Your Naming Scheme

[whs & sqzbox]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

Thank goodness for this forum! I am setting up my husband's digital music library, and have recently purchased this program as well as the gold version of MediaMonkey. I will be using dBpoweramp to rip CDs and MediaMonkey to organize them along with the 700 CDs that have already been ripped over the years. We will be using the Squeezebox duet to stream all this music through our stereo reciever.

So, working within that system, I'm trying to come up with an appropriate naming scheme before I rip about 300 CDs.

I have a question about the naming options in dBpoweramp. At the bottom left of the screen, you can click on "Set" next to the "Naming" menu. The default naming convention is there. I've read all sorts of tutorials and posts in the dBpoweramp forum about naming schemes. I only know enough now to begin to ask some questions.

I have two questions about naming in dBpoweramp:

1. Is it true that the naming scheme is separate from tagging? For example, if genre is not in the naming scheme, it can still be in the tags and therefore usable by the squeezebox duet?

2. I want regular CDs by a single artist to be named

Artist (folder) > Album (folder) > track number artist - song title

That way the file name would just be 01 Billy Idol - Rebel Yell.flac. If there are multiple disks, I would want them to just get put into a single folder. I don't want disk number in the naming scheme.

Or, is there some reason to have more than that information in the file name (in the context of using Squeezebox)?

3. I want compilation CDs (by various artists) to be named

Various Artists (folder) > Album (folder) > track number artist - song title

I would want to make sure that for compilation CDs the tracks have the correct individual artist associated with them.

I think what I'll have to do then is to set one profile for single-artist CDs and a second profile for various artist CDs. Is that right?

I would really appreciate any guidance and any naming code that I can use. Thank you very much!

[Spoon]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

Naming and tagging are closely related. To remove the disc number, uncheck the option in CD Ripper >> Options >> ID Tag & Metadata to add the disc number to album name.

Try this naming (which is close to R13.1 default):

[IFCOMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],Various Artists[]\[album]\[track] [artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[track] [artist][] - [title]

[whs & sqzbox]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

Thanks so much for your quick and helpful reply! I have used that naming coding to rip a compilation and a single-artist CD and it looks perfect. One quick follow-up question:

To NOT add disc number, I went to Options > Meta Data & ID Tag Options > PerfectMeta Options > Multi-CD Add Disc to Album and then selected "never". Is that right?

I appreciate the help!

[Spoon]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

Correct

[dvdr]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

Here's what I am currently experimenting with:

[IFEQUALS]genre,Classical,[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album][IFVALUE]album artist,\[album artist]\,[]\[IFMULTI]Disc [disc] - [][track] - [title] ([composer] - [artist])[][IF!COMP][composer]\[album] ([year])\[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[IFMULTI] Disc [disc] - [][track] - [title] ([album] ([composer]) - [artist])[][][IF!EQUALS]genre,Classical,[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album][IFVALUE]album artist,\[album artist]\,[]\[IFMULTI] Disc [disc] - [][track] - [artist] - [title][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[IFMULTI] Disc [disc] - [][track] - [title]([artist] - [album])[][]

It's not completely finished, yet, since I want to add some rules for Jazz / Jazz compilations and some other stuff like making it possible to file classical works with an extra added tag/folder of composer/composition + a subfolder for the artist playing that work, so you can distinguish between different interpretations. Furthermore, I need to limit the path-lengths to make sure, everything is within Windows' specs (have experimented with setlen, but no luck, yet)

But basically, this it what the scheme does:
If it's a classical album, then it's filed in a composers folder + an album (year) subfolder. If it's an album, where more than one soloist is appearing, then each soloist gets his own subfolder (track-artist so to say), if there's a single album artist, then it's stored in a album artist's subfolder.
Classical Compilations get filed in a compilations folder, subfolder is either just the album's title, or below that an addition folder with an album artist, if applicable (to add that information, if some pianist for example plays piano-works by different composers)
Other genres get filed in an artist's or even, if applicable, an additional album artist's subfolder. Compilation rules apply...

As I said, I am just playing around with this, it's not finished yet, and my way of thinking and filing might not suit yours. But I thought it worthwhile to share that scheme...

An additional remark for "whs & sqzbox" - these naming schemes are great to get file organized in a way, so you can find what you're looking for even just by browsing folders on a computer. You could even leave that part out and just dump all files in one folder, but then you only can find the files with an application, that reads the tags. Best example are IPODs, where files have names with just 4 letters and nothing else...
If you are working with classical music and jazz - beware! Tag each individual track carefully with as much information as you have, including composer, ensemble, conductor, album artist, track artist, original artist (xyz sings songs from Abba etc.), lyricist, Original Lyricist, label.... You'd even might have to create tags, when they are not offered. Later on, you'll be happy to have them... (and: I know, some of those tags are only "half-official", but I use them nevertheless - as long as my applications can work with them...). I haven't done that, when I started out ripping with EAC years ago, and now I have to completely re-tag 300+ classical albums. I hate the thought of what work lies ahead...

[Porcus]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

It's not completely finished, yet, since I want to add some rules for Jazz / Jazz compilations and some other stuff like making it possible to file classical works with an extra added tag/folder of composer/composition + a subfolder for the artist playing that work, so you can distinguish between different interpretations.

The reason I avoid all these IFs, is that I cannot rely on external metadata on those details. Instead, I have, say
- one naming scheme for the usual album (one artist's ordinary release ...)
- one for various artists -- because the provided metadata are unreliable on "Compilation" or not
- one for classical music

I store each in its own profile.

If you are working with classical music and jazz - beware! Tag each individual track carefully with as much information as you have, including composer, ensemble, conductor, album artist, track artist, original artist (xyz sings songs from Abba etc.), lyricist, Original Lyricist, label.... You'd even might have to create tags, when they are not offered. Later on, you'll be happy to have them... (and: I know, some of those tags are only "half-official", but I use them nevertheless - as long as my applications can work with them...).

That's where you wish that dBpoweramp Batch Ripper could store all the metadata from all the providers in, say, a Vorbis comment.

[Spoon]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

R13.1 has [maxlength] to limit lengths.

BTW R14 might be using:

[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][artist][][]\[album]\[track] [artist] - [title]

[sjmac]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

R13.1 has [maxlength] to limit lengths.

BTW R14 might be using:

[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][artist][][]\[album]\[track] [artist] - [title]

Does a compilation *have* to be a multi-artist disk? I've been ticking the Compilation box to allow me to set the year of each track on greatest hits disks.

Is that wrong? (It seems to confuse Windows Media Player in to splitting [multi-year] albums in [some of] the Library views so that it looks as if there was a different "hits" album for each track year.)

[Spoon]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

Check compilation, change the years then uncheck compilation.

[CoolHandZeke]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

I was having problems with filenames that were to long, so I have changed by scheme a bit

[IFCOMP]Various Artists\[album][IFMULTI] (Disc [disc])[]\[track] - [title][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] (Disc [disc])[]\[track] - [title][]

Nothing fancy.

Eli, I like this naming scheme. Would you mind helping me figure out how I can use this, but altered a little bit?

For single CD's (no compilation) = [album] folder ... like you have it
For compilation CD's = [Various Artists] folder ... like you have it
For SOUNDTRACKS = "Soundtracks" folder\album name
For SCORES = "Scores" folder\album name

How do I do this?

Thank you very much for your help.

Zeke

[LtData]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

Try this:

[IFEQUALS]genre,Scores,Scores[][IF!EQUALS]genre,Scores,[IFEQUALS]genre,Soundtracks,Soundtracks[][][IF!EQUALS]genre,Scores,[IF!EQUALS]genre,Soundtracks,[IFCOMP]Various Artists\[album][IFMULTI] (Disc [disc])[]\[track] - [title][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] (Disc [disc])[][][]\[track] - [title]

[CoolHandZeke]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

Thanks, LtData. Again, I appreciate the help. That seems to work. How the heck did you come up with that?

[LtData]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

Used some tips from dvr above in regards to the Genre part, the rest was just figuring out simple nested if statements. An idea for a future versions would be something like [IFEQUALS]statement,do if true,do if false[]

[Porcus]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

For single CD's (no compilation) = [album] folder ... like you have it
For compilation CD's = [Various Artists] folder ... like you have it
For SOUNDTRACKS = "Soundtracks" folder\album name
For SCORES = "Scores" folder\album name

How do I do this?

At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious: The solution relies upon the the genres provided by AMG/GD/MusicBrainz/Freedb to be correct, which is quite often not the case. Then you would have to correct those in order to get your naming as you want.

[CoolHandZeke]

Re: Your Naming Scheme

Porcus, very true. I figured that I would simply make any necessary changes with dBpoweramp before starting the rip. If I simply change let's say "Soundtrack" to "Score" for all the tracks listed, wouldn't that work?

Further questions:

Aren't A LOT of these hard-to-write naming schemes already available? Made by Spoon and available under <Options> <Meta Data & ID Tag>? PerfectMeta Options already lists the "The [artist] option: i.e., replacing "The Beatles" with "Beatles, The." If I select this option, doesn't that take care of not having to have that naming scheme?

Zeke