[styx06]

I am currently prepping all my music files to be scanned into the XBMC music library. Most of my collection exists of double cd compilations (global underground stuff and such), fitted into single mp3 files in the following structure:

x:\folder\artist\album\cd1\cd1.mp3
x:\folder\artist\album\cd1\cd1.cue
x:\folder\artist\album\cd2\cd2.mp3
x:\folder\artist\album\cd2\cd2.cue

As said most of these are compilations, but all MP3 files have the Album Artist tag filled out AND all CUE files have the Performer tag on disc level filled out. However I keep facing two issues:


1 - As said all my MP3 and cue files have the Album Artist filled out. I would expect than, that XBMC would use these names as the Artist name in the library, as I read the following in the WIKI:

XBMC reads the Album Artist tag in ID3, Ogg, APE and MP4 tags and uses it if available to assign an artist to the album (independently of the track's artist information).

A little further in the same wiki I read that when the album artist is not used, some fallback rules apply.
Why am I getting the Various Artists label to all my compilation CD's despite the fact that I am using the Album artist tag? Is it because I am using CUE files and XBMC does not recognize the Album Artist tag from the main file?


2 - The only way to get CD1 and CD2 separated is to add to the CUE sheet a title including the cd number.

E.g. cd1.cue contains:
TITLE "GU 015 - Singapore (CD1)"
and cd2.cue contains
TITLE "GU 015 - Singapore (CD1)"

The result however is that I get two CD listings in XBMC. On the other hand, when I include TITLE "GU 015 - Singapore" in both CUE files I do get one CD listing, but then all tracks of both cd's are stacked upon eachother (giving me two times track 1, two times track 2 etc.)
Is there a way, similarly to File Mode, to get the CD title on the root level and a selection for CD1 or CD2 on the sub-level using CUE sheets (without numbering all tracks for CD1 and CD2 continuously)?

[jmarshall]

1. Yes, it's because you're using CUE sheets. If you find an established way to use the albumartist in a CUE sheet, let us know and we'll add support for it.

2. You need to specify the disk number somewhere. I suspect putting it in the ID3 tag of the file is not suitable. Once again, if there's an established way to store this in the CUE sheet, let us know.

To be quite honest, it's MUCH better just to store stuff as individual tracks. Clearly you're not worried about archiving or anything (as you're using MP3) and MP3 has been gapless using LAME or similar encoders for quite some time.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[styx06]

1. Yes, it's because you're using CUE sheets. If you find an established way to use the albumartist in a CUE sheet, let us know and we'll add support for it.

AFAIK the command performer included before a track indicates the Album Artist in a CUE file (as specified for example in CDRWIN's manual):

If the PERFORMER command appears before any TRACK commands, the performer-string is encoded as the performer of the entire disc.

Shouldn't that be sufficient?

2. You need to specify the disk number somewhere. I suspect putting it in the ID3 tag of the file is not suitable. Once again, if there's an established way to store this in the CUE sheet, let us know.

I do have the CD number included in the single MP3 file...as far as i can see there's no possibility to include it in a CUE file except for in a REM command (to include comment). It is possible to define a default flag within XBMC. Something like:

REM CDID 1

Where the flag CDID used with tag REM indicates the disc ID?

To be quite honest, it's MUCH better just to store stuff as individual tracks. Clearly you're not worried about archiving or anything (as you're using MP3) and MP3 has been gapless using LAME or similar encoders for quite some time.

I would agree when arguing from a green field situation, but I do not feel much for converting 10 years of music collection to seperate files (almost 90% of my collection, official releases, has been stored as single MP3 files with CUE files).

Cheers,
Jonathan

cheers!

[jmarshall]

Will checkout the PERFORMER stuff - we already do stuff like that, but perhaps it's only used as a fallback in the case where no performer is specified for each track.

As for the CDID thing - I'd prefer not to "invent" a standard here. It should be doable to read it from the mp3 file (we do this for the year) via the TPOS tag, so that's probably the best way to do things.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[jmarshall]

r21689 should take care of this.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[styx06]

r21689 should take care of this.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Excellent stuff!! Will try when I return from work tonight!
Thanks a lot for the quick response.

[styx06]

Downloaded and installed latest build and everything works perfectly. Thanks again!!

Maybe for a future feature request is to indicate somewhere in the library view whether the current playing track is for CD1 or CD2 (now I see one list of tracks 1-14 and then 1-13 in one row, presumably ordered by CD number)...

[jmarshall]

That's up to the skin to display the info.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[styx06]

RTFM for me that is

Fixed it by changing the naming template. Excellent stuff, my music collection is getting shaped exactly as I wanted it to be!

cheerios for Jonathan and XBMC in general.

[jmarshall]

No worries - glad you got it all going

[jmrules]

Small bump here, I feel like a comlete idiot for asking this but.... what is r21689?

[jhsrennie]

r21689 refers to a specific build of XBMC. Each modification to XBMC gets a different ID so changes can be tracked.

JR

[reynard80]

Sorry for the bump, but can't seem to find info on how to use the CDID in the cue file? How do I distinguish between different CD's in one album?

[reynard80]

Sorry for the bump, but can't seem to find info on how to use the CDID in the cue file? How do I distinguish between different CD's in one album?

Never mind, found out that I gotta use the Discnumber tag. Works like a charm!