Grouping tracks for suites

[Joebugs]

Andrei,

Thanks for the new update. This looks interesting. Please can you explain how it works.

Regards

Joe

[Joebugs]

Andrei,

Thanks for the new update. This looks interesting. Please can you explain how it works.

Regards

Joe

Ok I managed to group tracks; great feature.
I am sending a screen capture by email as the end track in the album view does not look good and needs to be shifted in line with the other tracks.

OCD keeps getting better.

[gurnemanz]

I've just tested the new track grouping feature. It is potentially a great addition - especially for classical music such as symphonies and concertos with separate movements. Alas, the man-hours involved in going back and applying the feature retrospectively would be a serious deterrent.

The niggle pointed out by Joebugs that "the end track in the album view does not look good and needs to be shifted in line with the other tracks" is quite a big drawback as it stands.
I assume can be ironed out eventually.

[Jazz_North]

Could those of you have solved the mystery of grouping give a brief explanation of how it works. Even where the find the magic word "Group" would be a help.

[Joebugs]

Go to Record properties, Tracks, Right click on the track you want to start the group, Go to Start Group. (Start Group is underneath Start Vinyl Side). Name the Group. Right click on the track you want to end group. End Group.

[andrei_c]

The niggle pointed out by Joebugs that "the end track in the album view does not look good and needs to be shifted in line with the other tracks" is quite a big drawback as it stands.
I assume can be ironed out eventually.

Thanks for feedback. This will be fixed in next update.

[Jazz_North]

Thanks. And this displays where and how?


Go to Record properties, Tracks, Right click on the track you want to start the group, Go to Start Group. (Start Group is underneath Start Vinyl Side). Name the Group. Right click on the track you want to end group. End Group.

[Joebugs]

Thanks. And this displays where and how?

The group will be displayed on the album properties page automatically.

PS. Do not use this feature before the next update as I am informed the next update will reset any group settings.

[Rob]

PS. Do not use this feature before the next update as I am informed the next update will reset any group settings.

Thanks for letting me know. I really like this feature, as it will work well for classical pieces that are often in multiple movements. I'm a little hesitant to go whole hog with its use, though. What might the drawbacks be? When listing all the works by a single composer, will I see the group title next to the name of the movement? For example, I now include the title in the name of the movement, e.g., Symphony no. 5 in C minor, op. 67 - Allegro con brio. What if I move the symphony name to the group title, i.e., "Symphony no. 5 in C minor, op. 67," and rename the movement to "Allegro con brio?" Will the list by composer simply show "Allegro con brio," or will there be a field next to it with the group title, Symphony no. 5 in C minor, op. 67?

Thanks

[Joebugs]

Thanks for letting me know. I really like this feature, as it will work well for classical pieces that are often in multiple movements. I'm a little hesitant to go whole hog with its use, though. What might the drawbacks be? When listing all the works by a single composer, will I see the group title next to the name of the movement? For example, I now include the title in the name of the movement, e.g., Symphony no. 5 in C minor, op. 67 - Allegro con brio. What if I move the symphony name to the group title, i.e., "Symphony no. 5 in C minor, op. 67," and rename the movement to "Allegro con brio?" Will the list by composer simply show "Allegro con brio," or will there be a field next to it with the group title, Symphony no. 5 in C minor, op. 67?

Thanks

It basically groups selected tracks under a heading. What I suggest is that you experiment with one album to see how it works/look. You can remove any group created without any problems. Eg: In album view it looks something like this for two albums on one cd:

Anytime...Anywhere


1. (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher And Higher 4:02
(Gary Jackson/Raynard Miner/Carl Smith)
2. The Way You Do The Things You Do 3:38
(William "Smokey" Robinson/Bobby Rogers)
3. We're All Alone 3:40
(Boz Scaggs)
4. I Feel The Burden (Being Lifted Off My Shoulders) 2:52
(Glen Clark)
5. I Don't Want To Talk About It 3:49
(Danny Whitten)
6. Words 3:27
(Barry Gibb/Robin Gibb/Maurice Gibb)
7. Good Times 2:45
(Sam Cooke)
8. Who's To Bless And Who's To Blame 3:40
(Kris Kristofferson)
9. Southern Lady 3:30
(Mike Hazlewood)
10. The Hungry Years 4:24
(Howard Greenfield/Neil Sedaka)

Love Me Again

11. You 3:17
(Tom Snow)
12. Slow Dancer 4:04
(Boz Scaggs/George Daly)
13. Sweet Inspiration 3:02
(Dan Penn/Spooner Oldham)
14. Love Me Again 3:40
(David Lasley/Allee Willis)
15. It Justs Keeps You Dancing 3:08
(Booker T. Jones/Donna Weiss)
16. Bye Bye, Love 3:00
(Boudleaux Bryant/Felice Bryant)
17. The Jealous Kind 4:23
(Robert C Guidry)
18. Hello Love, Goodbye 3:49
(Johnny Rodriguez)
19. You're So Fine 3:06
(Lance Finnie/William Schofield)
20. Songbird 2:58
(Christine McVie)

[BLOWERS]

Is there any way we can show the groupings in the album display window (as opposed to album properties)? By tweaking the template?

[Joebugs]

Is there any way we can show the groupings in the album display window (as opposed to album properties)? By tweaking the template?

Hi,

The groupings show in the current album display window (at the moment incorrect; but should be corrected in the next update) no tweaking is required.

[Jazz_North]

joebugs must use the default template as some changes (actaully quite minor but essential) are required to custom templates to get the groupings to show. Here's what I did. I assume you are familiar with the template editor if you have a non-default template. After you have brought your template into the editor:

1. On the CSS tab add the following at the end, just before the printer specific statement (actually I suspect you can add it anywhere on this tab, but that is where Andrei put it in the default template):

td.grouped {
padding-left: 2em;
}

This is to get the parts of the group to indent. As we know there is a glitch and the last part won't indent (or group or something).

2. On the Album Page tab search for dax:volume. This is the section of code that controls the display of track information. I suggest you compare your code for this section to that in the new default template and make the necessary changes (this is the only section of code that I changed and it works okay for me). Alternatively, you can simply copy the whole dax:volume section from the default (it ends at /dax:volume) and paste it over the dax:volume section in your template. I didn't do that because I had made other changes to the default and that is why I suggest you do the comparison rather than give you my code. There are really just two parts to change here. One is at <dax:if(trackgrouptitle) ending at the second </dax:if> (there is ratings dax:if in the middle); this displays the group name. The next is just a couple of lines down right after the dax:tracknum statement. There two lines with a dax:if(trackisingroup) statement that controls whether or not the track title is indented. You may need to fiddle with this a bit if you have modified the original default as I had.

3. I did not find that Andrei had modified any of the Album Preview, Track Page or Track Preview code to include the group field. The template editor indicates that the group variables are available to all these tabs, but I haven't done anything with them as I am waiting for Andrei to fix the "last part" problem before I start really modifying my template for groups. It looks to me as if you could make exactly the same changes on the Album Preview code that were made on the Album Page code.

I hope this enables you to easily display the group information. The grouping is exactly what is needed to make OCD a really useful manager for classical cds. It will require some effort for users to include this information as I don't think it is in the ID3 tag and so will have to be manually added. (I would be delighted to be corrected on this.)


Is there any way we can show the groupings in the album display window (as opposed to album properties)? By tweaking the template?

[Jazz_North]

Let me to add to my previous (too lengthy) response. Yes, the two key grouping fields (trackisingroup and trackgrouptitle) are usable in code on the Track Page. But - and it is a big but - the trackgrouptitle field is associated ONLY with the first track in the group. That makes the code for the Album page simpler - I think - but makes the field much less useful on the Track Page.

[Rob]

Joebugs - thanks. Let me be a little more clear with my question. Will the "group title" field appear in tracks view, next to the track field? If not, I may not make use of this feature. If it does, I may use it a lot.

[frederf]

@Rob... just try it. Edit one.... and look at how it displays.

[Jazz_North]

Track group does not seem to be currently one of the Insert field options in track view. In any case, as I pointed out in a previous post, the track group title is associated only with the first track in the group. That means it would not appear with all the tracks in the group in track view. I have told Andrei that I think this limitation makes the feature much less useful and have asked that he find a way to associate the group title field with all the tracks in the group.


Joebugs - thanks. Let me be a little more clear with my question. Will the "group title" field appear in tracks view, next to the track field? If not, I may not make use of this feature. If it does, I may use it a lot.

[andrei_c]

Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback in this thread. Next update will have slightly different template tags for grouping:

1) 'trackgrouptitle' will be extended to all tracks in group, not just first one.

2) new tag 'trackbeginsgroup' will be applied just to the first track in group.

3) new tag 'trackendsgroup' will be applied to the last track in group.

There will be no changes to 'trackisingroup' semantic.

Andrei

[Jazz_North]

Excellent news.


Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback in this thread. Next update will have slightly different template tags for grouping:

1) 'trackgrouptitle' will be extended to all tracks in group, not just first one.

2) new tag 'trackbeginsgroup' will be applied just to the first track in group.

3) new tag 'trackendsgroup' will be applied to the last track in group.

There will be no changes to 'trackisingroup' semantic.

Andrei

[Rob]

Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback in this thread. Next update will have slightly different template tags for grouping:

1) 'trackgrouptitle' will be extended to all tracks in group, not just first one.

2) new tag 'trackbeginsgroup' will be applied just to the first track in group.

3) new tag 'trackendsgroup' will be applied to the last track in group.

There will be no changes to 'trackisingroup' semantic.

Andrei

Great - thanks, Andrei

[Joebugs]

Hi Andrei,

An update for at least this fix will be welcomed.