Multiple Genre .. how to have mm recognize them

[dtsig]

Many of my artists/albums/songs have multiple genre assigned to them. Just scanned in a bunch and finding that MM is not breaking them apart but keeping the entire 'list' as if it was one genre. I am using a comma to separate them and am wondering if there is some other character I should be using?

Have done a search but did not find anything that suited.

Thanks
Dtsig

[MickRob]

The default is a semi colon (;) but you can change the separator in options > libary > appearance - split multiple fields with -----

[dtsig]

Thanks for the quick reply MickRob.

I didn't realize there was a setting. Had looked in help but couldn't find it. Searched internet to see if there was any info about it on mp3 tags but didn't see any there either.

Do you know if there is a script anyone has that could be used to change comma to semi-colon?

Thanks again
dtsig

[Lowlander]

It would seem that the multiple genre's weren't saved correctly to the tags if MediaMonkey doesn't recognize them. The MM setting doesn't affect this as it is merely for visual representation in MediaMonkey, it doesn't change how tags are read or written.

You may want to share a sample file with support (you will need to use a file hosting site for files over 1MB): http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/inde ... &_a=submit

[dtsig]

Thanks for that Lowlander .. I have posted a ticket with first few seconds of example song and jpg of how MM looks.

DTSig

[Lowlander]

ID3 tags seem to require \\ as delimiter. What MediaMonkey shows is just a visual representation of \\.

[dtsig]

ID3 tags seem to require \\ as delimiter. What MediaMonkey shows is just a visual representation of \\.

Thanks for that .. i think. Do you have a link i can look at where it says the \\ is used to split up genre?

Also, so you have any suggestions how to update all songs with \\ and not ,

Thanks
DTsig

[Lowlander]

It should be documented here: http://www.www.id3.org

I don't know if it will work, but RegExp Find & Replace can replace , with ; in the Genre tag and this may work to set them as multiple value tags (try it on a sample file): http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... lit=regexp

[dtsig]

Thanks for that Lowlander .. I have posted a ticket with first few seconds of example song and jpg of how MM looks.DTSig

Never did get a response from the ticket ... even as a gold member <sigh> But the help here rocks

I did try a couple of files and converting the ',' to ';' appeared to work. So will be doing an image backup tomorrow night and them modifying the entire collection and going to see if it really works. Of course the will require a rescan so hopefully will know by monday morning.

Wouldn't it make sense that the Scan process convert as necessary for the DB. It should not be necessary to actually change the data in the mp3, just define the delimiter before scan.

[nohitter151]

Wouldn't it make sense that the Scan process convert as necessary for the DB. It should not be necessary to actually change the data in the mp3, just define the delimiter before scan.

I think that's unnecessecary considering there is a defined standard exactly for that purpose for mp3 and nearly all other tag formats. It makes more sense for MM to adhere to the standard than anything else.

[dtsig]

I have a collection of 150K songs. Years and years of collecting cds and albums (and with albums ripping, correcting and hand assigning tags). All of my genre, multiple genre, use the comma ',' to delineate the genres. So for example, all songs on the album "Weird Al Yankovic" but .. yes Weird Al Yanlovic has "Comedy, Parody, Rock, Polka" in the genre field.

I have found that of course MM doesn't have any idea about the comma. From questions on the forum it was suggested first to modify the Tools/Options/Appearance field "Split Multiple Fields with" to a comma. Having done this and then restarting .. well it didn't appear to make any difference.

After a couple of other suggestions it came to converting all my songs ... changing the comma (,) to a semi-colon (;). Using a great addon for MM i tried this on a single album and it appears to work. But like i said that means changing the entire physical files. requiring a full disc image copy for backup, converting the files and rescanning all files.

I would strongly request that the above mentioned "Split Multiple Fields with" option actually be used to correctly create the create the DB as needed by MM so it can display the data as it wants. DBs are after all a representation of the physical world. It should not be necessary to change the physical file. At least to my way of thinking.

Thanks ... MM is a really great product

[dtsig]

Wouldn't it make sense that the Scan process convert as necessary for the DB. It should not be necessary to actually change the data in the mp3, just define the delimiter before scan.

I think that's unnecessecary considering there is a defined standard exactly for that purpose for mp3 and nearly all other tag formats. It makes more sense for MM to adhere to the standard than anything else.

But MM creates a db representation of the files. It is not the tag itself. There is no rule to say that the db must have this or that. The import/scan routine of lots of db programs modify as needed for that specific system.

I have searched the id3 group and have not found a specific definition saying that it has to be semi-colon. I probably just missed it. I will continue looking for it though.

Thanks

[scott967]

I don't think 2.3 spec allows for the idea of multiple genre. When MM4 writes out the tag it embeds the ;<space> (assuming that is your delimiter). Other tag readers probably won't know what to do with it and just treat it as a single genre. This is (IMHO) an advantage of FLAC which uses vorbis comments. You simply tag as many GENRE= entries as you like and no need for separators. Readers can take them all, or just the last one.

Bottom line is, no assurance any given reader will understand a multiple genre tag in ID3.

The only delimiter 2.3 spec shows is "/", and that is only in certain tags (frames in spec speech). That creates the AC/DC problem. 2.4 allows ASCII/UTF-8 "null" delimiter and I think it can be used in any text field, but I don't know how widespread 2.4 is (does iTunes or WMP use it?) If I had a vote it would be for MM to read/write 2.4 ID3 tags, but you still have the problem of other readers (don't know what foobar or picard do -- don't use 'em).

scott s.
.

[dtsig]

Scott967 thanks for that. It is always great to get peoples opinions on things.

I probably wasn't clear enough but this is not about writing the tag to the mp3 file but interpreting the genre tag that is already in the mp3 file when building the MM database. As shown in the image below it appears that the ability to break apart multiple values in genre has already been thought of .. it just doesn't appear to work.


I have still not found anything specific at the id3 site saying on way or another ... and it really shouldn't matter there as again I am not talking about writing to the tag .. but how it is generated to the DB and how MM then displays.

But i guess i will just have to get used to it not working as it appears to have been designed (per image). The genre listing does look a little odd as


thanks a lot

[Lowlander]

If I'm not mistaken the ID3 delimiter is \\ which MediaMonkey uses as well. The ; is just used as visual representation of multiple values in MediaMonkey, not what MediaMonkey will use to read or write multiple values. The problem if you used , as delimiter is that it's not following the ID3 standards. Doesn't the program you used to write the , in the first place allow you to change it to \\?