# Various Artist / Soundtrack
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/various-artist-soundtrack/5190
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [July 25, 2007, 4:52am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/various-artist-soundtrack/5190 "2007-07-25T04:52:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@nolageek](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/nolageek)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2007, 4:52am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/various-artist-soundtrack/5190/1 "2007-07-25T04:52:35Z")
Now that I'm reaching almost 17000 MP3s, I'm trying to reign them in so they're easier to manage. One of my biggest headaches is Various artist releases and sound tracks.
I promise I searched the forum and I couldn't find any good examples of how people deal with them. I know about the 'Album Artist' or 'Band' tags, but I would love to hear how people use them.
I'm currently putting either 'Soundtrack' or 'Various Artist' in %various artist%, and then using Tag -\> Filename using this:
e:\\audio$if2(%album artist%,%artist%)\%album%\%track% - %title%$if(%album artist%, - %artist%,)
Which will give me something like:
e:\\audio\Soundtrack\Electric Dreams\03 - The dream- Culture Club.mp3
for soundtracks and
e:\\audio\They Might Be Giants\Flood\05 - Dead.mp3
for non soundtracks.
any ideas or suggestions?
---
### Author:  [@Lee\_Dailey](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Lee_Dailey)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2007, 2:39pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/various-artist-soundtrack/5190/2 "2007-07-27T14:39:37Z")
> [@nolageek](#):
>
> [snip]
> Which will give me something like:
>
> e:\\audio\Soundtrack\Electric Dreams\03 - The dream- Culture Club.mp3
>
> for soundtracks and
>
> e:\\audio\They Might Be Giants\Flood\05 - Dead.mp3
>
> for non soundtracks.
> [snip]
howdy nolageek,
for va and soundtracks, i use a top folder of "by\_album" and then use ...
%album%_-_$num(%track%,2)_-_%artist%_-_%title%
... for my tag-to-filename config.
that give me these ...
- directory names
Z:\By\_Album\TELARC\_Blues\_In-Store\_Sampler\_2001
Z:\By\_Album\Little\_Shop\_of\_Horrors\_[OMPS\_1986]
- file names
TELARC\_Blues\_In-Store\_Sampler\_2001\_-_01_-_Graham\_Parker_-_Poor\_Me.mp3
Little\_Shop\_of\_Horrors_[OMPS\_1986]\_-_01_-\_Michelle\_Weeks,\_Tichina\_Arnold,\_Tisha\_Campbell,_Bill\_Mitchell_-_Prologue_(Little\_Shop\_of\_Horrors).mp3
for my artist stuff i use this ...
%artist%_-_%album%_-_$num(%track%,2)_-_%title%
... and get this ...
- directory names
Z:\By\_Artist\Emmylou\_Harris\_&_the\_Nash\_Ramblers\At\_the\_Ryman_[Live]
Z:\By\_Artist\Smokin'_Joe\_Kubek_&\_Bnois\_King\Roadhouse\_Research
- file names
Emmylou\_Harris\_&_the\_Nash\_Ramblers_-_At\_the\_Ryman_[Live]\_-_01_-\_Guitar\_Town.mp3
Smokin'_Joe\_Kubek_&_Bnois\_King_-_Roadhouse\_Research_-_01_-\_Healthy\_Mama.mp3
as you can see, i like underscores. [_grin_] i use them to make the dir/file names more readable for my really bad eyes.
take care,
lee