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How to group albums by CD #

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 12:28 am
by wiz
I cant' figure out how to do this or if it can even be done in MM. On all of my albums that have multiple CDs all of the music for all of the tracks are listed in MM under a single album name. So if I wanted to play the 3rd CD of an album I can't since all the tracks are listed together and not by CD.

All of my music for single CD albums is stored as K:/music/master/<Artist>/<Album>/<Track> - <Title>

For multi CD albums it is stored as K:/music/master/<Artist>/<Album>/CD <CD #>/<Track> - <Title>

Also for multi CD albums the Disc tag is used to identify the CD #. They are tagged as CD #/Total # of CDs. For example 1/2, 2/2. The Album tag contains just the name of the album.

For playing my music at home I use a Squeezebox Duet with SqueezeCenter (SC). SC organizes my multi CD albums in its library as Album name (Disc Disc # of Total # of Discs). For example - AC/DC Live (Disk 1 of 2) and AC/DC Live (Disk 2 of 2). In MM all I have is AC/DC Live with all tracks from both CDs.

So the question is how can I get MM to do the same thing? How do I get MM to use the Disc tag to organize its library? I use MM to sync to my iPod so I would want this to carry over to the iPod also.

Don

Re: How to group albums by CD #

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 1:42 pm
by Lowlander
MediaMonkey doesn't split albums by CD, it can use the Disc# for sorting, but it will still be under the same album.

If you want to split albums by CD in the Explorer Tree you can check out the MagicNodes or MyCustomeNodes scripts as they most likely will be able to do this in the Explorer Tree.

Re: How to group albums by CD #

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 2:07 pm
by kjaem24
You can split the CD's, but you have to name each CD according to its Disc #. I know because I used to have my multi-CD discs organized like this in MM. For instance, highlight all the songs in MM for disc 1 of ACDC Live, and rename it Live (Disc 1). Then, highlight all the songs for disc 2 and rename them Live (Disc 2). You album will now be split in MM because the actual titles have changed.

Re: How to group albums by CD #

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 3:03 pm
by wiz
kjaem24 wrote:You can split the CD's, but you have to name each CD according to its Disc #. I know because I used to have my multi-CD discs organized like this in MM. For instance, highlight all the songs in MM for disc 1 of ACDC Live, and rename it Live (Disc 1). Then, highlight all the songs for disc 2 and rename them Live (Disc 2). You album will now be split in MM because the actual titles have changed.
Yeah I know I could do that and it is probably what I will wind up doing but its a shame to have to do this manually when MM should be using the tags that already contain this info. What good is having all this tag info if MM doesn't use it.

Re: How to group albums by CD #

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 3:32 pm
by Benn
Having the same album title (eg, The Wall) and just using single digits in the disc # tag works for me. Granted, it doesn't appear in the node, but in track list view it should show the album in disc order then track order, as long as as the header columns arn't sorted by track # at all.

Re: How to group albums by CD #

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 3:34 pm
by Eyal

Re: How to group albums by CD #

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:24 pm
by wiz
Benn wrote:Having the same album title (eg, The Wall) and just using single digits in the disc # tag works for me. Granted, it doesn't appear in the node, but in track list view it should show the album in disc order then track order, as long as as the header columns arn't sorted by track # at all.
That is the way I have it now. However you can't select just one CD of a multi CD set to play this way. Plus when you sync to the iPod all the songs of a multi-disc album are all listed under one album name. I guess I'll wind up using the rename method. It's a shame that MM doesn't use the tags properly.

Re: How to group albums by CD #

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:56 pm
by Lowlander
wiz wrote:It's a shame that MM doesn't use the tags properly.
I fail to see how MediaMonkey doesn't use the tags properly when it supports the disc# field, especially as you indicate that the iPod behaves the same way.

I do support the suggestion that there is an option added to split albums by CD and treat these CD's in the same manner albums are treated currently.

Re: How to group albums by CD #

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:14 pm
by wiz
Lowlander wrote:I fail to see how MediaMonkey doesn't use the tags properly when it supports the disc# field, especially as you indicate that the iPod behaves the same way.
Displaying the tag and having MM actualy use it for something useful besides sorting are two different things.

The iPod behaves the same way because that is how MM synced the music to the iPod.

Re: How to group albums by CD #

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:20 pm
by wiz
Is there a way to rename an album in the MM library without changing the actual tags in the tracks? I tried renaming as kjaem24 suggested but it changed the title tag on the tracks. While this fixes my MM issue it then creates an issue in SqueezeCenter.

Re: How to group albums by CD #

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:39 pm
by Lowlander
Turn off "Update tags when editing properties" under Tools > Options > Library. This will disable all tag updates you make.

Re: How to group albums by CD #

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:03 pm
by wiz
Lowlander wrote:Turn off "Update tags when editing properties" under Tools > Options > Library. This will disable all tag updates you make.
Great. Thanks!