Storing and Displaying Translated Tags

[karbock]

Storing and Displaying Translated Tags

If you wish to store two versions of some tags (original + translated), the method proposed here uses: one custom tag to store all the translations, virtual tags, one for each translated piece of information.

Example used throughout this post

Let us take as example a track and its translation/transliteration:

	Original	Translated/Transliterated
Album Artist	ЧАЙКОВСКИЙ, Пётр	TCHAIKOVSKY, Piotr
Album	Complete Piano Works (vol. 4)
Artist	ПОСТНИКОВА, Виктория	POSTNIKOVA, Viktoria
Composer	ЧАЙКОВСКИЙ, Пётр	TCHAIKOVSKY, Piotr
Work	Времена года	The Seasons
Movement Name	Декабрь: Святки	December: Christmas
Title	Времена года - 12. Декабрь: Святки	The Seasons - 12. December: Christmas

Custom tag

One custom tag suffices to store all the translations if you follow simple syntactic conventions.

Custom tag: TranslatedTags

Conventions:

• Each piece of information is in the form {TagName:Value} or {TagCode:Value}.
• Semicolons ; are optional, but allow for a clearer display with the tag inspector.

With our example, TranslatedTags will contain:

Code

{Album Artist:TCHAIKOVSKY, Piotr}; {Artist:POSTNIKOVA, Viktoria}; {Composer:TCHAIKOVSKY, Piotr}; {Work:The Seasons}; {Movement Name:December: Christmas}; {Title:The Seasons - 12. December: Christmas}

Or, with tag codes, and without the semicolons:

Code

{AA:TCHAIKOVSKY, Piotr}{AR:POSTNIKOVA, Viktoria}{CO:TCHAIKOVSKY, Piotr}{WO:The Seasons}{MO:December: Christmas}{TI:The Seasons - 12. December: Christmas}

NOTE:

• If you already use { and } in your tags, choose other unique symbols.

Tag codes and tag names

• AA = Album Artist
• AR = Artist
• TI = Title
• CO = Composer
• WO = Work
• MO = Movement Name

Typical virtual tag formula

Virtual tag TranslatedArtist will display:
- the piece of information found in TranslatedTags within {Artist:} or {AR:} if it exists,
- Artist otherwise (inside an $IsNull declaration to prevent from displaying "Unknown Artist").

The matching formula is the following:

Code

$If(
    $IsMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Artist|AR)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),
    $RxMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Artist|AR)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),
    $IsNull(<Artist>,,<Artist>)
)

(Newlines and indentations have been added for the sake of readability.)

Comments:

• [^}]* = a string containing no '}', possibly null
• (?<={(Artist|AR)[:]) = the string must be preceded by '{Artist:' or '{AR:'
• (?=}) = the string must be followed by '}'

Formulas for common tags

Just adapt the table to your needs:
- if you wish to use other separators;
- if you use other fields, such as Conductor, Lyricist, etc.

Virtual Tag	Formula	Result
TranslatedAlbumArtist	$If($IsMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Album Artist|AA)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$RxMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Album Artist|AA)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$IsNull(<Album Artist>,,<Album Artist>))	TCHAIKOVSKY, Piotr
TranslatedAlbum	$If($IsMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Album|AL)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$RxMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Album|AL)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$IsNull(<Album>,,<Album>))
TranslatedArtist	$If($IsMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Artist|AR)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$RxMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Artist|AR)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$IsNull(<Artist>,,<Artist>))	POSTNIKOVA, Viktoria
TranslatedComposer	$If($IsMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Composer|CO)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$RxMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Composer|CO)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$IsNull(<Composer>,,<Composer>))	TCHAIKOVSKY, Piotr
TranslatedWork	$If($IsMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Work|WO)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$RxMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Work|WO)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$IsNull(<Work>,,<Work>))	The Seasons
TranslatedMovementName	$If($IsMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Movement Name|MO)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$RxMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Movement Name|MO)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$IsNull(<Movement Name>,,<Movement Name>))	December: Christmas
TranslatedTitle	$If($IsMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Title|TI)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$RxMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Title|TI)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$IsNull(<Title>,,<Title>))	The Seasons - 12. December: Christmas

References

MusicBee functions for virtual tags cheatsheet
Regular Expressions: coding, examples, testing resources

[hiccup]

I was curious:
Are you using Picard to populate your tags?
If so, are you using a script for Picard to have this 'translated' custom tag created and filled automatically?

[karbock]

I was curious:
Are you using Picard to populate your tags?

No, I have never used Picard, in fact.

When I add new tracks, I manually harmonise the format of their embedded tags with the existing collection (within mp3tag),
and so far I have populated TranslatedTags for only a small minority of albums (mainly world music or byzantine chants),
when the original title is in a rather obscure language but still readable.
I prefer having the original title as a reference, since the translations or transliterations can vary a lot.

But finding both the original title and a translation often requires to search on discogs + MusicBrainz + the rest of the internet.

[nvxe]

can you post an screenshot from the tag inspector with an example of how are the virtual tags within are supposed to look like?
i followed all your steps mentioned in https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=41923.0 but i don't know how to fill each, since only the "translatedtags" tag appears in tags(2)

[karbock]

can you post an screenshot from the tag inspector with an example of how are the virtual tags within are supposed to look like?
i followed all your steps mentioned in https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=41923.0 but i don't know how to fill each, since only the "translatedtags" tag appears in tags(2)

Hello @nvxe, and welcome to the forum.

You need to populate TranslatedTags only.
The virtual tags are NOT populated by the user: they are computed "on the fly" each time they are displayed.
In other words, only the formula of a virtual tag is stored, not its resulting string.

As a concrete example, let's take one track from a Czech album.

• ALBUM: "Klenoty českých vánoc", which translates to "Gems of Czech Christmas Carols"
• TRACK 01 - TITLE: "Narodil se Kristus Pán", which means "Christ, Our Lord Was Born"

Step-by-step procedure:

STEP 01: Define custom tag "TranslatedTags" Via Preferences > Tags(1) > button [Define new tags...] In the first table, in a free slot, enter the value for TranslatedTags as in the picture on the right, and click on [Save].
STEP 02: Make "TranslatedTags" available in the interface Via Preferences > Tags(1). In a free custom tag slot, enter "TranslatedTags" in the left column, and select "TranslatedTags" in the right column.
STEP 03: Define virtual tags "TranslatedAlbum" and "TranslatedTitle" Via Preferences > Tags(1) > button [Define new tags...] In the second table, in two free slots, enter: (1st one) - as label: TranslatedAlbum - as formula: $If($IsMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Album|AL)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$RxMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Album|AL)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$IsNull(<Album>,,<Album>)) (2nd one) - as label: TranslatedTitle - as formula: $If($IsMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Title|TI)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$RxMatch(<TranslatedTags>,"(?<={(Title|TI)[:])[^}]*(?=})"),$IsNull(<Title>,,<Title>))
STEP 04: Populate "TranslatedTags" * Right-click on track 01 > Edit > select tab "Tags(2)" * Click on [...] to the right of "translatedtags" * On the 1st row, let's enter for our example {Album:Gems of Czech Christmas Carols} (or {AL:Gems of Czech Christmas Carols}) * On the 2nd row, let's enter {Title:Christ, Our Lord Was Born} (or {TI:Christ, Our Lord Was Born}) * Click on [Update], then on [Save]
STEP 05: Use "TranslatedAlbum" and "TranslatedTitle" in the interface One possible example here.