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Mp3tag actions for cleaning up collection


ginjaninja

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ginjaninja

backup library prior to use.

I use these actions to clean up a music collection, you might find them useful.

mp3tagall.jpg

They include a set of 6 actions which prepare content and move content in a prescribed manner into collection.

in any case they may help you learn to use mp3tag regexp engine (note not an expert, i have just brute forced found something that works without 100% understanding)

 

My Conventions (You might have other preferences)

Check the actions for hardcoded paths which you will want to change to your situation..they currently point to W:\MUSIC

I use the tag 'rootfolder' to hardcode a location into files which do not confirm to the standard (automated) location on the filesystem

A standard location for a file without 'rootfolder' tag is defined as W:\MUSIC\Albumartist\(Year) Album\[Discnumber_]Tracknumber. Title.

Content with a rootfolder tag of \Soundtracks\ (note leading and trailing slashes) is moved into W:\MUSIC\Soundtracks\(Year) Album\[Discnumber_]Tracknumber. Title.

Content for Album Artists with 'The ' prefix are stored on the filesystem as 'artist, the'. (i find them easier to find in explorer, makes no odds to mb3 tag views as tags are not changed)

If the album artist is 'Various artists' then i add the artist name as a suffix to the filename on filesystem by using action 6b. 

note i use an action to remove [/tracktotal] and [/disktotal] from track/tracktotal and disknumber/disctotal as in previous versions at least, my clients including mb3 did not like - this is necessary for the actions to work.

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84611964/actions.rar

 

 

Installation

add the files to current 'actions' folder in user mp3tag appdata (roaming).

you might want to put a prefix in the filenames so they are easily identifiable as the newly installed actions (filenames show up in the mp3tag actions menu)

I configure mp3tag->options-> tag panel to show my custom tag 'rootfolder'.

mp3tagdisplaypanel.jpg

I also add this tag as a column in the main pain for easy searching and filtering etc.

 

 

Action Descriptions

Actions have been tested in use 1 at a time, not 'all in one go'.

1. Remove tags - No action as such/a reminder to use file menu-remove tags command...to remove all unused mp3 tag formats (i have mp3tag configured in options to only keep 1 type of id3 tag - i use only ID3v2 UTF-16, as all my clients are compatable with this format) (not for use on flacs in current version)

mp3tagtidytags.jpg

2. Ignore - intended for use with mp3 music brainz fetcher plugin..no longer necessary with picard.

3. Universal - universal tidy up function which removes trailing and leading spaces and also removes all unused tags including albumart (I dont store albumart in the file).

4a/b - set albumartist if required.

5. Set common 'rootfolders' on myfilesystem if required.

6a/b. Move Content into the collection-  either into the standard album artists location or respecting a manually defined 'rootfolder' value

Action 6b - Various artists, includes the artist name in the filename. (This action also doesnt add a year prefix to folder for album - my preference for compilations)

 

and as a final separate suggestion i have used this mp3tag filter (F3)

%artist% MATCHES (/|;|,| and |&|'+'| over | vs | vs. | feat. | featuring | feat |'\'|'+'| with |'w/'|'/w'| inc |' inc.')

to identify content which may contain multiple artists which i want to formally edit for a separator that mb3 understands.

 

please let me know if you find useful. or if you have any questions.

Edited by ginjaninja
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AlwinHummels

Looks interesting will try this later but I've a question: how did you configure this: " mp3tag->options-> tag panel to show my custom tag 'rootfolder'."

 

Thanks for sharing this with us

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ginjaninja

Looks interesting will try this later but I've a question: how did you configure this: " mp3tag->options-> tag panel to show my custom tag 'rootfolder'."

 

 

i went to the options for tag panel shown in the 2nd screenshot.

click add field

Field:ROOTFOLDER (has to be capitalised)

Name:rootfolder

Click OK

(note view menu / ctrl-Q to show tag panel)

 

NB: to add 'rootfolder' column to the main view (over and above the 'tag panel' on lhs (see 1st screen shot)

Right click on columns

customise columns

click new

Name:Anything you want suggest 'rootfolder'

Field:%rootfolder%

Value:%rootfolder%

 

does this work for you?

 

the rootfolder tag is optional if you are content with the single design (for all content)

 W:\MUSIC\Albumartist\(Year) Album\[Discnumber_]Tracknumber. Title.

 

FWIW, the rootfolder tag has another useful use case, as part of the rootfolder tag's priority in action 6.

Sometimes an album artist might be different, but you consider them to be part of the same album artists body of work. eg artist had a name change in career.

I use the rootfolder value to ensure all content from the same album artist is kept together on the filesystem, whilst maintaining fidelity with musicbrainz in the tags (a personal preference)

 

For me the rootfolder tag is a future proof, If i were ever to move content physically in future, i can do so in an automated/scripted fashion using the mp3tag scripting engine as all content in the collection has a prescribed / identifiable / modifiable location in the current and any potential future organisation structure. I dont want to ever have to resort to tidying up the collection manually again. By creating a new rule set i should be able to structure my music collection in any way i choose automatically using mp3tag...well thats the idea.

Edited by ginjaninja
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AlwinHummels

Thanks for your reply I'll test this later, First I try toe understand what all the scripts mean and will do :-) My English is not so good so I have to translate it first :) to Dutch so I hope I can understand it a little bit more.

 

Again thanks for sharing your info

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  • 2 months later...
ginjaninja

%composer% MATCHES (;|,| and |&|'+'| over | vs | vs. | feat. | featuring | feat |'\'|'+'| with |'w/'|'/w'| inc |' inc.') AND NOT %composer% MATCHES (/|, Jr)

 

 

i used this filter to identify tracks whos composers were not split properly...and tidied them up.

use with care 99% right.

i excluded '/' on the assumption that if the character was already present then it was likely already split correctly,

I excluded ", Jr." as this was a common correct use of a comma, and not eligable for a split..

 

I created an action which replaced a set of undesirable splitting characters/words with "/"

eg change " & " to "/"

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  • 5 months later...
ginjaninja

My preferred split character is now ; (semi colon) as it is compatible with MB3 and WMP for the most part (save album artist).

For album artist tag, when using mp3tag, there is an argument for using '\\' for split,  '\\' causes WMP to ignore the 2nd value, so at least the album shows up correctly under the 1st (read 'primary' as seen by collector) album artist (prior to \\ split).

 

Note ffprobe (MB3)  supports '\\' split for flac (both album artists show/mb3 appreciates multiple album artists) but this support seems to have been rescinded for mp3

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/3125#comment:3

Edited by ginjaninja
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  • 4 months later...
AlwinHummels

Strange behavior, I download the file again and like to use it again but i seems like some actions are empty. What did I do wrong?

Hope someone can help me to fix.

 

2nd question How can I replace the "&" in %ARTIST% to ";" except "& The" and the same for "and" except for "and the".

The "& The" and the "and the" must be unharmed.

Edited by AlwinHummels
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ginjaninja

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84611964/Mp3tagSettings.zip

 

latest copy of my actions, may have been a few changes since original post...

 

"2nd question How can I replace the "&" in %ARTIST% to ";" except "& The" and the same for "and" except for "and the"."

 

if in the context of an action..you could either do manually using a filter to filter in\out these usecases or in the action itself..

you could with highest priory replace "& The" with "ampersanddefinitearctle" and "and the" with "alsodefinitearticle" - or some other unique to library code words

then  you could replace " & / and " with ";"

then you could replace "ampersanddefinitearctle" and "alsodefinitearticle" with "& The" and "and The" respectively..

 

ie use string uniqueness and the priority within actions to achieve the end result in a very inelegant fashion..

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AlwinHummels

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84611964/Mp3tagSettings.zip

 

latest copy of my actions, may have been a few changes since original post...

 

"2nd question How can I replace the "&" in %ARTIST% to ";" except "& The" and the same for "and" except for "and the"."[/size]

 

if in the context of an action..you could either do manually using a filter to filter in\out these usecases or in the action itself..[/size]

you could with highest priory replace "& The" with "ampersanddefinitearctle" and "and the" with "alsodefinitearticle" - or some other unique to library code words[/size]

then  you could replace " & / and " with ";"[/size]

then you could replace "[/size]ampersanddefinitearctle" and "[/size]alsodefinitearticle" with "& The" and "and The" respectively..[/size]

 

ie use string uniqueness and the priority within actions to achieve the end result in a very inelegant fashion..

Can you help me to make this exception filter? So it shows all files but tot the ones with "& The" OR "and the" in the %ARTIST%

I've looked and tried to search but nothing worked for me.

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ginjaninja

%artist% NOT MATCHES (& The|and The)

might need to add the case alternatives lowercase the.

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AlwinHummels

Unfortunately this does not work it still shows me everything, when I remove the "NOT" from the filter it shows only the "& The" and "and The"

 

but thankt for helping me sofar

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ginjaninja

Unfortunately this does not work it still shows me everything, when I remove the "NOT" from the filter it shows only the "& The" and "and The"

 

but thankt for helping me sofar

NOT %artist% MATCHES (& The|and The)

 

Not goes at begining

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