Album Date vs. Original Track Release Date Fields

[Sharlene Tucker]

There are two date fields in MM's Track Properties:
1) Date (which appears to be reflected in the Year node in the Music Explorer Tree)
2) Original Date (no Tree node option)

From what I've gleaned, most people use the fields as follows:
Date = Album release date
Original Date = Track original release date

I would have tagged music files as above but it doesn’t meet all my needs. To take advantage of the Music Explorer Tree’s “Year” node for sorting tracks by original release year categories, I’ve used the fields as follows:
Date = Track original release date
Original Date = (Unused. Would use for Album release date but name of field could lead to confusion, especially since other family members access the same music files.)

My queries are:
--Can I rename the “Original Date” field?

--If not, other than a custom field, how can I enter the album release year?

--If I use a custom field, how will the tagging affect other family members with their own MM libraries that all access the C:\My Music files? (Some may not want a custom “Album Year” column in their library. Will the tags I enter in the custom field on my library mess up how the tags appear on theirs?)

--Can I redirect the Music Explorer Tree’s “Year” node to sort the “Original Date” field, rather than “Date”?

--Would a Magic Nodes feature accommodate what I'm trying to accomplish? (Never used before, but can always learn!)

Thanks for any help or answers.

[monkey hi fi]

i use it different then most.

i put the year i added the song to the computer in to the date tag, and if i want or know it i put the other date tag as what it says the original release date. if i don't know it i leave it blank.

i presume the more accurate tags are for those that are in need of perfect record keeping.


roving cowboy / keith hall / monkey hi fi

[Lowlander]

--Can I rename the “Original Date” field?
No, you can only rename the Custom fields in MediaMonkey

--If not, other than a custom field, how can I enter the album release year?
Just a custom field or using the first method you describe

--If I use a custom field, how will the tagging affect other family members with their own MM libraries that all access the C:\My Music files? (Some may not want a custom “Album Year” column in their library. Will the tags I enter in the custom field on my library mess up how the tags appear on theirs?)
MediaMonkey custom fields are saved in the tags so other users would see this value too. Custom fields are incompatible with other players though.

--Can I redirect the Music Explorer Tree’s “Year” node to sort the “Original Date” field, rather than “Date”?
No/Yes, you can't modify the Year node itself, but you can use My Custom Nodes or Magic Nodes to create your own node.

--Would a Magic Nodes feature accommodate what I'm trying to accomplish? (Never used before, but can always learn!)
I would advice to implement year as in your first example (what most users use) and create a Original Date node using either of the before mentioned scripts. You can automatically swap Date and Original Date fields through scripting.

[Breydel]

I would have tagged music files as above but it doesn’t meet all my needs. To take advantage of the Music Explorer Tree’s “Year” node for sorting tracks by original release year categories, I’ve used the fields as follows:
Date = Track original release date
Original Date = (Unused. Would use for Album release date but name of field could lead to confusion, especially since other family members access the same music files.)

I'm doing it the exact same way as you for the exact same reason. I have recently ripped my entire "De Maxx Long Player" CD collection (http://www.stubru.be/node/12294) and at the moment I'm working on looking up the original vinyl releases of each individual track on Discogs (http://www.discogs.com) and put that date in the "date" id3 tag so I can sort the songs on date. It's quite a bit of work but it gives me a lot more information than just having that date field pointing at the year the album was released. I mean, for a song like "I Feel Love" from Donna Summer, I really don't care if it comes from a compilation CD from 1995 or 2005, the only thing that interests me is that the original song is from 1977.

[rovingcowboy]

I mean, for a song like "I Feel Love" from Donna Summer, I really don't care if it comes from a compilation CD from 1995 or 2005, the only thing that interests me is that the original song is from 1977.

WOW is it that old? already?

[RobertSmith]

From what I've gleaned, most people use the fields as follows:
Date = Album release date
Original Date = Track original release date

I haven't started to use original date yet but if/when I do I think I believe I will do it as quoted. Compare to original artist/album title/lyricist where original album title could be used for tracks on compilations (I haven't done that either)

But how should I do with remastered albums and reissues? Take for instance this remastered album from New Order. This version incl. a bonus disc (remixes of singles not incl. on original album but from the same ~ year. I prefer to have one album name like Movement: Collector's Edition (Name: subtitle), see same album at Discogs (track # 101-108, 201-210) But how should I tag date?

Date = 2008 (release year for remastered date)
Original Date = 1981

or

Date = 1981 and skip information about remastered year (maybe some inf. in a custom or album tag)
Original Date = empty (until I decide to use it for track or not...)

What I want is an easy way to sort/view a discography (with e.g. Magic Nodes and MonkeyRoc) and so at least one of the two date most correspond to first release date. Even if I have several version of the same album (different source, different release year) I want them to be sorted after first release date.

Question is: Is reissue date of interest or not?

I haven't decide yet, but I love to hear about your thoughts regarding how to use date for Album, compilations, track and various reissues?

[jcfogerty]

Is there a script out there that can automatically pull the original release data from discogs or other reputable source? I can't bear the thought of manually doing this for 9000 tracks, but would love to have that data...