Move processed songs

[meaning]

hi @paultaylor,

I finally ended transferring my music locally. and processed one of my folders yesterday (my music is currently organized in monthly folders). here are the settings I used :

Current Profile: Roon, Fix Songs

Basic

• Ignore songs previously checked that could not be matched: No
• For songs already fully matched : Update Metadata and Filename only
• Rename files based on metadata: No
• Update Artwork: Yes
• Update Genres: Yes
• Update Mood and other acoustic attributes such as BPM (Pro or Melco license only): Yes
• Only allow match if all songs in grouping match to one album: Yes
• Only allow match if all tracks in album were matched: Yes

Match

• Force Acoustic fingerprints even if already matched: Yes
• For Naim wav files read the accompanying metadata files (Melco license only): No
• Search for a MusicBrainz match: Yes
• Update from Discogs: Yes
• Search for a Discogs match: Yes
• Ignore existing metadata when matching individual songs: No
• Ignore metadata derived from filename when matching individual songs: No
• All existing folders represent a single album: No
• Preferred media formats: Digital Media,
• Preferred Release Date: Earliest Release Date
• Preferred Release Countries:

Album Artwork

• Ignore artwork smaller than this (pixels): 200
• Resize artwork if dimensions larger than (pixels): 1200
• Find Front Cover Artwork: Yes
• Save front cover art embedded within song file: Replace if empty
• Save front cover art to filesystem: Yes, but do not overwrite existing artwork files in folder
• Saved front cover art filename: folder
• Find Back Cover Artwork: No

Other Artwork

• Other Artwork Options (Pro or Melco license only): No
• Ignore artwork smaller than this (pixels): 200
• Resize artwork if dimensions larger than (pixels): 800

Genres

• Genre: Replace if empty From Discogs Style , Max no 1
• Grouping: Never Replace From Discogs Style , Max no 1

Format

• Never modify or add these fields: Performer
• Only modify these fields if empty: BPM, Key, Mood
• Delete all metadata from these fields: Performer
• Allow changes to songs existing metadata fields if Song Only match: No
• Romanize non-Latin script artist names wherever possible: Yes
• Use standard Artist name instead of name displayed on cover: Yes
• Use standard Track title instead of title displayed on cover: No
• Use standard Release title instead of title displayed on cover: Yes
• Use Original Release Date: No
• Use Year instead of full dates for Date fields: No
• Add EP, Single, Compilation, Live and Remix release types to release title: No
• Add Audio Format to release title: Yes
• Add [HD] to album title for High Definition albums (Pro or Melco license only): Yes
• Add RoonAlbumTag to albums identified as box sets: No
• When tracks contains featured artists: Add all contributing artists to the artist field
• When albums contains featured album artists: Add all contributing album artists to the album artist field
• Multi Disc Releases : Add Disc No to the release title if disc has title

Classical

• Identify Classical releases: Classical albums identified by SongKong

• Apply these options to releases identified as Classical: Yes

• Add Composers to start of Album Title : Yes

• Remove Composer from Album Artist : Yes

• Add Composer to start of Overall Work, this is used by MinimServer for indexing Classical Works: No

• Add Composer to start of MinimServer Group, this is used by MinimServer for playing Classical Works: No

• Use only Artist Type to categorise groups as ensembles, choirs or orchestras: Yes

• Shorten Song Title to the Movement: No

• Copy Work to Grouping field: MP3 and AIF (iTunes)

• Opera Work format: Use Roon format (Section/Work)

• Track Artist: Performers and Ensemble/Choir/Orchestra and Conductor

• Never modify or add these fields: Artist, Artists, Sort Artist, Sort Artists

• Only modify these fields if empty:

File Naming

• Simplify non-standard characters: Yes
• Rename filename part only: No
• Limit File Path to Windows Explorer 259 Character limit: Apply to internal and locally connected NTFS/FAT32 drives only
• Use Windows compatible characters in filenames: Yes
• Enable Maximum File Path Length: No
• Move Folder: Yes
• Move Folder: /music/processed/
• Move Unmatched Folder: No
• Rename mask: AlbumArtistorArtist/Album/Artist - Album - Track - Title
• Compilation rename mask: VA - Album(Year)/Track - Artist - Title

Save

• If song moved to another folder move : Everything
• MP3 Metatag Version: Same as or v23
• Disc / Track number padding: Pad with up to one zero
• Save Vorbis/Flac AlbumArtist as: ALBUMARTIST
• After SongKong has finished processing songs: Always open Report in browser
• Add technical roles with own field to InvolvedPeople field:
• Save multiple values as separate fields: Album Artist, Artist, Sort Album Artist, Sort Artist
• Save songs so they work best with iTunes: No

It generally made a great job as I can see a lot of content was matched (mostly thanks to MB it seems).

Now I still have a few questions. My main idea was to move the renamed folders and files to /music/processed

I was expecting to find the following structure in there : Artist (or various artists)/ Album name (year) (version) / tracknumbers - album name (year) - track title.flac

I’m a little confused. while 32k albums approx were processed I now can find 32k albums in the processed folder. But most of the folders in there are now empty and only remains the folder.jpg file they previously had.

So, is it right it actually right to consider SK did rename my folders in the “initial” 01-2022” folder ?

Is it also right the “processed” folder now contains ALL the albums it processed, and that it includes both “empty” folders (only containing a folder.jpg file) and other ones, that contains everything as the albums were not identified ?

Finally, what Am I supposed to do to achieve the following :

Process 01-2022 (and for this round -> processed) and move all renamed folders and files to a new folder -> /music/processed_music/

And get the above mentioned structure (Artist / album name (year))

Thanks for the support !

[paultaylor]

Quick answer you had SongKong configured to move processed files from /01-2022 to /music/processed/, but on the Basic tab you had Rename files based on metadata set to No so files would be moved to new base folder but not renamed.

I can answer your question more accurately if you run Create Support Files so I can then examine your latest reports.

[meaning]

wait, just to be sure.

You say my files were copied to the new “base” file which is “processed”, right ?

So what stayed in my “01-2022” folder (12k items remaining) are the non matched items ?

This is quite confusing.

i’m happy to chat about this with you if you are available anywhere online.

thanks again !

[paultaylor]

Moved, not copied. And yes because the Move Unmatched Folder not set yes unmatched songs not moved, but Im guessing slightly because you have not sent your support files. Why is that confusing I thought that is what you wanted it to do.

Supporting is via the forum, but I dont offer realtime messaging if that is what you mean.

[meaning]

What do you mean by support files ? The xlsx exportable spreadsheet ?

I ran another fix and did enable renaming (exclusively if the release was matched) but damn, the results are not that good :

You can see lots of VA’s are simply put there with their folder name (strange) in the middle of correctly detected artists. Shall I not see one single “various artists” folder, containing the diffrent VA’s ?

I do understand that some albums (splits, feats, …) includes several artists names. and that’s allright, but getting each VA in a single directory, I’d like to avoid. Can I change something to get all the VA’s in a single “various artists” folder ? and also avoid getting the (year) and (format) in these artists level folders ?

Also, what’s the reason why every single album has (flac) after its name ? I don’t see anything like (format) in the presets?

Thanks again !

[paultaylor]

@meaning

What do you mean by support files ? The xlsx exportable spreadsheet ?

Run the Create Support Files option under Help menu on desktop, at the top if using web browser ui

Its difficult for me to answer your question until I can see your reports.

[meaning]

Done

FYI, I decided to start processing all my folders. I expect the fix process to run for approx 1 month.

I will end up with proper Artists folders but also with a bunch of "va - compilation name " folder which I plan to select after the fix process, and move to a proper “various artists” folder manually.

Anyway, you’ve got my support files

So in short, next run, I will want to get rid of (flac) at the end of album names + figure out a way to make all VA releases move to “Various Artists” folder inside my processed folder.

[paultaylor]

Can you wait before doing anymore processing for me to look at your reports please.

[paultaylor]

Hi had a look,

Okay you should change the mask you have set as a Compilation rename mask from VA - Album(Year)/Track - Artist - Title, you can see the contents of a mask by selecting it in Preferences, and we can see it is

"Va - "
+ ifnotempty(album,' ')
+ '(' + (albumyear.length>4 ? albumyear.substring(0,4):albumyear) +')/'
+ ifnotempty(pad(trackno,2),' - ')
+ ifnotempty(artist,' - ')
+ title

Just use as a mask the same mask as you are using for Rename mask (for non va albums), AlbumArtistorArtist/Album/Artist - Album - Track - Title

Because you are using Roon, Fix Songs profile on the Format tab the Add Audio Format option is enabled. Disable this option so audio format is not added to album name, then if you rename files from metadata the audio format will no longer make its way into filename.

[meaning]

hey Paul,

Can I stop the current fix process and start it over where it ended ?

[paultaylor]

No, but the the part that take the longest time is matching albums to MusicBrainz/Discogs. When you run again because those songs will already be matched it only has to update with modified metadata/renaming there wil be no need to rematch so will quite quickly get up to your current point.

[meaning]

OK so I just hit cancelled.

Next steps are :

1. Change the VA settings

2. Run a new fix for the already moved / processed / identified files in processed folder -> rename based on metadata (which is now perfect thanks to SK.)

3. Run a new fix of my whole Music folder not previously processed, without the “rename based on metadata” again.

I ran a test, selecting “Default” as profile, then I selected my "tst folder where I had 3 albums :

La souteraine (artist) / album (mp3)
La souteraine (artists) / album (FLAC)
one VA album I copied from my processed folder

First issue when renaming the files based on their metadata is the 2 “la souteraine” folder got merged :

the other issue I have is about the VA renaming:

I wonder if the fact the track title comes after the artist and compilation name wont be a problem to allow my player to figure out the playback order of the tracks. ?

[paultaylor]

You need to disable the Add Audio Format option as well.

@meaning

But I have one concern, if I do select " AlbumArtistorArtist/Album/Artist - Album - Track - Title " for VA, are we sure the artists will be “various artist” or will SK create a bunch of folders with one track per artist ? LEts say a VA has 12 tracks, each one by a different artists, will I end up with 12 new artists folders, and the specific track in that folder ? Of will I end up with a proper “various artists” folder, that will contain the name of the compilation, and the track title will include the artist name ?

As long as SongKong has matched a group of songs to an album it will ensure they all have the same value for Album Artist (Various Artist), and therefore a rename mask that use the Album Artist field will keep the files together.

[meaning]

Yes I just tested this, and it works fine -> see my previous comment. I’ve moved one VA and processed it.

The (flac) also was removed, so this is allright !

but please check the merge and track title position issue I reported. Regarding the track title in the middle of the file name, I guess this wont impact my players, as the track title is part of the metadata, and is used in priority to the filename, right ?

If running this rename on all my already processed / renamed albums do merge everything in a single folder, that’s gonna be a big issue.

[paultaylor]

I don’t know why you have switched to Default profile, that means all kind of things are going to change and since you are using Roon some of those changes will not be good for Roon, you just need to modify the options in your Roon profile.

You say the mp3 and flac version have been merged. This shouldn’t happen but it makes me wonder why you wanted to remove the audio format from the folder name because surely having albumName (mp3) and albumName (Flac) is better than AlbumName and AlbumName (1)

@meaning

but please check the merge and track title position issue I reported. Regarding the track title in the middle of the file name, I guess this wont impact my players, as the track title is part of the metadata, and is used in priority to the filename, right ?

Correct it should not affect players only if sorting when listing files in filebrowser, you are using AlbumArtistorArtist/Album/Artist - Album - Track - Title so Artist comes first but you could use something else,

This can affect normal albums as well, they may have tracks that feature other artists

e.g https://musicbrainz.org/release/71146821-8052-488c-b099-db7eed9ba47e

@meaning

If running this rename on all my already processed / renamed albums do merge everything in a single folder, that’s gonna be a big issue.

Not sure what you mean here.

[meaning]

well, unfortunately, I tested playing the Various artists folder (freshly renamed) and I can confirm VLC reads the tracks in the wrong order. It bases itself on the file names, therefore, as the Artists name is displayed before track number, the album gets played in the wrong order. How can I get the track title before Artist / album name for VA’s ?

Regarding albumname (flac) vs (1), I agree, but I also use plexamp, and the (flac) do display in every single album occurence in there, which is not clean at all. I’d rather get rid of it.

Regarding the merge, how do I make sure my different formats of albums are not been merged during the renaming ? I can’t end up with several formats in a single album folder.

[paultaylor]

@meaning

well, unfortunately, I tested playing the Various artists folder (freshly renamed) and I can confirm VLC reads the tracks in the wrong order. It bases itself on the file names, therefore, as the Artists name is displayed before track number, the album gets played in the wrong order. How can I get the track title before Artist / album name for VA’s ?

Just look at the available rename masks, and select a suitable one for both Rename Mask and Compilation Rename Mask

@meaning

Regarding the merge, how do I make sure my different formats of albums are not been merged during the renaming ? I can’t end up with several formats in a single album folder.

I am not sure why it has happened, but I would see your reports again to have any hope of resolving it. But what you could do is edit your rename (in preferences) to include audioformat

ifnotempty2(albumartist,artist,'/')
+ ifnotempty(album + '(' + audioformat + ')' ,'/')
+ ifmultidisc(ifnotempty(pad(discno,2),' - '))
+ ifnotempty(pad(trackno,2),' - ')
 + ifnotempty(artist,' - ')
+ ifnotempty(album,' - ')
+ title

That way audioformat keeps the files separate but not shown in the metadata when viewing files in music player.

[meaning]

Hey there,

I wanted to thank you ! I finally figured out my rename and move settings.

Thanks for the support.

Next step will be the dupes identification I guess but that will be in approx 25 days, when the fix job will be ended.

By the way, all the things that will not be identified currently remains in their original folder. it would be golden to re-start a fix task after that that would be able to identify tracks based on bandcamp and beatport as previously discussed. Did you make any advancement on this topic ? just curious

Thanks again !

[paultaylor]

@meaning

Thanks for the support.

Thanks for you thanks !

@meaning

By the way, all the things that will not be identified currently remains in their original folder. it would be golden to re-start a fix task after that that would be able to identify tracks based on bandcamp and beatport as previously discussed. Did you make any advancement on this topic ? just curious

That is a major task, and I am busy with other things so no I havent looked at that yet.