Custom Naming

[Supernaut]

Re: Custom Naming

It was because of The Graduate soundtrack which has several Dave Grusin tracks alongside the S&G ones that I decided to use the OST for Album Artist (obviously without the "1").

Do you have OST as the album artist for all soundtracks? That actually makes a lot of sense, especially if the soundtrack is a compilation.

Actually, Oggy, you've reminded me of something else that I was going to ask regarding naming. I have a number of albums in more than one pressing (remasters, reissues, etc.). I think I remember you mentioning in another thread that you save albums with their original release date so that they can be displayed chronologically, and wondered how you deal with such re-released material.

In addition, I have a lot of Japanese releases which often contain one or two extra tracks at the end, and the album title retrieved from online databases usually contains a [Bonus Tracks] or [Japan] designation in the title, which I don't particularly like and almost always delete before ripping. I also have quite a few gold discs released by labels such as DCC and Mobile Fidelity, which have the same track listings as the original releases but might be worth labelling differently. Something like "Dark Side Of The Moon [Mo-Fi]", or "Waiting For The Sun [Gold]". I could probably just put this information in the metadata, but that wouldn't be obvious when browsing my music library.

Anyway, I just thought I'd ask seeing as I don't have any more technical questions. At least not at the moment.

[Oggy]

Re: Custom Naming

Just as I thought, my assumption was wrong and the answer was simple! As always, thank you for taking the time to explain. That little number 1 in the Compilations field really is far more important than it looks!

Yes, that little number 1 (and not forgetting to clear it when required...) is very important!

It was because of The Graduate soundtrack which has several Dave Grusin tracks alongside the S&G ones that I decided to use the OST for Album Artist (obviously without the "1").

[Oggy]

Re: Custom Naming

p.s. There is never one last question. I still have questions, just not as often.

By asking that "one last question" on the forum, the answer may help many others than the question asker too.

[Supernaut]

Re: Custom Naming

The [IFCOMP] part of the naming string is activated if the COMPILATION tag has a value of "1". So in this case everything will go into "Music/Lossless/Compilations/Album". This is true even if ALBUM ARTIST is completed. If you want the album to show up under the ALBUM ARTIST folder instead of the "Compilations" or "Various Artists" folder, you should make sure there is no COMPILATION tag field (i.e., don't tick "compilations" in the CD ripper when ripping).

p.s. There is never one last question. I still have questions, just not as often.

Just as I thought, my assumption was wrong and the answer was simple! As always, thank you for taking the time to explain. That little number 1 in the Compilations field really is far more important than it looks!

[garym]

Re: Custom Naming

The [IFCOMP] part of the naming string is activated if the COMPILATION tag has a value of "1". So in this case everything will go into "Music/Lossless/Compilations/Album". This is true even if ALBUM ARTIST is completed. If you want the album to show up under the ALBUM ARTIST folder instead of the "Compilations" or "Various Artists" folder, you should make sure there is no COMPILATION tag field (i.e., don't tick "compilations" in the CD ripper when ripping).

p.s. There is never one last question. I still have questions, just not as often.

[Supernaut]

Re: Custom Naming

Yes, that's correct, at least for most modern music servers/players, including mine. The tagging matters, the file organization is just something for us humans to look at in some sort of organized way if we're trying to find a file. Theoretically, with Roon Labs system, one could dump a few hundred thousand tracks in a single directory (no separate artist or album subdirectories) and Roon would attempt to separately recognize and report the music organized by artist and album. (this said, even they say that it's intelligence sometimes has problems if everything is dumped into a single folder). But I've seen people say that even that works remarkably well, assuming they have good TAGs!

The way things work is all starting to make sense at last, and I now understand more of the settings in my software as well as what I've learnt about naming strings and tagging. I feel like I've been through a crash course in digital audio this past month!

I do have one (hopefully final!) question regarding the subject of naming strings and file destinations when dealing with compilations.

It seems to be the case that the "[IFCOMP]" command tells files which folder to go to in the event that the album artist is NOT specified in the tags, AND also creates such a folder if one doesn't already exist. The ripped tracks are then saved below this in a subfolder displaying the album name. So where the naming string specifies "[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album]", the file path created will look something like this (depending on the parent folder selected):

Music/Lossless/Compilations/Album

Now, I haven't tried this, but I'm assuming that if the album artist IS specified in the tags, the "[IFCOMP]" command still tells the files which folder to go to, but a subfolder is also created within that folder for the album artist. For example, if the Album Artist tag field were to be populated with "Various Artists", using the naming string command "[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album]", we would see:

Music/Lossless/Compilations/Various Artists/Album Name

However, in the case that both the naming string and the album artist have the SAME value, the subfolder described above is not created. Instead, we get the same file path as if no album artist were specified in the tags. So if the naming string commands "[IFCOMP]Various Artists\[album]" and the Album Artist tag field is also populated with the value "Various Artists", we simply get:

Music/Lossless/Various Artists/Album

This is perfect, exactly how I would want it. I do wonder, however, why we do not get the additional subfolder described above and see the path:

Music/Lossless/Various Artists/Various Artists/Album

This is just one last question to satisfy my curiosity and not something that will affect which naming string I choose to use, nor something I would wish to change. I think I'm probably overcomplicating something simple, and just wondered if someone could explain. Thanks!

[garym]

Re: Custom Naming

This is something I meant to ask about. When the individual discs each have their own folder under the Album parent folder, they are simply labelled &*8220;Disc 1&*8221;, &*8220;Disc 2&*8221;, &*8220;Disc 3&*8221;, etc. The album name is not included in these subfolder names.

Yes, simply Disk1, Disk 2, etc.

However, after experimenting with different naming strings and different settings in different software, I can now see that the file metadata is what&*8217;s important. As long as the top layers of the directory are specified (e.g. Music > Lossless), all files in that directory will be found and displayed correctly regardless of the subdirectory folder names, as long as the file metadata is in place.

Obviously, having the folders organised in an easy to navigate manner makes everything look nice and is user friendly, but it isn&*8217;t actually necessary for the software to find the files. So having numerous folders saved with the same name (e.g. &*8220;Disc 1&*8221;, &*8220;Disc 2&*8221;, &*8220;Disc 3&*8221;, etc.) within the various subdirectories will not cause any problems.

I thinks that makes sense, but if I&*8217;ve got it all wrong then please let me know!

Yes, that's correct, at least for most modern music servers/players, including mine. The tagging matters, the file organization is just something for us humans to look at in some sort of organized way if we're trying to find a file. Theoretically, with Roon Labs system, one could dump a few hundred thousand tracks in a single directory (no separate artist or album subdirectories) and Roon would attempt to separately recognize and report the music organized by artist and album. (this said, even they say that it's intelligence sometimes has problems if everything is dumped into a single folder). But I've seen people say that even that works remarkably well, assuming they have good TAGs!

[Supernaut]

Re: Custom Naming

Yes. Which is one of the reasons that my setup has each disc of a multidisc CD in it's own subdirectory, under the top "Album name" subdirectory. Then I can have different art for each disc if I want.

This is something I meant to ask about. When the individual discs each have their own folder under the Album parent folder, they are simply labelled “Disc 1”, “Disc 2”, “Disc 3”, etc. The album name is not included in these subfolder names. I had thought that folder names somehow helped the music player create a path to find files within a directory, and that having folders with the same name anywhere in the directory posed the risk of a mix-up somewhere along the line.

However, after experimenting with different naming strings and different settings in different software, I can now see that the file metadata is what’s important. As long as the top layers of the directory are specified (e.g. Music > Lossless), all files in that directory will be found and displayed correctly regardless of the subdirectory folder names, as long as the file metadata is in place.

Obviously, having the folders organised in an easy to navigate manner makes everything look nice and is user friendly, but it isn’t actually necessary for the software to find the files. So having numerous folders saved with the same name (e.g. “Disc 1”, “Disc 2”, “Disc 3”, etc.) within the various subdirectories will not cause any problems.

I thinks that makes sense, but if I’ve got it all wrong then please let me know!

[Supernaut]

Re: Custom Naming

Thank you, @garym.

[garym]

Re: Custom Naming

One more question I have regarding saving multi-disc CDs to the same folder. When the second disc is ripped, does the artwork file (e.g. cover.jpg) automatically write over the file saved when the first CD was ripped? It appears that this is what happens, as there is only one artwork file saved in the folder after ripping both CDs.

Yes. Which is one of the reasons that my setup has each disc of a multidisc CD in it's own subdirectory, under the top "Album name" subdirectory. Then I can have different art for each disc if I want.

edit: of course you can also do this if you embed the artwork in each file rather than, or in addition to, using folder.jpg or cover.jpg.

[Supernaut]

Re: Custom Naming

No, that's not what I meant. You can't save the naming string itself in a tag, and the string is not saved in the PROFILE tag metadata. Only the name of the Profile (for me, for example, the profile name might be "Home" vs "Office" so I'll know what setup I used to rip CD. Others might have a different setup, including naming string for "Classical" vs "Popular", etc. And the profile tag would simply say "Classical" or "Popular". It wouldn't contain any detailed settings.

OK, I see what you mean now.

In my naming string ARTIST is *only* added to the file name in the case of compilation CDs. With single artist CDs, artist name is not appended to the file name.

I understand, which is why I said that it won’t make a difference which string I use most of the time. Both strings will produce the exact same file name for the majority of the CDs in my collection (i.e. non-compilations).

Edit: At least that’s what they should do if I’ve edited them correctly!

One more question I have regarding saving multi-disc CDs to the same folder. When the second disc is ripped, does the artwork file (e.g. cover.jpg) automatically write over the file saved when the first CD was ripped? It appears that this is what happens, as there is only one artwork file saved in the folder after ripping both CDs.

[garym]

Re: Custom Naming

Thank you for clarifying that for me. I also have the naming strings saved in a separate file, so I won't be saving them as a "profile" tag. Still, it's interesting to know that even though the naming string isn't saved as part of the file, there is a way to save it as a tag if desired. Seems like everything is possible!

No, that's not what I meant. You can't save the naming string itself in a tag, and the string is not saved in the PROFILE tag metadata. Only the name of the Profile (for me, for example, the profile name might be "Home" vs "Office" so I'll know what setup I used to rip CD. Others might have a different setup, including naming string for "Classical" vs "Popular", etc. And the profile tag would simply say "Classical" or "Popular". It wouldn't contain any detailed settings.

I think everything is in order, but I've posted it here just to make sure and in case anyone else wants to copy it. Also, here is the same string but with the artist included in the file name:
I did try using this longer string (artist included), but found that it sometimes produces slightly peculiar results (see track 08 in the attachment below).
I imagine that this naming string would also produce very long file names for any kind of classical compilation, not that I have many of those in my collection. Seeing as both strings produce the same file name for non-compilation albums, whichever I use won't make a difference most of the time.

In my naming string ARTIST is *only* added to the file name in the case of compilation CDs. With single artist CDs, artist name is not appended to the file name. That's just a personal preference for me. And yes, with artist name as part of file name, one could get some very long file names. Although not terribly long with the use of the [MAXLENGTH] command in the naming string.

[Supernaut]

Re: Custom Naming

That said, you can save the "profile" name as a tag when ripping. If you use different naming strings for different ripping profiles, that would provide that info. But to be honest, I can't imagine why this info would be useful after the fact.

I've saved my naming strings and other settings as a text file, so I have them in the event I need to reinstall. Very useful when I switch to a newer computer.

Yes! That I do as well.

Thank you for clarifying that for me. I also have the naming strings saved in a separate file, so I won't be saving them as a "profile" tag. Still, it's interesting to know that even though the naming string isn't saved as part of the file, there is a way to save it as a tag if desired. Seems like everything is possible!

As per the advice given earlier in this thread I've amended the string I was using (changed "[disc][]." "to [disc].[]") so that it now looks like this:

[MAXLENGTH]240,[IFCOMP]Various Artists\[album]\[IFMULTI][disc].[][track] - [title][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[IFMULTI][disc].[][track] - [title][][]

I think everything is in order, but I've posted it here just to make sure and in case anyone else wants to copy it. Also, here is the same string but with the artist included in the file name:

[MAXLENGTH]240,[IFCOMP]Various Artists\[album]\[IFMULTI][disc].[][track] - [title] - [artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[IFMULTI][disc].[][track] - [title][][]

I did try using this longer string (artist included), but found that it sometimes produces slightly peculiar results (see track 08 in the attachment below).



I imagine that this naming string would also produce very long file names for any kind of classical compilation, not that I have many of those in my collection. Seeing as both strings produce the same file name for non-compilation albums, whichever I use won't make a difference most of the time.

[garym]

Re: Custom Naming

I've saved my naming strings and other settings as a text file, so I have them in the event I need to reinstall. Very useful when I switch to a newer computer.

Yes! That I do as well.

[schmidj]

Re: Custom Naming

I've saved my naming strings and other settings as a text file, so I have them in the event I need to reinstall. Very useful when I switch to a newer computer.