Advanced customization of your tags and file names with TangoLink.

TangoLink

This article provides all the details for the configuration and customization of TangoLink. Please note that we are tackling the advanced configuration here, so it is recommended to have at least tested TangoLink and to have understood its basic principles.

Gregory Diaz
2021-12-24 2023-06-18
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요약

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.

TangoLink patterns

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:

  • Files are renamed with recording date, title, 2nd artist and style: 19330209 - Milonga sentimental - Ernesto Famá y Angel Ramos - MILONGA
  • The title tag is updated exactly like the filename
  • The album artist tag is updated with the main artist: Francisco CANARO
  • The artist tag is updated with the 2nd artist: Ernesto Famá y Angel Ramos
  • The word Tango is entered in the Style tag
  • The style is entered in the Grouping tag: MILONGA
  • The year tag is activated: 1933
  • The Picture tag is activated: Francisco Canaro's picture appears on the cover

    • 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
    이 콘텐츠를 허가 없이 복사하지 마십시오.

    당신을 위한 추천

    회원 접근

    소개Advanced customization of your tags and file names with TangoLink.

    2024-06-08

    Kuro Kurosaka

    Once in a while I receive email stating 'You have TangoLinked files with recently improved metadata.'. To take advantage of the updated metadata, do I just specify the playlist that includes all tango songs, and would TangoLink app automatically identify the songs with updated metadata ? Will I be charged only for the songs with updated metadata, or all the songs included in the playlist ?
    2024-06-08

    Gregory Diaz

    Hi Kuro
    You must only tangolink the listed recodrings.
    Best regards
    2023-06-15

    Kuro Kurosaka

    Is there a way to keep the filenames? Can Tango Link just update the metadata?
    2023-06-15

    Gregory Diaz

    Yes, easy! Using one of these methods doen't modify the filename:
    - Using the Apple iTunes/Music mode (Filenames might be changed by Apple independently from TangoLink)
    - Using the m3u mode.
    - In your settings, configure an empty pattern as filename. Note that you can empty any tag pattern too if you don't want to modify it on your audio files. This behavior is indicated in the setting menu, but i should also add it to this article.
    2023-02-08

    Nik Gervae

    How do MainArtist and 2ndArtist relate to Orchestra, Director, Soloist, and Singer? It looks like MainArtist is either Orchestra or Soloist, and 2ndArtist is either Director or Singer. So, any track will have *either* Orchestra+Singer *or* Soloist+Director. Is that correct? For example, I would rather save MainArtist to the Album Artist tag, and always have the Artist tag be Orchestra/Director, then Soloist/Singer. It seems this is not possible.

    It also looks like TangoLink does not save any other tags to the files, such as Composer/Author, BPM, or Lyrics, is that right?
    2023-02-08

    Gregory Diaz

    Hi Nik and thanks for the good questions.
    Yes, the MainArtist alias is based on the Artist field in the database and so can be in practice an orchestra name (Di Sarli) or a soloist singer too (Castillo without Tanturi). This strategy well reflects the reality of tango music.
    Having said that, you are free to save the MainArtist in the Album Artist tag (it is even like this by default) and save both MainArtist and 2ndArtist in your artist tag. Configure your artist tag like this for example: 'MainARTIST Dash_space 2ndArtist'.
    Other tags not mentioned in the article are not managed by TangoLink today. As they may also differ depending on file formats we stand on basic and reliable tags only for now.
    Don't hesitate if you need more help in this advanced customization.
    2023-02-08

    Nik Gervae

    Thank you for the quick response!

    It's a shame ID3 tags don't make the same distinctions your database does in artists. :-)

    It would be nice if I could put some of the other information into the comments tag, at least, but I understand now why you don't manage them directly.
    2023-02-08

    Nik Gervae

    By the way, I noticed that if I leave a field empty in Settings, then TangoLink does not change it in my files (rather then deleting it). This isn't mentioned in the article and it's a useful feature!
    2023-02-08

    Gregory Diaz

    Yes that is correct. It is described in the setting menu however it should be mentioned in the article too. I will try to improve this!