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Topic: Does anyone use Vorbis Comment "VERSION"? (Read 6058 times) previous topic - next topic
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Does anyone use Vorbis Comment "VERSION"?

Hello all, first time here 


Well, the title says it all, but I am wondering if anybody uses the Vorbis Comment Spec "VERSION" tag for organizing his/her music collections.

According to this page:

http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/v-comment.html

"VERSION" tag is meant for storing metadata like "XXX remix", "YYY version", "radio edit", etc, so that we can separate the "version" from the track's title.

It's great that they have it, but the problem is that no media player seems to support it...
For example, I use Songbird, Rhythmbox, and Banshee on Ubuntu, but none of which shows "VERSION" tag in the media list column (i.e. cannot tell which version a given track is on the list) nor can I edit it in the metadata editor that comes with each media player.

Now, I am beginning to realize that this "VERSION" tag is not very popular, which then made me wonder if there is anybody who actually uses this tag.
If you do, though, which media player do you use to organize your collections?

Also, for those of you who do not use "VERSION" tag (perhaps most of you), I'd be really grateful if you could share how you organize multiple-version tracks...!

Thanks in advance!


Amy

Does anyone use Vorbis Comment "VERSION"?

Reply #1 –
foobar2000 can use this metadata field. I haven't used anything like it in years though. What would you like to know about organizing multiple-version tracks? I organize by release, so if I have 2 albums, there's a chance that there might be 2 of the same track between those 2 albums.

Does anyone use Vorbis Comment "VERSION"?

Reply #2 –
Hello, thanks for your quick reply...!

foobar2000, right, that does pretty much everything, but the problem is that my OS is Linux, and there is no port of foobar2000 to Linux, as far as I know..

Quote from: Canar on
What would you like to know about organizing multiple-version tracks? I organize by release, so if I have 2 albums, there's a chance that there might be 2 of the same track between those 2 albums.

Okay, what I wanted to know is, suppose you have a disc like this (Silence 2004 by Delerium):

  • Silence [Above & Beyond's 21st Century Edit]
  • Silence [Filterheadz Remix]
  • Silence [Above & Beyond's 21st Century Remix]
  • Silence [Fade's Sanctuary Mix Edit]
  • Silence [Tiësto's in Search of Sunrise Remix]
  • Silence [Michael Woods Mix]

Now, how would you name these tracks?

Essentially, these tracks are all different versions of a single track "Silence".

If I could use VERSION tag of vorbis comment, then I will get TITLE=Silence for all the tracks, and version name like "Above & Beyond's 21st Century Edit" can go into the corresponding track's VERSION tag.

However, given that VERSION tag is out-of-date, my only option seems to put the version name into TITLE tag, along with the actual track title (e.g. TITLE="Silence [Above & Beyond's 21st Century Edit]").

...I guess this is what most people do anyways? Isn't there any better way to store these "version" names?

Does anyone use Vorbis Comment "VERSION"?

Reply #3 –
yup, i'm pretty sure everybody just puts this info in the TITLE tag. and that's just the few people who tag their files manually. all the tag look up services built into various media players will also do this.

and i think it's the done thing to use (), not []. having said that, they're your files. you can do what you like.

Does anyone use Vorbis Comment "VERSION"?

Reply #4 –
sacki, like you, I use [] to differentiate subtitles from mixes. The problem with the VERSION field is that every time you want to do file operations, you have to rewrite your title formatting to support the version format. That's not a horrible task, but it does add some complexity.

You can also break it down further with a REMIXED BY field, so "Silence [Tiësto's in Search of Sunrise Remix]" becomes TITLE=Silence, REMIXED BY=Tiesto, VERSION=In Search Of Sunrise Remix. You can then reconstruct the original with: %title% ['['[%remixed by%''s ]%version%']']

As you can see, that's much more complex than simply %title% and doesn't gain you all that much. A Library Search for Tiesto will still return this track regardless of how you split the title up.

Sadly, there are no players on Linux that match foobar2000's tag-handling prowess.

Does anyone use Vorbis Comment "VERSION"?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Canar on
Sadly, there are no players on Linux that match foobar2000's tag-handling prowess.

I haven't checked it out in a while, but Quod Libet is (or at least, used to be) pretty advanced in that area. I distinctly recall making use of the VERSION field with that music player.

Does anyone use Vorbis Comment "VERSION"?

Reply #6 –
Wow, thank you so much, guys!

Quote
A Library Search for Tiesto will still return this track regardless of how you split the title up.


Yeah, that's true. I guess I can probably stick to what majority of you are doing. It goes nice with the cddb query, too.

I did try Quod Libet and quite liked it, too - it does support VERSION tag, and it even supports multiple ARTIST tags...! Thanks for the suggestion!


Amy

Does anyone use Vorbis Comment "VERSION"?

Reply #7 –
Quote
sacki, like you, I use [] to differentiate subtitles from mixes.

To me -according to the text on the cover-  "Silence [whatever remix dj paul] IS the name of the track. Otherwise they would all be named "Silence". This way I can directly see the full names in ZTwin or Explorer and decide which track to play. Without the need for any player to see the tags.

Does anyone use Vorbis Comment "VERSION"?

Reply #8 –
Off topic a bit, but I also use square brackets [ ] instead of parentheses ( ) in song titles like mentioned earlier in this thread... Why?  To differentiate the actual song name from the variation, since true song titles often have parenthesis.

Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) [Disco Iguana Remix]
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction [Toxic Monkey Dub]

Does anyone use Vorbis Comment "VERSION"?

Reply #9 –
I am on the other side.  I use the VERSION tag for the simple reason that it shortens the filenames and lets me use a smaller player window.  As long as Foobar and DBPoweramp let me see the tag, it's all for the good for me.  Winamp even has a tab that will let you see custom tags.

I also use the ORCHESTRA, SOLOIST, and CONDUCTOR tags, and some players don't see those either.  The way I see it, there isn't even universal agreement in players on the most commonly used tags, ALBUM ARTIST, DATE, etc., so I have no qualms about using more specialized tags.  Besides, on my portable, I almost never see the song title anyways, so I don't care about displaying the mix version.

I can feel a rant about tag inconsistency coming on, but I'll do that in another post.

My 2 cents.  Your change is in the mail.
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