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[Jeronimo]

Hello everybody.

Like the thread topic states I'm trying to make a custom tag (list,semi-colon delimited). What I basically want 2 do is cleanse my library of duplicates, that have the same artist and name but just different albums.

This is how the tag is supposed 2 be made up [Album 1],[track# 1] ;[Album 2],[track# 2] ;...;[Album x],[track# x].So basically it has all the albums from all duplicate tracks in the library. Kinda like the "Album Artist(automatic)" tag just this time it's albums and tracks, which are compared AND stored (into the new tag) throughout the library.

My problem is I don't know how 2 access the whole library with an expression.

Help is greatly appreciated

Jero

[Jeronimo]

Bump.
Edited the description of the problem.
If the description is still unintelligible please tell me !

[marko]

It's still a tad difficult (for me, at least) to follow exactly what you're after...
It reads like you want the information from all the albums containing dupes to be in this one tag, and that won't be easy as tags are track specific. You could easily get the [album 1],[track #1] into the the field for track #1, but not so easy to get the info from [album 2] into the tag for [album 1]. You would need to populate the field individually for every field, then use the ListCombine() function to create your all-encompassing field.


This bit...

What I basically want 2 do is cleanse my library of duplicates, that have the same artist and name but just different albums.

is easy enough to understand though...

Have you considered a simple search? The following search string will give you all tracks with duplicate artist and track names together, regardless of album, sorted by artist first, then name...
[media type]=audio ~dup=[artist],[name] ~sort=[artist],[name]

You can use that string directly in the search field in the top right, as a smartlist rule (press F9) or as a view scheme filter rule depending on how you would like to work with the results. Would that do, or does it still leave you short? and if so, how so?

-marko.

[Jeronimo]

Thanx 4 the answer marko.

It reads like you want the information from all the albums containing dupes to be in this one tag

Your interpretation of my problem's right

, and that won't be easy as tags are track specific.

The wiki states that "Album Artist(Auto)" does in fact look though the whole library, so I was hoping there's a way to do the same. Just with other criteria.

You would need to populate the field individually for every field, then use the ListCombine() function to create your all-encompassing field.

How can I populate the fields ? I haven't discovered / don't know any method to grab tag info from other tracks

Have you considered a simple search? The following search string will give you all tracks with duplicate artist and track names together, regardless of album, sorted by artist first, then name...
[media type]=audio ~dup=[artist],[name] ~sort=[artist],[name]

I have used the smarlist "Duplicated", which does the same thing. The problem would be there'd be "holes" all over in my library e.g

Name	Artist	Album	Track #
Before My Eyes	Agnostic Front	Something's Gotta Give	4
Before My Eyes	Agnostic Front	Working Class Heroes	10

and I delete "Before my Eyes" in the "Something's Gotta Give" Album, which leaves a "hole" in my library because a track of that album's missing.
That's why I'm trying to collect the information beforehand, save it into a tag and delete the duplicate track without "holes" in my library.

Jero

[AoXoMoXoA]

Hi Jero,

I have considered the same (removing dupe tracks that appear on multiple albums), however there are some factors to consider.

Ever use the MC search for 'Incomplete Albums'? I do this often and realized that all the albums where I would have removed 'dupes' would now show up as an 'incomplete album'. This would make it difficult to locate real incomplete albums. Perhaps that does not bother you, but being a bit OCD it certainly would drive me nutz (or maybe more nutz) 

Next, I was puzzled as to how I would manage to play or burn the complete album once I had removed it's redundant track(s) without needing to hunt down the required track from the other album where it still resides.

Lastly, what do you do in cases where there are different versions of the song over several albums? Perhaps one album has a live version, another an extended version, etc. Maybe you even have the same song in different formats, one in mp3 and one in flac.

With so many variables encountered in building and managing a growing library I have found it best to be consistant, and to hopefully decide these things in a manner where I am not later forced to revise it once my library grows and the job becomes huge. Your deleting of those 'dupes' could be rather difficult to reverse later.
Personally, I'd leave those 'psuedo-duplicates' in place. Since drive space is not very expensive it seems like the least likely to cause difficulties later on.

[Jeronimo]

Hello AoXoMoXoA,

I haven't used the "Incomplete Albums" search yet, but the new tag (let's call it "Featured Albums") I'm trying to create could be used in another revised "Complete Album" tag, which considers "Featured Albums". I think the problem could be solved that way.

To play a complete album won't be a problem as the information resides in "Featured Albums" and can easily be searched.

Getting to your last points, I do not consider live, remixed or extended versions as duplicates because they are considerably different from the originals. The file format is of minor interest to me as I mostly use MP3 because my ermm...MP3 sticks ? (I'm not sure you can still call em that with how versatile they've become) only recognizes WMA and MP3. I kinda neglect WMA so MP3's my choice. If you aren't bound to your MP3 stick then I suggest you choose the file format by a certain criteria e.g size, quality, ratio quality/size, etc.

Although my net storage isn't small (1TB) my MP3 is (2GB) and duplicates are annoying. Adding to that I'd just like to keep a clean library, meaning correctly tagged, minimum size, acceptable size considering the number of songs, lyrics, .... Saving track information twice could gradually fill the music partition and I don't wanna get into the situation, which forces me to delete dupes and "mess up" my library.