a rethink of old ideas

[larsmark]

I have been trolling throught the forums and discovered the following interesting posts in no particular order

• Library referencing one file in several places
• Replace duplicates with shortcuts or hard links
• One song, multiple albums
• Looking for script
• MediaMonkey using Hardlinks, Junctions and Symbolic Links
• A better approach than Virtual CD?
• automatic Album Organisation
• My MM3 Wishlist - not Fraxavs post more the discussion around tagging
• Virtual CD... How does this work?? not really the same, but could achive same result?
• probably many more I have yet to locate could somebody please point me to more posts on this interesting topic

the following pages referance scripts that might help with this idea however because of there age nolonger seem to exist.

• new Script: hard links
• Wanted: Guinea pigs....
• probably several more please advise if you know of any.

other forum pages that may help with this discussion

• Track Redirection & Synchronization 3.3.4 (2011-01-17)[MM3+]
• iDate Added 1.5
• Adding Last Fm Plays from textfile 0.1
• probably several more please advise if you know of any.

[larsmark]

this idea appears to have been approached and reproached numorious times and each time appears to be shot down in flames surely somebody has sorted this.
in this post I shall attempt to argue some of the points from each of threads in the first post.

• Library referencing one file in several places

• And while it would be great to have support for managing hardlinks in MM, I suspect that is a bit too low level system to see any time soon."

it appears that for a short time long before that post was made a script existed to manage just that,,, new Script: hard links

• Replace duplicates with shortcuts or hard links

• There was a method for Windows XP described a long time ago. As harddrive prices have dropped and sizes increased there hasn't been a lot of interest in this feature. If nobody replies with help you might want to search the forum. I do believe it was only a manual method, I don't think a script exists for this.

• My MM3 Wishlist
• some good discussion even referance material to how it might be achived but nothing more and this was bak in 2008

the script did exist once and infact this very reply points to that script when noting the double post I can see why interest dropped with advances in hard Drive technology however it is simply the matter of audio management, say if better quietly audio can be puchased from somewhere like itunes, i would save the hassle of overwriting several files

• One song, multiple albums
• "But as storage becomes cheaper the problem gets smaller...." yes but its more about audio manageability now

• Though, adding multi-Album could get rather messy, because a song may be on two different albums, but those albums aren't always released the same year, don't always have the same album artist, and typically don't have the same track number. So really, you get into a really messy situation when trying to enter information for two different albums into one songs fields, you know?

  I have some ideas on this but that can wait in the mean time what is wrong with the track redirection script in above post of handling such events, or as using the hard links script to create references containing information such as year/album etc in the "fake" file paths

• But if it is, I assume it would have to be a solution that only affected the MM library. The original tag, with its year and track number, must be left unchanged.

  as above use either filepaths or helper files to store tags

• All I am saying is that thought should be made into how this could be done, at the very least to make this feature compatible with portable devices.

  why would portable mp3 players have to know about the duplicates, would it not be taken care of behind the scenes during a sync? - ie when files/albums are synced to device multiple copies of a file are placed on the player as usaual, after all the sync function coverts formats on the fly so I don't see this to be a issue.
• lots of other arguments about how to handle this problem but only thing close is the "Track Redirection & Synchronization 3.3.4" by ZvezdanD (thank you by the way) and lots of discussion about duplicate removal,

• Let me apologize for putting a damper on this conversation, but the big thing I see, is that even though a track may be "duplicated" in multiple albums, I find that there are usually different versions (a Live Version, the Original Version, a Remixed Version, etc.) So the idea would be definitely to keep this optional, and while a great idea, as storage becomes cheap, it may become irrelevant....

  well this is down to user preference, but I would put every instance in the album then manually alter the album list prior to sync of play.

Looking for script thread is directed to the previously new Script: hard links script that appears to nolonger exist.

• MediaMonkey using Hardlinks, Junctions and Symbolic Links

• No, it is not a solution at all. Different albums have different Years, different Track numbers, different Publishers, ...

• well I purpose that the tag differences be handled for augments sake by filenames of the hard links or after alot of discussion "Track Redirection & Synchronization 3.3.4" by ZvezdanD again appears in coversation:

• Why don't you implement support for ASX or XPSF files as I suggested many times before? It could be solution for this.

• well yes that is one way of handling the situation however,,,,,

• A better approach than Virtual CD?

• What you want has been requested many many times.
  
  - Multiple albums PER TRACK.
  
  This has nothing really to do with virtual cd.
  
  There is currently no good way to do this.
  
  What you want is called Single Instance Storage and it is a non-trivial concept to implement.
  
  You can also try googling for Hard Links also, which you can use to make 'hard' shortcut files representing a single physical file (this will not affect the METADATA tho).

  - its been over since this topic I cant belive there has been no improvement - purhaps with ASX files providing metadata aspur above?

• automatic Album Organisation
• it appears "lost" had much the same idea way back in 2007 and got no reply!

[larsmark]

in short I am after assistance to create the following script: (ignoring versioning, (ie year/live/remix) cause I can easaly remove these dupicates on a album by album basis later):

the hard links script appears to have created the folder structure I was after but I can not find a copy of said script.


files are arranged files as per hardlinks did - hex filenaming refer post above - with verified tags for Artist & Title
script looks up song gets a list of albums file is on.
note:link refers to any method ie (hard links with own folder structure or asx files etc)
creates :"link" for each album, as space will not be an issue each "album" could have multiple entries for some songs (ie Live/re-release/etc) to be sorted later - either by hand or later improvements.

to break it down I believe the first order of business would be to identify the list of albums the song ever features on by that artist consider the following abstract example with referance to trixmoto's musicip tagger script:

example cd: David Bowie, the platinum collection, Disc 3
http://www.amazon.com/Platinum-Collecti ... l_3#disc_3
example track: track 11. Cat People (Putting Out The Fire)

I am after a method of identifying every album that said track is on, not just the mono-album tag thats selected by the tagger

xml from musicbrainz reveling that "Cat people" is found in various incarnations on several albums:
http://musicbrainz.org/ws/1/track/?type ... 20Bowie%22

[ZvezdanD]

I am not sure that understand what you really want, but I suppose that would be better if you post your question(s) to some of the mentioned thread, then to create the new one with such non-descriptive subject.

Did you try the Track Redirection & Synchronization add-on at all? It already has a possibility to create the links between files, even between different ones (e.g. original/live/remix). You could also specify the Master (Original) folder and the folder with the copies of tracks, if you have for example the same albums with same tracks in several formats (e.g. mp3 & flac). Please read carefully its Description and Usage sections and I am sure you will find that it already could do what you need.

[larsmark]

actually I created a new thread because of the age of the other threads and the fact they pretty much cover the samething it would mean repeating my request on each of those threads making it rather confusing with multiple conversations, when one will suffice, dont you think,

anyway with regards to your script could you advise how to do the following:
from (one track as follow)
C:\MUSIC\Artist\SongTitle.mp3
to multiple tracks without
C:\Compressed Music\Artist\<Album1>\SongTitle.ASX
C:\Compressed Music\Artist\<Album2>\SongTitle.ASX

now I suppose I could use auto-organise to copy the songs from C:\MUSIC\Artist\SongTitle.mp3 to C:\Compressed Music\Artist\Album\SongTitle.mp3
and then replace "C:\Compressed Music" with ASX files
but this would require me to have album data in the first place.
I am unable to see how I can use your script without having existing tags???

I am thinking a personalised script would have to be created to achive this result or if your script can do this please advise how?
what I am thinking is script could function much as it does now one master file identified by (Artist+Album)
but instead of replacing other albums that exist in database.
it creates new "albums" instead of MP3s, script places ASX files under albums

http://www.audioranger.com/delete_dupli ... songs.html promises to create new files to fill gaps in albums unfortunately it appears to have stopped development.

[ZvezdanD]

The last post in the Track Redirection & Synchronization thread (and the last update of that add-on as well) was at Jan 17, 2011, so I cannot say it is old thread. Maybe the other threads relating to that problem are aged because the mentioned add-on eventually resolved such problem?

I suppose that you didn't read the Usage section of the mentioned add-on, nor you tried it by yourself. Yes, you could create .asx files even if you don't have audio files with which you want to replace them. If you take a look at the first screenshot in the first post of the mentioned thread you would see the text "You could choose the Album with the track which you want to replace with an .asx metafile ... or you could specify the target .asx filename in the File Path field if you don't have a duplicate." So, with your example you should do the next:
1. select track C:\MUSIC\Artist\SongTitle.mp3 in the main tracklist;
2. choose Tools > Track Redirection > Create Redirections for Specified Tracks... option;
3. select Create .asx metafile and replace: option (if it is not already selected);
4. select Track from specified Album option (if it is not already selected);
5. specify path with filename of the .asx file which you want to create in the File Path text box, e.g. C:\Compressed Music\Artist\<Album1>\SongTitle.ASX (if you use the ... button to specify path, you should choose ASX files as Files of type);
6. click on the OK button.

You could repeat these steps as many times as you want with the same master (original) audio file and with the different target .asx files.

If you have some additional questions about the Track Redirection & Synchronization add-on, please post them in its thread because they could be interesting for other users of that add-on as well.

[larsmark]

picky over ageism huh? - anyway I get your point. maybe it did. and for the most part does so, however it takes off subject

I tried it before my last reply however perhaps a demo with live data, that I was sure I had posted early but appear to have missed out, will allow me to demostrate what I am after, see next post,,,,

re posting in the thread of the addon I was trying to keep the conversation easy to track with out tying up that thread until I had it sorted,,
and besides I believe for most people your script functions perfectly just not for me, purhaps with enough code samples I can make to nec changes most of the code to achive my intended result does in fact exist spread across several scripts

[larsmark]

The last post in the Track Redirection & Synchronization thread (and the last update of that add-on as well) was at Jan 17, 2011, so I cannot say it is old thread.

well duh, that threads about the ongoing development of a addon in development, an addon that, as I referenced about, partally - well almost fully, actually does most of the work I wish to achive.

Yes, you could create .asx files even if you don't have audio files with which you want to replace them.

actually I never said you couldn't create such files keep reading to find my problem with this issue

you would see the text "You could choose the Album with the track which you want to replace with an .asx metafile ... or you could specify the target .asx filename in the File Path field if you don't have a duplicate."

well actually I don't even find anything i think comes close but thats irrelevant cause that just tells me that I can however on with your demonstration.

1. select track C:\MUSIC\Artist\SongTitle.mp3 in the main tracklist;
2. choose Tools > Track Redirection > Create Redirections for Specified Tracks... option;
3. select Create .asx metafile and replace: option (if it is not already selected);
4. select Track from specified Album option (if it is not already selected);
5. specify path with filename of the .asx file which you want to create in the File Path text box, e.g. C:\Compressed Music\Artist\<Album1>\SongTitle.ASX (if you use the ... button to specify path, you should choose ASX files as Files of type);
6. click on the OK button.

if I understand correctly this is the outcome I should have



that produces the a "error happened during script execution, write to file failed" and no file
but that could be because im using MM 4.0
more likely its because it cant understand the varables because naming the file "E:\David Bowie\compressed\The Platinum Collection (disc 3)\Let's Dance.asx"
after creating the folder structure "E:\David Bowie\compressed\The Platinum Collection (disc 3)\"
it produces a file containing the following:

Code: Select all

<ASX version = "3.0">
  <PARAM NAME = "Encoding" VALUE = "utf-8" />
  <TITLE>MediaMonkey redirection file</TITLE>
  <ABSTRACT>Generated with Track Redirection script</ABSTRACT>
  <COPYRIGHT>(C) 2009-2011 by Zvezdan Dimitrijevic</COPYRIGHT>
  <ENTRY>
    <REF HREF = "E:\David Bowie\Platinum Edition CD3\David Bowie  -The Platinum Collection (disc 3) - 1 - Let's Dance.mp3" />
    <TITLE>Let's Dance</TITLE>
    <AUTHOR>David Bowie</AUTHOR>
    <PARAM NAME = "WM/AlbumTitle" VALUE = "The Platinum Collection (disc 3)" />
    <PARAM NAME = "WM/AlbumArtist" VALUE = "David Bowie" />
    <PARAM NAME = "Length" VALUE = "244715" />
  </ENTRY>
</ASX>

I refer you to the following
Track listing of the The Platinum Collection (disc 3 courtesy) of built in track listing report

Code: Select all

MediaMonkey Track List
# 	Artist 	Title 	Length 	Album 	Track # 	Year 	Genre 	Rating 	Bitrate 	Media
1	David Bowie	Let's Dance	4:04	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	1	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
2	David Bowie	Ashes to Ashes	3:34	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	2	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
3	David Bowie	Under Pressure	4:02	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	3	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
4	David Bowie	Fashion	3:24	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	4	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
5	David Bowie	Modern Love	3:54	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	5	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
6	David Bowie	China Girl	4:13	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	6	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
7	David Bowie	Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)	3:30	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	7	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
8	David Bowie	Up the Hill Backwards	3:13	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	8	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
9	David Bowie	Alabama Song	3:48	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	9	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
10	David Bowie	Drowned Girl	2:23	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	10	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
11	David Bowie	Cat People (Putting Out Fire)	4:09	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	11	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
12	David Bowie	This Is Not America	3:48	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	12	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
13	David Bowie	Loving the Alien	7:06	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	13	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
14	David Bowie	Absolute Beginners	5:34	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	14	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
15	David Bowie	When the Wind Blows	3:31	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	15	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
16	David Bowie	Blue Jean	3:13	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	16	2005	Rock	 	128	MUSIC
17	David Bowie	Day-In Day-Out	4:08	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	17	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
18	David Bowie	Time Will Crawl	4:15	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	18	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
19	David Bowie	Underground	4:23	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	19	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC

the same files after they have been scanned by musicip tagger.

Code: Select all

MediaMonkey Track List

# 	Artist 	Title 	Length 	Album 	Track # 	Year 	Genre 	Rating 	Bitrate 	Media
1	David Bowie	Let's Dance	4:04	The Best of David Bowie 1980-1987	1	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
2	David Bowie	Ashes To Ashes	3:34	The Singles 1969 to 1993 (disc 2)	5	1993	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
3	David Bowie	Under Pressure	4:02	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	3	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
4	David Bowie	Fashion	3:24	Best of Bowie (disc 2)	6	2002	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
5	David Bowie	Modern Love	3:54	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	5	2002	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
6	David Bowie	China Girl	4:13	Best of Bowie	4	2002	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
7	David Bowie	Scary Monsters (& Super Creeps)	3:30	Best of Bowie (disc 2)	7	2002	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
8	David Bowie	Up The Hill Backwards	3:13	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	8	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
9	David Bowie	Alabama Song	3:48	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	9	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
10	David Bowie	Drowned Girl	2:23	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	10	2007	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
11	David Bowie	Cat People (Putting Out Fire)	4:09	The Best of David Bowie 1980-1987	11	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
12	David Bowie	This Is Not America	3:48	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	12	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
13	David Bowie	Loving The Alien	7:06	Sound + Vision (disc 3)	16	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
14	David Bowie	Absolute Beginners	5:34	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	14	1986	Rock/Pop	 	192	MUSIC
15	David Bowie	When The Wind Blows	3:31	The Best of David Bowie 1980-1987	15	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
16	David Bowie	Blue Jean	3:13	Changesbowie	18	1994	Rock	 	128	MUSIC
17	David Bowie	Day-In Day-Out	4:08	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	17	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
18	David Bowie	Time Will Crawl	4:15	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	18	1987	Rock	 	192	MUSIC
19	David Bowie	Underground	4:23	The Platinum Collection (disc 3)	19	2005	Rock	 	192	MUSIC

you will notice above (by the way I no actual tags were harmed in this demostration it is an xtract example to prove where I am coming from?
of course I did not need to idedify these tracks.

if these files are placed in the Directory "E:\David Bowie" how do I create ASXs files in the following path for each of the above track in the folder " "E:\David Bowie\The Platinum Collection (disc 3)"??

1. select track C:\MUSIC\Artist\SongTitle.mp3 in the main tracklist;
2. choose Tools > Track Redirection > Create Redirections for Specified Tracks... option;
3. change album name to "The Platinum Collection (disc 3)" - select from dropdown
4. change name in filepath to same as title - copy title to filepath dialog and add ASX
5. click on the OK button.
selecting multiple songs greys out the options screen

issues with above are:
how do I know what album to "add ASXs to" - manually?
if that I wish to add a ASX to multiple ALBUMS I have to repeat the process again??
if I select the wrong ALBUM from dropdown box the tags nolonger match the filename
I wish to create ASX files for albums that don't exist in database

take the above example as the XML from musicbrainz reveals
http://musicbrainz.org/ws/1/track/?type ... 20Bowie%22
track 11: cat people is on,say, 20 Albums

following above steps I have to
create the folder structure for all 20 albums
change the album name 20 times
change the file path 20 times

I am after and interface to this script that will automatically create the 20 diferent ASX files in the correct location with correct album tags this has a by product of no creating true ablums because several copies of some songs will be included in each "ALBUM" folder as ASXs but I shall tackle them as I play each album etc etc

[ZvezdanD]

The last post in the Track Redirection & Synchronization thread (and the last update of that add-on as well) was at Jan 17, 2011, so I cannot say it is old thread.

well duh, that threads about the ongoing development of a addon in development, an addon that, as I referenced about, partally - well almost fully, actually does most of the work I wish to achive.

That thread is about the add-on which could resolve many mentioned problems. Yes, its development is ongoing, but Track Redirection & Synchronization add-on was fully functional even with the 1.0 version. Maybe it has some functionality missing, but I bet it would be more practical to add missing options to it, then writing some new add-on from the ground which would have the same or less options.

Yes, you could create .asx files even if you don't have audio files with which you want to replace them.

actually I never said you couldn't create such files

Well, you said this: "I suppose I could use auto-organise to copy the songs from C:\MUSIC\Artist\SongTitle.mp3 to C:\Compressed Music\Artist\Album\SongTitle.mp3
and then replace "C:\Compressed Music" with ASX files". I explained that you don't need to use auto-organize and you don't need to have audio files in database for replacement to be able to create .asx files.

you would see the text "You could choose the Album with the track which you want to replace with an .asx metafile ... or you could specify the target .asx filename in the File Path field if you don't have a duplicate."

well actually I don't even find anything i think comes close but thats irrelevant cause that just tells me that I can however on with your demonstration.

I am sorry, but I really don't understand what you want to say. Are you telling me that the mentioned add-on cannot do what I have quoted?

that produces the a "error happened during script execution, write to file failed" and no file
but that could be because im using MM 4.0
more likely its because it cant understand the varables

You got the error because you have specified the path which is illegal by Windows file system. The File Path field of this add-on doesn't support variables, but if you want to create .asx file for some exiting album which is already stored into some folder, then you could choose that album from the Album dropdown list and the File Path field would be automatically modified with the same folder structure as it is with the first track from that album.

1. select track C:\MUSIC\Artist\SongTitle.mp3 in the main tracklist;
2. choose Tools > Track Redirection > Create Redirections for Specified Tracks... option;
3. change album name to "The Platinum Collection (disc 3)" - select from dropdown
4. change name in filepath to same as title - copy title to filepath dialog and add ASX
5. click on the OK button.
selecting multiple songs greys out the options screen

Yes, you need to perform the previous steps to each file individually when you want to create .asx files for tracks from some album which has not audio files already existing in database.

issues with above are:
how do I know what album to "add ASXs to" - manually?

How could the add-on know to which album you want to add .asx file if you not specify it manually?

if that I wish to add a ASX to multiple ALBUMS I have to repeat the process again??

Yes, you need to repeat that process again, I already said that ("You could repeat these steps as many times as you want with the same master (original) audio file and with the different target .asx files."). Again, how could the add-on know to which albums you want to create .asx files?

if I select the wrong ALBUM from dropdown box the tags nolonger match the filename

I don't understand what is a problem. Of course that you need to specify the correct album if you want to create the correct .asx file. How, the add-on could know that you have selected the wrong album?

I wish to create ASX files for albums that don't exist in database

Please, make a decision what you really want. You first said that you don't have album, then you said "I never said you couldn't create such files"... I am really sorry, but you should be more specific. I repeat, yes, you could create .asx files for albums which don't exists in database, but in that case you need to do that one by one file. The add-on cannot know to which album you want to add some new .asx file if it doesn't exists in database and if you don't specify that album. This add-on has nothing with the Internet, it cannot take data from Discogs or similar sites. However, even if I add such possibilities, how could the add-on know to which albums you want to add some .asx file?

Let say for example that you have the "David Bowie - Let's Dance" track from the official "Let's Dance" album in the database. That track could be found on dozen David Bowie's compilations, maybe even some soundtrack and live albums. Should the add-on pick information from Discogs about all albums which contain that track and create .asx files for all such albums? That would be ridiculous if you ask me. Why should I want to create .asx files for all compilations and all other albums (live, soundtracks, ...) containing the specified track which I don't want to have in database?

However, if you already have some compilation or similar album in database and you want to replace some songs from it with corresponding .asx files, then you could select multiple master files from another (e.g. official) album and the add-on would create multiple .asx files in one go (but only one album at once).

[larsmark]

actually heres another method that could work in theory will install Itunes in morning (its 1:30am here), and test a theory I have as follows
this would require no or little changes to the track redirection script.

calling, trixmoto - this theory uses a combination of your scripts
a by product of your iplaylist importer script (http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22914) is it edits the database creating ghost tracks if the files don't still exist in the same location as they did when Itunes.xml was created (understandable cause your not ment to use old itunes playlist etc)
what if,,,
user selects artist from list box (populated by list of artists in collection,
script finds list of albums by said artist - ala - discography report
<abstract> creates itunes library.xml containing playlists for each album referencing "new" file/folder structure then performing iplaylist import</abstract>
database is populated resulting in
REAL:\ARTIST\TITLE.MP3
and
FAKE:\ARTIST\ALBUM\TITLE.MP3
the fake links leading no where associated folder structure is created \ARTIST\ALBUM\TITLE etc (Purhaps 0kb mp3s also) to prevent redirection script from droping out and complaining no files were replaced
redirection script is then ran selecting the REAL path as MASTERS and replacing the FAKE Paths with Links (redirections/ASX) - whatever
fuzzy logic could determine if albums are complete
the database could then be cleared of missing "FAKE" tracks by a number of methods

[trixmoto]

I'm not really sure how getting iTunes involved helps your situation.

A listbox of all artists in your library would be totally unmanageable, some people have many many thousands.

You could find a list of albums for an artist, like my "Discography Report", but why create an .xml of the results which you then need to import?

Why do you want to create a real and a fake track for every track?

I don't think the "Track Redirection & Synchronization" script replaces paths in existing tracks, although I could be wrong. I think it always creates new tracks.

"Fuzzy logic could determine if albums are complete" - I love how you casually through this in. And based on what data?

You're then doing to delete the fake tracks? Then why create them in the first place?

[larsmark]

That thread is about the add-on which could resolve many mentioned problems. Yes, its development is ongoing, but Track Redirection & Synchronization add-on was fully functional even with the 1.0 version. Maybe it has some functionality missing, but I bet it would be more practical to add missing options to it, then writing some new add-on from the ground which would have the same or less options.

I never ment to infer that the addon was not fully functional, I was mearly pointing out why the thread has such reason activity

that IT HANDLES the Duplication well....
I REPEAT THE SCRIPT IS FINE FOR MOST USERS hence the reason for discussing it here and not there,
the reason I mentioned your addon in the first place was because it appears to handle the files references so brilliantly, hence
as I noted most of the what I am trying to achive allready exists in other scripts it would just be a matter of me getting a hand to put the pieces together

what I am trying to achieve was infact requested as recently as JUN last year here
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =4&t=50348

and then replace "C:\Compressed Music" with ASX files". I explained that you don't need to use auto-organize and you don't need to have audio files in database for replacement to be able to create .asx files.

you would see the text "You could choose the Album with the track which you want to replace with an .asx metafile ... or you could specify the target .asx filename in the File Path field if you don't have a duplicate."

well actually I don't even find anything i think comes close but thats irrelevant cause that just tells me that I can however on with your demonstration.

I am sorry, but I really don't understand what you want to say. Are you telling me that the mentioned add-on cannot do what I have quoted?

no it works fine "just couldn't find those exact words in that post, I then went on to continue with your instructions to perform these steps

that produces the a "error happened during script execution, write to file failed" and no file
but that could be because im using MM 4.0
more likely its because it cant understand the varables

You got the error because you have specified the path which is illegal by Windows file system. The File Path field of this add-on doesn't support variables, but if you want to create .asx file for some exiting album which is already stored into some folder, then you could choose that album from the Album dropdown list and the File Path field would be automatically modified with the same folder structure as it is with the first track from that album.
[/quote]
I wasn't questioning why I got the error persay more that the path I wanted was unachiveable I was experimenting to see if I could speed the process up with some standardised paths copied from well where ever, anyway that is not important!!! - I would appreciate it if you stopped nic picking every thing but,,,

Yes, you need to perform the previous steps to each file individually when you want to create .asx files for tracks from some album which has not audio files already existing in database.

issues with above are:
how do I know what album to "add ASXs to" - manually?

How could the add-on know to which album you want to add .asx file if you not specify it manually?

if that I wish to add a ASX to multiple ALBUMS I have to repeat the process again??

Yes, you need to repeat that process again, I already said that ("You could repeat these steps as many times as you want with the same master (original) audio file and with the different target .asx files."). Again, how could the add-on know to which albums you want to create .asx files?

if I select the wrong ALBUM from dropdown box the tags nolonger match the filename

I don't understand what is a problem. Of course that you need to specify the correct album if you want to create the correct .asx file. How, the add-on could know that you have selected the wrong album?

I wish to create ASX files for albums that don't exist in database

Please, make a decision what you really want. You first said that you don't have album, then you said "I never said you couldn't create such files"... I am really sorry, but you should be more specific. I repeat, yes, you could create .asx files for albums which don't exists in database, but in that case you need to do that one by one file. The add-on cannot know to which album you want to add some new .asx file if it doesn't exists in database and if you don't specify that album. This add-on has nothing with the Internet, it cannot take data from Discogs or similar sites. However, even if I add such possibilities, how could the add-on know to which albums you want to add some .asx file?

you actually answered your own argument here, I was refering the the createation of ASX files when no data exists in the data
this addon funtions perfectly fine without internet connectivity but since you ask, what if I narrows it down a bit - oh maybe the same list that you allready use,(the ones you already have in database???)

Let say for example that you have the "David Bowie - Let's Dance" track from the official "Let's Dance" album in the database. That track could be found on dozen David Bowie's compilations, maybe even some soundtrack and live albums. Should the add-on pick information from Discogs about all albums which contain that track and create .asx files for all such albums? That would be ridiculous if you ask me. Why should I want to create .asx files for all compilations and all other albums (live, soundtracks, ...) containing the specified track which I don't want to have in database?

However, if you already have some compilation or similar album in database and you want to replace some songs from it with corresponding .asx files, then you could select multiple master files from another (e.g. official) album and the add-on would create multiple .asx files in one go (but only one album at once).

actually lets dance exists in musicbrainz 138 times just how many of those are on a indivdual album and not simply a re-release of the same album or a single I do not know but that is beside the point, as you said creating 138 ASX files would be ridiculous, for most, and you wonder why I did not bring this up in the addons thread.........

however what if the creation of the files was limited to albums that either,
A) the Monkey already is aware of
B) limited to albums with single Artists
C) complilations are excluded

[larsmark]

I'm not really sure how getting iTunes involved helps your situation.

A listbox of all artists in your library would be totally unmanageable, some people have many many thousands.

You could find a list of albums for an artist, like my "Discography Report", but why create an .xml of the results which you then need to import?

you wouldn't need to create a list box, that would be recreating the artists node in database besides you could read from selected file

well I was pointing out that you COULD create and import a XML file, but your right I would ultimately handle the whole process in code, looks like I confused you when I was only pointing out that it could be done right now with your existing scripts

Why do you want to create a real and a fake track for every track?

I don't think the "Track Redirection & Synchronization" script replaces paths in existing tracks, although I could be wrong. I think it always creates new tracks.

im not going to argue the finer points of how i interprate that script working its irrelevant

I out lined the current steps to create "new" albums with the track redirection script in its current incarnation
there is a method to replace other instances of song with links to 1 master, how ever it doesn't know what albums to add songs to unless the album exists in the database

by populating the new track names without files before running said script that script would be able to identify songs to "replace"

maybe we just this new script could select the first match from a ARTIST+TITLE search of MM database to use when populating said new entries

this feature was mentioned as resent as JUN
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =4&t=50348

"Fuzzy logic could determine if albums are complete" - I love how you casually through this in. And based on what data?

trying to lighten the mood, best left for later, altho maybe theres a script that can identify a whole album by say seeing if the "album" has atleast one copy of the song that is reported to be on it,,,,

You're then doing to delete the fake tracks? Then why create them in the first place?

was referencing ENTRYS in database that point to "MISSING" Files - as some would be replaced with links others would not...

i see you are consistent with your answers, Zen, this topic was approached page 2 of the track redirection thread,,,

[ZvezdanD]

I don't think the "Track Redirection & Synchronization" script replaces paths in existing tracks, although I could be wrong. I think it always creates new tracks.

The Track Redirection & Synchronization script has two possible modes: with the first mode you could create the .asx file which would be linked to the another (master) audio file and with the second mode you could link some audio track to the another (master) audio file. Each of these two modes has two possibilities depending of that if you already have duplicate file or not.

If you have duplicate file, none track would be added to the database in both modes: in the first mode the path of the existing audio file stored in the database is just renamed, i.e. extension would be changed from e.g. .mp3 to .asx (beside of creating of the actual .asx file), and in the second mode duplicate file would be just linked to the another file, but none track would be added either.

Tracks are added to the database only if you don't have duplicate file: in the first mode the new track would be added with .the asx file in the path, and in the second mode user has a possibility to make a copy of the existing master track and that copy would be added to the database as a new track.

[larsmark]

hi there,

it has come to my attention that what I am trying to achieve is the pseudo-completion of album track listings with existing pre ripped tracks

as the title and artist wording of tracks in my collection have already been verified this post focuses on the musicbrainz datastream, the actual source of the information is not important.

take the following best of complication album (10cc):
Wikipedia lists 2 releases (uk with 18 tracks, and us with 15 tracks)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Very_Best_of_10cc
musbrainz tag lookup (http://musicbrainz.org/taglookup.html) returns 4 albums with 100% match each

100 The Very Best of 10cc 10cc 18 1 gb 1997-03-07 compilation eng / latn
100 The Very Best of 10cc 10cc 18 1 gb 2009-04-20 compilation eng / latn
100 The Very Best of 10cc 10cc 15 1 us 1997 us 1997-06-17 compilation eng / latn
100 The Very Best of 10cc 10cc 18 2 gb 1991 compilation eng / latn

Code: Select all

comma deliminated cause I cant figure out how to show intable
track#,     18  1  gb 1997-03-07,     18  1  gb 2009-04-20 ,     15 us 1997-06-17,     18 gb 1991
1,Donna   - 10cc,     Dreadlock Holiday    - 10cc,     Donna   - 10cc,The Wall Street Shuffle   - 10cc
2,Rubber Bullets - 10cc,The Things We Do for Love  - 10cc,Rubber Bullets   - 10cc,I'm Not in Love   - 10cc
3,The Dean and I - 10cc,I'm Not in Love  - 10cc,The Dean and I   - 10cc,Art for Art's Sake   - 10cc
4,The Wall Street Shuffle - 10cc,Cry  - Godley & Creme,The Wall Street Shuffle   - 10cc,Dreadlock Holiday   - 10cc
5, Silly Love - 10cc,Rubber Bullets  - 10cc,Silly Love   - 10cc,People in Love   - 10cc
6, Life Is a Minestrone - 10cc,The Wall Street Shuffle  - 10cc,Life Is a Minestrone   - 10cc,Donna   - 10cc
7,Une Nuit a Paris: One N….- 10cc,I'm Mandy Fly Me  - 10cc,I'm Not in Love   - 10cc,Life Is a Minestrone   - 10cc
8,I'm Not in Love - 10cc,Under Your Thumb  - Godley & Creme,Art for Art's Sake   - 10cc,I'm Mandy Fly Me   - 10cc
9,Art for Art's Sake - 10cc,Art for Art's Sake  - 10cc,I'm Mandy Fly Me   - 10cc,An Englishman in New York   - Godley & Creme
10,I'm Mandy Fly Me- 10cc,Life Is a Minestrone  - 10cc,The Things We Do for Love   - 10cc,Food for Trought   - 10cc
11,The Things We Do for Love- 10cc,Good Morning Judge  - 10cc,Good Morning Judge   - 10cc,Rubber Bullets   - 10cc
12,Good Morning Judge - 10cc,Bridge to Your Heart  - Wax,People in Love   - 10cc,Good Morning Judge   - 10cc
13,Dreadlock Holiday - 10cc,Wedding Bells  - Godley & Creme,Dreadlock Holiday   - 10cc,Feel the Love   - 10cc
14,People in Love - 10cc,Donna  - 10cc,For You and I   - 10cc,Memories   - 10cc
15,Under Your Thumb - Godley & Creme,The Dean & I  - 10cc,Cry   - Godley & Creme,The Things We Do for Love   - 10cc
16,Wedding Bells ,Ready to Go Home  - 10cc,,Don't Turn Me Away   - 10cc
17,Cry ,Silly Love  - 10cc,,Cry   - Godley & Creme
18,Neanderthal Man,Neanderthal Man    - Hotlegs,,Silly Love  - 10cc
19,, - ,,
20,,,,

click here for table formatted display

IE
TRACK#,version1,version2,

I intend to use the Albumartist & Albumname as per existing Musicbrainzed tags future editions will filter track# of sample track thus if the sample MP3 has tags of track#:1,title:donna, I will eventually show user (myself) only entries 1 & 3 above,

im guessing several xml web service requests per album would be the way to get this information
(1 to get list of albums by artist X with title Y), another for each result to get track titles ?? - what areas of the XML would I best query?

to summarize my plan would be eventually take tag input from a music library
display results in grid like above that match existing track(s) from album
IE
with input mask of <track#> - <AlbumArtist> - <trackname> - <albumname>
if the input is track# 1 - 10CC - Donna - very best of.I would see a grid containing 1 and 3 from above
if how ever I also had track# 15 - 10CC - Cry- very best of. the app would narrow results down to the 3rd entry above because thats the only album called very best of 10cc with track#1=Donna and track#15=Cry

then provide user with list boxes for each track# they don't have associated to an album named X by artist Y
IE if user has an album call "The Very Best of 10cc" with album artist: "10cc" missing track 1 the first list box would contain the following contents

• Donna -<information*>-filename**
• Donna -<information*>-filename2
• Dreadlock Holiday -<information*>-filename
• The Wall Street Shuffle -<information*>-filename
• The Wall Street Shuffle -<information*>-filename2
• The Wall Street Shuffle -<information*>-filename3

*where information is an as yet unidenified series of facts could be existing files album tags, remix info etc - its not important right now!
**one entry per existence of track in database (IE if you have 1 live, 1 studio release, and 2 remixes of 1 song off for albums the user can choose between versions
remember the aim is not to create an exact replica of the album just a compete tracklist if user later decides that the one they chose did not suit for example if they ended up placing a live song in the middle of a sudio album user would delete that entry and try again if it really bothered them.

what to do with users new arrangement of songs??
1) create playlists for each new "album like arrangement of tracklists"
2) since HDD space is not to scarce and HDDs are cheapish - perhaps you could simply create new folders for each album changing tags accordingly


thanks