best way to achieve this with minimserver

[Martin H]

Simon,

I was wondering if you can point me at the best way to achieve this. I have taken a look at the tagging guide notes and I am still not sure and so thought best to ask.

Everything is pretty awesome and the only thing I miss currently is the absence of a random list generation that I know you have on your candidate to do list and so this is less about features and more about how to achieve something with the current features.

On our NAS server we have our combined music collection - i.e. - my wife, mine and our son's music and so on. Tastes overlap anyway and mostly that is OK. As the 'collection' has grown I realise that it would be more than helpful to be able to add a tag (or use an existing tag) that signified whose music the album was. With the intention that during playback we would be able to in effect filter against that tag in a similar way to how the audioquality feature works today.

So ideally I would in effect be able to see the collections, choose one and then see the menu items I see today.

The workaround that I can think of is that if I organise the music as sub folders under our family names in an overall folder called music then I could simply point the server at a sub folder for one collection and then rescan. Then when wanting everything point it at Music. This obviously works but relies on a rescan and with approaching 3500 albums it's not instant first time around. It would work though and happy to do it that way if there isn't a better way within the current features.

[antonmb]

You have several easy options I can think of if you're comfortable editing tags:
Use the Comment tag and add a descriptor for each owner. The Comment field can then be renamed as "Owner" and you can select each owner, then see all the usual sort fields for each.

Use the Grouping tag if you're not already using it.

Add a Genre for each owner and re-tag each owner's music with an additional genre.

Regardless of which way you go, I would separate each owner's music into subfolders under your main music folder. This will make it easier to do mass tag changes. Also it gives you one more alternative, you can access each via the Folders view.

[Dieter Stockert]

(29-11-2015 17:03)Martin H Wrote:  The workaround that I can think of is that if I organise the music as sub folders under our family names in an overall folder called music

That would be my approach, because starting to browse through your library with folder view is as simple as with every other tag. But organizing your library (copying new files and so on) is easy if everybody has his own subfolder.

[simoncn]

(29-11-2015 17:03)Martin H Wrote:  On our NAS server we have our combined music collection - i.e. - my wife, mine and our son's music and so on. Tastes overlap anyway and mostly that is OK. As the 'collection' has grown I realise that it would be more than helpful to be able to add a tag (or use an existing tag) that signified whose music the album was. With the intention that during playback we would be able to in effect filter against that tag in a similar way to how the audioquality feature works today.

So ideally I would in effect be able to see the collections, choose one and then see the menu items I see today.

This is a good solution. The tag name and its values can be anything you choose. For example, the tag name could be Collection and the values could be Martin, Wife and Son (substitute actual names here). For music that overlaps (there must be some), you can use a multivalued Collection tag to tag an item or album as being part of the collections of both Martin and Wife (for example). This wouldn't be possible with a folder-based approach.

All you need to do is add the new tag name to indexTags and use a tagging program to add the tag values.

[Dieter Stockert]

(29-11-2015 21:34)simoncn Wrote:  For example, the tag name could be Collection and the values could be Martin, Wife and Son (substitute actual names here). For music that overlaps (there must be some), you can use a multivalued Collection tag to tag an item or album as being part of the collections of both Martin and Wife (for example). This wouldn't be possible with a folder-based approach.

Ok, you're right, I like the idea with the multivalued tags, that's a much better solution indeed.

[Dieter Stockert]

(29-11-2015 23:21)Dieter Stockert Wrote:  

(29-11-2015 21:34)simoncn Wrote:  For example, the tag name could be Collection and the values could be Martin, Wife and Son (substitute actual names here). For music that overlaps (there must be some), you can use a multivalued Collection tag to tag an item or album as being part of the collections of both Martin and Wife (for example). This wouldn't be possible with a folder-based approach.

Ok, you're right, with the multivalued tags is a much better solution.

[Martin H]

Simon,

Awesome. The elegance of the design really pays off here doesn't it. I have done a quick trial of a few albums and this works perfectly. I have added a new tag called Collection and I will use that.

With just that I can already see that I will be able to manage things far more easily which is brilliant. Many thanks.

I don't want to be greedy here because already I can do enough but the way I tend to access music most often lately has been via the audioquality tab. I then browse on one of the normal headings to find something that appeals. When I do that I can't see Collection tag option and if I start at the Collection heading then I don't see the Audioquality option. It's not the end of the world if this can't work but I am guessing it's not possible to have my cake and eat it is it (within the current features)?

Not to deflect from what is already a brilliant answer

[simoncn]

(30-11-2015 16:06)Martin H Wrote:  Simon,

Awesome. The elegance of the design really pays off here doesn't it. I have done a quick trial of a few albums and this works perfectly. I have added a new tag called Collection and I will use that.

With just that I can already see that I will be able to manage things far more easily which is brilliant. Many thanks.

I don't want to be greedy here because already I can do enough but the way I tend to access music most often lately has been via the audioquality tab. I then browse on one of the normal headings to find something that appeals. When I do that I can't see Collection tag option and if I start at the Collection heading then I don't see the Audioquality option. It's not the end of the world if this can't work but I am guessing it's not possible to have my cake and eat it is it (within the current features)?

Not to deflect from what is already a brilliant answer

This shouldn't be happening. MinimServer allows you to browse by any tags in any order.

MinimServer also automatically eliminates tag choices from the menu when those choices wouldn't be "useful" for refining the selection. For example, if all the items in your current selection have an audio quality of HD, you won't see AudioQuality as a menu choice. This might be what you are seeing.

[Martin H]

(30-11-2015 16:32)simoncn Wrote:  

(30-11-2015 16:06)Martin H Wrote:  Simon,

Awesome. The elegance of the design really pays off here doesn't it. I have done a quick trial of a few albums and this works perfectly. I have added a new tag called Collection and I will use that.

With just that I can already see that I will be able to manage things far more easily which is brilliant. Many thanks.

I don't want to be greedy here because already I can do enough but the way I tend to access music most often lately has been via the audioquality tab. I then browse on one of the normal headings to find something that appeals. When I do that I can't see Collection tag option and if I start at the Collection heading then I don't see the Audioquality option. It's not the end of the world if this can't work but I am guessing it's not possible to have my cake and eat it is it (within the current features)?

Not to deflect from what is already a brilliant answer

This shouldn't be happening. MinimServer allows you to browse by any tags in any order.

MinimServer also automatically eliminates tag choices from the menu when those choices wouldn't be "useful" for refining the selection. For example, if all the items in your current selection have an audio quality of HD, you won't see AudioQuality as a menu choice. This might be what you are seeing.

Ahhh, I think you are right. (as usual) The sample albums I used to try this out all are the same quality (by fluke, not design) and so as you say it wouldn't show as a heading.

Just trying it now with some extras as I type - so fingers crossed, drum roll and .....

YESSSS!

I just love elegant design - take a bow (again) Simon. Wonderful stuff.

[jaaptina]

Great! I used this idea to change the Grouping tag into a "New" tag. I'll manualy give new songs the tag "new". I Just have to reset the "new" tag every now and than to " " (nothing).