Beginner question on dynamic naming

[Johnnyb]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a newbie to DBPA and I've figured out the secure ripping settings and ripped about 12 albums.

I'm hoping someone can help this low-tech newbie with a couple of questions. I have read many threads on here and everyone is really helpful. However, my head is starting to spin and I need an answer so I can start ripping my few hundred cds to my Mac mini. I an using Audirvana for playback.

What I need is a string that will alphabetize the artists by last name and band names by the first character. I would like The Beatles to be Beatles, The. Although I ripped St Peppers and it came our correct. I have chosen Artist Sort and Album Artist Sort, but am not sure how to use them. I would like multi-disc sets to be in their own folder under the album name.

I know I'm throwing out a lifeline here, but I have really tried to distill this information from the threads and I have a massive headache. Thanks so much for any help you can give me, or links to threads I could use.

Finally, when I figure our my new naming settings, can I apply those settings to the albums I have already ripped?

John

[garym]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

I'll play with this in the morning. One question, when you say you want multidisk sets to be under a folder with album name, does this include multi disk sets (even 2 disks) where it is a single artist? Or are you referring to compilations (various artists)?

[garym]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

sorry, just played with this, and can't make it work. Seems you need to use artist sort or album artist sort in your naming string. From some other threads, I see that you can reference these as:

[tag]album artist sort[]
[tag]artist sort[]

But when I use these in dynamic naming strings, it won't include the artist sort or album artist sort value. @spoon or some user that uses those sort tags in naming will have to chime in. Good luck.

[garym]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

sorry, just played with this, and can't make it work. Seems you need to use artist sort or album artist sort in your naming string. From some other threads, I see that you can reference these as:

[tag]album artist sort[]
[tag]artist sort[]

But when I use these in dynamic naming strings, it won't include the artist sort or album artist sort value. @spoon or some user that uses those sort tags in naming will have to chime in. Good luck.

this thread reports success, but when I use even a simple string, wtih just a sort tag, it shows up as blank.

https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?34706-Album-Sort-and-Album-Artist-Sort-in-dynamic-naming

[garym]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

Another thought. My music server doesn't use the file or folder name for browsing or lists. It uses the metadata tag information. What server do you use, and can you tell it to use sort values. In my own case, I don't use SORT tags, but the server has settings that let me tell it to ignore "the" etc. in alphabetical listings. So The Beatles show up under "B".

[Johnnyb]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

Thanks so much Gary for giving this so much thought. My main goal is to get the artists to list alphabetically by last name. I don&*8217;t care if I use the sort tags or not. However, band names like Rossington Collins Band, I would want to show up under R.

[garym]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

rip a few different CDs that have obvious names you want sorted correctly and see how they show up in your server. A server that uses "sort" tags, should work for sorting, for example, George Harrison under "H" (with artist sort tag = Harrison, George). So I'd suggest you always add artist sort and album artist sort to your rips.

p.s. Long ago, I gave up on all this (and I have about 9,000 CDs ripped). So I've learned to look for George Harrison under "G". But at least things like "The Beatles" show up under "B" and "The Who" show up under "W". I even rearranged my physical storage sorting of my CDs to match the "first name" alphabet naming of my server.

[Johnnyb]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

Yeah. I read that you started by sorting by first names. In Audirvana, they sort by first names, but The Beatles are Beatles, The. I'll try a Who CD and see how that goes. As for alphabetizing by last name, I thought I could just insert a specific naming string to take care of that.

If I do use Artist Sort and Album Artist Sort, I would have to reference them in my naming string, correct? And when I rip a CD, I would have to manually inset that information in the DBPA window?

Could you post your current naming string again, please? I want to give it a try.

Thanks so much!

[Spoon]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

I replied to a similar question here which should give you most of what you're looking for.

An example naming string would be:
[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][tag]album artist sort[][]\[IF!COMP][GRAB]1,4,[year][] - [][album]\CD[SETLEN]2,48,,[disc][]\[track] - [title]

This relies on dBpoweramp (or you) supplying the album artist sort tag.

This one works for me.

[garym]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

Yeah. I read that you started by sorting by first names. In Audirvana, they sort by first names, but The Beatles are Beatles, The. I'll try a Who CD and see how that goes. As for alphabetizing by last name, I thought I could just insert a specific naming string to take care of that.

If I do use Artist Sort and Album Artist Sort, I would have to reference them in my naming string, correct? And when I rip a CD, I would have to manually inset that information in the DBPA window?

Could you post your current naming string again, please? I want to give it a try.

Thanks so much!

note, if you use a Mac, you should replace all the back slashes below with forward slashes.

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

Also, be sure you understand that music servers might use your *tag info* rather than your file or folder name when deciding how to display information. And it looks like others have tried to answer above with a working string that uses album artist sort. Maybe it didn't work for me because I didn't try with any actual rips that contained the tag info 'album artist sort'

[garym]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

when you say "I want box sets to be in a folder by album name" you might want something like the following. You can change "Box Sets" to whatever you want that directory to be called. and if you don't want the artist included in the name, just delete the last part "- [artist]". Save this string and give this profile a name (lower right of CD ripper screen) such as "Box Sets". Then select this profile when ripping box sets.

Box Sets\[album]\[disc].[track] - [title] - [artist]


If you want each album disk to be in a different subfolder under the album folder, use this:
Box Sets\Album Title\Disk 1\05 - Title - Artist

[Johnnyb]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

I replied to a similar question here which should give you most of what you're looking for.

An example naming string would be:
[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][tag]album artist sort[][]\[IF!COMP][GRAB]1,4,[year][] - [][album]\CD[SETLEN]2,48,,[disc][]\[track] - [title]

This relies on dBpoweramp (or you) supplying the album artist sort tag.

Thanks. So I replace default naming in the Dynamic Naming box with this? Should the album artist sort tag be "Coltrane, John"? Is there an FAQ on hoe to use the dynamic naming and sort tags?

[schmidj]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

Gary, I just want to make sure that the OP is clear that the file names (as set by the naming string) have nothing to do with how the tracks appear or are sorted in the majority of players. (Unless you choose "select by file/folder name, which is a really backwards way of using a player.) Probably the only remaining case where file names are important is playing files on a thumb drive in some (I assume by now) older automobiles.

As far as most players are concerned, you could just give each file a consecutive unique number, in one large directory, and the player would let you select the songs however you set it up, as almost all players sort and display tracks by what is in the tags, not the filenames. So many people don't understand this, and it is rarely explained well to "newbies". Not that I'd recommend just numbering the files, because it makes it hard to find a particular file in Windows Explorer or the Mac equivalent if you should want to, for instance to delete or edit it. But even with Windows Explorer, if the directory is defined as a media directory, Windows Explorer will display and can be sorted by tags you select (but only in the directory, not in sub-directories, AFAIK.

But the OP has not, from what I see, made clear how (s)he plans to play the music, what player and how the player is or would be set up. If the OP is actually using a player that uses tags to locate/arrange the displayed music, as most players do, then this whole naming effort is a wild goose chase. Better to make sure the tags are accurate and that the player is capable and set up to display the music in the manner the OP wants.

[garym]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

Schmidj, I couldn't agree more with your statements Good to emphasize this..

[Johnnyb]

Re: Beginner question on dynamic naming

Thanks everyone. I made a reply yesterday and it didn&*8217;t appear in the thread for some reason

I am beginning to understand how this works. I found a work around in Audirvana, but I want to get this tag info into the files as I rip them. I do realize that the file structure I see in my music file is not relevant. I realize that the metadata embedded in the file is what is important. I want the metadata to be correct in case I change music players at some point.

I am going to give Simbin&*8217;s naming string a try, since it uses the album artist sort tag. I&*8217;m not sure if I can save multiple naming strings in the set menu, but I&*8217;m going to give it a try today. I&*8217;ll rip a couple of CDs of different types and see how it goes.

Thanks again!