I struggle with regular expressions, so i would really appreciate some help

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#1

Hi all.

Just about to do a massive re-arrange of my music collection.

The aim is to have it in a number of different structures like so:

1> F:\Music\%artist%[%year%] %album%\Existingfilename.mp3
2> F:\Music## Soundtracks\%genre%\%album% [%year%]\Existingfilename.mp3
3> F:\Music\Various - %album%\Existingfilename.mp3
4> F:\Music\Tributes & Covers\%album% [%year%]\Existingfilename.mp3

With all 4, i'd like to also move the album art where possible.

So far, i have the following code:

F:\Music\resort\$left(%artist%,1)\[%year%] %album%\$num(%track%,2). %title%

F:\Music\resort\$left(%album%,1 [%year%])\$num(%track%,2). %title%

F:\Music\resort\$left(%artist%,1)\[%year%] %album%\$num(%track%,2). %title%

It's probably wrong, but it's the best i can do after reading the forums and FAQ/help.

#2

I do not get at all where you have the regular expression you mention in the thread title.
It would be nice if you told us where you apply the code you have. What function do you use?

Just a basic thing:
If you have an existing structure that has all the necessary files in the right amount of folders then you only have to rename the folders to get a newly named structure. This is done best with an action of the type
Format value
for _DIRECTORY.
This action also moves the other files that happen to be in the renamed folder like albumart files.
If you use this action you DO NOT enter any names for files.

If you still have to distribute files that are in one folder to several others then you should use the converter Tag-Filename.
For this operation you have to set a filename, fully (a ful absolute path plus filename) or partially qualified (nothing or just part of the path plus a filename).

So: what do you want?

#3

Sorry for not being clear. I guess i wasn't as sure how i was going to do this as i thought.

I'll be doing this in stages. Dragging each group of files in to MP3tag and running whatever action i need to do.

Your suggested rename seems best. Some folders will need to be moved to a new sub folder etc.

Groups are as such:
1> Soundtracks.
Move to F:\Music\Soundtracks\%genre%\%album% (%year%)*files

2> Various artists
Replace "VA - " in %album% with "Various Artists - "
Move to F:\Music\%album% [%year%]*files

3> General music
Move to F:\Music\%artist%[%year%] %album%*files

Does that help? (head is a bit fuzzy today).

#4

No, not really.
It is not clear if you have certain criteria in the tags that should then determine whether it is a soundtrack, various artists or general music. Or if you select them and then apply an action that fits the purpose.

1> If you have several genres in a soundtrack album then the soundtrack album should either be split or the first file in that folder wins.

2 > I do not see any artist reference in the move to target so I do not see any purpose to rename VA to Various Artists. The pattern you supply with "%album% [%year%]" will lead to a space after %album% if there is no year. If you want to have the square brackets as literals then you have to enclose them: '['. Otherwise they delimit an optional output. The same applies to the year in General music.

If you want to do the moving stuff then create separate action groups of the type "Format value" for _directory that use the 3 path variations you have supplied. But leave out the *files bit. And you should be done.

#5

1> Yeah, it'll be separate actions for groups of files dragged in to MP3tag.
Soundtracks have no mixed genre other than basics for games, moves, tv etc. so the genre tags will serve to split them into sub-folders.

2> Renaming is more a clarification for others than myself, i've figured out how to do that now. So it'll just be applying the settings to rename the folder based on %album% and moving it to F:\Music\

The []'s were supposed to be included in the album title in artist sub-folders, but if they're an issue i can happily go with %artist%\%album% (%year%) - 99% of my music has a year tag, those which don't will have before i do this.

I'll give the whole thing a go as suggested when my hands have warmed up a bit (near freezing here and i've just returned from riding my motorbike).

#6

Thanks for this info. I wasted a lot of time searching for it lol