Associate song with many albums

[imcal]

I have a very large cd collection over 22,000 which ive been collecting since 1983/4

I have just started ripping my cd`s to mp3 on a couple of terrabyte hd`s.

I was wondering is it possible to associate 1 mp3 with several albums?,

for example i have a lot of compilations and in some cases 1 song appears on a few of these compilations, so i was wondering if i can delete the dupe mp3`s and just have 1 of that mp3 but have it associated with the other albums so when i right click on find more from same album that song appears etc

[spacefish]

No, this isn't possible.

[drjboulder]

It has certainly been on the "Wish List" for quite awhile!

[dypsis]

I have a very large cd collection over 22,000 which ive been collecting since 1983/4

I must say that is a HUGE CD collection.

[wrat]

Man that would be a VERY cool

[botijo]

The more I think about this, the more trouble I see. The main problem is that tags in a file have been made in such a way, that they can only part of an unique album. And believe me, you really want your tags to be accurate, just in case.

[nohitter151]

The more I think about this, the more trouble I see. The main problem is that tags in a file have been made in such a way, that they can only part of an unique album. And believe me, you really want your tags to be accurate, just in case.

I agree: think about it. Each album could possibly have a different album artist, year, album art, track#, disc#, and/or album volume. It'd be really tough to keep accurate tags that way - and I think you're better off just keeping the doubles.

[Lowlander]

Well the first issue would be that a file can only contain information about 1 album it belongs to, so any solution would be database only which opens to more chances of foul ups (ex. loss of database).

If you don't want to create copies of the same song for each album it's on due to space it occupies you can make one good copy and have the remainder of the copies at the lowest possible quality (MP3 at 8kbps I believe). Especially if you use Auto-Playlists/Auto-DJ for playback this wouldn't cause issues as you filter on bitrate or filetype. For manual playback, especially when having guests play songs, you can use filters to hide these songs.

Harddrive space is relatively cheap so having multiple copies isn't as huge an issue as it used to be back when it was first requested. I do advice to consider some from of RAID duplication so that you don't loose your tracks when a harddrive, which would be a waste of the effort you put in converting them from CD's.

[dypsis]

If you are ripping an entire album, just use the album title of the album you are ripping. If a track on that album exists on any of your other 22,000 albums, then I cannot see a problem. Just name the album accordingly. It is not unusual for this to occur. Artists release compilations etc.

I would not be looking forward to such a huge job though.

[spacefish]

There are databases that can do this (sort of, regardless of tags), unfortunately, MM isn't one of them.

[DazB]

Hi,

Maybe I misunderstand the situation, but doesn't multiple values extend to Albums? Track numbers might be a problem, but if the Songs table had an extra column named "IsLink" to be used for such duplicates then MM could act accordingly and merely play the right track.

Daz

[imcal]

Thanks guys for the replies i will look at the "IsLink" option suggested by DazB and see what can be done, yes i know its a big collection but i love music and all kinds of music, i would sell my family if it meant more money for cds etc

[Lowlander]

DazB meant that if MediaMonkey implemented his suggestion that you would be able to set it up. Currently you will either need to rip the copies or decide to maintain albums with missing songs. I believe that there is a thread on the forum about this issue that might have some alternative solutions.