Directory structure, file naming & tag information question

[Bob_Collins]

A couple of questions regarding tags, filenames and directory structures.

First off, when creating directory structures I want to create them without a leading "The" nor do I want to append it as a ", The". I simply want the name (minus "The") used. IE, I want "Beatles" not "The Beatles" or "Beatles, The" in the directory structure. I do want the Tag to still say "The Beatles" however.

I also would like the directory structure to be the first letter of last name of artist or first letter of group name\Album Artist\Album name\track number filename of track as mentioned below. Examples:

track 6 Yellow Submarine from the Beatles' Revolver album would be created and written to:
B\Beatles\Revolver\06 Yellow Submarine.flac

track 1 Linus & Lucy from the Various Artists' "Happy Anniversary, Charlie Brown" disc would be written to
V\Various\Happy Anniversary, Charlie Brown\01 David Benoit - Linus & Lucy.flac

Next up, when naming a track I only want to include the artist name if it is a compilation album of various artists, or if it is a track with a guest artist included. I want the file name to simply be the track name if it is a single artist album and has no guest artist as shown in above examples.

Can this easily be done in DBPA? Can I have rules for various artists compilations, but different rules for single artist albums?

[Spoon]

[IFEQUALS]artist,The [DEL]1,4,[artist][],[TRIM][DEL]1,4,[artist][][][]

Should do the removal of The

[mville]

... and the following should put non-compilations in folder Artists A or Artists B or Artists C etc. followed by album artist sort folder, based on the album artist sort being populated correctly:

[IF!COMP]Artists
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],A[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],A[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],B[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],B[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],C[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],C[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],D[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],D[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],E[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],E[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],F[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],F[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],G[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],G[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],H[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],H[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],I[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],I[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],J[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],J[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],K[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],K[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],L[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],L[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],M[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],M[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],N[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],N[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],O[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],O[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],P[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],P[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],Q[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],Q[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],R[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],R[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],S[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],S[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],T[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],T[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],U[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],U[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],V[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],V[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],W[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],W[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],X[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],X[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],Y[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],Y[]
[IFEQUALS][tag]album artist sort[],Z[DEL]1,1,[tag]album artist sort[][],Z[]
\[tag]album artist sort[][]

e.g. If album artist is David Bowie, album artist sort is Bowie, David

folders created would be Artists B\Bowie, David

(Please note this code only handles A-Z. If you intend to use the above code, remove any carriage returns, line breaks. I inserted them for ease of viewing)

[BrodyBoy]

I also would like the directory structure to be the first letter of last name of artist or first letter of group name\Album Artist\Album name\track number filename of track as mentioned below. Examples:

track 6 Yellow Submarine from the Beatles' Revolver album would be created and written to:
B\Beatles\Revolver\06 Yellow Submarine.flac

I organize my folders this way as well (glad to hear I'm not the only one!). Anyway, this simple variation on my scheme will yield the directory and filename structure you specify:

\[GRAB]1,1,[album artist][]\[album artist]\[album]\[track] [title]

Just ensure that the [album artist] tag is always written when you rip, and that it properly reflects the defining artist (whether that be an individual, a group, or whatever you want it to be).

[mville]

\[GRAB]1,1,[album artist][]\[album artist]\[album]\[track] [title]

Excellent, been looking for something like the [GRAB] action for ages. Must have missed it somehow.

[RMJFlack]

Where can I find the reference manual for coding this? What I would like is the following (using ISWIM)

IF ([genre]=="Classical" || [genre]=="Opera" || [genre] == "Ballet") use [composer] - [album] - [album artist]\[album] - [artist] - [disc]\[disc] - [track] - [title]
ELSE {
IF ([album artist] !="") use [album artist] - [album] \ [disc] - [track] - [title]

ELSE {
IF [compilation] use [various artists] - [album] \ [disc] - [track] - [title]

ELSE use [artist] - [album] \ [disc] - [track] - [title]

}

}

where I would use [album artist] as an abbreviated form of full artist, perhaps just the conductor,
and for an opera etc [album] would be the same for each disc

- Aside from the coding aspect, I am a little puzzled as to why it seems to be the norm for the 'album name' to not be in the top level folder name, am I missing something? (Yes, Im currently doing this too thanks to itunes defaults waay back, and it drives me nuts trying to figure out where different performances of say Die Meistersinger are - partly exacerbated by some inconsistencies in the approach to artists names - conductor - soloists, or vice versa)

[mville]

Where can I find the reference manual for coding this?

As a start, look here to familiarize yourself with the naming scheme and some of the advanced programmable actions on naming scheme elements:

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthre...al-for-r12-r13

... and search these forums for naming scheme examples

[garym]

- Aside from the coding aspect, I am a little puzzled as to why it seems to be the norm for the 'album name' to not be in the top level folder name, am I missing something? (Yes, Im currently doing this too thanks to itunes defaults waay back, and it drives me nuts trying to figure out where different performances of say Die Meistersinger are - partly exacerbated by some inconsistencies in the approach to artists names - conductor - soloists, or vice versa)

I don't have much classical, but the reason album name is not in the top level folder name for me is that the top level is the ARTIST, then under the ARTIST I have a separate subdirectory for each ALBUM of that artist. This is what I use as my dynamic naming structure. It automatically handles artist vs album artist and compilations vs regular albums and multidisk cds. But would not handle a good classical model (where you likely want composer, etc.).

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

[BrodyBoy]

Where can I find the reference manual for coding this?

While it can be a "fun" challenge trying to devise elaborate, all-encompassing tagging scripts in dBpoweramp....(I'm not being facetious- us geeks actually like that sort of challenge!)....there comes a point where I think we lose the forest for the trees.

dBp has an often-overlooked feature that not only cuts through much of the time & work involved in writing these scripts, but yields better results, IMO. Profiles. This tool allows us to customize and apply "templates" for our different categories of music. As your question suggests, classical music presents entirely different tagging challenges from pop music. And some of us may have still other categories of music that we want to tag & organize in unique ways.

Rather than one endless set of conditional IF/THEN commands to try to cover all your bases, I'd suggest you set up a "Classical" profile that is separate from the profile you use for other music. (You could even build more specific profiles, if desired, for different classical genres.) If there are other categories for which have unique tagging requirements, make profiles for them as well. (In my case, I have about 3-4 that I use regularly.) Then, whenever you go to rip a CD, simply select the appropriate template in dBp and you can be assured that all the little details for tagging that kind of music will be done the way you want.

[RMJFlack]

BrodyBoy - that sounds very promising and Ill certainly check into for future rips. My current problem though is re tagging some already ripped CDs. Im guessing that rule-based manipulation is the only way to go (well, aside from manually editing the tags!). Im actually not having much luck with that but I need to do a little more experimenting.

[RMJFlack]

Ok not sure what Profiles do exactly? It has to be manually selected? Whiich is Ok when ripping. So basically it just removes the if classical... else ... layer of test in the script? And I think the batch convert still needs the script since it will be converting (in general) all types of music at once.

[garym]

Ok not sure what Profiles do exactly? It has to be manually selected? Whiich is Ok when ripping. So basically it just removes the if classical... else ... layer of test in the script? And I think the batch convert still needs the script since it will be converting (in general) all types of music at once.

a ripping profile is selected manually just before ripping (lower left panel of ripping screen). Yes, for batch converting, this is a different thing.

[BrodyBoy]

BrodyBoy - that sounds very promising and Ill certainly check into for future rips. My current problem though is re tagging some already ripped CDs. Im guessing that rule-based manipulation is the only way to go (well, aside from manually editing the tags!). Im actually not having much luck with that but I need to do a little more experimenting.

Ah, okay.....as Garym pointed out, profiles are just for ripping. If you need to do a lot of after-the-fact tag editing, I'd suggest a dedicated tag editor like mp3tag. dBp can do a lot of metadata manipulation, both during and after ripping, but I don't think it's meant to be a full-featured editor.

To answer your question as to what profiles do, think of them as different configurations that you make & use when ripping with dBp. Upon installation, dBp uses a "default" profile, with standard settings for things like folder structure, file naming, etc. (Honestly, I don't even remember much about what the "default" settings are! I never use that one.) But the usefulness of the tool comes in creating your own custom profiles for music that has different organizational or tagging demands. For example, I rip a lot of soundtracks. I want these to go to a separate directory, where they are organized by movie title. After much trial & error, I came up with a tagging scheme that makes them display the way I want in both iTunes and Sonos. But all of those details are specific to soundtracks. I organize & tag other music....pop, operas, multi-disc sets, etc....quite differently.

So I constructed a SOUNDTRACKS profile. I simply select it whenever I'm ripping a soundtrack, and with that single click, all my picky little tags are being applied properly, the filename structure is right, and the folder is created in the right location. Conversely, I use a similarly-customized STANDARD profile for everyday single-artist-or-group albums.

As far as having to select a profile manually before ripping, that's certainly a lot faster & easier than reviewing & correcting all those tags individually. I'm still reviewing the actual track data before ripping, since the online databases are wildly uneven in their accuracy and formatting, but my profiles automate about 95% of my tagging tasks.

Now, FWIW, this entire approach can also be used with existing (already-ripped) music. But again, I think a good tag editor is the better option for that. I use mp3tag, and much like my custom profiles in dBa, I have created custom "actions" (that's their terminology for what are essentially macros) that ensure the proper tagging scheme is applied for each category. And yup...I do have a SOUNDTRACKS action!

[garym]

Ah, okay.....as Garym pointed out, profiles are just for ripping. If you need to do a lot of after-the-fact tag editing, I'd suggest a dedicated tag editor like mp3tag. dBp can do a lot of metadata manipulation, both during and after ripping, but I don't think it's meant to be a full-featured editor.

To answer your question as to what profiles do, think of them as different configurations that you make & use when ripping with dBp. Upon installation, dBp uses a "default" profile, with standard settings for things like folder structure, file naming, etc. (Honestly, I don't even remember much about what the "default" settings are! I never use that one.) But the usefulness of the tool comes in creating your own custom profiles for music that has different organizational or tagging demands. For example, I rip a lot of soundtracks. I want these to go to a separate directory, where they are organized by movie title. After much trial & error, I came up with a tagging scheme that makes them display the way I want in both iTunes and Sonos. But all of those details are specific to soundtracks. I organize & tag other music....pop, operas, multi-disc sets, etc....quite differently.

So I constructed a SOUNDTRACKS profile. I simply select it whenever I'm ripping a soundtrack, and with that single click, all my picky little tags are being applied properly, the filename structure is right, and the folder is created in the right location. Conversely, I use a similarly-customized STANDARD profile for everyday single-artist-or-group albums.

As far as having to select a profile manually before ripping, that's certainly a lot faster & easier than reviewing & correcting all those tags individually. I'm still reviewing the actual track data before ripping, since the online databases are wildly uneven in their accuracy and formatting, but my profiles automate about 95% of my tagging tasks.

Now, FWIW, this entire approach can also be used with existing (already-ripped) music. But again, I think a good tag editor is the better option for that. I use mp3tag, and much like my custom profiles in dBa, I have created custom "actions" (that's their terminology for what are essentially macros) that ensure the proper tagging scheme is applied for each category. And yup...I do have a SOUNDTRACKS action!

good advice. I also use mp3tag (and a set of actions) for my heavy duty tag manipulation. Between dbpa and mp3tag, I can do everything I need to do. And I am looking forward to doing things with PerfectTUNES as well.

[puckman]

I apologize for weighing in on probably what is an old thread. I just wanted to thank mville and BrodyBoy for their input.

This is an awesome and very informative thread. You guys provided a solution to a challenging problem I had for months. (I have another challenge too - how to narrow down searches on this board. I found this helpful thread by accident.) I could never get the [tag] album artist sort[] to work for me. I obviously didn't know how the switch works. I transcoded a few files with my new found knowledge and am very pleased. I second BrodyBoy's observation of under-utilizing profiles. I am in such a hurry to rip or transcode that I forget to save my settings to a profile to be recalled later.

I wanted a very flat file structure so my Ford sync wouldn't gag on indexing the music. So far I have an external drive with 4,000 transcoded WMA Lossless songs in it along with playlists and Sync has indexed it very quckly. I don't know if the speed reflects the hard drive over a flash drive or whether the file structure is flatter. Once I plug in the drive, I don't have to wait 5 minutes to listen to music after updating the drive. It begins to play immediately.

My next challenge will be to get the playlist writer create relative pointers to the songs in the root folder.