# Filing and tagging self made compilations and band specific folders with single tracks

**URL:** <https://discourse.beets.io/t/filing-and-tagging-self-made-compilations-and-band-specific-folders-with-single-tracks/602>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [January 28, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/filing-and-tagging-self-made-compilations-and-band-specific-folders-with-single-tracks/602 "2019-01-28T20:33:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![janpeeters](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/janpeeters/32/182_2.png) [@janpeeters](https://discourse.beets.io/u/janpeeters)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/filing-and-tagging-self-made-compilations-and-band-specific-folders-with-single-tracks/602/1 "2019-01-28T20:33:33Z")

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I’ve been trying to tackle the following with no luck so far.  
I’ve got quite a few of the following…

a) homemade compilations (by friends) that are not properly tagged. I would like these to go properly tagged in their own folder in my compilations folder. I’ve set ‘chroma: auto: yes’ in my config for these imports.

b) folders with single tracks from an artist from which I don’t need full albums that I want to store in a folder named ‘single tracks’ within the artists folder. Same here with chroma.

* * *

a) I’ve tried to use a command like this:

`beet import -t /path/to/folder --set album="name of compilation" --set comp=1 --set homemade=1`

- In this case Beets tried to find albums which of course didn’t work so I imported them ‘as is’. But that gave me untagged tracks with tracknumers before them.
- I’ve tried the same with the -s condition but then they ended up in the Singletons folder.
- I’ve tried to create specific paths in my config like this:

`paths:`  
`comp homemade:1: 'Compilations/$album (%if{$original_year,$original_year}) %if{$is_flac,($format $bitdepth-$my_samplerate),($format $av_bitrate)}/$title - $artist'`

and also tried:

`paths:`  
`singleton homemade:1: 'Compilations/$album (%if{$original_year,$original_year}) %if{$is_flac,($format $bitdepth-$my_samplerate),($format $av_bitrate)}/$title - $artist'`

I’ve tried these paths also with comp:1 homemade:1.  
But I didn’t get it to work.  
I presume others have come across this puzzle so I hope someone can share their solution.

* * *

b) I’ve used the command

`beet import -t /path/to/folder --set album="Single Tracks" --set bandsingles=1`

With the following path

`paths:`  
`bandsingles:1: 'Albums/%the{$albumartist}/$album %if{$is_flac,($format $bitdepth-$my_samplerate),($format $av_bitrate)}/$track - $title'`

- Also here I tried this with the -s condition but (not surprisingly) they ended up in the Singeltons folder.
- I also created a path with “singleton bandsingles:1” before it

_ps: indents are properly set in my config file but for one or other reason I didn’t succeed to reproduce them in this post._

I presume there is some smart combination of commands and paths that can achieve this but I’ve not found it. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot, Jan

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**Author:** ![adrian](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/adrian/32/4_2.png) [@adrian](https://discourse.beets.io/u/adrian)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 3:18am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/filing-and-tagging-self-made-compilations-and-band-specific-folders-with-single-tracks/602/2 "2019-01-29T03:18:30Z")

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I’m not sure what the best option is, but the second option seems like it’s on the right track. I’m surprised that your `badsingles:1` path was “overridden” by the singleton path… did it appear before the singleton path in the list?

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**Author:** ![janpeeters](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/janpeeters/32/182_2.png) [@janpeeters](https://discourse.beets.io/u/janpeeters)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 8:59am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/filing-and-tagging-self-made-compilations-and-band-specific-folders-with-single-tracks/602/3 "2019-01-29T08:59:49Z")

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@adrian, When you talk about the second option are you talking about the “singleton bandsingles:1” option? Yes it was before the singleton path but when using -s they still ended up in the singelton folder.  
Could the order make any difference? Like: bandsingles:1 singelton: {path}

How would you go about moving single tracks in a folder to a different location than the singleton folder and keeping them together?

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**Author:** ![adrian](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/adrian/32/4_2.png) [@adrian](https://discourse.beets.io/u/adrian)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/filing-and-tagging-self-made-compilations-and-band-specific-folders-with-single-tracks/602/4 "2019-01-29T14:40:33Z")

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Hmm… could you paste your entire `paths:` section of your config in that version?

> [@janpeeters](#):
>
> How would you go about moving single tracks in a folder to a different location than the singleton folder and keeping them together?

A path format that matches them should work—to keep them together, you’d just have to use `$album` or something in the path so that a directory exists that contains all the tracks with the same “album” field.

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**Author:** ![janpeeters](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/janpeeters/32/182_2.png) [@janpeeters](https://discourse.beets.io/u/janpeeters)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/filing-and-tagging-self-made-compilations-and-band-specific-folders-with-single-tracks/602/5 "2019-01-29T15:57:48Z")

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I’m not sure what I was overlooking but with the following Paths section…

```
paths:
  default: 'Albums/%the{$albumartist}/$album (%if{$original_year,$original_year}) %aunique{albumartist album year, albumdisambig}%if{$albumdisambig,($albumdisambig $year) }%if{$is_flac,($format $bitdepth-$my_samplerate),($format $av_bitrate)}/%if{$multidisc,$disc-}$track - $title'
  dancetrack:1: 'Singles Dance/$artist - $title (%if{$original_year,$original_year}) %aunique{albumartist album year, albumtype label catalognum albumdisambig}%if{$albumdisambig,($albumdisambig$ $year)}($bpm bpm)'
  artistsingles:1: 'Albums/%the{$albumartist}/$album (%if{$original_year,$original_year})/$title'
  custcomp:1: 'Compilations/$album/$title - $artist'
  singleton: 'Singles/$artist - $title %aunique{albumartist album year, albumtype label catalognum albumdisambig}%if{$albumdisambig,($albumdisambig$ $year)}'
  comp: 'Compilations/$album (%if{$original_year,$original_year}) %aunique{albumartist album year, albumtype label catalognum albumdisambig}%if{$albumdisambig,($albumdisambig $year) }%if{$is_flac,($format $bitdepth-$my_samplerate),($format $av_bitrate)}/%if{$multidisc,$disc-}$track - $title - $artist'

```

…I’m able to achieve what I want. At first I’ve added ‘singleton’ before ‘artistsingles:1’ but that wasn’t necessary after all to be able to use the -s flag with custom tags and corresponding paths.  
I’m not sure what I’ve missed. Your response made me try again and it’s solved now so thanks!

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**Author:** ![adrian](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/adrian/32/4_2.png) [@adrian](https://discourse.beets.io/u/adrian)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 8:24pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/filing-and-tagging-self-made-compilations-and-band-specific-folders-with-single-tracks/602/6 "2019-01-29T20:24:30Z")

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Yay! I’m glad it’s working.