How to merge disparate mediums into a single medium

MusicBrainz
1

I have two, non-existent releases, which I would like to merge into the double CD which compiles these.

The first medium is Elastic Rock: https://musicbrainz.org/release/31cec73c-bd77-484f-9f34-a5a8e1887f69
The second medium is We’ll Talk about it Later: https://musicbrainz.org/release/08b7cfca-2e0f-4b47-b89c-8f937d6dc05a

The double CD is as follows: https://musicbrainz.org/release/fa1f0346-4128-464f-9aec-e2112503b5b3

I was told previously that it’s really easy, just merge two mediums into one.

However, I cannot for the life of me actually work out how to do this. This has happened in the past. I keep being told it’s possible, but when push comes to shove, it does not appear so.

Here’s what I’ve tried:

  1. Open Elastic Rock, click merge. Open We’ll Talk about it Later, click merge. Open the double CD, click merge. After the final click on merge, I’m presented with the three media in the order selected. I select “merge mediums and recordings”, but it ends up with an error message as follows. It also re-orders the mediums on the list seemingly randomly:
This merge strategy is not applicable to the releases you have selected.
The track counts on at least one set of corresponding mediums do not match.
  1. Open the double CD, click merge &c, with the two media in the order they appear on the double CD. Same error.
  2. Open Elastic Rock first or the double CD first in any combination, same thing.

Is this actually possible, as I was distinctly told in this edit (https://musicbrainz.org/edit/88823669), or am I encountering a bug or attempting to do something which is actually impossible?

2

This is just a guess but what happens if you try doing them one at a time? If you haven’t already checked the documentation, merging is explained at How to Merge Releases - MusicBrainz but I’m not sure this exactly covers your situation.

3

Just do them one at a time - there’s not really a way to do multiple merges that I’m aware of (there’s ways to merge multiple works at the same time iirc) for releases afaik.

4

I don’t understand your comment about “non-existent” releases. It appears that both were issued as separate releases, as well as a two-CD combined release.

5

‘Merge mediums and recordings’ means you want to merge everything into one CD, in this case - it won’t work unless the mediums have the same number of tracks.

So this will take two steps - open the two disparate releases and merge them (without merging mediums and recordings). Then you will have a 2CD release. You can now merge this into the other 2CD release - and as long as the track number and number of mediums is the same - it will let you merge recordings etc.

Edit: Sorry, I was on my phone and didn’t realise you already knew this/had done this in the linked edit, and were asking about doing it all in one step. Leaving post up in case it helps some lost soul/searcher

1 Like
6

No, they were never issued as standalone releases. There’s no evidence whatsoever that they were, and the editing history references the double CD. Both purported releases have the same barcode/catalogue number as the double CD referenced in history and elsewhere.

7

Have a look at the release groups for both. Those would seem to indicate that there were separate releases.

8

So, the consensus is what I was trying to do is impossible?

Just to clarify, is the suggestion in the following edit even possible? It seems like a fairly common use-case of merging, so I assume it was, and that I have been doing something wrong all this time: Edit #88823669 - MusicBrainz

9

Yes, I’m well aware of those entries. I believe that they are erroneous.

Look at the following edits, which set the barcodes/catalogue numbers:
https://musicbrainz.org/edit/10000606
https://musicbrainz.org/edit/10001211

These only reference the double CD.

I have a copy of the double CD, with the same barcode/catalogue number.

There is no evidence whatsoever for any individual release by the BGO label of these, on the Discogs site, for example. (There is an LP reissue of Elastic Rock using BGOLP47, confusing matters further)

10

As you were doing it, yes it’s impossible. The reason is that you were trying to merge a 13-track medium and a 7-track medium into the same target medium, thus the error because the media you were trying to merge had different numbers of tracks.

11

Assming you were actually trying to merge 2 mediums into 1 medium…

You have to do it manually. You need to edit one medium to contain all of the tracks, manually select the recordings from the other medium, and then delete the extra medium. If these are separate releases, then ideally, you should do the same (the opposite) to that release too. After the edits close, you’d merge the releases, as they now match.

AFAIK there are no userscripts to help you with this.

However, it looks like you were wanting to move 2 mediums into the same release, as 2 mediums?

12
4 Likes
13

Aha! That’s it!

I assumed moving to the right position involved the order of clicking ‘merge’. I see what you meant now.

Thanks muchly!

2 Likes
14

I realise I titled the forum posting misleadingly - it wasn’t what I meant at all! Sorry!

It was to merge disparate mediums into multiple mediums on a single release.