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[romiwar]

I searched for a clear solution to this and could not find one although the question has been asked many times.
I have two copies of essentially the same track (I'm ignoring minuscule differences).  One from a normal album (Eagles, One of These Nights) and a compilation (Eagles, Their Greatest Hits).  Ignoring the minute variations in levels, etc., assume all tags are the same except for Album.

I do not have all the relevant tracks for the compilation outside the actual CD (IOW, I do not have dupes for all the tracks on the compilation CD I ripped).  Is there a way to remove the duplicates but reference the remaining files?  The only way I can see now is to:
1) Keep the tracks in the OG album (One of These Nights)
2) Delete Dupes from the Compilation album (Their Greatest Hits)
3) Create a playlist for the Compilation pointing to files in directories for both the OG and Compilation Album

While this would solve my problem, I have almost 1000 dupes and this process seems painful.  Does anyone have a better OR automated solution?

Thanks

[JimH]

Take a look at Stacks on the wiki.

[blgentry]

Disk space is cheap.  Don't try to save space this way.

You're describing removing non-duplicates.  In most cases tracks that are on Compilations are not the same as the track on the original album.  Same song, same lyrics.  Perhaps a slightly different length.  Many times the mastering is different.  See the attached screen shot for an example from One Of These Nights vs. The Eagles Greatest Hits Vol 2.  See how they have vastly different dynamic range?  That means they are mastered quite differently.  Also note the difference in duration.

So which one is the "real" track?  Neither.  They are different tracks.  Different versions of the same song.

Brian.