Artist Count - How To Return In A Virtual Tag?

[jimmyjay300]

Objective

Hi.  I'd like to know the count of individual artists listed for each track.  My preferred solution would return the count in a Virtual Tag, but I'm open to other suggestions.  

Background

My music source has prepopulated the Artist tag (TPE1) in the format "artist1, artist2" with a comma plus a space as a delimiter.  When I open the artist splitter dialog, the same string "artist1, artist2" is displayed in the Display Artist field.  And it is displayed in the first row of the Artist list/splitter, with "artist" displayed as the role.  No other rows are populated.

I want to split this combined value into 1 entry per artist, linked to their role.  Typically, this will result in 1 to 4 artists; with roles including artist, guest, remixer etc.  Since the music source does not list guest performers and remixers in the original string, new entries for will have to be created for them, as required.

Before I edit any tags or open the splitter, MB's Tag Editor displays that same string "artist1, artist2" in the box marked "Artist".  This field is labelled "Artist" in the "select displayed fields" dialog of the Tag Editor.  But does this "Artist" box in fact display the value of Display Artist?  It seems to be affected by edits to Display Artist, but not by edits to individual Artist field(s).

Problem

Since what is displayed in that box can be completely different to the values of the individual Artist field(s), and since the latter are initially hidden, I cannot see at a glance whether the individual Artist field(s) need editing or are fine as is.  So I end up having to open the artist splitter dialog for every track, just in case (which isn't very efficient).

I have seen a "+" sign appear next to the word "artist" at this ?Display Artist box sometimes.  But its exact meaning is not clear.

If I could display a virtual tag with the count of Artist entries, then I'd have a much better idea whether I need to open the splitter dialog or not.  It'd also be useful for filtering files in order to process them for Serato.  Unfortunately, Serato only displays the first artist and a remixer.

Other solutions (which are beyond my control) would be: (1) to indicate the number of artist rows next to, or instead of, the "+" sign.

Or, even better, would be: (2) to give the option of displaying multiple Artist rows inline without the need for a popout, similar to how the Classical Music Work & Movement fields have been implemented, but preferably staying expanded once clicked even if the user moves to a different track.


Similar Question

https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=23549.0

This person had a similar objective, but neither the question nor the answer suggested mentioned the use or virtual tags.

Also, the answer relied on detecting the delimiter character (in that case, a semicolon).  In my case, the delimiter will be a comma if I haven't edited it yet, but will be a semicolon if I have.  Or will mine have no delimiter if they have been split into individual artists?


Functions

I thought I read that there was a $Count() function, but now I can't find it.

It's not on this page: https://musicbee.fandom.com/wiki/Functions

If relevant, I also have the plugin Additional Tagging and Reporting Tools (ATRT) installed.

Tip

As an aside, I used the Advanced Search & Replace function of ATRT and the following formula:
Find ", " in Artist tag.  Replace "; " in Artist tag.
As a knock on effect MB also parses the Artist tag into individual rows.
This helps speed things up, but does not take care of the remixer, guest/featured etc.

[psychoadept]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

Since what is displayed in that box can be completely different to the values of the individual Artist field(s), and since the latter are initially hidden, I cannot see at a glance whether the individual Artist field(s) need editing or are fine as is.  So I end up having to open the artist splitter dialog for every track, just in case (which isn't very efficient).

You can probably achieve what you want by just displaying Artists: Artist in the main panel. That will show ONLY the artists tagged as Artist.

...does this "Artist" box in fact display the value of Display Artist?  It seems to be affected by edits to Display Artist, but not by edits to individual Artist field(s).

Yes, this is correct.

Or will mine have no delimiter if they have been split into individual artists?

MuiscBee will display a semicolon as part of the Display Artist field (if there's no separate display artist value), but that semicolon doesn't exist in any of the individual artist fields.

[jimmyjay300]

Hi "psychoadept".

Thanks for you quick reply.

 

I skipped the fanboy bit and got straight to the question.
But I must say, I'm extremely impressed with the program.
Thanks to Stephen for developing it.
And thanks to you and others for supporting it.
I'll send a donation soon.

Initially, I was just looking for a decent program for playback.
But this thing has it all.
So, I now prefer MusicBee for tagging (having auditioned MP3Tag, Tag&Rename, MusicBrainz Picard, Bliss etc and found them lacking).

And, having seen how poor Serato is for library management, I think I might just use Serato for DJing per se, and use MusicBee to set up playlists etc.

That idea you suggested, Artist:Artist (and Artist:Guest and Artist:Remixer) will certainly help, and it's handy to see not just the count but also the values.
But, on the other hand, it does take up 3 columns.

It's a shame that those fields are not available in the Tag Editor interface.
They are missing from the Set Displayed Fields dialog.
Maybe I should request the feature.
[?]  Could they be mapped to three of the Custom fields?
That'd be a bit of a waste of the Custom fields, but maybe as a workaround for the moment?
If doing that, I'd want to be sure that editing data in the custom field box still wrote to the intended (mapped) field, rather than writing to a custom one.
This post might be relevant, but I need to read it more carefully:
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=21411.0

[?]  Regarding formulae / functions, do you know whether there is a Count function?
I know there's an IsNull one, which could form part of a workaround maybe.

[?]  Am I right in thinking that the Display Artist is something that is internal to MusicBee (possibly in its database), not something which is stored anywhere in the audio file?  If so, can Display Artist still be used as an input for queries / functions (eg virtual tags) or not?

[?]  Regarding the semicolon, does MB store that character in the database (hard coded, for want of a better word)?  If so, perhaps a query could search for it.  Or does MB just add the semicolon "on the fly", for display purposes (like a currency field in a database, which stores only the number, not the £ $ or € symbol)?

Thanks for your time.

Cheers.
JimmyJay