Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: grouping problem (Read 1409 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

grouping problem

I just recently ran into a problem with playlist grouping (FB 2.1.5, Columns UI 2.1.0) 32bit, I can't seem to solve.

I was converting some FLAC albums to mp3 to transfer to mobile later, and I can't seem to get the playlist to group on type.

I wanted the playlist to group all FLAC tracks together and all mp3 tracks in each album folder.

Below a simplified grouping pattern:
Code: [Select]
$directory(%path%) - $ext(%path%) - [%discnumber%-]%tracknumber%

Contrary to what I want, which is two groups.
one with FLAC's - track 1 to x
and one with MP3's - track 1 to x

I get a group for each track in this order
FLAC track 1
MP3 track 1
FLAC track 2
MP3 track 2
etc.


And no matter what I try, it always splits groups on tracknumber instead of the first item in the group definition. It just keeps splitting groups on each track. Even as simple a grouping as
Code: [Select]
$directory(%path%) - $ext(%path%)

Re: grouping problem

Reply #1 –
So you're storing the lossy encodes in the same source folder as the lossless? I believe that's a bit daft. Your lossy encodes should live outside your main library. Of course you can totally ignore me here. It's your choice.

If you want to persist, your grouping is working as expected. You have a sorting issue to fix. Depending on how your playlists are populated from whatever library viewer you're using, you'll need to take %codec% in to account as part of the sort pattern.

Note that album list in folder structure mode/refacets won't be able to do this for you. Columns UI filters certainly can.

Re: grouping problem

Reply #2 –
I just use
Code: [Select]
$directory(%path%) - '('%codec%')'

Re: grouping problem

Reply #3 –
Quote from: marc2k3 on
So you're storing the lossy encodes in the same source folder as the lossless? I believe that's a bit daft. Your lossy encodes should live outside your main library. Of course you can totally ignore me here. It's your choice.
It's just a temporary thing, once they're transfered they get removed, no point in letting them waste space once transferred. But the weird grouping does make it more cumbersome selecting the tracks to transfer.

Still, I find it weird that grouping can't handle this. Isn't that the basis for sorting your playlist view within the groups in Columns UI? 

Re: grouping problem

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Just_Addict on
Quote from: marc2k3 on
So you're storing the lossy encodes in the same source folder as the lossless? I believe that's a bit daft. Your lossy encodes should live outside your main library. Of course you can totally ignore me here. It's your choice.
It's just a temporary thing, once they're transfered they get removed, no point in letting them waste space once transferred. But the weird grouping does make it more cumbersome selecting the tracks to transfer.

Still, I find it weird that grouping can't handle this. Isn't that the basis for sorting your playlist view within the groups in Columns UI?
No. Grouping handles the items to be put together in a group. Sorting handles the order in which the grouped items are (you guessed it) sorted.

Re: grouping problem

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Just_Addict on
Quote from: marc2k3 on
So you're storing the lossy encodes in the same source folder as the lossless? I believe that's a bit daft. Your lossy encodes should live outside your main library. Of course you can totally ignore me here. It's your choice.
It's just a temporary thing, once they're transfered they get removed, no point in letting them waste space once transferred. But the weird grouping does make it more cumbersome selecting the tracks to transfer.

Still, I find it weird that grouping can't handle this. Isn't that the basis for sorting your playlist view within the groups in Columns UI?
I use dbPoweramp to do the conversion from lossless to mp3. Resulting files are dumped in the (windows) Music library, From there I move them to my phone, external harddisk for my car and then delete the files.
You don't have to handle everything within fooBar. Windows explorer does a decent job in moving/copying files as well.
Just pick the right tool for the job.

Re: grouping problem

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Defender on
I use dbPoweramp to do the conversion from lossless to mp3. Resulting files are dumped in the (windows) Music library, From there I move them to my phone, external harddisk for my car and then delete the files.
You don't have to handle everything within fooBar. Windows explorer does a decent job in moving/copying files as well.
Just pick the right tool for the job.
The same is doable with fb2k too.
Also, you can convert directly where you need (phone too, if it does support UMS mode) and not waste time to manually copy files.

Re: grouping problem

Reply #8 –
Quote from: Bogozo on
Quote from: Defender on
I use dbPoweramp to do the conversion from lossless to mp3. Resulting files are dumped in the (windows) Music library, From there I move them to my phone, external harddisk for my car and then delete the files.
You don't have to handle everything within fooBar. Windows explorer does a decent job in moving/copying files as well.
Just pick the right tool for the job.
The same is doable with fb2k too.
Also, you can convert directly where you need (phone too, if it does support UMS mode) and not waste time to manually copy files.
I know. But that's beside my point. I just described the way I handle lossy copies. No way I'm going to do that from within fooBar.
FooBar is (thank god) not a full fledged explorer/windows commander/q-dir app.
And when I want to watch a HDR+ / DV 4k movie I won't be using fooBar either :-)

Why spent a lot of time about grouping/sorting issues when it's just some files that are temporarily on your drive?