New User - Question about Re-Naming and File Management

[sayheykid]

I just crossed over to MM. Been a user of MusicMatch and Creative etc.

I have one enormous Idiosyncrasy about music (many other personal ones).

Like many of you - I have personal preferences on how I name and organize my songs.

For instance --
\\Music\Allman Brothers\Eat a Peach\Allman Brothers-Eat a Peach - Melissa - 2.mp3

Artist\album\artist-album-song-track.mp3

Simple enough.

In the above example -- however -- the tag for this specific record is showing as The Allman Brothers. So it reads like this

\\Music\The Allman Brothers\Eat a Peach\Allman Brothers-Eat a Peach - Melissa - 2.mp3

I have other Allman Brothers Records -- the Tags put it in
\\Music\Allman Brothers\album\artist-album-song-track.mp3

When I search my Creative Zen:M -- I have two artists
Allman Brothers
The Allman Brothers

I can't seem to change it -- as MM appears to want to use the "tag" for naming. And these differences are in the tag.

I guess I could change it the file -- for each song -- MusicMatch had a nice utility for that...but not going back.

How do I correct this in MM. I can do it in the other apps mentioned -- but I am trying to get to an App that simply does all the things that make me crazy.

I used the Allman Bros as an example. But I have similar issues with many other artists -- especially those that might start with "the".

Love this BB. Super impressed by the moderators and their activity.

Thanks so much.

[sayheykid]

I have also noticed that it is possible for the following to occur --

All the CDs for The Wallflowers will be in

\\music\the wallflowers\

Each CD a separate folder.

However, when I look at the tag for files (songs) from different CDs --
Some say Wallflowers - other CDs say The Wallflowers

In that case -- again -- two artists show up in the library and on the Zen.
Wallflowers
The Wallflowers

I can edit the artist name in properties. That will make an update to the Tag.

That's good -- do you think I have to re-push it manually to my Zen -- or will MM know to do it on autosynch?

Obviously -- this question is less important than my last.

[Guest]

How do I correct this in MM. I can do it in the other apps mentioned -- but I am trying to get to an App that simply does all the things that make me crazy.

Assuming your tags on the PC are correct, use Auto-Organize. The code to the right of the last slash will rename the file.

You can edit the name of the band in the artist node (right click>rename, or F2). This will update all the tracks under that node. Then use Auto-Organize to rename those files.

If you have your sync configuration set to delete tracks that aren't on the list, it will delete the mis-tagged files and copy the new ones over. Use the Unsynchronized Tag node in the Files to Edit node first, to make sure the file tags match the database.

[sayheykid]

Going thru it now.
Appreciated.

[301.20]

TIA to all of the great people on this board!!

I have a related type of problem. Also being a Creative user and a Netgear Media Service user I also have some potentially strange tagging needs. To really make album organization easy and meaningful in these two apps (at least from my perspective), you have to append the Album Artist to the Album name, so that the Beatles group with the Beatles with their albums in the Albums view.

In the Netgear MP 101 server sofware, if the album is named "Greatest Hits" then it will put that album together with any other album named "Greatest Hits", you get Santana, the Jam, STyx etc, all mixed together like one album.

I have over 200 GB of albums (about half way through converting my collection) at this point, and am manually going in and changing each album name in MM to Album Artist - Album Name and it is driving me crazy (we are talking 1800+ Albums with more on the way).

Manually changing:

A Hard Days Night
With the Beatles
Greatest Hits
Greatest Hits

to

The Beatles - A Hard Days Night
The Beatles - With The Beatles
The Jam - Greatest Hits
Santana - Greatest Hits


Is there any way to have MM go and auto generate this new album tag? To have MM grab the album artist and append to the front of the name of the album?

Is it possible to twist the code in the manage utility to do this across the board for my db?

Help?

[Lowlander]

A script could do this. Check out the Scripts and Components forum for more information on scripts or to request such a script.

[Teknojnky]

I'm not sure why you would want to pollute your album field by including the artist when there are already 2 artist fields (<artist> and <album artist>).

[301.20]

but at this point, Netgear's media server combinds all albums with the same name, so you get a mish mash of greatest hits for five different albums.

And to be honest, once you get up to 1800+ albums, looking at the album names in the MP101 is very confusing because you only see the album name. The ARtist look up is not very good because it pulls artist and not album artist.

Maybe that is a better solution...fix the artist to album artist...but then you can't see the artist and album on the same screen you have to go into the artist to see the albums.....

Open to suggestions

[Lowlander]

I would present your issue to Netgear as in this case your unhappy with the way the present your music. If in this case Netgear is unresponsive to your inquiry you should try to see if the Netgear has a mode to browse by filepath/name. This would allow you to create the filepaths in a netgear logic way and keep your tags clean in the ID3 logic way. If all else fails you could create/request a script that can get the Album Artist tag and add it to the Album tag. I would leave this as a last option as you'll probably be sorry you did this later on.

[301.20]

how about as a playlist. Will MM allow me to create a playlist with the album artist - Album that I'm looking for. This would let me keep my tags "clean" and also give me that alternative view pathway?????

[Lowlander]

Thru scripts you can create playlists in any format needed.

You could also check if the interface software of the netgear can be modified as all that would be needed is to have the Album Artist tag appended to albums.

[301.20]

Had a pot of coffee last night and some ambition. Is there any way to have MM clean just the album tags I've polluted by manually appending the Album Artist?

Would hate to spend the night going over each file trying to find the ones I've touched.

Also submitted the question to Netgear. Hopefully this is correctable without a lot of effort (at least less then what went into doing the changes last night).

TIA you have been fantastic!!!

[Lowlander]

You could use Aut-Tag from Filename to clean up the Album field if the filename/path combo contain the Album name. Otherwise you will need a script. There are some tag modification scripts in the Script and Components forum.

[sanford]

It looks like we all need FILE MANAGEMENT functions built into the main MM program.

I found that using the AutoOrganiser function like the RESTRUCTURE function in Dr.TagPlus! But keeps track of the location of the moved files.

Once they are moved, then use your fav.file manager to make changes.

MM is so much better than other media managers, I can work with the few problems -- and write my own scripts.

[Lowlander]

MediaMonkey has that, it's Auto-Organize Tracks which organizes your songs into directories according to a mask that the user can set. Any changes that the Auto-Organize makes will be reflected directly in the database.