"Virtually" Splitting Albums

[simbun]

(08-08-2023 05:53)3395 Wrote:  So, my other idea was to "virtually" rewrite the Album tag to include the value of the Group tag, so that I would end up with two Albums in the Album list:

Code:

How to Train Your Dragon (The Deluxe Edition), Bonus Tracks
How to Train Your Dragon (The Deluxe Edition), Soundtrack

I tried playing around with tagFormat, but using Album.displayFormat={$Album$Group} only had the effect of displaying a single Album item with all values of the Group tag included.

.displayFormat is only evaluated when browsing, so is not relavant to album grouping.

With MinimServer, the most difficult task is deciding how you want it to look

The one overriding rule I have is to keep my tags accurate as it can cause too many complications downstream e.g. CUETools/PerfectTunes verification or tagging software being album to identify the album. This is where tagUpdate comes to the rescue, as it enables you to modify your tag values but only within the scope of MinimServer.

So, if you wanted to split them into different albums you could write something like:

Code:

@ALBUM=How to Train Your Dragon (The Deluxe Edition)
&TRACKNUMBER=01
=ALBUM=How to Train Your Dragon (The Deluxe Edition), Bonus Tracks
&TRACKNUMBER=02
=ALBUM=How to Train Your Dragon (The Deluxe Edition), Soundtrack
&TRACKNUMBER=03
=ALBUM=How to Train Your Dragon (The Deluxe Edition), Soundtrack
...

If you wanted to rename Groups you could use:

Code:

@GROUP=Bonus Tracks
&ALBUM=How to Train Your Dragon (The Deluxe Edition)
&TRACKNUMBER=01
=GROUP=Bonus Tracks 1
...

One thing I do to groups (in an automated way) that would also work - rather than just suffix the Group with 1,2,3 - is add the trackNumber/range to Group. I do this because I have releases where some of the tracks are contained in Groups but some aren't, and my control point shows trackNumber next to the track titles so it looks a little disjointed. Yours would look something like:

Code:

1.    Bonus Tracks
2-8.  Soundtrack
9-17. Bonus Tracks

Split out into separate discs and use DiscSubtitle e.t.c.

Alternatively, if you wanted to exclude them completely from MinimServer indexing (I use this for one album that has a LOT of silent tracks as well as my non decoded disc rips that contain HDCD or Pre-Emphasis) you could make use of:

Code:

excludePattern: *.silent.flac, *.hdcd.flac, *.pre.flac

So, if you can determine how you'd like to treat them there's almost certainly a way to achieve it.