# Identifying standalone recording in a script

**URL:** <https://community.metabrainz.org/t/identifying-standalone-recording-in-a-script/676311>\
**Category:** MusicBrainz Picard\
**Tags:** taggerscript, standalone-recording\
**Created:** [January 18, 2024, 10:16pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/identifying-standalone-recording-in-a-script/676311 "2024-01-18T22:16:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dvirtz](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/dvirtz/32/77308_2.png) [@dvirtz](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/dvirtz)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 10:16pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/identifying-standalone-recording-in-a-script/676311/1 "2024-01-18T22:16:33Z")

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Is there a way to identify a standalone recording in a Picard script?  
Couldn’t find anything in the docs.

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**Author:** ![draconx](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c5a1d2/32.png) [@draconx](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/draconx)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 5:41am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/identifying-standalone-recording-in-a-script/676311/2 "2024-01-19T05:41:03Z")

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A standalone recording will have a recording MBID but will _not_ have a track MBID, so this is probably the easiest way to identify them in scripts. Something like (untested):

`$set(mytag,$if(%musicbrainz_trackid%,normal,standalone))`

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**Author:** ![outsidecontext](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/outsidecontext/32/90_2.png) [@outsidecontext](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/outsidecontext)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 11:28am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/identifying-standalone-recording-in-a-script/676311/3 "2024-01-19T11:28:29Z")

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I actually use `$if($eq(%album%,[non-album tracks]),...)` for identifying. But you need to be careful, `[non-album tracks]` is just the default and can be customized in Options \> Metadata. Also some might prefer to completely unset the `album` tag for standalone recordings.

Generally I think @draconx approach is better and less likely to break.

We should have a variable for identifying standalone recordings.