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Support => Questions => Topic started by: BRAINS on June 29, 2016, 05:55:51 AM

Title: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: BRAINS on June 29, 2016, 05:55:51 AM
Out of curiosity, how do you guys tag the bonus discs that come with your albums?  For example, I have a bonus disc of demos from Candlemass' second album "Nightfall".  The original album came out in 1987, but mine is the 2007 reissue.  I prefer to have the original date of an album in my library, regardless of the issue - I usually put that in the comments.  So for now I have been doing one album as "[Disc 1]" and one as "[Disc 2]".  It is annoying though with album art viewing seeing 2-3 album covers of the same record.
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: psychoadept on June 29, 2016, 07:31:36 AM
I would put the disc title in Grouping or some such and show it in the subheader, and not use date in the album definition in Sorting & Grouping.  You are tagging disc#, right?
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: BRAINS on June 29, 2016, 06:37:16 PM
No in this case, I am not using the disc #.  I was labeling the bonus disc as "Disc 2" so it was treated like a separate album.  I have never used the grouping tag option.  So you are saying don't put the year for the bonus disc, and label it as "bonus disc" under the grouping field?  Do MP3 players and phones recognize the grouping field?
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: phred on June 29, 2016, 08:27:23 PM
No in this case, I am not using the disc #.  I was labeling the bonus disc as "Disc 2" so it was treated like a separate album.
By adding the disc# using the Tag Editor, MB will present the album as one. Critical to this working correctly is that the Album title and Album Artist must be the same across the various discs comprising the album. In the screenshot, if I had the album title as "The Closing of Winterland - Disc 1" and "The Closing of Winterland - Disc 2", MB would show it as two albums.  Making the title of both discs "The Closing of Winterland" and setting tag disc# as 1 and 2, gives you the single album with multiple discs.
(http://i.imgur.com/QcqAiYS.jpg)
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: BRAINS on June 29, 2016, 09:22:10 PM
No I understand how to use disc number in the tags.  Sorry, maybe I am confusing people here...

What I am talking about is a bonus disc - a second disc that usually comes with a reissue.  It could have demo tracks, live performances, isolated tracks, etc.  The album in question was originally released in 1987, but my issue is from 2007 - which contains  a bonus disc of live performances.

I am asking how people tag their bonus discs.  I myself have just been doing "Disc 1" and "Disc 2" for the bonus because I like the years separate.  I don't want it as one album showing 2007 when the original date of disc 1 is from 1987.
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: theta_wave on June 29, 2016, 09:37:11 PM
I use the subtitle/set subtitle field: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=11990.0
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: psychoadept on June 30, 2016, 02:05:01 AM
If you use Disc # and make it a single album, you can then add a field (grouping, or the subtitle field that ssri suggested) to the subheader in album & tracks layout that would label the disc as (for instance) 2007 Live Bonus Disc.  That would allow you to have it shown as one album, but also clearly mark the bonus disc.

Take a look here for more about the subheader: http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Album_and_Tracks_View
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: BRAINS on June 30, 2016, 04:33:13 AM
So this is the best way, but it won't work outside of MusicBee right?  Most phones and MP3 players will sort it as one album, disc 1 and 2.  I guess the only thing I can do for that is change the year of the second disc to 2007 so I know it's the bonus disc.  That said, my phone will still play the album as one because its labelled as disc 1/2 and 2/2.

(http://i.imgur.com/aK0y4Cb.png)
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: psychoadept on June 30, 2016, 09:17:20 AM
So this is the best way, but it won't work outside of MusicBee right?  Most phones and MP3 players will sort it as one album, disc 1 and 2.  I guess the only thing I can do for that is change the year of the second disc to 2007 so I know it's the bonus disc.  That said, my phone will still play the album as one because its labelled as disc 1/2 and 2/2.

Yes, that's an accurate summary, unless the phone player offers special tag handling.
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: theta_wave on June 30, 2016, 03:46:32 PM
So this is the best way, but it won't work outside of MusicBee right?  Most phones and MP3 players will sort it as one album, disc 1 and 2.  I guess the only thing I can do for that is change the year of the second disc to 2007 so I know it's the bonus disc.  That said, my phone will still play the album as one because its labelled as disc 1/2 and 2/2.

Yes, that's an accurate summary, unless the phone player offers special tag handling.
Yeah, most (if not all) phone apps are pretty basic with their tag handling as are most players except for this one, foobar2000 and (to a lesser extent) MediaMonkey.  Changes made with Musicbee should be seen in foobar2000 BTW.  Anyways, to the OP, is this something you want for your phone app?  Changing the year field is a little drastic for something like this.  I have over 8000 tracks on my phones (just selected and highly rated songs) organized by autoplaylists and just play said playlists in random.
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: BRAINS on June 30, 2016, 11:32:48 PM
Well you see, it doesn't matter if I change the year for one disc or keep it the same for both.  If the album is 2 discs, it's going to play in order, disc 1 then disc 2, on both the phone/mp3 player and MusicBee.  Sometimes I just want to listen to the original album, other times I want to hear some live tracks off the bonus disc.  It's easy on the computer because I can just queue the songs I want quickly.  On a phone it's not as simple to do that...

I guess if I want to keep my library organized and not have an album split up and titled "Disc 1" and "Disc 2" at the end of that album's name, I will combine them into one disc and give the bonus disc a separate year.  I will use grouping field to note that it is a bonus/live disc.
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: BRAINS on July 02, 2016, 08:50:43 PM
Ok, so if I search an album with a bonus disc in MusicBee and then sort albums by year (which I always prefer), it makes it look like the discs are separate because it has the original album at 1986 and the bonus disc at 2002.  I guess this is intended and makes sense, but I don't like seeing 2 album covers pop up.  So I guess the only way around that is to sort by "album" or keep the entire album (original and bonus disc) with the same year.

Also I have a conundrum here.  My Dire Straits Alchemy has 2 different covers for each side of the disc.  This is probably a rare case with an album, so what would you guys do in this situation?
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: redwing on July 03, 2016, 12:49:57 PM
My Dire Straits Alchemy has 2 different covers for each side of the disc.  This is probably a rare case with an album, so what would you guys do in this situation?

You could either add both covers to all tracks or add each cover to tracks on each side. MB's main panel will only show first track's primary cover, but track info panel can rotate covers if a track has multiple covers. And if tracks on each side has a different cover, you could see it while they're playing in track info panel, TM or on your phone.
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: jasongnome on July 06, 2016, 03:34:30 PM
I actually use one of the custom tag fields as "trackyear", mainly because I have a lot of compilation albums, so I'd put the main year field as the release date of the main album, and then tag the tracks on the bonus disc with their date.

Works nicely, and MusicBee treats the custom tags as any other tag, so I can sort on it, display it in the main library etc etc etc.
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: BRAINS on July 07, 2016, 05:00:28 AM
My Dire Straits Alchemy has 2 different covers for each side of the disc.  This is probably a rare case with an album, so what would you guys do in this situation?

You could either add both covers to all tracks or add each cover to tracks on each side. MB's main panel will only show first track's primary cover, but track info panel can rotate covers if a track has multiple covers. And if tracks on each side has a different cover, you could see it while they're playing in track info panel, TM or on your phone.
I went with a separate cover for each disc.  I combined the album into one and your right...  In "Now Playing", "Track Information", and "Details" it will show the correct cover for the track playing;  In the MusicBee library and search, it will only show the first cover.  Good enough I suppose.

I actually use one of the custom tag fields as "trackyear", mainly because I have a lot of compilation albums, so I'd put the main year field as the release date of the main album, and then tag the tracks on the bonus disc with their date.

Works nicely, and MusicBee treats the custom tags as any other tag, so I can sort on it, display it in the main library etc etc etc.
Sorry I don't understand what you mean?  I made the custom tag "trackyear" and it doesn't show up anywhere.  How is this different than what I am doing above?
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: jasongnome on July 07, 2016, 09:50:41 AM

Sorry I don't understand what you mean?  I made the custom tag "trackyear" and it doesn't show up anywhere.  How is this different than what I am doing above?

You have to tell it to show up, right click on the headings at the top of the main view and you can select which fields show.

The way it's different is that the track now has two date tags, the date of release of the album it's on and the date of release of the track itself.
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: BRAINS on July 08, 2016, 06:02:36 AM

Sorry I don't understand what you mean?  I made the custom tag "trackyear" and it doesn't show up anywhere.  How is this different than what I am doing above?

You have to tell it to show up, right click on the headings at the top of the main view and you can select which fields show.

The way it's different is that the track now has two date tags, the date of release of the album it's on and the date of release of the track itself.
Would you mind posting a screenshot?
Title: Re: How do you guys tag "bonus discs"
Post by: jasongnome on July 09, 2016, 10:20:34 AM
https://s32.postimg.org/mftfb1wfp/musicbee1.png

The column that just shows Trac... is the "Trackyear" field that is one of the customtags I renamed. Rightclicking on any of those headings brings up a menu, selecting "Set displayed fields..." lets you choose which tags show in the main field.

You'll notice that bottom right where the album image is, I've also designed it to show both years for the track now playing. To do that rightclick on the words "track information" and one of the options in the drop down menu is "customise panel...". All I did was edit the 4th box to "Album: <Year> Track: <Trackyear>"