Multiple Album Artist Sorting

[dajokr]

Hi there,

Not sure if this is a bug or just a result of changes.  I just upgraded to 3.1.6466.

Previously, when I wanted to attribute an album to two album artists, I would assign the album artist as "XX; YY".  It would then show up under both XX and YY in the panel where the music is displayed (e.g., selecting album artist from thumbnail browser and viewing album covers).

Now, when I do so, the albums with multiple album artists don't show up in the main panel under any view. 

Having to go through and redo a lot of the sorting as well - had a number of things that were previously sorting under a sort album artist that are now not sorting that way.

[Steven]

I am not able to reproduce any issues. Could you post some screenshots so i can see the Album Artist tags in the tag editor and also with one of the album artists selected where MB is not showing the matching files in the main panel

[dajokr]

Sure - here is one example.  I tagged the album artist for each of the three solo retrospective box sets for David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Steven Stills with both "Crosby, Stills & Nash" and the artist name like so: "Crosby, Stills & Nash; Crosby, David".  You can see it listed that way after the main entry for Crosby, Stills & Nash in this picture when "All Artists" are selected in the thumbnail browser:



You can see in the next photo that, although the program recognizes there are 9 albums tagged with Crosby, Stills & Nash, it only displays the 6 albums where that is the ONLY tag and not the three I tagged with multiple album artists.  Same with David Crosby above - it states there are 2 albums, but only displays the one that does not have multiple album artist tags.  Before the upgrade, that panel would display all the albums (grouped by the album artist field).

[dajokr]

Here's one of the sets with the sort tags:

[dajokr]

On my laptop running 3.0.5995, you can see that all 9 display, grouped by the sort album artist value.

[dajokr]

BTW, thanks for your help, and super thanks for this awesome program!!!!!!!

[dajokr]

Hi there,

Any thoughts on this one?

Thanks again! 
D

[psychoadept]

In 3.1, check the sorting tab in the tag editor to see what Sort Album Artist was assigned for these.

[dajokr]

Still having trouble with this.  The trouble seems to be with a function that I used in prior versions to delineate multiple values for a field.  In previous versions, if I entered two values in a field separated by a semi-colon, that item would show up in either/both when I displayed by that field.  Two specific examples:

I have filters set for Genre to display my Jazz and Rock/Pop music in separate tabs.  I have a Tony Bennett/Dave Brubeck CD, which used to show up in both tabs because the "Genre" field was tagged as "Jazz; Rock/Pop".  Now it shows up in neither.

Likewise, the above examples show where multiple values for sort album artist, which used to show up in either/both, now no longer show up in either when sorted/displayed by that field.  Further, I can only find them via the Thumbnail browser only when "All" is selected. 

There are workarounds, like retagging those items to have a single compound (sort) album artist, but it was very handy to be able to find, say, the Eric Clapton/BB King album under either Eric Clapton or BB King.

I've tried playing around with the new sorting functions, to include the 'Edit Custom Sort Values', but I can't seem to get the function back.

THanks!
Dave   

[redwing]

The purpose of the new sorting feature is to show regular tags for display while sorting by sort tags.
Try using album artist rather than sort album artist for thumbnail browser. If the album has "Eric Clapton; BB King" value for both album artist and sort album artist, it should show up both under Eric Clapton and BB King.

[dajokr]

Understand - that's how I used it before, too.  I used Sort Album Artist to sort by last name first, but the display was Album Artist.

I agree that it should show up under both, but it does not, regardless of whether I use Album Artist or Sort Album artist in the Thumbnail Browser.  The program knows it is there, because the album count reflects it, but it simply does not display it. 

[redwing]

I can see that with sort album artist selected in thumbnail browser, album count and displayed items in the main panel mismatch when sort tag has multiple values.
But isn't it working fine with album artist selected in thumbnail browser?

[dajokr]

I am playing around with it now, but I think you are right.  If I use the semi-colon in the Album Artist field, it does seem to appear separately under each of the Album Artists listed in that field.  I am thinking it used to behave similarly for the Sort Album Artist field, but something in the changes to sorting affected that?

[redwing]

I think now sort tag values are working only for sorting purpose. Hence it can't have multiple values. Probably it takes the value as a single string without splitting. But still the bug (album count) will need to be addressed anyway.

[dajokr]

Thanks for the help.  My OCD will take a hit as I won't be able to sort by last name anymore.