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Topic: Tagging scheme for musicians (Read 3783 times) previous topic - next topic
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Tagging scheme for musicians

Hello,

A large part of my music collection is now on (redundant) hard drives and I use foobar2000, mainly for simplicity and album/db functionalities.

I listen to a lot of jazz and a feature for this music is that band (as ARTIST tag) is not as important as in pop music for example. More important is the name of the saxophonist, pianist, and so on. What is the best way to add all these information as tags, and then how to extend db search functionalities to do e.g. "find more with the same guitarist"?

Thanks!

Tagging scheme for musicians

Reply #1 –
Quote
What is the best way to add all these information as tags, and then how to extend db search functionalities to do e.g. "find more with the same guitarist"?

Have a look in the database search preferences, and add any tags you need to the "format presets" part of the configuration. Select any of the existing ones for examples of the format you need to use to add your own.

Then you should be able to right click on a file and select "dbsearch->search for same..." and choose your new tags from the window that pops up.

// EDIT: didn't read your post properly, I was assuming you have tags for each instrument in the file when I posted above. I'm sure people will have some other suggestions for adding the info as tags

Tagging scheme for musicians

Reply #2 –
Indeed, I have began adding tags like "SAXOPHONE", "PIANO" (name of the instruments instead of players), with musicians as values. But I was wondering if a simpler solution exists...

A problem is that somtimes (no so often actually), a musiscian plays different instrument on different albums. Also (more often), 2 pianists can play on different tracks of a same album, or it is possible to have 2 saxophones or guitars....

Maybe I should try to put my hand on foo_dbsearch sources (if available) and try to extend search paradigm to deal with a special tag "MUSICIANS" that would list the musicians in a predefined format e.g. list of "instrument=name" and be able to browse like:

  find with the same musicians...
  -----> saxophone...
  ------------>name1
  ------------>name2
  ------> piano...
  ------------->name3

And if you select name1, this will bring back the list of the albums where "name1" plays.

What do you think of this?

BTW, is there a way to have the list of albums for a search instead of list of tracks?

Tagging scheme for musicians

Reply #4 –
Quote
A problem is that somtimes (no so often actually), a musiscian plays different instrument on different albums. Also (more often), 2 pianists can play on different tracks of a same album, or it is possible to have 2 saxophones or guitars....

You mean the problem with using instrument tags? I don't see that restricting you here, since the tags are per track. Also, its perfectly valid to have more than one tag of the same name (e.g., two GUITAR tags in a single file each with a different guitarist name)

Quote
Maybe I should try to put my hand on foo_dbsearch sources (if available) and try to extend search paradigm to deal with a special tag "MUSICIANS" that would list the musicians in a predefined format e.g. list of "instrument=name" and be able to browse like:

  find with the same musicians...
  -----> saxophone...
  ------------>name1
  ------------>name2
  ------> piano...
  ------------->name3

And if you select name1, this will bring back the list of the albums where "name1" plays.

The foo_dbsearch sources aren't available. But as kjoonlee says, check out the albumlist plugin, because you basically just described how it presents its information (well, a little configuration will be needed to achieve the above).

Tagging scheme for musicians

Reply #5 –
Quote
You mean the problem with using instrument tags? I don't see that restricting you here, since the tags are per track. Also, its perfectly valid to have more than one tag of the same name (e.g., two GUITAR tags in a single file each with a different guitarist name)


The problem is then the meaning of "find more with the same guitarist" is there are 2 guitars. Yes, I am exhibiting special cases, but I think it is better to list all the problems to see if it is feasible before trying to make it!

Also, if musicians are set in one special tag for each instrument, the plugin must be aware of the precise list of "instrument" tags. This could prevent the user from adding "BALAFON" for example if it was not planned. I think all musicians information under one pre-defined tag is better in this respect.

Anyway, if foo_dbsearch sources are not available, I do not know how I could extend this. As kjonlee suggested, I could throw an eye on foo_albumlist to add sub "MUSISCIANS" tag as a category for browsing, with special parsing of the structured attached value.

Tagging scheme for musicians

Reply #6 –
You don't need to alter foo_dbsearch itself to implement a new filter mode. Examples for filter mode implementations are contained in the foo_dbsearch_mini_sdk. Interfaces to alter the selected search options (and show the search window if necessary) will be included in the next version.

Tagging scheme for musicians

Reply #7 –
Great !

Tagging scheme for musicians

Reply #8 –
I'm also interested in such database search features, but I haven't got time to play with DB yet :-(
But can we just add PERFORMER tag for every participating musician in a form like
Code: [Select]
PERFORMER=Eric Dolphy: alto saxophone, flute, bass clarinet

Couldn't we then search the DB for PERFORMER tag containing "Eric Dolphy" or "flute" or "'Eric Dolphy' AND 'flute'"?

Tagging scheme for musicians

Reply #9 –
Quote
Couldn't we then search the DB for PERFORMER tag containing "Eric Dolphy" or "flute" or "'Eric Dolphy' AND 'flute'"?[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=235937"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

All currently available search plugins (including Database search and the Extended playlist generator) will internally merge the contents of tags with the same name before searching for a string. So your above query will yield all tracks where "Eric Dolphy" played any instrument and anybody played the "flute".

Tagging scheme for musicians

Reply #10 –
Quote
Quote
Couldn't we then search the DB for PERFORMER tag containing "Eric Dolphy" or "flute" or "'Eric Dolphy' AND 'flute'"?[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=235937"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

All currently available search plugins (including Database search and the Extended playlist generator) will internally merge the contents of tags with the same name before searching for a string. So your above query will yield all tracks where "Eric Dolphy" played any instrument and anybody played the "flute".
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=235967"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Hmh, I cannot verify this straight away, But I do think that using the extended playlist generator one could set up a query such as
Code: [Select]
performer HAS Eric Dolphy AND performer HAS flute


Although in case there would be some other performer that plays the flute next to Eric Dolphy in the tag,and Eric Dolphy in this case would play a different instrument, it would return these values as well.