-Brading Software Message Board
+--Forum: Mp3/Tag Studio Support and Bug Reports
+---Topic: A tricky renaming started by calberga
Posted by: calberga on Sep. 28 2007,17:27
I have an odd renaming problem. I have a collection of files (the so-called "Child Ballads") with names in the form of:
nnn y...y.mp3
Where nnn ranges from 001 to 305, and y..y is title+artist+misc.
I also have a file containing lines of the form:
nnn z...z
Where nnn is as above, and z...z is the canonical title of the 305 Child Ballads.
How can I use one of the rename-file processes to group the .mp3 files into directories with the directory names taken from the list?
Somehow I need to do a rename from list where part of the file name is used to select the list item!
Alternatively, is there any way to construct a complete rename-list from the existing list and the file names?
HELP!!!!
Posted by: Magnus Brading on Sep. 28 2007,18:59
Exactly what do you mean by "canonical name"? Could you please give a couple of example file names / list lines and desired final file paths/names? I will then try to help you.
Posted by: calberga on Sep. 28 2007,22:19
Sure. First "canonical name". Francis Child was a professor of English who, in the late 1800s compiled a collection English and Scottish ballads, including all the variant he could locate. There were 305 different ballads in this collection. Many of them have variant names as well as differences in the verses, etc.
A group is currently posting all example which they can find recordings of on alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.folk and I am one of the people collecting these.
As an example:
Ballad 1 is listed (in Child's publication) as "Riddles Wisely Expounded" A list of a few versions is:
001 - Bonnie Koloc - Devil's Nine Questions.mp3
001 - Brian Peters - Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom.mp3
001 - Bruce Molsky - The Devil's Nine Questions.mp3
001 - Fair Isle Folk - Jennifer Gentle.mp3
001 - Golden Ring - Devil in the Garden.mp3
001 - Jean Redpath - Riddles Wisely Expounded.mp3
001 - John Kirkpatrick - Bow Down To The Bonny Broom.mp3
001 - John Langstaff - I Will Give My Love An Apple.mp3
001 - Paul Clayton and Jean Ritchie - The Devil's Questions.mp3
001 - Pete Coe - Juniper, Gentle and Rosemary.mp3
001 - Phønix - Svend Nordmand.mp3
001 - Texas Gladden - The Devil's Nine Questions .mp3
001 - The Armstrong Family - Lay the Bent.mp3
001 - The Clancy Brothers - Jennifer Gentle.mp3
[Note that I currently have 31 versions of this song, and there are a few for which over 200 versions have been posted. For example, 002 The Elfin Knight includes Scarborough Fair (302 versions posted), and 084 Bonny Barbara Allan has 278.]
See:
< Child Ballad Collection >
Since all the files are named as in the examples above, I have been grouping them using direct rename with patterns:
Expected file name: <Custom1> - <Custom2>.mp3
Output file name: E:\Child Ballads<\>Child Ballads <Custom1><\><Custom1> - <Custom2>.mp3
This works well enough for now but I would rather have the directories named as in the example above.
As I said, I have a file containing the numbers and names, but I can't figure out how to use the number in the file names to select the line from the list to name the directory.
As a further example, here are the first 10 lines (of 305) in my file:
Riddles Wisely Expounded - 001
The Elfin Knight - 002
The Fause Knight Upon the Road - 003
Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight - 004
Gil Brenton - 005
Willie’s Lady - 006
Earl Brand - 007
Erlinton - 008
The Fair Flower of Northumberland - 009
The Twa Sisters - 010
The Cruel Brother - 011
I can easily convert these to the form nnn x...x, if that would make things easier.
Well, that went on longer than I expected!
Posted by: Magnus Brading on Oct. 01 2007,09:44
I feel a bit stupid here, but you lost me at "I would rather have the directories named as in the example above". Which example, the one I didn't understand?
Also, I didn't really find the explanation of what a "canonical name" is in that post. If you could please post a complete example with say 3 files, from beginning to end (i.e. start filename and location, and final filename and location), and I'm sure I'll be able to get a better grip on this problem.
Posted by: calberga on Oct. 01 2007,16:06
I'm sorry that I was not clear.
First, the "canonical name" (my term) is simply the name used in the Child collection to subsume all the variants of a single ballad. Thus, "Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom", "The Devil's Nine Questions", "Jennifer Gentle", "Devil in the Garden, "Riddles Wisely Expounded", and "Bow Down To The Bonny Broom." are all variants of "Riddles Wisely Expounded".
Original names:
E:\Child Ballads\001\001 - Jean Ritchie & Oscar Brand - Riddle Me This.mp3
E:\Child Ballads\002\002 - Amy K - Scarborough Faire.mp3
E:\Child Ballads\003\003 - Mara! - The Knight On The Road.mp3
Desired names:
E:\Child Ballads\001 Riddles Wisely Expounded\001 - Jean Ritchie & Oscar Brand - Riddle Me This.mp3
E:\Child Ballads\002 The Elfin Knight\002 - Amy K - Scarborough Faire.mp3
E:\Child Ballads\003 The Fause Knight Upon the Road\003 - Mara! - The Knight On The Road.mp3
Where the subdirectories of "Child Ballads" are named based on the entries in the text file:
Riddles Wisely Expounded - 001
The Elfin Knight - 002
The Fause Knight Upon the Road - 003
Note that I could easely reverse the "name - number" in that file to "number - name", if that would help.
In other words, any file with a name of the form "001 ###x.mp3" should wind up in the subdirectory "001 Riddles Wisely Expounded", etc. (Even the ones actually named "001 Riddles Wisely Expounded.mp3"!)
Posted by: Magnus Brading on Oct. 05 2007,20:58
Since Mp3/Tag Studio doesn't have any feature for tagging entire directories of files from one line in an input file, I can't think of a single operation to accomplish this.
I'm afraid I'd have to take the time to rename all 001, 002, ... directories to their full names (i.e. those in the text file), and then perform a single "tag from filename" operation to get the information into all their tags too.
This is a highly rare and unusual situation though, I'd have to say to my defense.
Posted by: calberga on Oct. 05 2007,23:53
Thank you for trying.
Actually, in one form or another it is a situation that I see fairly often. For example: someone posted a set of Beethoven piano sonatas, with no tags. The file names at least are numbered, so they are in an order. But the names are of the form
01 Sonata 1 in F minor, op 2_1 - I. Allegro.mp3
02 - II. Adagio.mp3
03 - III. Menuetto (Allegretto).mp3
04 - IV. Prestissimo.mp3
05 Sonata 2 in A major, op 2_2 - I. Allegro vivace.mp3
.
.
.
etc.
I want to group each sonata in its own directory, named
Sonata 1 in F minor, op 2_1
etc.
and in that directory have files named
01 - I. Allegro.mp3
02 - II. Adagio.mp3
03 - III. Menuetto (Allegretto).mp3
04 - IV. Prestissimo.mp3
But how? Here is a case where I could create a list of the Sonatas, by filtering, but how do I get the second etc. movements into the correct directory?
Lots of hand work. I admit I can't think of any variation on the given methods which would accomplish this, but I could program something (I think -- it has been 16 years since I have done any real programming, and I don't have my "best" language (LISP) on this PC).
Why do people dump such messes into the world?????
Cyril
Posted by: Magnus Brading on Oct. 16 2007,16:57
Sorry for the late reply Cyril, I always think "I probably need more time to answer that" when reading your questions about advanced Mp3/Tag Studio usage, and thus often repeatedly put it up, until I forget it.
Anyway, just like you say, it is absolutely possible to create a custom program for dealing with this, but yet again, the situation is so special (maybe not when dealing with classic music, but generally) that the generic tools of Mp3/Tag Studio aren't designed for it. Sorry about that.
Posted by: calberga on Oct. 17 2007,14:51
Cheer up, the program is still worth much more than I paid for it!
Posted by: Magnus Brading on Oct. 18 2007,12:12
Hehe, thanks.
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