Custom Naming

[Jim Simon]

The default naming scheme for ripping CDs works pretty well for my needs, with one exception - multi-disk albums.

Right now, each disk goes into it's own folder - Disk 1, Disk 2, etc.

I want all the songs from Pink Floyd's The Wall, for example, to go into a single folder, with track numbering adapting appropriately.

How do I write a naming scheme that gives me the current results for single albums, but the above results for double albums?

[Jim Simon]

Re: Custom Naming

In other words, how do I configure the Naming such that multiple disks end up as if they were one?

[Spoon]

Re: Custom Naming

You would do this manually when ripping, ensure the disc number is always 1/1, the album name has no disc number in it, then for the 2nd disc, right click on track one and add a +100 offset to the track number. For disc 3 you add 2x +100 offsets.

[garym]

Re: Custom Naming

or just use the disk number as part of the track number, and have all the disks end up in the same folder. Use something like this in the appropriate part of the naming string:

[disc].[track] - [title]

For example, this naming string puts all the multiple discs in the same folder under album name folder, with a disk number in front of track (1.01, 1.02, 2.01, 2.02, etc.). But it only uses the disk number when there are multiple disks for the album (1/3, 2/3, 3/3, etc. when ripping).

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

[Jim Simon]

Re: Custom Naming

Oooh Gary, I like that idea. I'll give it a go. Thanks.

[Supernaut]

Re: Custom Naming

or just use the disk number as part of the track number, and have all the disks end up in the same folder. Use something like this in the appropriate part of the naming string:

[disc].[track] - [title]

For example, this naming string puts all the multiple discs in the same folder under album name folder, with a disk number in front of track (1.01, 1.02, 2.01, 2.02, etc.). But it only uses the disk number when there are multiple disks for the album (1/3, 2/3, 3/3, etc. when ripping).

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

I tried this naming string today, just changed the "Compilations" value to "Various Artists" and removed "- [artist]" from the file name:

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

This worked fine, but the ripped tracks started at 01 for each disc in a multi-disc set, i.e.:

1.01 - Railing *1
1.02 - Brown Paper Bag *2
...
2.01 - Intro *1
2.02 - Hi-Potent *2
...

I fixed this by going into Mp3tag and using the "Auto-numbering Wizard" tool, as I was unable to find a way to do it with the free version of PerfectTUNES. The result looked like this (highlighted column):


I didn't change the total number of tracks for each disc as this was just a test (hence 1/13, 2/13... 14/9, 15/9, etc.).

Does the full version of PerfectTUNES enable this type of auto-numbering of tracks in the same way as Mp3tag? I had planned to purchase PerfectTUNES along with dBpoweramp when the free trial runs out. Also, is there a way to work around this problem via the naming string?

[garym]

Re: Custom Naming

I tried this naming string today, just changed the "Compilations" value to "Various Artists" and removed "- [artist]" from the file name:

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

This worked fine, but the ripped tracks started at 01 for each disc in a multi-disc set, i.e.:

1.01 - Railing *1
1.02 - Brown Paper Bag *2
...
2.01 - Intro *1
2.02 - Hi-Potent *2
...

I fixed this by going into Mp3tag and using the "Auto-numbering Wizard" tool, as I was unable to find a way to do it with the free version of PerfectTUNES. The result looked like this (highlighted column):
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3005[/ATTACH]

I didn't change the total number of tracks for each disc as this was just a test (hence 1/13, 2/13... 14/9, 15/9, etc.).

Does the full version of PerfectTUNES enable this type of auto-numbering of tracks in the same way as Mp3tag? I had planned to purchase PerfectTUNES along with dBpoweramp when the free trial runs out. Also, is there a way to work around this problem via the naming string?

Yes, as that is what I prefer (knowing which disk the track is from). The problem is that when ripping you are only doing one CD at a time. So you would have to wait until all the Disks are ripped to then combine them and renumber from 1 to N. But, what if, say, Disk 1 and Disk 2 have exactly the same track names. Maybe Disk 1 is the studio album and Disk 2 is a live show of the same songs. So when you rip Disk 2, if you don't identify the file name uniquely (e.g., 2.01 - track name), then it will simply write over track 1 from Disk 1 when it rips Disk 2. And you might not notice this until much later.

I don't think PerfectTunes will do this renumbering automatically. You can use the ID Tagging function of dbpa after the fact to renumber the tracks from 1 to N, just as you do with mp3tag. I'm not sure the exact command in dbpa tag editing as I also use mp3tag when I want to renumber tracks.

edit: if you do renumber your multidisk albums from 1 to N, my advice is to also delete the Disk Number tag, as that may confuse some players/servers, and no longer needed in any case.

[garym]

Re: Custom Naming

And... One of the things I use PerfectTunes for is to check my collection for AccurateRip matches after the fact (some CDs are not in the database when I rip, but show up later), etc. I'm not sure that AccurateRip checking will work if the disk number information is not available to PerfectTunes.

Also note that you may be thinking that your player won't recognize the multidisk album as a single album if tracks are not numbered 1 to N. But most players have settings that recogniize a multidisk album as a single album for playback purposes. All my players do.

[Supernaut]

Re: Custom Naming

Yes, as that is what I prefer (knowing which disk the track is from). The problem is that when ripping you are only doing one CD at a time. So you would have to wait until all the Disks are ripped to then combine them and renumber from 1 to N. But, what if, say, Disk 1 and Disk 2 have exactly the same track names. Maybe Disk 1 is the studio album and Disk 2 is a live show of the same songs. So when you rip Disk 2, if you don't identify the file name uniquely (e.g., 2.01 - track name), then it will simply write over track 1 from Disk 1 when it rips Disk 2. And you might not notice this until much later.

Naming the files worked the way I wanted it to, with the disc number followed by the track number as per the naming string you suggested. The problem was that when I viewed the ripped tracks in PerfectTUNES they were displayed like this:

1.01 - Railing *1
2.01 - Intro *1
1.02 - Brown Paper Bag *2
2.02 - Hi-Potent *2
...

In other words, the track number was taking priority over the file name, so I changed the track numbers to prevent the same thing happening on my music player. I'll play around with it a bit more and see if I can work out the best solution.

Looks like I'll be keeping Mp3tag after all!

P.S. Looking at my last message, I see now how it could have been confusing. I meant that the track numbers (in the tags) for each CD starting at 1 might be a problem, not the .01 value of the file name. Sorry!

[garym]

Re: Custom Naming

Naming the files worked the way I wanted it to, with the disc number followed by the track number as per the naming string you suggested. The problem was that when I viewed the ripped tracks in PerfectTUNES they were displayed like this:

1.01 - Railing *1
2.01 - Intro *1
1.02 - Brown Paper Bag *2
2.02 - Hi-Potent *2
...

In other words, the track number was taking priority over the file name, so I changed the track numbers to prevent the same thing happening on my music player. I'll play around with it a bit more and see if I can work out the best solution.

Looks like I'll be keeping Mp3tag after all!

P.S. Looking at my last message, I see now how it could have been confusing. I meant that the track numbers (in the tags) for each CD starting at 1 might be a problem, not the .01 value of the file name. Sorry!

I'm still confused at what problem this naming is causing you in PerfectTunes (as it is a standard naming approach used by many). But if you have it working to your satisfaction, that's all that matters.

[Supernaut]

Re: Custom Naming

I'm still confused at what problem this naming is causing you in PerfectTunes (as it is a standard naming approach used by many). But if you have it working to your satisfaction, that's all that matters.

Just that in PerfectTUNES the songs were shown organised by track number in this way:

1.01, Track 1
2.01, Track 1
1.02, Track 2
2.02, Track 2
1.03, Track 3
2.03, Track 3
Etc.

They were ordered correctly (i.e. 1.01, 1.02, 1.03,... 2.01, 2.02, 2.03,...) in the folder where the files were saved and when I checked them on Mp3tag, so it wasn’t difficult to renumber the tags 1-N. I just wondered if there was a way to do the same thing in PerfectTUNES.

I’ll try some more rips this week and see if the same thing happens again. It may have just been my mistake.

[Supernaut]

Re: Custom Naming

... this naming string puts all the multiple discs in the same folder under album name folder, with a disk number in front of track (1.01, 1.02, 2.01, 2.02, etc.). But it only uses the disk number when there are multiple disks for the album (1/3, 2/3, 3/3, etc. when ripping).

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

I've decided that this naming string is the one that works best for my needs, but would just like to clarify a few points before I start ripping my collection with it.

I understand how some parts of the string work, but not others. For example, I can see that changing "[IFCOMP]Compilations\[album]" to "[IFCOMP]Various Artists\[album]" will change the name of the parent folder when the album comprises tracks by different artists, and the subsequent folder will have be the name of the album in either case.

I can see that "[IFMULTI][disc].[][track] - [title] - [artist]" will create a file name where the disc number appears in front of the track number (when the album comprises more than one disc), and that this will be followed by a dash, the track title, another dash and then the artist name. I also understand that I can rearrange or remove any of these fields to create the desired file name, e.g.:
[track] - [title] - [artist]
[track] - [artist] - [title]
[track] [artist] - [title]
[track] - [title]

However, I'm a little lost after that. In the remaining part of the string we find:
[IFMULTI][disc][].[track] - [title]

Previously the string read:
[IFMULTI][disc].[][track] - [title] - [artist]

I'm sure that there is a simple answer to this that I've missed, but what does the "[IF!COMP][IFVALUE]" command do and what is the reason for the differences noted above?

Thank you.

[garym]

Re: Custom Naming

Everything from "[IF!COMP][IFVALUE]" onward is telling the naming string what to do if the CD is *not* a compilation (various artist) CD. [IF!COMP], note the "!" is the code for if NOT a compilation. And in the case of non-compilations, I wanted the file name to be just track no. and title. No need to have artist in the name as artist is in the folder name and there is only one artist in this case. (I wanted artist in the name for the compilation albums, because each track was a different artist).

[Supernaut]

Re: Custom Naming

Everything from "[IF!COMP][IFVALUE]" onward is telling the naming string what to do if the CD is *not* a compilation (various artist) CD. [IF!COMP], note the "!" is the code for if NOT a compilation. And in the case of non-compilations, I wanted the file name to be just track no. and title. No need to have artist in the name as artist is in the folder name and there is only one artist in this case. (I wanted artist in the name for the compilation albums, because each track was a different artist).

Thank you for clearing up the meaning of the “!” symbol. After writing my message yesterday and breaking the string down into smaller chunks, I was able to see where I’d become confused over file naming.

The first CDs I ripped were compilations by various artists, and so the artists were included in the file names as per the naming string. Knowing very little about the naming string at that point, I automatically assumed that this file naming protocol would apply to ALL albums and not just compilations. Thus, when I removed the “ - [artist]” command from the string I also assumed that this was removing it for ALL albums, including those by single artists.

Had I ripped a single artist CD to begin with I would have seen that the artist name wasn’t included in the file name and most likely realised that compilation file names and single artist file names were controlled by different parts of the string.

Anyway, it all makes sense now!

I still don’t understand the purpose of the “[]” command, but it isn’t really important as long as everything is working. Just out of interest, is there any difference in meaning between its position in the following commands?

[disc][].
[disc].[]

[schmidj]

Re: Custom Naming

For a better understanding of the string editing language used here to make the filenames, look in the dBpoweramp help file for custom naming. If you've installed the software on your C drive and don't see the link on the help page, this should be a link:

file:///C:/Program Files/dBpoweramp/Help/dMC/Naming.htm

Please note this is a link to a file on your computer, not on the dBpoweramp web site. You'll have to copy this link and paste it into your browser as most browsers block local links from linking.

Basically the [] serves as what we call a delimiter. It appears following commands in the string editor which require one or more expressions as input (following the command) to tell the parser (the part of the string editor which separates the commands) when the input for that command has ended. Since one can nest commands (as is done in your naming string}, if there is a [] after the first command before the second one, they are not nested but run consecutively in forming the string. If there is no [] before the second command the commands are nested and the second command executes as controlled by the first command. Then there might well be a [][] after the input for the second command to tell the parser that both commands have ended.

In the specific question you have asked from your string, [disc][]. will put a period (.) at that point (before the track number) whether or not you have a multi disc album (which you probably don't want) but [disc].[]will only put the period there after the disc number before the track number if it is a multi-disc album, so you will get [disc].[track] (such as 2.03 for disc 2 track 3) but only if it is a multi-disc album, which I assume is what you want.

This string editor is quite powerful, as you can see.