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Author Topic: Box Sets  (Read 1731 times)

Blue Boy

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Box Sets
« on: July 31, 2010, 07:41:53 pm »

While ripping and adding my Cd's to MC I have no problem with single CD's and 2 CD sets I just changes the track on disc 2 to continue from the last tracknumber on disc one.
Still I haven't adding my boxsets I have some that hold 9 CD's, so re-number the tracks to 270 seems a little to much. How do you add double, tripple and boxsets, and how do you add the covers when each CD have different covers?

Blue Boy
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Vincent Kars

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Re: Box Sets
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2010, 04:18:19 am »

In case of MC there is a very simple solution.
Leave the track numbers as they are and supply the disc number.

However, if you use this on a portable you might end up with the infamous 1,1,1,1,1,1, as not all palyers support the disc number.
A calculated value is an convenient solution
Track=disc number * 100 + track
You get
101
102

201
202
Etc

If ever a track is missing it is easy to find it back on the source
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Alex B

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Re: Box Sets
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2010, 05:13:28 am »

As Vincent said, using the disc numbers is a good and fully functional solution for albums that consist of more than one disc.

Quote
How do you add double, tripple and boxsets, and how do you add the covers when each CD have different covers?

When you have a box set that consists of more than one album with individual cover art you will need to tag the albums with individual album names if you want to show them separately in views that are grouped by album.

For example, the album tags for "The Beatles Stereo Box Set" (which contains 14 remastered original albums) could be:

The Beatles Stereo Box Set - Please Please Me
The Beatles Stereo Box Set - With The Beatles
The Beatles Stereo Box Set - A Hard Day's Night
etc

or perhaps

Please Please Me (Stereo Box Set version)
With The Beatles (Stereo Box Set version)
A Hard Day's Night (Stereo Box Set version)
etc

or just  (if you don't have any other versions)

Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
etc
+ "From The Beatles Stereo Box Set" in the Comment field.

EDIT

I forgot to mention that "The Beatles Stereo Box Set" contains also two 2-disc albums (The Beatles and Past Masters). It is easy to group these two albums correctly with disc numbers.

There is no need to add the disc number "1" to the 12 other albums in the box set (or to any single-disc album in general). The built-in logic works fine when only the multi-disc albums have disc numbers.
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Magic_Randy

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Re: Box Sets
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2010, 08:36:42 am »

I do 2 things for the box sets.

Where it contains individual albums, I use the album name plus identify the box set. This is the same approach suggested by Alex.
   Please Please Me (Stereo Box Set version)
   With The Beatles (Stereo Box Set version)
   A Hard Day's Night (Stereo Box Set version)
   etc

I also use disc number for multi-disc albums. This is the same approach suggested by Vincent and Alex.
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221bBS

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Re: Box Sets
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2010, 09:23:31 am »

I organize my box sets a bit different. I like to keep boxed/multi-disc sets in one folder and use the Front of the Box as my cover art for all the discs. I use disc # field like the others. But unlike the others I use an expression field to organize the album within MC.

Album Name [disc #: Disc Name]

I also use an expression to group the disc # & track # field together for easy reading.

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Frobozz

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Re: Box Sets
« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2010, 09:21:38 pm »

The Disc # field in Media Center allows for some great flexibility in organizing box sets and CDs that span multiple discs.  You can use expressions and groups and custom sorting to get everything organized.  It's fantastic and powerful.  The problem is when you want to use the music collection outside of Media Center or sync music to a portable.  Portable devices and other software don't treat the Disc # field the same way.  So you end up with the tracks from multiple disc sets all run together having tracks go 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4 and it's a mess.

I experimented with using the Disc # field and custom expressions to organize multi disc sets.  I'd name the album normally, like "The Wall" and set the Disc # field appropriately.  Then I synced the album to my iPod and it became a mess.  So I gave up and now name each disc uniquely.  So for example with Pink Floyd I have it named "The Wall (Disc 1)" and "The Wall (Disc 2)".

In the end you have to do what works.  All of the various naming methods you could use have drawbacks and compromises.  It all depends on where you are willing to compromise.

I use a naming scheme that uses square brackets after the album name to differentiate different masterings or versions of an album.  For multi-disc sets I use a disc number in parenthesis.  For box sets I'd have to decide if I'd rather have the albums grouped as the box set or grouped as the individual albums, then name the discs appropriately.

For example:
The Wall [Capitol] [Remastered] (Disc 1)
The Wall [Capitol] [Remastered] (Disc 2)
The Wall [Columbia C2K] (Disc 1)
The Wall [Columbia C2K] (Disc 2)
The Wall [MFSL] (Disc 1)
The Wall [MFSL] (Disc 2)

I still enter the Disc # field, but don't use it in the naming.  The important bit is to be consistent in your naming system.

There are some multi-disc albums that I have manually renumbered the tracks on the second CD to make it a one disc album.  For example a long classical symphony that requires two CDs.  It's inconvenient to have such a symphony span two discs so I renumber the tracks.
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