Album Id Tag

[jlemieux]

Hello !

Let me first say that dbPowerAmp is the commercial software that I used the most these last few years; incredible good value for money, congratulations. So far, I never stumbled on a bug, impressive.

I would like to know what is the "Album Id Tag". What are the actual tag names for mp3 and flac files? How can we actually add such tags to a file? Is this done through the ripper, mp3tag, some command line utilities?

I have been googling "album id tag" and couldn't find any useful information on this topic.

I want to "batch convert" a whole directory tree structure containing flac files to mp3 files. The replay gain must be done per album, not per batch. Hence the need to know what "album id tag" actually means.

Thanks everyone !

JL
Montréal

[Spoon]

Re: Album Id Tag

It is the Album tag, basically it will group together albums using the Album ID Tag, and make sure that album gain is correct for just specific albums rather than the whole lot together.

[jlemieux]

Re: Album Id Tag

Thanks for your answer, but I still do not understand where this tag comes from. I do not have such tags in my mp3/flac files. Is this a tag that is computed "on the fly", say, from from Artist + Album name ? If so, what are the exact computation rules? Many thanks again.

[Spoon]

Re: Album Id Tag

You are asking about 'Album Artist' tag? as I cannot understand 'Album Id Tag' and 'Artist + Album name'.

[jlemieux]

Re: Album Id Tag

In the Replay Gain settings, there is the option "Album identified by Album Id Tag" under "Calculate Album Gain".

This wording implies that there is an "Album Id Tag". When I look at the actual tags contained in my mp3 and flac files, I do not see a tag named "Album Id".

I thus suppose that this is a "computed" or "run-time" tag, likely computed on the fly from other real tags such as Artist, Album name, etc.

Could you please clarify this for me ?

Many thanks for your excellent support.

[garym]

Re: Album Id Tag

In the Replay Gain settings, there is the option "Album identified by Album Id Tag" under "Calculate Album Gain".

This wording implies that there is an "Album Id Tag". When I look at the actual tags contained in my mp3 and flac files, I do not see a tag named "Album Id".

I thus suppose that this is a "computed" or "run-time" tag, likely computed on the fly from other real tags such as Artist, Album name, etc.

Could you please clarify this for me ?

Many thanks for your excellent support.

this is simply referring to the ALBUM field in your tags. (so mp3 would be ALBUM field, FLAC would be ALBUM field, etc.). This option is so I can load up 1000s of files at once and run replaygain on them. RG will treat each album (as identified by the ALBUM field).

[verypsb]

Re: Album Id Tag

So every album with the same ALBUM title will be treated as one album? That's not what I would like to happen to "Greatest Hits" albums...

[garym]

Re: Album Id Tag

So every album with the same ALBUM title will be treated as one album? That's not what I would like to happen to "Greatest Hits" albums...

No. Because your albums are most likely UNDER an ARTIST upper level directory. I've used this approach for years and never had an issue. e.g.,

c:\music\The Eagles\Greatest Hits
c:\music\Queen\Greatest Hits
etc.

Alll are treated as separate albums.

[mville]

Re: Album Id Tag

So every album with the same ALBUM title will be treated as one album? That's not what I would like to happen to "Greatest Hits" albums...

I came across this problem a while back, I just can't remember which software was struggling with this issue. As a result, I set the Album tag so it is unique. e.g. The Eagles Greatest Hits, Queen Greatest Hits, The Very Best Of The Smiths etc.

[verypsb]

Re: Album Id Tag

No. Because your albums are most likely UNDER an ARTIST upper level directory. I've used this approach for years and never had an issue. e.g.,

c:\music\The Eagles\Greatest Hits
c:\music\Queen\Greatest Hits
etc.

Alll are treated as separate albums.

So as long Albums with the same Title are in different folders there's no problem?

[Dat Ei]

Re: Album Id Tag

So as long Albums with the same Title are in different folders there's no problem?

Why should this be a problem? Independently from dbpa this is no problem at all for the file system.


Dat Ei

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Album Id Tag

So as long Albums with the same Title are in different folders there's no problem?

Well, not necessarily. It's not the file organization on your computer (i.e., what you see in Windows Explorer) that keeps the albums separated in your music players. It's the tags inside the files themselves.

Your players don't rely on just one tag to define an album. Usually, they will group them based on ALBUM ARTIST and ALBUM. So this takes care of your question, where The Eagles and Queen, and many other artists, may have an album entitled "Greatest Hits." But beyond that, it's not that unusual for different artists to have albums with the same name. (For example, I have two or three albums called "Duets," by different artists, and at least two entitled "Blue.")

So think of players grouping tracks in a two-step process....first, all tracks with the same ALBUM ARTIST tag will be one big group. (My hundreds of "Bob Dylan" tracks, for example.) Then, each of these ALBUM ARTIST groups is further divided by their ALBUM tag. (All those Dylan tracks are separated into their respective albums.)

So the tracks that have ALBUM=Greatest Hits + ALBUM ARTIST=Eagles aren't going to be mixed up with the ones that have ALBUM=Greatest Hits + ALBUM ARTIST=Queen. All your Greatest Hits albums will be separated this way by your players.

(But again, this is a completely different conversation from how the files are saved and organized on your hard drive...that's a naming issue. If that's your primary concern, and your files aren't getting organized the way you want, you may want to start a new thread about that.)

[garym]

Re: Album Id Tag

Well, not necessarily. It's not the file organization on your computer (i.e., what you see in Windows Explorer) that keeps the albums separated in your music players. It's the tags inside the files themselves.

Your players don't rely on just one tag to define an album. Usually, they will group them based on ALBUM ARTIST and ALBUM. So this takes care of your question, where The Eagles and Queen, and many other artists, may have an album entitled "Greatest Hits." But beyond that, it's not that unusual for different artists to have albums with the same name. (For example, I have two or three albums called "Duets," by different artists, and at least two entitled "Blue.")

So think of players grouping tracks in a two-step process....first, all tracks with the same ALBUM ARTIST tag will be one big group. (My hundreds of "Bob Dylan" tracks, for example.) Then, each of these ALBUM ARTIST groups is further divided by their ALBUM tag. (All those Dylan tracks are separated into their respective albums.)

So the tracks that have ALBUM=Greatest Hits + ALBUM ARTIST=Eagles aren't going to be mixed up with the ones that have ALBUM=Greatest Hits + ALBUM ARTIST=Queen. All your Greatest Hits albums will be separated this way by your players.

(But again, this is a completely different conversation from how the files are saved and organized on your hard drive...that's a naming issue. If that's your primary concern, and your files aren't getting organized the way you want, you may want to start a new thread about that.)

And to add to this, I rarely fill the ALBUM ARTIST tag field (only in special circumstances) but still have no issues keeping albums with same name separate in the servers and players I use (LMS and squeezeboxes, foobar2000, iTunes and iThings).