Author Topic: Compilations and general sorting issues - any help appreciated!  (Read 2486 times)

machiismo

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Hey guys,

Been using MusicBee for a few months now and still having a few issues:

1) Is there a way to have a compilation still appear in the Album Artist field? For example, when I tag an album compiled by AAA as an iTunes compilation, it not longer appears in the Album Artist field under AAA, but instead moves to the Various Artist field. This is okay, but I want it to remain in both places.

The reason I want to sort my albums like this is because I like to have compilations from certain DJs under both the compilation section AND the DJs artist name. Nothing I seem to do works, it's been driving me a bit insane.

2) Is there a way to move Various Artists (which I have renamed to Compilations) to the top of my Album Artist column - i.e. so it sorts before # and A? The reason for this is purely from using iTunes for years. I listen to a lot of compilations and having it as the first thing in my library was a quality of life thing I appreciated.

3) Is there a simple way of moving "feat. artist" to the song name across my entire library? Having albums (particularly hip-hop ones) splintered across multiple different AAA feat. BBB artist tags is frustrating for use on mobile devices as well as streaming to devices that don't handle Album Artist properly.

Apologies for the multitude of questions, but I figured it's best places them all in one thread! I've tried my best to figure out the answers over the last few weeks, just having no success.

Cheers for any help you can give :)

psychoadept

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1) You could just tag two album artists, ie "AAA; Various Aritsts".  Otherwise, there are lots of options for how to configure different artist values that might do what you want: display artist, guest artist, performer, remixer, sort artist, sort album artist...

2)I do this by setting the "treat as album artist" value in Sorting/Grouping preferences to "[compilation]".  (This requires that the Album Artist value be blank, but you can always fill it in your Sort Album Artist field manually.)
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hiccup

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I never gave handling of compilations, 'various artists', or iTunes compilation flags much thought, but this triggers some interest.
Is it so that compilations/iTunes flagged albums by some default will be arranged under 'V' for Vendetta Various Artists?
If so, I think the OP has a point here, and it would make much more sense to have those positioned at the top? (or at the bottom)
I just tried removing the 'Album Artist' tags from a compilation album, and setting the iTunes compilation flag for all it's tracks, but then the album doesn't seem to be kept together anymore, and is split up by all artists having tracks on that album.
Setting "treat as Album Artist" in preferences per psychoadept's suggestion brings the album together again, but then it is under "V".
Is there a simple way to keep the 'Album Artist' tag occupied (for the sake of defining the album), and have your compilation albums at the top? (or at the bottom)
Last Edit: February 24, 2017, 07:12:18 PM by hiccup

psychoadept

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Is it so that compilations/iTunes flagged albums by some default will be arranged under 'V' for Vendetta Various Artists?
If so, I think the OP has a point here, and it would make much more sense to have those positioned at the top? (or at the bottom)
I just tried removing the 'Album Artist' tags from a compilation album, and setting the iTunes compilation flag for all it's tracks, but then the album doesn't seem to be kept together anymore, and is split up by all artists having tracks on that album.
Is there a simple way to keep the 'Album Artist' tag occupied (for the sake of defining the album), and have your compilation albums at the top (or at the bottom)?

The behavior described (automatic population of Album Artist for compilations) only happens if both the Album Artist is blank AND the setting in Sorting/Grouping is turned on (which it is NOT by default).  Without that setting, the "iTunes Compilation" flag doesn't do anything (which would be why your album was split up).

Various Artists is the default value for that setting, but can be easily changed.  I've wished for more robust behavior for that setting (such as being able to use a template to fill in the value for Album Artist).
Last Edit: February 24, 2017, 07:20:37 PM by psychoadept
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hiccup

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I see. changing it to e.g.: "_Various Artists" brings it to the top indeed.
iTunes probably places it at the top as soon as it sees the compilation flag then.

psychoadept

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iTunes probably places it at the top as soon as it sees the compilation flag then.

Yeah, that's probably based on the flag.
Last Edit: February 24, 2017, 07:35:41 PM by psychoadept
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psychoadept

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Oh, I forgot 3, sorry.

You have some options there, too.  The Additional Tagging & Reporting Tools plugin might do it for you, but what I would suggest is using the multiple artist splitter to assign the "feat" artist to the guest artist tag, so that only the artist is in the actual artist value.  This should explain it all a little more: http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Tag_Editor#Multiple_Value_Tags
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machiismo

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1) You could just tag two album artists, ie "AAA; Various Aritsts"

This a simple and elegant solution to my problem, thanks!