Please explain how this script works

[d2b]

I've not found a comprehensive guide to scripting in dbpoweramp, so I would appreciate a description of how this script works. It's used for "Naming" the files when ripping from a CD.

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

It's the first (underlined) portion that I don't understand.

Thanks...

d2b

[Spoon]

Re: Please explain how this script works

If there is an album artist, it is used, otherwise, if a compilation 'Various Artists', otherwise Artist is used.

[d2b]

Re: Please explain how this script works

That's how I interpreted it, but even though Compilation is has to be set (one track artist happens to slightly different than the others), the files are named with Artist, not Various Artists. In all cases, this is what we want anyway.

Since it's necessary to set the Compilation bit when even one artist entry is different, we would rather only use Various Artists as the Album Artist ONLY when we see the album as being a 'true' compilation. That is, when a variety of artists contribute to a theme-based album, like a CD featuring the music of the Beatles but performed by a dozen different bands. We add that manually before ripping.

I asked question because I didn't think it was working as you described it. In our case that's OK since we don't ever want individual files named with Various Artists. We only want the Album Artist to be Various Artists when we manually enter that in the AA field.

d2b

[Porcus]

Re: Please explain how this script works

That's how I interpreted it, but even though Compilation is has to be set (one track artist happens to slightly different than the others)

Compilation isn't set by comparing artist names, but by checking the Compilation box under the Disc box.

Myself I found that the metadata providers are unreliable on this point, so I just dropped the IFCOMP part totally; I left compilations aside in a separate pile, and made a different naming scheme for them. (The naming schemes were just copy+pasted into a naming.txt file I created.)

[garym]

Re: Please explain how this script works

Compilation isn't set by comparing artist names, but by checking the Compilation box under the Disc box.

Myself I found that the metadata providers are unreliable on this point, so I just dropped the IFCOMP part totally; I left compilations aside in a separate pile, and made a different naming scheme for them. (The naming schemes were just copy+pasted into a naming.txt file I created.)

I use the IFCOMP in my dynamic naming, but I agree that metadata can often be wrong. But I can check (or uncheck) the COMPILATIONS box on the ripping screen prior to ripping, so I'm in complete control of what ends up being treated as a compilation.

Note: Unrelated to dbpa, some players will *automatically* treat certain discs as compilations, even if the Comp flag does not exist. For example, in Squeezebox, which I use, the database software will treat an album as a compilation if even one track has a different artist than the other tracks on the CD. So for example, I might have the "7 Walkers" CD and one track, I have two ARTIST tags (7 walkers and Willie Nelson). All other tracks only have one artist, 7 walkers. So Squeezebox will treat this album as a compilation even though there is no comp flag. The way to avoid this in the squeezebox scenario is to also make sure there is an Album Artist. So if I add "7 Walkers" as the Album Artist, and do NOT have a comp flag, then all is treated as I want (not as a comp). In my work flow, I ONLY use ALBUM ARTIST if (1) I have the above situation with at least one track with different artists, (2) I want to see listing in one place of artist that uses various names (e.g., Sir Douglas Quintet, Doug Sahm, Doug Sahm & Band, The Masked Men), or (3) tribute CDs (e.g., For a compilation CD that is a tribute to Roky Erickson with various artists, I'll make the ALBUM ARTIST "Roky Erickson" so it shows up under his album listings in my database).

[d2b]

Re: Please explain how this script works

Compilation isn't set by comparing artist names, but by checking the Compilation box under the Disc box.

I know that, but if you don't check the compilation box, dbpa ripper won't let you use different artist names for each track, regardless of the number of tracks that have different artists. I haven't tried unchecking the box after entering the different names.

The bigger (philosophical) question is "What is the criteria for calling an album a compilation?" I've adopted the criteria that if an album have at least one different artist on a track, it's a compilation. How many tracks have to have different artists, and how different must they be, to "qualify" as a compilation anyway? I'm rather hard-pressed to understand what difference the presence of the tag makes anyway.

The original question has to do with the file naming criteria. I've set the compilation tag before ripping but never get Various Artists as the Album Artist name unintentionally. Is that because we always manually enter the Album Artist name before ripping?

This discussion is admittedly getting off-topic, but we always use ALBUMARTIST as the album artist, ARTIST as the principal or lead artist(s) on a track and (when it's reasonable to do so) PERFORMER for each artist on the album or better yet, each track. Whenever possible, we try to avoid using Various Artists whenever possible to create the ALBUMARTIST tag, since we file our library first by ALBUMARTIST and then by ALBUM. Otherwise, we'd find too many albums buried in the Various Artists folder.

FWIW, our chosen format is FLAC.

d2b

[garym]

Re: Please explain how this script works

Good point. I just check it as compilation, rip with different artist tracks, then later edit the album files with either dbpa or mp3tag and delete the COMPILATION flag.

What a compilation is turns out to be both a personal opinion (and personal work flow on tagging) and a function of the players one uses. For me, I use Squeezebox (Logitech Media Server). It does certain guessing, and ABSENT a COMPILATION tag, it will treat any album that has a different track artist on at least one track as a compilation (even if it is simply multiple artists on one track (e.g., on one track of "7 Walkers" Willie Nelson is a guest, so that track has two artist fields). The way to keep SB from doing this is to use ALBUM ARTIST (so if I make this album have an ALBUM ARTIST of "7 Walkers' it will NOT show up as a compilation. Some users of that product argue that a better method is to not use compilation flag for anything. Instead, they prefer to use ALBUM ARTIST for all CDs, with the ALBUM ARTIST for any true compilation CD being something like "Various Artists". This works too. Anyhow, I won't go into all this, but you can see lots of threads and discussion on the theory of COMPILATION tags at least in the contact of Squeezebox use if you search on COMPILATION at: forums.slimdevices.com

I think if one is using itunes, the compilation flag becomes important as well.

Edit: it appears that with your work flow (adding an ALBUM ARTIST to all CDs), you would never need to use the Compilation flag. You would recognize true compilations by whatever you use in the ALBUM ARTIST field for that CD. In my own case, I only use ALBUM ARTIST for CDs where (1) there are multiple track artists (but the CD is not what I consider a compilation), (2) the artist has different names but I want them all to show up in the same place (Doug Sahm, Sir Douglas Quintet, Doug Sahm & Band, The Masked Men), or (3) tribute CDs (so I give a Bob Dylan tribute CD the ARTIST ALBUM "Bob Dylan" so the tribute CD shows up under Bob Dylan albums. For true Compilations, I leave the ALBUM ARTIST blank (because in Logitech Media Server, these will show up under "Compilations" automatically given that I have the COMPILATIONS flag set to "1". And all this works for me in Foobar2000 as well, which I also use.

[d2b]

Re: Please explain how this script works

We ALWAYS use the Album Artist tag, as we file our library according to this directory tree: ALBUMARTIST / ALBUM / . Each ALBUM folder contains fully-tagged* track files and (when available) a pdf booklet of the liner notes.

We use the ARTIST tag to represent the lead artists on each track, as you do, and we use PERFORMER to list all of the musicians and their role on the CD, preferably on a track-by-track basis if practical. Examples:

In general, applying to the whole CD:

PERFORMER=Joe Craven (Mandolin, fiddle, lead vocal on tracks 3, 5, 6 & 9, harmony vocals on tracks 2 & 4)

or on a track by track basis, assuming track 6:

PERFORMER=Joe Craven (Fiddle, lead vocals)

This particular tag makes for a rather tedious workflow and really should be done (in an ideal world) by the artists or record labels when and if they ever get smart enough to sell lossless albums in the FLAC file format. Someone needs to tag download-only tracks; the only logical place for doing that is at the source if it's to be correctly and completely tagged. It makes no sense to make 10,000+ customers struggle with incompletely or inaccurately tagged files.

We've thought about filing 'true' compilations honoring a specific artist in his or her ALBUMARTIST folder rather than in the Various Artists folder, but we haven't done that yet. There are some compilations, of course, for which that can't be done...for example, a compilation of Civil War songs by various artists.

As it turns out, we really don't need the COMPILATION flag either.

d2b

[garym]

Re: Please explain how this script works

This particular tag makes for a rather tedious workflow and really should be done (in an ideal world) by the artists or record labels when and if they ever get smart enough to sell lossless albums in the FLAC file format. Someone needs to tag download-only tracks; the only logical place for doing that is at the source if it's to be correctly and completely tagged. It makes no sense to make 10,000+ customers struggle with incompletely or inaccurately tagged files.

I couldn't agree more.

We've thought about filing 'true' compilations honoring a specific artist in his or her ALBUMARTIST folder rather than in the Various Artists folder, but we haven't done that yet. There are some compilations, of course, for which that can't be done...for example, a compilation of Civil War songs by various artists.

All my "true" compilation CDs (like your Civil War CD) I file under:

music\compilations\albumname\tracknum - trackname - trackartist

as compared with my noncompilations:

music\albumartist\albumname\tracknum - trackname

[Porcus]

Re: Please explain how this script works

The bigger (philosophical) question is "What is the criteria for calling an album a compilation?" I've adopted the criteria that if an album have at least one different artist on a track, it's a compilation. How many tracks have to have different artists, and how different must they be, to "qualify" as a compilation anyway? I'm rather hard-pressed to understand what difference the presence of the tag makes anyway.

If it looks sufficiently much like a split release, then I do not put it in my compilations folder. Soft criteria: does the cover look like a split? If it says News From <Labelname>, then definitely not. Is it marketed as a split? Do the fans refer to it as a split? Is each band's contribution but one or two tracks off an ordinary release of theirs, or are they recorded for this release? If it includes entire ordinary releases, then I consider it a split. Typical example: http://www.discogs.com/Emperor-2-Ens...d/master/13178 -- two EPs, independently available, on one CD. You could of course argue that it compiles these, and by that word, is a compilation, but no: best-of's are compilations in that sense of the word too, and what I want to single out, is 'various artists', 'various' being so many that I don't put everyone of them in before the year in an ARTIST_[YEAR]_ALBUM\TRACK_TITLE format.

[d2b]

Re: Please explain how this script works

If it looks sufficiently much like a split release, then I do not put it in my compilations folder. Soft criteria: does the cover look like a split?

I have to admit ignorance about the definition of a split or a split release. In my 16+ years as a volunteer broadcaster at our community radio station, I have never heard the term used anywhere. Enlighten me, please.

d2b