Hi Don, and welcome back!
Composer Gustav Mahler
Composer Sort Mahler, Gustav
If you want Gustav Mahler displayed under G, you would not need to use the corresponding sort tag,
If you want Gustav Mahler displayed under M, add the Composer Sort tag, and enter Mahler, Gustav.
For a naming string, garym's explanation of his, is very helpful:-
[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album] [IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track] - [title] - [artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track] - [title][]
This produces the following automatically without intervention from me:
For non-compilation (various artists)
x:\music\ARTIST (or Album Artist if it exists)\ALBUM\track number - track title.flac
example,
x:\music\The Beatles\Abbey Road\01 - Come Together.flac
If there are multi disks in the CD, it produces this:
x:\music\Artist (or Album Artist if it exists)\album\disk 1\track no. - track title
example,
x:\music\The Beatles\The Beatles\Disk 1\01 - Back in the U.S.S.R.flac
...
x:\music\The Beatles\The Beatles\Disk 2\01 - Birthday.flac
...
For Compilations (Various Artists):
x:\music\Compilations\album name\track no - track title - track artist name.flac
and if multi disk, I consider that similar to above
example,
x:\music\Compilations\This One's For Him - A Tribute to Guy Clark\01 - That Old Time Feeling - Rodney Crowell.flac
Notes:
1. I use "Compilations" rather than "various artists" as it seems more intuitive to me. But it doesn't matter.
2. I keep multi disk CDs separated by subfolders for each disk because this allows proper treatment by PerfectTunes if I want to check these later with AccurateRip (e.g., after I've copied the folders to a different harddrive for backup)
3. I don't use YEAR in my names, but I do have YEAR, COMPOSER, etc. in my TAGS themselves and my players/databases do display this info.
4. Related to 3 above, remember that the file naming is almost irrelevant (except for some logic when looking at the file structure in windows explorer, etc.). My players could care less about file name or folder location. They are all using the TAG information.
5. I do not embed the album art in my tracks. Rather I have it produce a single album cover artwork file named "cover.jpg" for each album folder.
You are correct, the folder tree does come from the naming string, but as garym explained in his previous post, you really don't want a second Artist and Composer directories, so simply don't use the last folders, in your revised naming suggestions.
If you did this, in garym's Beatles example, you would get a folder tree, thus:-
Rock
The Beatles
The Beatles
Disc 1 Disc 2
The string below will automatically achieve this, putting Disc 1 and Disc 2, in their own folder. Most, players / apps, will play this double CD as a continuous album.
It is your choice if you want Genre, as your first folder in the tree. As you can see, garym does not use it, but entered Rock, in the Genre tag box. Do you need a separate Genre folder?
If you decide you do want all albums to come under a Genre folder, the naming string below, should achieve this. A maximum file length has been added, to save potential problems.
[MAXLENGTH]240,[IFCOMP][genre]\Compilations\[album] [IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track] - [title] - [artist][][IF!COMP][genre]\[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album][IFMULTI] \Disc [disc][]\[track] - [title][][]
Why not give a CD a go with both of these suggested strings, and see how you like the results on your player? This will cover all CD variations, though you may want to use Composer, instead of Artist, for Classical.
To work, the album name must be identical for all discs, i.e. The Beatles, The Beatles, and Disc must be populated 1/2, 2/2.
In garym's note 5, he also mentioned that he doesn't embed art in each track, but uses a cover.jpg. This attachment shows using Folder.jpg, which I use, and also the Album Art, pixel and file size restrictions, I've set. This prevents the occasional massive file size, and helps maintain compatibility with some players: I believe that Bluesound rejects file sizes bigger than 600kb, so the 1000x1000, 300x300 settings should be OK.
Note, if you want Folder.jpg, or Cover.jpg, and I believe Bluesound works with both, you need to uncheck both Disable Tag Writing AND Album Art, as per screenshot below, and set the appropriate, Write to [output folder]\
Hope this helps,
Oggy
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