Author Topic: Grouping track from a compilation album  (Read 10299 times)

databar

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Hi, I've been using MusicBee for several weeks now, it's really great.
I'm wondering how albums from various artists should be tagged, for example film soundtracks with songs from different artists.

I thought the most logical thing to do was to leave "Album artist" empty, but then if I filter by album (in the MUSIC tab), MusicBee displays the same album several times (once for each different artist in the "artist" tag). It makes it hard to play the whole album in the right order.

I tried using a keyword like "Various Artists" as album artist, but then if I filter by genre for example, a lot of tracks appear under "Various Artists" instead of the "artist" tag. "Various Artists" doesn't mean much in this context. I'd prefer to see the tracks under the actual artist (= "artist" tag) with the proper thumbnail.

I checked the "Sorting/Grouping" section in the preferences. For "the following fields define an album", I have 1: Album Artist/2: Album Name.
Am I missing something ?
Shouldn't MusicBee consider "Album artist + Album name" as the only key to identify an album, and not take "Artist + Album name" if "Album artist" is empty ?

I use MusicBee 3.0.6276

Thanks.
Damien

wobbly

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 318
what works for me is
set  Album artist=various artists

set itunes Compilation=yes
i also make sure album name  is only album name eg   album name and  not  album name cd 1

the cd # go in number of disks tag  and not in  album name

musicbee  should then see  one album

i fine it easier to  tag outside of music bee  
i use   TagScanner https://www.xdlab.ru/en/download.htm

for soundtracks a add a genre soundtrack  you can add more then one genre with   ; between genre  so more genre i use eg 80's Compilation ; Christmas
and so on

hope this helps
Last Edit: June 15, 2017, 07:30:44 PM by wobbly

wobbly

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 318
ps if you try  TagScanner  just  select  all tracks   and tick part of Compilation   to set  itunes Compilation

wobbly

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 318
its  very easy then just to make a new filter  for just soundtrack or just Christmas  or what ever you like from all of your various artists albums

you can filter  on just about anything not just genre ...for Christmas eg you may use something  like album contains Christmas  ... that will fine all albums with Christmas   in the album name

so i use album contains Christmas + genre is Christmas

i have a filter  to see all various artists albums

with album artists  is various artists

one more is
album contains = now that's what i call  music
to see all now that's what i call  music  albums

iam giving you the info that i did not have when i started
 
Last Edit: April 11, 2017, 01:30:51 AM by wobbly

psychoadept

  • Global Moderator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10691
I thought the most logical thing to do was to leave "Album artist" empty, but then if I filter by album (in the MUSIC tab), MusicBee displays the same album several times (once for each different artist in the "artist" tag). It makes it hard to play the whole album in the right order.

This is the approach I use.  The key, as wobbly says, is setting the iTunes compilation flag.  You can do this en masse with the tag editor, just select the whole album and go to the properties tab to find it.

In sorting/grouping preferences, set the "treat as album artist" value to whatever you want.  Then, any tracks with no album artist, but which have the itunes compilation flag set, will behave as though the value in sorting/grouping is the album artist.

Also pay attention to your sort order.  If you sort by artist rather than album artist, compilations will still be broken up.
Last Edit: June 08, 2017, 11:32:02 PM by psychoadept
MusicBee Wiki
Use & improve MusicBee's documentation!

Latest beta patch (3.5)
(Unzip and overwrite existing program files)

wobbly

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 318

databar

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Hi, I just tried your tips, it works perfectly. Thanks a lot for your answers.

wobbly

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 318
one more is lets say you would like to  see all various artists albums

 but would like  to hide all the Christmas and Soundtracks

 that's easy with  
Album artists is various artists
genre is not Christmas + genre is not Soundtracks
Last Edit: June 15, 2017, 07:46:57 PM by wobbly