Is it possible to auto complete compilation albums

[sugarman]

Hello all,

Just wondering if this is possible with Musicbee and if it is not if there is another way it can be done.

Folder A - contains a load of subfolders, each a compilation album. Some are complete, but some missing a few tracks.
Folder B - contains a load of sub-folders, each album artist-specific.  All are complete
Folder C - contains a load of sub-folders, each album artist-specific.  All are missing a few tracks.

Is it possible to scan folder A to identify which tracks are missing, and then grab them from folder C?

I have been trying to think of a way to do this for some time now, so any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
John

[Mayibongwe]

Is it possible to scan folder A to identify which tracks are missing, and then grab them from folder C?

What would be the criteria/logic/condition that needs to be met in order for a folder in A to be deemed as having missing tracks?
And suppose we get a way to determine the above, how would we know that the missing tracks are located under what folder under C?

Seeing there's a mention of it, how does folder B come into play?
Perhaps specific examples (album or title tags, etc.) may shed some more light on how this may be achievable (if at all possible).

[sugarman]

Thanks for replying. Great questions. I'll try to explain...

What would be the criteria/logic/condition that needs to be met in order for a folder in A to be deemed as having missing tracks?

Yeah, this is the biggie right? In mediamonkey there is a third party script called Tagging Inconsistencies. One of its options is to find albums with missing tracks. I am not 100% sure how it does that. I guess it could look for missing track numbers, but that would miss tracks at the end of the album. Perhaps it looks up the musicbrainz or discogs id, and then checks against that.

And suppose we get a way to determine the above, how would we know that the missing tracks are located under what folder under C?

Well, the only way I can see it working is to search the whole folder for each track that is identified as missing. Presumably by matching against id3 tag data. Perhaps you could use musicbrainz or discogs metadata here as well to identify the missing tracks.

Seeing there's a mention of it, how does folder B come into play?

Folder B was intended to be an example of a complete "known good" folder. It probably confused more than anything else. Apologies for the extra noise.

Perhaps specific examples (album or title tags, etc.) may shed some more light on how this may be achievable (if at all possible).

The Album "Whatever People Say I am..." by Arctic Monkeys is missing track 7, Riot Van.

For the sake of argument, let's say that track that was on many various artist compilations albums.

Run the plugin/script > identify the missing track > scan a target folder for tracks that have the correct id3 for title & artist > rename album artist and track# accordingly so it now completes the album.

Essentially this is cleaning up the library by completing albums wherever possible.

I hope all that makes sense. Please let me know if any is unclear, and thanks again for the kind response.

[Mayibongwe]

I hope all that makes sense. Please let me know if any is unclear, and thanks again for the kind response.

Yeah, it sorta does, and here's the verdict from my side:

The best that MusicBee's native features can offer you is the existing <albumComplete?> field that can be used to weed out albums with missing tracks.
It will only tell you that there are missing tracks, but won't know exactly what's missing and where to find it.

You (or somebody else who sympathizes with the cause) would have to write a plugin that integrates all those external sources you mentioned. Best of luck.

[phred]

It will only tell you that there are missing tracks, but won't know exactly what's missing and where to find it.

And if I'm not mistaken, it can't even tell you -which- tracks are missing. You must make use of the <disc> and <track #> tags for this to work. If you have an album that has five of its eleven tracks you would enter the track number(s) for the tracks you have and "11" for the total tracks. MB would then see that you only have five of the eleven tracks and warn you of that.

[hiccup]

You must make use of the <disc> and <track #> tags for this to work.

Not entirely true, you could also use example #3 from this Tip & Trick.
But TBH I have no idea if that would make possible what the OP is asking for.
(that method won't trigger a warning when tracks at the end are missing)

[phred]

Thanks hiccup. I have edited my reply to "total number of tracks  and/or total number of discs".

Using that Tip & Trick would still require the user know the total number of tracks in the album. And perhaps the total number of discs if it were a multi-disc album.

As for whether or not ti would work, the OP can test it and report back.