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Topic: Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album (Read 38161 times) previous topic - next topic
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Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Hello, to understand my problem I will show you two screenshots.

By default, when you have a folder with an album... and you drag and drop this folder to foobar2000, it organize the songs as belonging them to the same artist.
For example, if you have a folder in which the mp3 all them belong to the same artist, you will see them, perfectly organized, as you see in this picture.



Okay... but what happens if you have an album and every song belong to a different author? what happens is foobar2000 show the album not well organized, as this:



As you can see... all these songs belong to the album In Violet 2011, but foobar2000 show them separately and not organized in the same group as in the case before.

Why is this happening?

Well... foobar2000 organize the songs by default, putting all them together, when they belong to the same artist. If you have an artist called, Simply Red, foobar2000 will organize all the songs of this artist together.

Well, I don't want this.

I want foobar2000 organize the songs grouping them, by ALBUM NAME and not by artist name.

How many I do this?

Thanks a lot

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #1
Visit  Preferences > Display > Default User Interface > Playlist view  (or something similar if you are using Columns UI). There you can setup your grouping scheme, that is the title formatting string generated for each track which is used as the group header (consecutive tracks with the same result are grouped together). Just write %album% there if you want to have only the album as grouping header.

I suggest you to group by %album artist% and %album% (just write something like %album artist% - %album%) while albums as those which you just have encountered should be tagged with ALBUM ARTIST=Various Artists.
Please read the Encouraged Tag Standards.

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #2
Hi
I'm using Columns UI, I don't know very well how to program... so I tell you what I have...

If I go to...
Preferences, Columns UI, Playlist View...

In the Grouping tab I have...

$if(%artist%,<no artist>)[/ %album%]

what should I do?

what should I type to group the albums by Album name?


Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #3
what should I type to group the albums by Album name?

Groups (NG Playlist only):
$if(%album artist%,%album artist%,%artist%) [/[%date%] [%album%] $if(%discnumber%, Disc %discnumber%)]

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #4
As far as I know $if(%album artist%,%album artist%,%artist%) is essentially the same as %album artist%.

@mrmister: Tell us what you want to have as group headers, which information shall be shown there?

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #5
Sorry I didnt understand well both replies...

mmmm

I am not programmer ok?

so...

Erich_2
Groups (NG Playlist only): ???
Where do I type that code... ?
In Preferences, Display, Columns UI, Playlist view, Grouping???? or where?
I would need a bit of more help, because I am new to foobar2000

herojoker
I don't understand your question... what I want is to group the songs by Album name, as simple as that. All the mp3 in a certain folder, contains the artist name, song name,  album name.
Actually foobar is organizing the playlist by artist name. All the songs from the same artist, are grouped.
This works fine if you are listening an album from Madona or Simply Red, because all the songs are from the same artist, they will be shown in the same group.
But this organizing method dont work well in chillout albums, that normally has 20 mp3 inside coming from different artist.
So what I want is the playlist be organized by ALBUM NAME.
As you can see in the last screenshot, all the songs are from the album IN VIOLET, but they are not grouped. Why? because they are from different artists.
foobar2000 is organizing the songs by artists, and not by album's name.
So that is what I need, to show the playlist organized in that way.

*Please, have patience with me because I am new with foobar2000*


Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #6
There are only a couple of entries in foobar preferences for CUI. Are  you saying that when you go through them, one at a time, you can not find Groups (NG Playlist only)?

You are trying to adjust the view of a playlist view so that would be a good start. You are trying to adjust grouping so the grouping tab may be a good start.

What have you in the script box? Is does not matter if you can program, just need to think.  Does what is in there seem to imply that it is going to group by artist? Now you are getting somewhere.

For a simple start, get rid of that text string and simply type %album%. Might not be prefect yet, but it will be a start. 
Click help in your foorbar and go to titleformatting help to understand what all the %field name% stuff is.

EDIT What Herojoker was asking is related to how detailed the information you would like to see on the grouping line. Above gives you the album title. Changing the script text string to %album% - %artist% with give you the artist name after the album name. Unlimited options using the info from the above referenced titleformat help screen.

EDIT 2: All of this assumes you have well tagged files. All bets off if not.

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #7
Hi back
This is what I have in preferences...



Groups (NG Playlist only)? I don't know where may I find it...

Most of the people download the music and just play it. Perhaps there are people that devote time to tag it perfectly, but many people just download and play it.
In winamp, to order the albums is quite simple. You drag it, and it is organized by ALBUM NAME.
So I only want to organize my playlist view by ALBUM NAME, and not by artist name, which is as it is by defualt.

I am not programmer. I don't have many skills configuring programs, neither I understand very well that %language% you use to make scripts in foobar2000, which has to be an amazing tool for experienced programmers, but for people that only knows 2+2 in computers, it's quite complicated.

So if someone could help me, telling me what I have to do step by step, I would be really grateful, because is what I need, just organizing my playlist BY ALBUM NAME.

Anyway, thanks everyone for your efforts, I really thank you for that, but sadly I still without solving my problem.

If we could do this as easy as possible, I would be grateful.

Thanks.

PS Winamp is not an option for me, takes a lot of system resources. I need foobar2000 made easy, please.

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #8
You have shown a willingness to click one button and take a pretty picture of your general preferences page. Wonderful. Now how about showing that you are making an effort to figure the easiest things yourself? You really do not know what  NG Playlist is, do you?

Look at your preferences page. Once again:
You are using columns user interface. Click it.
You are having trouble with your playlist view. Click it.
You are having trouble with grouping. Click it.

If you still having trouble finding NG Playlist, may I suggest a radio  .
By the way, NG playlist is the name of the playlist viewer included with Columns User Interface. You want it easy, yet you chose to use the more complex Columns User Interface instead of the default user interface. WHY?.

The developer of Columns User interface has a wiki on his web site. Have you read it? There is also a wiki here for Foobar. Have you read it? There is a search box here at the forums. It is quite handy.

Good luck.

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #9
Are you referring only to files that are added, not sorted afterwards by you clicking one of the column headers? If so, use Preferences > Shell Integration > Sort Incoming Files By.

Do you just want to sort by album name, not caring about grouping albums of the same artist? Just click on the album column header.

Do you want to sort by artist then album, but also account for compilations? Try these or other topics that result from a search (Google bar at the top-right of the page) for foobar2000 various artists or foobar2000 compilations:
* Grouping albums by various artists, how to?
* Columns UI - Sorting "Various Artists"
etc.


 

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #11
Thanks to everyone, I think I am returning to winamp again... this is really quite painful.
Winamp is taking an 11% of resources and foobar2000 only 4%...
so I think I can resist those 7% of processor extra usage instead learning a lot of information about how to do a simple thing, that in winamp is made with just 2 clicks.
Perhaps in the future, foobar2000 would be more user friendly and then... easier for users that don't want to spend a lot of time learning howtos.
Anyway, thanks for your help.

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #12
It's painful to type %album% into the text field that Erich_2 kindly showed you?

Sigh.
That's so plausible, I can't believe it.

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #13
It's painful to type %album% into the text field that Erich_2 kindly showed you?

Sigh.


But what must I do?
delete the actual line that is in NG Playlist...
$if2(%artist%,<no artist>)[ / %album%]

????

and replace it with this...

%album%

Is just that???

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #14
Have you tried?
Windows 10 Pro x64 // foobar2000 1.3.10

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #15
Have you tried?


hi guys,

I face the same problem and was reading this thread. I tried.

In the file/preference/column UI/playlist view under groups I have entered the script
$if(%album artist%,%album artist%,%artist%) [/[%date%] [%album%] $if(%discnumber%, Disc %discnumber%)]

and I have set Album Artist = Various Artists

For my CD "Audiophile Voices III' where it is a compilation, in columns UI 9, 2 and 4 songs are grouped together respectively all under the heading of "Various Artists/2004 Best Audiophile Voices III Disc 1". Thus I have 3 groups for 1 album rather than 1 group for 1 album.

Though I have some programming experience years ago, I am totally new to tagging. I downloaded MP3tag and try to check the tags of two songs in different grouping but I could not find why diff songs would appear in diff groups.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #16
if you check the help for how %album artist% works when used in title formatting, you'll see your $if statement is un-necessary. again with %discnumber%, you can just use []

Code: [Select]
%album artist% [/%date% ][%album% ][Disc %discnumber%]


now onto the main problem. something is wrong with your tags. foobar doesn't do random. it uses the tags specified in your grouping scheme. that is all.

you don't need mp3tag to check them. highlight the files in foobar, right click>properties and that should tell you where there are differences. it will say <<multiple values>> on at least one of the tags used in your grouping scheme. double click the tag in question and it will bring up a further dialog showing what is set on each item.

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #17
Hi Marc,

Thanks! I copy your code in, and it still stays at in 3 groups of 9,2 and 4 songs for the same compilation album. But yours is shorter so neater.

The mystery is that the tagging by now should be correct. I select the one song each belonging to two different groups and then select properties to look at their tags. Their tags are all the same except for Artist Name, Track Title and Track Number where I see <multiple values> which is correct.

Separately I installed a paid media player which I also use. I will refrained from mentioning the name. At first it also has problems in grouping but after I put the Album Artist tag as "various artists" as suggested here, the problem was resolved in that software. But in Foobar2000 the problem is still there.

I would really like to solve it as I find it baffling. Would be grateful for any suggestions.

regards,
LT.

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #18
LittleToast,

Try this -

* Highlight all tracks of the ablum, and select Properties
* In the Metadata / Name column, highlight all fields
* right-click, select Clean Up

This could resolve the issue if, for example, all fields appear to be correct when in fact some of them have a problem like extra space characters at the end.

Another possibility to consider. If there are more than one tag type in the files the data could be different between them (tag type can be checked in the Properties tab). Try rewriting the tags to only id3v2 (or whatever tag standard is appropriate for the file type).

Organizing the songs grouping them as belonging to an album

Reply #19
Hi Trout,

I tried cleaning up but that did not help. Then today I went to file/preference/UI columns/playlist view/columns and I realized there is no column for Album artist. I added a column called Column Artist with the script [%album artist%]. And it works. Since I am not good at this at all, I don't know why it works.

I use Marc's script %album artist% [/%date% ][%album% ][Disc %discnumber%] in file/preference/UI columns/playlist view/grouping.

Anyway, I am just glad it works now. Thanks for all the help!

Cheers. LT.