Author Topic: Sort Albums by Artist/Year (like iTunes)  (Read 4984 times)

Caedendi

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Sup guys, to start off, this is what I'm talking about:

iTunes:
http://imgur.com/6ByQMYh

MusicBee:
http://imgur.com/0jkc3gI

I'm new to imgur, so if the links are not working, plz tell me.

So, the way I want my library to be sorted, is first Album Artist, and then Albums, in chronological order (followed by disc#, track# and name ofc).
But the catch is, I have albums with the same name, that have bonus discs released in another year, that I want to be grouped together.
iTunes does this perfectly by clicking the Album column multiple times 'till it says Album by Artist/Year, but I haven't managed to get this to work on any other music player (I really want to get rid of iTunes).


Any help here?^.^


EDIT: I already tried messing around with custom sorting and stuff and searched the forums, but haven't got it to work properly the way I want it to.

EDIT2: i do NOT simply mean sorting album artist>year>album. Ive got that.
I want the same albums with parts released in different years to be combined (see iTunes screenshot for Vol.3 disc 1 (2004) and disc 2 (2005).
Last Edit: February 19, 2015, 04:41:13 PM by Caedendi

Alumni

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Right click on the column header, click "sort by" and then select "define custom sorting".
On this screen you can select multiple tag fields to fine tune the sorting you want.

Caedendi

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Hey Alumni, thx for the fast reply.

I have already tried that, but I haven't managed to get it to work.
Do you have an idea how I should set up my sorting to make it work exactly like in the iTunes screenshot?

Alumni

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Hey Alumni, thx for the fast reply.

I have already tried that, but I haven't managed to get it to work.
Do you have an idea how I should set up my sorting to make it work exactly like in the iTunes screenshot?

It sounds like you need to set custom sorting by...

#1 Album Artist
#2 Year
#3 Album

Don't forget to select this sorting option after you add it to the menu.

Caedendi

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I dont want to be rude, but if u wouldve read my posts and seen the screenshots in the 1st post, you wouldve known that THAT is not what im asking for. I already have em sorted by year, then album, but i want albums with the same name/artist to be combined with the bonus releases of the same album name (once again, see screenshots) that came out in a different year, to be combined with the earlier album, and not somewhere further down the list.

psychoadept

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I think in other to make that work, your extra disks WILL have to have the same  year as the.rest of the album.  However, you could set up the Original Year custom tag and either use it to store the other year value (easiest solution) or use it for sorting instead (which might require a virtual tag, if you don't want to fill original year for every track).
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Caedendi

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That could be a solution, yes, but iTunes does that regardless of filling the Original Year tag. Shouldnt MusicBee be capable of the same?
I prefer solving this in the core instead of a workaround.

Bee-liever

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I don't have my Albums defined that way so I can't test this, but wouldn't a custom sorting of:

Album Artist/ Year/ Album [Year]

or

Artist/ Year/ Album/ YYYY

work?
MusicBee and my library - Making bee-utiful music together

Caedendi

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I don't have my Albums defined that way so I can't test this, but wouldn't a custom sorting of:

Album Artist/ Year/ Album [Year]

or

Artist/ Year/ Album/ YYYY

work?
nope, wont work either. i tried changing the way albums are grouped, but that only seems to apply when you actually 'group' your library, not just when sorting and not grouping.

i think the problem lies in the fact that musicbee is not programmed in a way that it automatically always 'groups' albums when just sorting.
when i actually choose to 'group' my library, and specifically group on album, then that album i was talking about earlier then actually IS grouped into 1, while still having different year tags.

hmm, maybe i should just request this feature as it just seems to not be possible at the moment.

psychoadept

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As long as the Year tag is different, and you have Year (or YYYY) taking priority over Album in the sort order, it will split the albums.  It's great that iTunes has this logic.  MusicBee makes fewer assumptions about what the user wants than iTunes, which makes it a lot more flexible, but also means you have to do the work of telling it what you want.

I think the problem lies in the fact that musicbee is not programmed in a way that it automatically always 'groups' albums when just sorting.
when i actually choose to 'group' my library, and specifically group on album, then that album i was talking about earlier then actually IS grouped into 1, while still having different year tags.

hmm, maybe i should just request this feature as it just seems to not be possible at the moment.

Yes. :)  The only place that MB would do what you're asking for is in Artwork view, where albums always take precedence in grouping.
Last Edit: February 19, 2015, 08:58:52 PM by psychoadept
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Caedendi

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As long as the Year tag is different, and you have Year (or YYYY) taking priority over Album in the sort order, it will split the albums.  It's great that iTunes has this logic.  MusicBee makes fewer assumptions about what the user wants than iTunes, which makes it a lot more flexible, but also means you have to do the work of telling it what you want.

I think the problem lies in the fact that musicbee is not programmed in a way that it automatically always 'groups' albums when just sorting.
when i actually choose to 'group' my library, and specifically group on album, then that album i was talking about earlier then actually IS grouped into 1, while still having different year tags.

hmm, maybe i should just request this feature as it just seems to not be possible at the moment.
Yes. :)  The only place that MB would do what you're asking for is in Artwork view, where albums always take precedence in grouping.
i was afraid of that. thanks for clearing it up.
feature request it is, then.

EDIT: something seemed to went wrong with the format of this post. fixed now.
Last Edit: February 21, 2015, 06:20:41 PM by Caedendi