Keep everything in brackets

Support
1

Hi All

I'm trying to untangle my entries to the ARTIST column.

Presently , I have entries like this :

You Oughta Know (Alanis Morissette)
Under the Bridge (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
U Can't Touch This (MC Hammer)
Say My Name (Destiny's Child)

I'd like to apply an ACTION to leave them so that only the text in brackets remains.

So the above would become

Alanis Morissette
Red Hot Chili Peppers
MC Hammer
Destiny's Child

Can someone advise how to satisfy this?

Grateful for any help. :slight_smile:

2

You can use the Action "Guess Values" for the Field Artist with the below info.
Source format: %artist%
Guessing pattern: %dummy% (%artist%)

This requires all of your current artists to follow the pattern you described. Test with a couple of tracks before you apply it across more.

3

Many thanks MotleyG. :slight_smile:

That's very neat. It's working on the sample I tried out , and I'll try with further examples.

BTW The logic as to how this actually works escapes me presently , but I'll see if I can fathom it out!

4

The action "Guess value" works like the converter Filename-Tag - only that you can determine how the source is composed, you are not limited to the filename.
So you enter a generating format string as source.
The target is defined as matching format string in which you match the pattern in the text with fields.
In your case you take the contents of the field ARTIST and then you assign parts of the resulting string to the DUMMY field and the part in parenthesis to ARTIST.

See also the documentation on format strings:

Matching format strings are used for simple pattern matching of existing strings, e.g., file names to import tags from or lines in a text file that describe tag contents to be imported.

Generating format strings are used to create new strings, e.g., file names when renaming, field contents when formatting tag fields, data when exporting, but also file names for playlists or cover images that are parameterized with tag contents. Generating format strings can be combined with scripting functions.

5

BTW Your current Artist entries all seem to include the song title as well. Do these files already have an accurate %title% field stored? This can be easily filled in at the same time by making the below tweak to my earlier suggestion, replacing the %dummy% placeholder with %title%.

Source format: %artist%
Guessing pattern: %title% (%artist%)

6

Thanks MotleyG. That's actually better. I was trying to split Artist (Title) into the separate tag columns so that does it in one go. :slight_smile:

Thanks also to ohrenkino for increasing my knowledge. :slight_smile: