How do you tag artists in foreign languages?

[Turbanator]

So, I've just start using Musicbee to organise my music, and it's taking time as I have a lot of stuff, and duplicated iTunes libraries to filter through.

I've decided to keep the original Japanese names for my artists after getting new fresh tags for them, overwriting the old English romanizations of their names.

The 'problem' is that I can't search for the Japanese names, since I can't type in Japanese, nor would I know where to begin. For instance, 川井憲次 is Kenji Kawai, great for soundtracks and anime, along with many other artists. I even have the odd Greek artist with their Greek letters for their names making it marginally harder to find them.

Ideally, I would like to tag artists directly with an English translation of their name to make it easier to search for them, however, I get the feeling that I need to use custom tags for every single track, and then add the English name there, which would be a pain.

If I'm missing something obvious, please let me know!

[Pickles7853]

...to make it easier to search for them, however, I get the feeling that I need to use custom tags for every single track, and then add the English name there, which would be a pain.

I think this is the ideal approach.  However I think I (personally) would go about it backwards from the way you described it.  I would have the <Artist> tag showing artists in English only and create a new custom tag for <ArtistAlt> and have the natural language equivalent here.  That way there is a semblance of commonality in the <Artist> tag; EG: it is not mixed English and other (Japanese/ Greek/ etc.).   This fixes the search issue and it would also be easier to deal with when/if you want to sync with say a USB player or want to use an autotag function.  Autotag is not likely to care about your language preference or even know about it.

While this does indeed sound like a pain, I cannot think of an alternative that does not involve manually filling in some tag field somewhere with the information you want.  Setting up a custom tag is a one time process so, after that, it should be the same amount of work regardless of how you choose to do it.  After that you can create a virtual field to show the <ArtistAlt> field if it is defined and if not display the original <Artist> field.

[phred]

I would have the <album> tag showing artists in English only and create a new custom tag for <ArtistAlt> and have the natural language equivalent here.

I think you mean <Artiist> and not <album>, yes?

[Pickles7853]

Woops!  Correct you are sir... edited post.  Thanks!

[voodoopunk]

There are a couple of ways to go about this, I use the method of multiple custom tags <Translated Artist>, <Translated Album> and <Translated Song> these, as you've surmised have to be populated manually wherever necessary.

There is another option that only uses a single custom tag and a couple of virtuals, posted by Karbock here: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=40337.0.

[hiccup]

… these, as you've surmised have to be populated manually wherever necessary.

If you are using Musicbrainz' Picard, with a plugin and a script you could probably automate it.

[voodoopunk]

I use Picard, but I've never heard of Kenji Kawai.

It'll be interesting to see what a plug in can do for some BABYMETAL releases.

But... I don't mind adding metadata manually.

[Turbanator]

...to make it easier to search for them, however, I get the feeling that I need to use custom tags for every single track, and then add the English name there, which would be a pain.

I think this is the ideal approach.  However I think I (personally) would go about it backwards from the way you described it.  I would have the <Artist> tag showing artists in English only and create a new custom tag for <ArtistAlt> and have the natural language equivalent here.  That way there is a semblance of commonality in the <Artist> tag; EG: it is not mixed English and other (Japanese/ Greek/ etc.).   This fixes the search issue and it would also be easier to deal with when/if you want to sync with say a USB player or want to use an autotag function.  Autotag is not likely to care about your language preference or even know about it.

While this does indeed sound like a pain, I cannot think of an alternative that does not involve manually filling in some tag field somewhere with the information you want.  Setting up a custom tag is a one time process so, after that, it should be the same amount of work regardless of how you choose to do it.  After that you can create a virtual field to show the <ArtistAlt> field if it is defined and if not display the original <Artist> field.

Thanks, I didn't even consider having it in reverse.

There are a couple of ways to go about this, I use the method of multiple custom tags <Translated Artist>, <Translated Album> and <Translated Song> these, as you've surmised have to be populated manually wherever necessary.

There is another option that only uses a single custom tag and a couple of virtuals, posted by Karbock here: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=40337.0.

Of course, I never considered that. If the albums and tracks are also untranslated, then it would cause issues, so I'll need to add those tags too.

Now... Do I use the romanization version of the Japanese tracks, like 'Yakusokusareta Shouri No Tsurugi', or do I do a fully translated version, 'The Sword of Promised Victory'? Or do I go even further and have a separate tag for romanization, and then the translated version? Maybe I'll do both if it isn't too much of a time killer for me.

[voodoopunk]

Now... Do I use the romanization version of the Japanese tracks, like 'Yakusokusareta Shouri No Tsurugi', or do I do a fully translated version, 'The Sword of Promised Victory'? Or do I go even further and have a separate tag for romanization, and then the translated version? Maybe I'll do both if it isn't too much of a time killer for me.

Personally, I use the romanization of the lyrics... to get this sort of output. Never really considered the fully translated version, not sure why. But it is doable I guess, depending on space to show it.

As for having the titles reversed, there's no need it's all searchable. I like to have mine as per the source, in some cases CD... others from Bandcamp or Qobuz.