This function is used to access Discogs to log changes between the database and your tracks and/or save the changes.
The following modes of operation are available:
- Release Matching
- Only folders where every current track has the same Discogs release Id will be processed. Further, only those tracks which have a Discogs release ordinal position and a Track position (symbolic track number) will be processed. This is the most accurate method and allows for the import of all available data.
Loose Matching- Only folders where at most one Discogs Release Id is found will be processed. The Release Id does not have to be present in all tracks. This method is useful when you have the correct Discogs Release Id in one or more tracks but you do not necessarily have the ordinal matching metadata. This method will not import the Disc, Disc count, Media subtitles, Release ordinal position, Track, Track count, Track position or Title metadata. Note that if you have sufficient metadata to not require Loose Matching, Yate will automatically disable the option.
Track Matching- Same criteria as Release matching, but the Discogs releaseID does not have to be the same in all tracks. Tracks which have the same Discogs releaseID are processed as a group. This method is useful when you have tracks from different albums in the same folder.
Master Matching- All tracks in the folder must have a consistant and non empty Album field. The Album Artist field will be used unless empty in which case the Artist field will be used. The resultant artist name must be consistant and non empty.
A Discogs master release search will be performed based on the above metadata. A matched master will lead to a main release which will be used to extract data to all files in the folder.
Note that masters may be matched as best, good or loose. The choice of the matching level affects the number of incorrect matches but it also increases the number of albums which will be matched.
When running in the Batch Processor and batch processor verbose logging is enabled. the Log file will return information on each master which is returned.
If the tracks contain a consistant release id, master matching will not occur and information will be extracted from the associated release. If there is no consistant release id, but there is a consistant master id, the associated master will be used.
Note that master matching is inherently dangerous! While testing has produced good results there is no human intervention involved in the choice of masters and mistakes can occur.
While the Test option is valid for any of the above modes it is intended to be used with Master Matching. The setting specifies that only matching information should be displayed in the log file. Changes based on the choice of import settings will not be displayed.
What is imported is determined based on the following settings:
- Named Import Set
- The specified Discogs Import Set is used. The action will terminate if the chosen import set does not exist at runtime.
- Use retained settings
- Import settings saved in the tracks will be used. The retained settings must be present and consistant across all tracks to be examined.
- Custom
- The metadata to import is specified inline. The custom settings table has a context menu used to change multiple entries and to access the Discogs Import Settings Manager.
- Runtime
- The name of a Discogs Import Set is extracted from the Runtime Import Set named variable. The action will terminate if the import set does not exist. Note that the same named variable is used by the Access MusicBrainz statement.
If any track contains a UDTI named ExcludeFromDiscogsMasterMatching, the tracks will not be processed.
Regardless of the method of choosing the import settings, the following fields are always disabled and will never be imported for Master Matching: Disc Numbers, Disc Count, Release Ordinal Position, Titles, Track Number, Track Count, Track Position. These settings may easily be interactively accessed in the Discogs wizard if the Release ID is imported.
The Composer, Conductor, Remixer, Lyricist, Involved People and Musician Credits fields, when available, represent the concatenation of the album level credits and the per track credits. For that reason importing Composer, Conductor, Remixer and Lyricist may not have the desired results.
The action test state will be set to true, if any attempt is made to access Discogs.
This function is only valid in a stepwise execution context. If Import Changes is selected and the mode is Release Matching or Loose Matching, the statement will be valid in immediate mode. Otherwise the statement is only valid while batch processing. Be aware that all network accesses are rate limited. When running in immediate mode if artwork is being loaded, the statement may run for a while. Note that when running in immediate mode, an open Discogs Wizard or MusicBrainz Wizard window will be closed.
