Author Topic: Sort with Sort-Artist tag but display Artist  (Read 5401 times)

Phathagmas

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I switched from iTunes to MusicBee and I am absolutely loving it, but I am wondering how I can sort a list of artists using the Sort-Artist tag but the actual items in the list display the Artist tag. I did some searching on the wiki and forums and didn't find anything, but maybe I overlooked something.

Here's a poorly cropped example of what I mean. The top image is from iTunes, which displays it how I want it to, and the bottom is MusicBee. The music libraries are identical.

http://i.imgur.com/yInhJfZ.png

As you can see in the middle column, there are five bands that show the original Japanese text while still being properly sorted in iTunes. MusicBee is properly sorting them too, but it's displaying the Sort-Artist text which is in English letters, instead of the original Japanese text.

Additionally, when I press the last.fm "Love" button while listening to a song it loves it, but it completely pauses the song. Not just paused but stop completely.

Thanks!

psychoadept

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Welcome to the forum!

I had the same struggle with sort-order when I started, which is why I wrote this:
http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Using_Sort_Order

The LOVE problem I'm not sure about.  I've never encountered that one.  Normally what stops a track is something that changes the filename, but marking a track "Loved" shouldn't do that.
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Phathagmas

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Thanks for writing that. I've read it before and it helped me out, but I can't figure out how to change the display artists to be the artist field and have it sort by Sort Artist. It's already sorted by Sort Artist.

Thanks though!

Phathagmas

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No ideas? Perhaps there is some sort of Virtual Tag function that can sort a list by Sort Artist but have the entities in the list be Artist? I tried making one myself but I'm not too good at the functions. Any help or ideas at all would be appreciated!

psychoadept

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I can't figure out how to change the display artists to be the artist field and have it sort by Sort Artist. It's already sorted by Sort Artist.

The key is to use the Sort By menu for sorting, instead of clicking a column.  You  will need a custom sort order that uses Sort Artist.

(Screencaps here: http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Using_Sort_Order#Define_Custom_Sorting)
Last Edit: April 18, 2015, 02:22:11 AM by psychoadept
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Phathagmas

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The key is to use the Sort By menu for sorting, instead of clicking a column.  You  will need a custom sort order that uses Sort Artist.

(Screencaps here: http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Using_Sort_Order#Define_Custom_Sorting)

Oh I see what you mean. I should have been more clear. I'm talking specifically in the Column Browser. In the main panel it does indeed display the Artist field while sorting by Sort Artist, but in the column browser it will always show whatever is in the Sort Artist field, even when using custom Sort By fields. My apologies for not being more specific.

psychoadept

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Oh I see what you mean. I should have been more clear. I'm talking specifically in the Column Browser. In the main panel it does indeed display the Artist field while sorting by Sort Artist, but in the column browser it will always show whatever is in the Sort Artist field, even when using custom Sort By fields. My apologies for not being more specific.

Aha!  I think I understand the problem now.  I apologize, I probably didn't look closely enough at your screenshot.  Unfortunately, there's no good way to do that with Column Browser.  Artist in the Column Browser *will* follow at least the Ignore Words field, but particularly for your example of characters in another script, there's not much you can do.  One trick that I have sometimes used which might help is to use the multiple artist splitter to set the Display Artist to the value I want to see (the non-Latin script) but the actual Artist tag to the Latinized version.  Then Artist in the column browser will show the sortable value, while the main panel still shows the original.
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Phathagmas

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Ah, that's a shame. Hopefully at some point that will be supported, since every other program I've used can do that. I've thought about doing that with the display artist but then it wouldn't scrobble properly as the songs wouldn't have the proper artist and album tag. Oh well. But thanks for your help anyway! I really appreciate it.

kuchhai

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I've started using Musicbee for a few days and this is the only problem (though it's not really a problem I guess?) I have with it. Does anyone have any solution? :(

psychoadept

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Can you give a little more info on what mean?
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kuchhai

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I understand that it's possible to sort by the Sort Artist tag but display Artist in the main panel, but I haven't found a way to do it in column browser or thumbnail browser.

I want to sort non-Latin artist names by the English names I have tagged in Sort Artist but display the original name. Right now all the artists that begin with non-Latin characters appear after all the Latin names.

For example, I listen to a group named 関ジャニ∞ which I have tagged "Kanjani 8" in Sort Artist. I would like it to be sorted and appear before Keane in column browser or thumbnail browser but display as 関ジャニ∞. Currently, if I choose to sort by Sort Album Artist or Sort Artist, it will give me Kanjani 8 instead.

I've looked through all the functions for virtual tags but there doesn't seem to be something that will work...

It's not really a problem because the music player is fantastic as it is, but personally it is confusing trying to find an artist with a non-Latin name... When all the non-Latin characters appear after the last alphabet, it appears that the names are sorted by strokes of the first character; this makes it quite difficult to search, especially for Mandarin artists.

Many thanks in advance!

redwing

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I think the difference is that main panel allows you to use different fields for sorting (Sort Artist) and display (Display Artist) while thumbnail browser does not. You might want to post this on the wishlist board if it's important to you.
Last Edit: October 25, 2016, 07:56:59 PM by redwing