation album.
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rrrun

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2013, 01:44:51 pm »

OK, but I'm a newby.  How do I do that?
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MrC

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2013, 01:48:06 pm »

Select all the tracks, edit Album Artist in the Tag Action Window.  Click in the Album Artist field to enter Edit mode.  And then hit Delete.

If Album Artist is not in the list, use the pull down menu at the top-left of the Tag window to Also Show the Album Artist field.
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rrrun

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #8 on: February 15, 2013, 01:51:00 pm »

The Album Artist field is blank.

The Album Artist (auto) field does have the artist name ... blank that, and the artist field ALSO blanks.  That doesn't help (that's the data I'm trying not to lose!).
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MrC

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #9 on: February 15, 2013, 01:51:36 pm »

No, it doesn't wipe out artist.

Hit Undo if you think it did.

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MrC

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #10 on: February 15, 2013, 01:53:24 pm »

You probably have Album Artist set, but not Artist.  After you've hit Undo, you can use the Move / Copy fields tool to move Album Artist to Artist.  Select all the files, right click any of them, and use Library Tools > Move / Copy Fields, and set the mode to Move (clears source).

There is a field called Album Artist (auto), which the views use, and it is a calculated value.  It takes Album Artist if it is set, ignoring Artist.  That's why you see artist values in your views, and so when you clear Album Artist (and have no Artist values), it appears that it wiped out Artist.  It seem your files just have the wrong tag set.
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rrrun

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #11 on: February 15, 2013, 01:56:13 pm »

Sorry, I may not have been clear.  Screen Shot is attached.

Artist is set.  Album Artist is blank.  Album Artist (auto) is filled in ... blanking that also blanks the Artist field.  That's where I am now.
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MrC

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #12 on: February 15, 2013, 02:06:58 pm »

Ok, good.

This may be a case (and I wrote this response earlier but did not post) where the Album analyzer is not working correctly.  Somebody else just saw this recently too:

   http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=77683.msg530284#msg530284

@Matt - I'm not sure why a couple of users are seeing split groupings of Albums.  In the link above, I verified that the data should have produced a single grouping in an Album category.  But the albums were split.  The OP in this here thread seems to be seeing the same thing.  Both users have tracks from multi-disc sets in a single directory.  When I tested this, I could not get a split grouping.  Is it possible that the recent album analyzer change may have had this unintended consequence?  The Album Type is showing as Single artist (complete), and this is incorrect.
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glynor

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #13 on: February 15, 2013, 02:17:12 pm »

@Matt - I'm not sure why a couple of users are seeing split groupings of Albums.  In the link above, I verified that the data should have produced a single grouping in an Album category.  But the albums were split.  The OP in this here thread seems to be seeing the same thing.  Both users have tracks from multi-disc sets in a single directory.  When I tested this, I could not get a split grouping.  Is it possible that the recent album analyzer change may have had this unintended consequence?  The Album Type is showing as Single artist (complete), and this is incorrect.

Yep.  Something's rotten in there.

Are we sure it isn't the [Disc #] somehow?  Maybe it only applies to albums with very high [Disc #] totals or something?  I just noticed in some of the screenshots posted here that the [Disc #] field seemed to be uniform for each "unintended grouping" shown in the Tiles.  That's what made me suspicious in the first place...
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MrC

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #14 on: February 15, 2013, 02:20:45 pm »

Let's verify this case to be sure.

@rrrun - please select all the files for that album set, and to File > Export Playlist and select Text File (CSV format) and also select Included Fields: All Fields and Output Range: Selection.  Save the CSV file, add a .txt suffix, and post it here if you could.
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rrrun

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #15 on: February 15, 2013, 02:36:04 pm »

I love dealing with smart people.  Hope I can keep up!

I believe the requested file is attached.
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rrrun

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #16 on: February 15, 2013, 02:46:36 pm »

On the disc # convention for this collection ... many artists are grouped on one CD.  There are actually two alphabetical groupings; some artists may be on as many as 4 discs, but 1 or 2 would be most common.
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glynor

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #17 on: February 15, 2013, 03:38:38 pm »

This has nothing to do with your issue, but, it is something I noticed in your Screenshots.

Your Sort Order for that view is all crazy and nonsensical...



The [Track #] part is first, which means that [Artist], [Album Artist], [Album] and the rest will never be used because all tracks have (or should have) a Track Number, so it'll "trip" on that field first.

You want the most specific items at the bottom of the sort order list, and the least-specific items at the "top".  That way, it'll "group" and sort all the Artists together, and then within them the Albums, and then within them the Discs and so on and so forth.

Also, you don't want both [Artist] and [Album Artist (auto)] in the list, as they disagree sometimes but one is a super-set of the other (that's put technically wrong, but whatever).

In any case, nothing to do with the issue (I don't think, unless the sorting of the tiles above is similarly weirdo), but something you should look at.
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MrC

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #18 on: February 15, 2013, 03:55:06 pm »

Which version of MC are you running?  The exported playlist is a Tab-separated list, and MC18 uses comma-separated values (CSV).
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MrC

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #19 on: February 15, 2013, 04:12:52 pm »

Ok, I can see at least one problem.  Let's see if fixing this helps.

The following tracks have no Artist value (perhaps because of the attempted fix above?).

G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Born Country.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Close Enough to Perfect.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Down Home.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Face to Face.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Fallin' Again.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Feels So Right.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Forever's as Far as I'll Go.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Forty Hour Week.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ High Cotton.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Hometown Honeymoon.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ I'm in a Hurry (And Don't Know...).ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ If I Had You.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Jukebox in My Mind.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Lady Down on Love.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Old Flame.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Once Upon a Lifetime.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Reckless.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ Take a Little Trip.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ There's No Way.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - John Anderson _ Let Go of the Stone.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - John Anderson _ Money in the Bank.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - John Anderson _ Seminole Wind.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - John Anderson _ Straight Tequila Night.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - John Anderson _ When It Comes to You.ape


G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - John Michael Montgomery _ I Love the Way You Love Me.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - John Michael Montgomery _ Life's a Dance.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Aaron Neville _ The Grand Tour.ape

G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Paul Overstreet _ All the Fun.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Paul Overstreet _ Ball and Chain.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Paul Overstreet _ Daddy's Come Around.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Paul Overstreet _ Love Helps Those.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Paul Overstreet _ Seein' My Father in Me.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Paul Overstreet _ Sowin' Love.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Lee Roy Parnell _ Love Without Mercy.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Lee Roy Parnell _ Tender Moment.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Lee Roy Parnell _ The Rock.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Lee Roy Parnell _ What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am.ape

G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ T.L.C. A.S.A.P..ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Alabama _ We Can't Love Like This Anymore.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - John Anderson _ I Wish I Could Have Been There.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - John Anderson _ I've Got It Made.ape

G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - John Michael Montgomery _ Be My Baby Tonight.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - John Michael Montgomery _ I Swear.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - John Michael Montgomery _ Rope the Moon.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\Various Artists - Lee Roy Parnell _ I'm Holding My Own.ape

And some tracks have "(Multiple Artists)" as the Artist value:

G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Sawyer Brown _ Cafe on the Corner.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Sawyer Brown _ Some Girls Do.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Sawyer Brown _ Step That Step.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Sawyer Brown _ Thank God for You.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Sawyer Brown _ The Dirt Road.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Sawyer Brown _ The Race Is On.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Sawyer Brown _ The Walk.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Dan Seals _ Bop.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Dan Seals _ Good Times.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Dan Seals _ Love on Arrival.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Dan Seals _ One Friend.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Ricky Van Shelton _ Backroads.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Ricky Van Shelton _ Crime of Passion.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Ricky Van Shelton _ I Am a Simple Man.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Ricky Van Shelton _ I Meant Every Word He Said.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Ricky Van Shelton _ I'll Leave This World Loving You.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Ricky Van Shelton _ I've Cried My Last Tear for You.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Ricky Van Shelton _ Keep It Between the Lines.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Ricky Van Shelton _ Life Turned Her That Way.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Ricky Van Shelton _ Life's Little Ups and Downs.ape
G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS\(Multiple Artists) - Ricky Van Shelton _ Wild Man.ape

There are two album titles: "Country Hits - HBS" and "Country Hits - HBS 2".  All tracks are in the same folder:

   G:\HM Music\Various\Country Hits - HBS

The Album "Country Hits - HBS 2" is entirely listed as an Incomplete album (Country Hits - HBS is listed as complete).  Its tracks are in the following folder:

The name of the tracks is a hodgepodge, but you can probably use File Properties from Filename to pull the Artist for many of the missing/incorrect artist cases.

I'd suggest first fixing the problems to see if that helps, and then re-export the playlist and take note of the problem tracks.  You might be able to just use the split categories you see to help guide you as to which files are problematic.  Pick one at a time, and look at the Artist and Album values for the listed tracks.
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rrrun

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #20 on: February 15, 2013, 05:23:43 pm »

When I renamed every track with the same album name, and with the tweaks shown below, that fixed it.  It now shows as one folder on the album view.  Thank goodness!

I did have some small clean-up to do, as observed, with the artists on a few tracks.  All of the Various, (Multiple Artists) and blank artists are now gone.

It seemed that some artists were still stuck as showing the old album name under the artist view.  Those had to be individually changed, but there were only 6 or 8 artists.

With that, and a global album rename, it's all fixed.

Thank you very much for the assistance!
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rrrun

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Re: Combining Tracks Into One File
« Reply #21 on: February 15, 2013, 05:38:44 pm »

I just played around with a similar album.  I think I can now replicate the problem.

If you change the name of the album for an individual track, but leave that track in the same folder as the other unchanged tracks, then they all blow up to individual icons by artist in the Album view.

When you have all tracks with the same album name and they are in the same folder, then you have no problem ... that is the original solution that was suggested to me on this thread.
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