Advanced customization of your tags and file names with TangoLink.

Advanced customization of your tags and file names with TangoLink.

TangoLink is an innovative solution to enhance your music collection with reliable and consistent filenames and tags. The data comes directly from El Recodo Tango Music, and TangoLink updates your files with a default configuration that works fine in most cases. However, you may have more specific needs or your ways of doing things. This is where the advanced customization of TangoLink is interesting. In this article, I will describe the full range of possibilities with configuration examples.

A link between El Recodo Tango Music and your collection

TangoLink was designed as a link between El Recodo Tango Music (on the left) and your music collection (on the right). As such, it was necessary to imagine a kind of converter (in the center) which allows to translate the discographic information available on El Recodo Tango Music into something usable for your file names and tags.

To customize this "translation", we use the Settings menu. There are two main categories among users:

Case 1
Your collection is not yet organized, or not as you want it to be. Great, now is the time to get started and TangoLink will help you a lot. The basic setup is likely to suit you already, in which case you don't have to do anything more. You can also test one of the default configurations by clicking on Example 2 or 3. The rest of the article is useful if you want to refine your structure from the start or just get an idea of the possibilities.

Case 2
Your tango collection is already organized (or at least in part) and you would like to keep your current structure. You have already thought about it well, you know that it suits you, no reason to change it... In this case, what will follow is crucial so that TangoLink meets to your current collection without losing a drop of the work you have already done. Once TangoLink is configured, you can use it transparently to check, correct, improve your current files, and save time when you complete your collection with new or higher quality recordings.

Basic configurations

By default, TangoLink applies the configuration Example 1:

This structure is the one I use for my personal collection and you will find more information on the reasons which motivated my choices, as well as some advice in my article: How to properly organize your tango collection?

I'll let you go and discover the other basic configurations directly in the Settings menu (a free account is enough to access it). You can also customize the structure as you need, and this is where you need to configure Aliases... Let's go!

Not modifying some tags

It is possible to configure TangoLink so that it does not modify certain tags, or the file name. To do this, it's very simple, just leave the corresponding field empty, in the Settings menu. If for example you do not want to modify the style tag of your files, delete the corresponding pattern, without forgetting to save.

The same goes for the filename; setting an empty pattern will tell TangoLink not to modify them. Note that in any case the m3u mode never modifies the filenames, as does the Apple Music/iTunes mode (although Apple can modify the filenames on its side, but this is completely independent of TangoLink).

Understanding Aliases

Aliases allow you to build the custom character string you will need to fill in each tag and filename. You are free to add or remove any aliases, taking care to separate them with one and only one space to form a valid pattern.

Still in Example 1, the pattern:
Date Dash_space Title Dash_space 2ndArtist Dash_space STYLE_notango
...gives the result:
19330209 - Milonga sentimental - Ernesto Famá y Angel Ramos - MILONGA

• Date 19330209
• Dash_space " - "
• Title Milonga sentimental
• 2ndArtist Ernesto Famá y Angel Ramos
• STYLE_notango MILONGA

Say you don't want to see the style. Easy, just delete the corresponding alias and the separator that precedes it:
Date Dash_space Title Dash_space 2ndArtist

Another example... This time rather than the singers, you prefer to have the orchestra and at the start of the chain before the date:
MainARTIST Dash_space Date Dash_space Title Dash_space STYLE_notango

If you wish you can test these examples yourself in the Settings menu and see the preview online. In the next chapter, you will find a list of all possible aliases and how they work.

List of Aliases

Date aliases

• Date The recording date in the format yyyymmdd (19401231)
• Date_dash The recording date in the format yyyy-mm-dd (1940-12-31)
• Date_point The recording date in the format yyyy.mm.dd (1940-12-31)
• Year The year of recording (1940)
• Month The month of recording (12) or 00 if unknown
• Day the day of recording (31) or 00 if unknown

Aliases of titles and artists

• Title The title as shown on El Recodo Tango Music
• Title_short The simplified title. All the information indicated in brackets are deleted, such as alternative titles and the identifiers making it possible to differentiate distinct works sharing a same title: "(2)", "(3)"...

• MainARTIST The main artist as shown on El Recodo Tango Music (Carlos DI SARLI)
• MAINARTIST The artist in capitals (CARLOS DI SARLI)
• MainArtist The artist in lowercase (Carlos Di Sarli)
• MAINARTIST_short The artist simplified and in capitals (DI SARLI)
• MAINARTIST_short The artist simplified and in lowercase (Di Sarli)
• ARTISTMain The inverted artist (DI SARLI Carlos)
• ARTISTMAIN The inverted artist in capitals (CARLOS DI SARLI)
• ArtistMain The inverted artist in lowercase (Carlos Di Sarli)

• 2ndArtist The 2nd artist as shown on El Recodo Tango Music. When there are several 2nd artists, they are separated by " y ".
• 2ndArtist_coma The 2nd artist. When there are several 2nd artists, they are separated by a comma and a space.
• 2ndArtist_dash The 2nd artist. When there are several 2nd artists, they are separated by a hyphen " - ".
• 2ndArtist_& The 2nd artist. When there are several 2nd artists, they are separated by a " & ".
• 2ndArtist_short The 2nd artist simplified. The first names and mentions of the type Dir. or Guit. are deleted. When there are several 2nd artists, they are separated by " y ".
• 2ndArtist_short_coma The 2nd artist simplified. The first names and mentions of the type Dir. or Guit. are deleted. When there are several 2nd artists, they are separated by a comma and a space.
• 2ndArtist_short_dash The 2nd artist simplified. The first names and mentions of the type Dir. or Guit. are deleted. When there are several 2nd artists, they are separated by a hyphen " - ".
• 2ndArtist_short_& The 2nd artist simplified. The first names and mentions of the type Dir. or Guit. are deleted. When there are several 2nd artists, they are separated by a " & ".

Aliases to identify instrumental recordings

All "instrumental" aliases work the same way. When the recording is sung, that is, when at least one of the artists is a singer, nothing is added. Otherwise, the recording is instrumental and the alias name itself is added as is. You are free to choose the alias that suits you best.

• Instrumental
• Inst
• instrumental
• inst
• INST
• INSTRUMENTAL
• (Instrumental)
• (Inst)
• (instrumental)
• (inst)

Style aliases

Showing the style in a visible way is especially useful for musicalizing. The info can be inserted in the Genre or Grouping tag, or even in the Title or filenames. We must distinguish the "discographic" style that we find on 78rpm and which can be very varied, even creative (vals romanza, Tangon, Milongon, Milonga candombe...) and the simplified style (Tango, Vals, Milonga) more useful for DJs and dancers. It is this last information that is mostly used on El Recodo Tango Music and which is used by TangoLink to organize your files.

• STYLE The style of the recording as shown on El Recodo Tango Music. For example TANGO, VALS, MILONGA, FOXTROT…
• Style The style of the recording with a capital letter.
• style The style of the recording, lowercase.

• STYLE_notango The style of the recording as shown on El Recodo Tango Music. If it is a tango, no hint is added.
• Style_notango The style of the recording with a capital letter. If it is a tango, no hint is added.
• style_notango The style of the recording, lowercase. If it is a tango, no hint is added.

• (STYLE) The style of the recording in upper case and with brackets. For example (TANGO), (VALS),...
• (Style) The style of the recording with a capital letter and brackets.
• (style) The style of the recording, lowercase and with brackets.

• (STYLE_notango) The style of the recording in upper case and with brackets. If it is a tango, no hint is added.
• (Style_notango) The style of the recording with an uppercase letter and brackets. If it is a tango, no hint is added.
• (style_notango) The style of the recording, lowercase and with brackets. If it is a tango, no hint is added.

The Tango aliases below can be used to differentiate the files of a tango collection (whether they are milongas, vals, tango...) from other music that you may have in your library.

• TANGO This alias simply returns "TANGO", regardless of the record.
• Tango This alias simply returns "Tango", regardless of the record.
• tango This alias simply returns "tango", regardless of the record.

Tool type aliases: ERT and separators

ERT aliases add the recording number from El Recodo Tango Music

• ERT ERT recording number, for example "ERT-1234"
• ERT_short Simplified ERT number, for example "1234"
• (ERT) ERT number with brackets, for example "(ERT-1234)"
• [ERT] ERT number with square brackets, for example "[ERT-1234]"

The following aliases are separators. They return an empty string if they are not directly followed by an alias with content. For example the configuration "Title Space (Instrumental)" will only return "Paciencia" for a sung recording (without separator), or "La cumparsita (instrumental)" (the separator is present) if the title is instrumental.

• Dash "-"
• Dash_space " - "
• Bar "|"
• Bar_space " | "
• Space " "
• Underscore "_"
• Point "."
• Coma ","
• Coma_space ", "
• Con "Con "
• con "con "
• y " y "
• with "with "

Conclusion

Well done, you now have all the cards in hand to customize your tags as you like. I hope you were able to find the configuration that suits you, but if not, feel free to post a comment below and I can help you with your configuration, or even create new aliases based on community requests.

Gregory Diaz
2021-12-24 2023-06-18
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