[PROBLEM] Multiple Versions of Albums

[challenge]

Lately, as a temp solution, I'm just appending the "country + catalog number" to the album title tag so that moode doesn't group them into a single album and I'm still able to see it from the webui.

But... I keep thinking about this. Disclaimer, I'm sadly not using moode a lot these days and don't know if already implemented.

since musicbrainz_albumid is supported maybe it would be wise to group albums in the library by that tag (at least when artist is selected)

Now I know that musicbrainz_albumid is the release id and it's not human readable enough e.g.: a308ec90-2270-3ee5-862f-b3e1794c3e73 ,

so what about grouping by musicbrainz_albumid AND exposing the comment tag in the moode UI? (since is supported by mpd, I mean expose it both in the library and playback tabs)

One could then write/append the catalog number in the comment tag (even with an automated script for the whole library), and it would be visible from the webUI.

Ideally the catalog number should be always exposed in the UI, as you can see on physical CD spines.


BTW I use picard and chose every entry manually, I don't trust beets anymore: I destroyed a well tagged library in past using that  
Now I know this tagging thing is overkill for most, I think we are talking about huge libraries here... we know how much of a pain correct tagging is!

[challenge]

Just for reference, here are the tags that MPD supports
https://www.musicpd.org/doc/html/protocol.html#tags

don't know the status of this, so pardon if already somehow fixed in last releases...

btw i'm talking about two releases of the same album, same title tag, same song title tags, different catalog number, different musicbrainz_albumid
i.e. different country release, or MFSL hd tracks editions.
As now moode sees them as duplicates songs and put them all together inside the same album. So I get duplicates of every song with same tags.
A quick and dirty solution was appending the catalog number to the album name tag, working but too messy.

now I understand mpd doesn't support catalog number...
-> what about adding a subroutine to the library view code to group albums by "musicbrainz_albumid" (="MusicBrainz Release Id" in mb picard) if not empty, but keeping the final sorting by year or title as you can set under Appearance.

It's supported by mpd, can already see it in track info, at least it would stop the duplicates.

Then as final touch it would be nice to expose the mpd comment tag, maybe on mouse-over the title or in the cover's drop-down menu. This way I could easily write the catalog number there, and would be able to distinguish them in library without cluttering the UI.
thanks

[Tim Curtis]

Good ideas. Displaying the comment tag is relatively easy. The album grouping might not be so easy.

Zip up two of the Albums that contain musicbrainz_albumid tag and PM or email me a download link. I'll see what might be possible.

-Tim

[challenge]

ok will do as soon I'll find something small, was accidentally trying to send a few GBs of 24/192s, not good with my shitty upload 

[TheOldPresbyope]

now I understand mpd doesn't support catalog number...
->what about adding a subroutine to the library view code to group albums by "musicbrainz_albumid" (="MusicBrainz Release Id" in mb picard) if not empty, but keeping the final sorting by year or title as you can set under Appearance.

...

Of which, the Picard Metadata Mapping table says it maps the following "tag" names:

MusicBrainz Release ID

Internal Name: musicbrainz_albumid

ID3v2:

TXXX:MusicBrainz Album Id

Vorbis:

MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMID

APEv2:

MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMID

iTunes MP4:

----:com.apple.iTunes:MusicBrainz Album Id

ASF/Windows Media:

MusicBrainz/Album Id

The only thing that matters here for testing purposes is that the id be unique per album. It's actual value is meaningless for us if not working with the MusicBrainz database. 

This means a couple of sets of tracks could easily be turned into test cases with a little metadata editing-foo. I've used a bunch of short test-tone tracks in my own metadata tests, just changing file names and metadata values to suit the purpose of the test (like for the recent discussion of multiple artists). Can do again here if it's needed.

Regards,
Kent

[challenge]

yes exactly, you got it!

here a comparison of the two folders tags as seen by musicbrainz picard
you see, album title is the same but nearly everything else is different, yet moode groups all the songs from both albums together.

same album, different editions, remember in Picard "MusicBrainz Release ID" means "musicbrainz_albumid"

   


Here how moode sees them, all inside the same album as duplicates, even if in different folders.

   

[Tim Curtis]

Right, cos moOde uses Album + Artist (or Album Artist) to uniquely identify an Album. I'd prolly have to add musicbrainz_albumid to the string that forms the unique key. Something like that. In any case I need some valid test albums in order to verify that any such modification works.

[TheOldPresbyope]

Right, cos moOde uses Album + Artist (or Album Artist) to uniquely identify an Album. I'd prolly have to add musicbrainz_albumid to the string that forms the unique key. Something like that. In any case I need some valid test albums in order to verify that any such modification works.

Looks like MusicBrainz uses a 36-character (128 bit) identifier everywhere it needs one. Shouldn't be a problem but I thought I'd mention it.

Any UUID generator will do.

I'll gen up a couple of test albums unencumbered with any rights issues in addition to whatever @challenge sends you.

Regards,
Kent

[challenge]

Attaching them here since they are only 1MB zipped.

Careful that these are FAKE. i.e. they have the full correct musicbrainz tags but there is no music, all tracks are a test tone (1kHz).
Can't upload the real music files as they're too big, I am have internet issues right now. I tried but it's impossible.

2 folders inside the zip. Same album, same title/artist/songs tags, but they are a different country edition, so albumid is different between them.
one USA and other UK IIRC
try it and let me know.

1. folder "In Step_4633952"
   catalog number: 463395 2
   musicbrainz_albumid 87fc0ed7-e0d9-4df6-91d0-a3950099bbde
   
2. folder "In Step_EK45024"
   catalog number: EK 45024
   musicbrainz_albumid: 78cd46b0-d661-3e57-81c8-fcfd54b4b391
   

[TheOldPresbyope]

@challenge

Yup, that's what I've been doing.

Two minor quibbles:

1) These track files have instances of "MUSICBRAINZ_RELEASEGROUPID" populated rather than of "MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMID". Did I misunderstand your original proposal?

2) these are all FLAC files but they are missing the explicit .flac extension.  If one runs mediainfo on them, for example, its report includes

Code:

FileExtension_Invalid                    : flac

 

There's at least one script in moOde which depends on audio files having extensions which match the list of file types supported in MPD (as we configure/compile it).

Regards,
Kent