Multi-Disc albums separated by disc

[StewieGreen 156]

I have some large boxsets (upwards of 66 discs) and it would be massively convenient if multi disc albums had the option to be treated more like collections (so select boxset, then album, then track) rather than one massive album (select boxset, scroll..., select track).

 

If each disc could be titled it would be even better.

 

All this info (disc names etc) is already available of musicbrainz.

[d00zah 136]

All this info (disc names etc) is already available of musicbrainz.

All my music (tagged with MusicBrainz Picard) displays the way you describe in Emby when the following tags are embedded in music tracks:

 

totaldiscs

discnumber

totaltracks (where value is 'per disc')

 

Emby reads / uses tag data, rather than pulling from MB db via API.

 

Displays albums with a track list broken up by Disc... just not collapsible.

 

[StewieGreen 156]

Displays albums with a track list broken up by Disc... just not collapsible.

 

Yes, that's exactly how mine are displayed, and that's the problem, it displays it like the discs are part of a single massive album, but for boxsets like Satchmo or The Complete Works of Fritz Reiner, it's not a single massive album, it's a collection - often separated on disc thematically or chronologically.  Often the disc names (which aren't in Emby's metadata - and should be) also help sort out what is on a disc.

 

For those reasons, it would be helpful if multidisc boxsets displayed as separate albums (within the boxset - similar to movie collections) - and not lists of tracks.

 

And actually, collapsible discs isn't a bad compromise...

[d00zah 136]

And actually, collapsible discs isn't a bad compromise...

With editable 'Disc x' label!

 

Being an extreme case, this may be as good as it gets for the time being. The dev focus always seems to be elsewhere.

 

To this end. I've occasionally forced multi-album re-releases into the original, discrete components, but in the cases you cite this would take some work. Your OCD may vary...

 

In another case, I embedded album-specific cover art into music tracks for the different discs since, at one point, Emby correctly displayed individual embedded artwork, but this changed a while back.

Edited July 22, 2018 by d00zah

[Luke 38498]

The other option is separating them in the folder structure sufficiently enough that they become separate albums. Granted, that will only work for right now while we still depend on some folder structure. Once we become fully tag-driven that workaround wouldn't work anymore.

[d00zah 136]

The other option is separating them in the folder structure sufficiently enough that they become separate albums. Granted, that will only work for right now while we still depend on some folder structure. Once we become fully tag-driven that workaround wouldn't work anymore.

What I meant by "To this end. I've occasionally forced multi-album re-releases into the original, discrete components...".

 

However, becoming "fully tag-driven" completely ignores the OP's request, & removes the suggested work-around. Hardly a solution.

[StewieGreen 156]

Tags would actually work very well, but emby would need comprehensive album & track metadata (composer, conductor, players, yr recorded, yr released etc etc) for it to work. Its completely possible (with musicbrainz).

 

I know they're small groups, but emby would have classical and jazz lovers interested because music players with extensive tagging are few and far between.

[d00zah 136]

Tags would actually work very well, but emby would need comprehensive album & track metadata (composer, conductor, players, yr recorded, yr released etc etc) for it to work. Its completely possible (with musicbrainz).

 

I know they're small groups, but emby would have classical and jazz lovers interested because music players with extensive tagging are few and far between.

My bad. Sounds like a step in the right direction. I look forward to the update.

[StewieGreen 156]

Luke, are there plans to support as much metadata as possible for music? Even iTunes falls short of being ideal for jazz and classical listeners and don't get me started on Plex.

[Luke 38498]

What would you like to see? Best thing to do is create feature request topics. Thanks !

[StewieGreen 156]

My bad. Sounds like a step in the right direction. I look forward to the update.

 

Well ... could be a step in the right direction ...  I'm optimistic though

[d00zah 136]

Well ... could be a step in the right direction ...  I'm optimistic though

'Sounds like...', 'Could be...'. Both carefully qualified. At the very least, 'fully tag-driven' should improve identification of media/artists.

 

I'm curious... what tool did you use to write all that tag detail to a 60-disc boxset? My experience with Picard is that it's fairly easy to choke/overwhelm it.

Edited July 25, 2018 by d00zah

[StewieGreen 156]

I'm redoing all my Classical music right now with Picard 1.4.2 (with a Classical plugin).  I just treat her gently and don't expect to much at once (I keep it around 200 tracks at a time), but once it finds the boxset it's fast and much more reliable.  I did a 170 disc Mozart boxset, Picard separated it into sections (operas, concertos, symphonies etc...) with fewer discs (20-30 per section) and it was so seamless that I hardly even realized (musicbrainz call them pseudo-releases).  I'm working on J.S. Bach 142 disc set right now, and it is being separated in to sections as well.

**If you listen to Classical check out the Compete Editions from Brilliant.  It's super cheap and the quality of the performances have been acclaimed by critics (the company is basically a single classical pianist who wants to make the music more accessible).  It's all paper sleeve CDs (to cut costs) but once it's on the computer, who cares!  I have Mozart, Bach and Beethoven - it's 412 discs.  **

 

Picard has been great for classical (esp boxsets), but with my single albums I find it likes to scatter the songs among different singles and EPs when, in fact, they're all from the studio album.  I've almost given up using it for anything but classical.

[d00zah 136]

I'm redoing all my Classical music right now with Picard 1.4.2 (with a Classical plugin).  I just treat her gently and don't expect to much at once (I keep it around 200 tracks at a time), but once it finds the boxset it's fast and much more reliable.  I did a 170 disc Mozart boxset, Picard separated it into sections (operas, concertos, symphonies etc...) with fewer discs (20-30 per section) and it was so seamless that I hardly even realized (musicbrainz call them pseudo-releases).  I'm working on J.S. Bach 142 disc set right now, and it is being separated in to sections as well.

 

**If you listen to Classical check out the Compete Editions from Brilliant.  It's super cheap and the quality of the performances have been acclaimed by critics (the company is basically a single classical pianist who wants to make the music more accessible).  It's all paper sleeve CDs (to cut costs) but once it's on the computer, who cares!  I have Mozart, Bach and Beethoven - it's 412 discs.  **

 

Picard has been great for classical (esp boxsets), but with my single albums I find it likes to scatter the songs among different singles and EPs when, in fact, they're all from the studio album.  I've almost given up using it for anything but classical.

'treat her gently' is, without  a doubt, the key. I use some plug-ins, as well, & I vaguely recall installation being coincident with stability issues. But it's a tool, & one of the best I've found..

 

I'll look into some other music. The bulk of my old jazz & classical are on vinyl and:

1) my cartridge suspension is shot

2) it takes a long time to rip vinyl to digital... & subsequent import into Emby

3) while pleasant when I'm 'in the mood', my tastes are far too broad to get mired down in that time sync too often.

 

Thanks again fo the recommendations & tagger feedback. Good luck in your quest for a little Emby-love for music!

Edited July 25, 2018 by d00zah

[StewieGreen 156]

Can we get an option to treat multi-disc albums like a collection (separate albums under the one album) rather than a single, very long album.  Even 3 - 4 disc albums are a nuisance navigating when all the songs, from every disc are strung together in a long list.  My 40 & 60 disc collections are nearly impossible to navigate.  Also, many have album art for each disc, and many discs are even individually named (and those names often available through MusicBrainz picard).

Plus it would be more like choosing an actual album.

 

Thanks

[Luke 38498]

Hi, you might be able to do that now in folder view.

[StewieGreen 156]

Any chance of viewing/sort by composer in folder (table view)?

Also, I set up musicbrainz to rename my multidisc albums so that the album tag is now: [album name] ([disc #]:[disc subtitle]) - but that change isn't reflected in Emby - the albums still show up as one album with a massive list of songs instead of individual albums (which is what I was expecting since they're all named differently and are in different folders).  Is there any way to get emby to recognize them as different albums?

[Luke 38498]

6 minutes ago, adamstewiegreen said:

Any chance of viewing/sort by composer in folder (table view)?

Also, I set up musicbrainz to rename my multidisc albums so that the album tag is now: [album name] ([disc #]:[disc subtitle]) - but that change isn't reflected in Emby - the albums still show up as one album with a massive list of songs instead of individual albums (which is what I was expecting since they're all named differently and are in different folders).  Is there any way to get emby to recognize them as different albums?

If the files are tagged with music brainz ids then they'll need to be different too.

[Vicpa 602]

Hi

Displaying multi-disc albums as suggested above would be incorrect for 99% of my music library. The genre's in my library Jazz, Rock for example consider a multi-disc album as a single work. The example of 40 cd's in single "Album" is probably only applicable for some Classical "Albums"

 

-vicpa 

[FrostByte 5184]

Merged with your other request

Edited June 20, 2022 by FrostByte

[FrostByte 5184]

On 7/22/2018 at 5:28 AM, adamstewiegreen said:

I have some large boxsets (upwards of 66 discs) and it would be massively convenient if multi disc albums had the option to be treated more like collections (so select boxset, then album, then track) rather than one massive album (select boxset, scroll..., select track).

 

If each disc could be titled it would be even better.

 

All this info (disc names etc) is already available of musicbrainz.

I also have a Beethoven boxset which is 100 discs long.  So, some kind of indication of what's on disc X would be helpful in choosing which sonata or symphony a person wishes to listen to.

The DISC TITLE or DISCSUBTITLE field used by musicbrainz which ffprobe sees as TSST could be added to the db if not there already.

 

Then the title of the disc could be placed next to the disc #

Example:

Disc 1 Disc Title

Disc 2 Disc Title

 

 

[StewieGreen 156]

On 6/20/2022 at 11:21 AM, Luke said:

If the files are tagged with music brainz ids then they'll need to be different too.

Ok, so I took one of my box sets, ran it through musicbrainz so that it renamed the album of every disc to include disc number and disc subtitle (plus I had it organize all the discs into separate folders) then I deleted the MusicBrainz Album ID for every song.  Refreshed Emby, and all the discs are still in one album.

Any ideas on getting them into separate albums?

[Luke 38498]

10 hours ago, adamstewiegreen said:

Ok, so I took one of my box sets, ran it through musicbrainz so that it renamed the album of every disc to include disc number and disc subtitle (plus I had it organize all the discs into separate folders) then I deleted the MusicBrainz Album ID for every song.  Refreshed Emby, and all the discs are still in one album.

Any ideas on getting them into separate albums?

Refreshed how?

[StewieGreen 156]

39 minutes ago, Luke said:

Refreshed how?

I scanned the library files and refreshed the metadata.  Also, I deleted the musicbrainz album ID from the album itself, saved it and locked it.  Every disc has a different album name (as well as no musicbrainz album ID) so I don't understand why now it still stays as one album.

[Luke 38498]

Do the tracks all have the correct values in the metadata editor?