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Author Topic: Delimited list tag fields (e.g., composer)  (Read 1914 times)

MP101User

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Delimited list tag fields (e.g., composer)
« on: May 06, 2007, 06:29:28 am »

Sorry to bring up a topic that's been talked about before, but I wanted to check the state of play with MC12.

My composer field is a bit of a mess due to having edited it with several different programs. I have a mix of slash and semicolon delimited values. e.g.  "Warren Zevon; Bruce Springsteen" in some fields and "Warren Zevon/Bruce Springsteen" in others.

I'm going to clean this up sometime soon (any hints on a decent piece of software to do this would be appreciated by the way).

I'm pretty sure that composer, like artist, is not treated as a delimited field by MC12. Are there any plans to change that? Most of my tracks have more than one composer.

I'm trying to avoid making a MC12 specific delimited field that duplicates the composer information, but am thinking I will have to go that way.

Mark (anal about tags...)
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marko

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Re: Delimited list tag fields (e.g., composer)
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2007, 09:49:44 am »

I'm going to clean this up sometime soon (any hints on a decent piece of software to do this would be appreciated by the way).
MC's very own 'find/replace' tool should be able to take care of this for you.

I'm pretty sure that composer, like artist, is not treated as a delimited field by MC12. Are there any plans to change that? Most of my tracks have more than one composer.
You are correct. The default [Composer] field is a standard field like [artist]. I am not aware of any plans to change it, it's not something that is talked about a lot. There's no harm in asking, I suppose...

I'm trying to avoid making a MC12 specific delimited field that duplicates the composer information, but am thinking I will have to go that way.
Probably. You'll find the 'move/copy fields' tool will help you with that.

-marko.

darichman

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Re: Delimited list tag fields (e.g., composer)
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2007, 07:45:45 pm »

I tried something a while back which involved creating a custom field called [Composers] (notice the "s" plural) and set it as a calculated field: =[Composer]

I was hoping I could have MC automatically populate the field from the default [Composer] field (which already contains semicolons to delimit entires) and be able to set it up as a list.

Unfortunately, you can't set up a field as both a calculated field AND a semicolon delimited list at the same time. Shame.

A humble request for JRiver. Please either:
1. Allow us to set fields as both calculated and lists at the same time (or at least let us view them as a list if we wish)
2. Allow us to change field properties for default fields.
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ThoBar

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Re: Delimited list tag fields (e.g., composer)
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2007, 08:09:38 pm »

Quote
2. Allow us to change field properties for default fields.
Big Huge Noisy Obnoxoius Irritating and otherwise attention seeking Second!
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darichman

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Re: Delimited list tag fields (e.g., composer)
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2007, 10:36:45 pm »

If anyone's interested, here is my somewhat cumbersome workaround for viewing artists as a semicolon delimited list. I decided it would be nice to have a master list of composers, artists, performers, bands, featured artists, conductors etc in one single field. It is actually possible...

1. Create a new field [Artists (Calc)]
    Set it up as a calculated field =[Artist];[Composer];[Conductor];[Performer];[Featuring];[Band]
2. Create a new field [Artists]
    Set it up as a semicolon delimited list
3. Do a move/copy fields from [Artists (Calc)] to [Artists]

We now have a field which has combined all artist fields into a semicolon delimited list field. This is also good in that it can dispay all songs associated with an artist, whether they were the primary artist, the composer or just featured in the song (through the [Featuring] custom field)

This system works fine, albeit with a few annoyances:
 * It is manual. You have to periodically do step 3 so that your list will reflect new artists or field changes.
 * For multiple artists, if you have your [Artist] field tagged with A & B and not as A;B, you have to do a Find & Replace " & " with ";" to get them to show as separate artists in the list. Same goes for A, B.

It would be great if some of this could be automated, or even better if we had more control over field settings :)
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MP101User

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Re: Delimited list tag fields (e.g., composer)
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2007, 12:53:24 am »

Some excellent workarounds. Thanks everybody for the quick responses.

I'd love to see the ability to set Composer as a delimited list (is it only Windows Media Player that handles this so well?), but will try some of these suggestions in the meantime.

Mark.
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hit_ny

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Re: Delimited list tag fields (e.g., composer)
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2007, 05:50:13 am »

It would be great if some of this could be automated, or even better if we had more control over field settings :)
I'd settle for the former, there are instances where i have to copy from calculated fields to custom one just for performance reasons or in parts of workflow.
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