Author Topic: Any way to group Album Artists???  (Read 15651 times)

musicmahn

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Ah - It's not like the path I've brought here and trying to explain it has been all that efficient either lol.  I know a lot more about MB because of your care in helping :)

Not sure yet filter is the way to go for me as the navigation feels similar to plex which is what brought me here in the first place.  now if my left panel would contain a list of all created filters then i might be in business but i'm not yet seeing that option.  right now it's appearing somewhat as a drop down in that i have to click that music tab up top which brings up a list to the left showing any of the filters i've created.

Well at least something new to investigate more but I'm so damn close with what i did already with sort artists.  I think i'm even there enough in that i could have the middle panel just be album covers and not worry about grouping them by album artist.  But like i said I'm in this for the long haul.  I like to get stuck in my ways i just need them to be a way that works to that level heheh

psychoadept

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now if my left panel would contain a list of all created filters then i might be in business but i'm not yet seeing that option.  right now it's appearing somewhat as a drop down in that i have to click that music tab up top which brings up a list to the left showing any of the filters i've created.

There should be a show filters toggle if you right click on music that will display them permanently. Or you can use auto playlists, which have the same basic functionality as filters but with more bells and whistles.
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musicmahn

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i did see the toggle but they still aren't layed out down that left panel like a normal list of artists etc would.
it's like that filter list is hidden until i click the music tab up top?

Here is just the one i've added "da doors fiter"
lol sorry for all the silly names and categories i just want things to stick out for me while i play around



any way to get that list of filters to reside in the left panel as i currently have the sort album artists?

psychoadept

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If you click by the Music node to display filters, it should show them until you click it again. This is what mine looks like all the time:




But as mentioned, you can also use autoplaylists. Then you could use the playlist directory to show them separately in a sidebar, more like the column browser.
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musicmahn

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I clicked the pin next to music is that what i was supposed to do?
So now that filter list is showing at the left.  Not bad though not as pretty as having the sort artist list there.  Surely a good avenue for me to look deeper into!
Anyway how do I unpin what I just did there lol

psychoadept

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Oh, I see. You had the sidebar in auto-hide mode. You can change that in the arrange panels window, which you find next to the search bar.
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musicmahn

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Got it.  Well this is promising!
A little less visually appealing as the Sort Artist option so I'm not giving up on that one yet but this seems a solid solution otherwise.
Will report back as I continue to play - hectic week at work is going to keep me out of the game until the weekend though.


In the interim, if anyone can crack the nut of why grouping by album artist is wonky here it would be amazing!
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Pingaware

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If you use filters, you can set an auto-playlist to only take from that filter with no other rules required. Then you could set custom pictures for the auto-playlist to get a similar appearance to your Sort Artist option (I think - I don't use the thumbnail browser at all).
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musicmahn

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So wow maybe this will work as it will group appropriately when not having to sweat the albums right away??



The grouping i was looking for in the middle... only to the left....almost nicer?!?

Something isn't right with the way MB wants to sort in the middle.  I guess more than anything it is trying to sort BEFORE grouping which makes no sense really.  I wish someone could take a deeper look at what is happening here for the purpose of improving the options.

Anyway is there a way I can get with my screenshot above an A-Z jump bar that relates to the left panel?  ideally by sort artist heheh  ;)

Bee-liever

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I guess more than anything it is trying to sort BEFORE grouping which makes no sense really.
MB does apply the Sort By: settings first and then applies the Group By: settings to that sorted list. there is also sub-grouping options.



Anyway is there a way I can get with my screenshot above an A-Z jump bar that relates to the left panel?  ideally by sort artist heheh  ;)

No A-Z bar, but if you click the window and start typing, MB goes to matching entry.
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musicmahn

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Haha yes I'll live without the A-Z bar if I need to. 

Thinking more I guess it shouldn't matter whether grouped or sorted first - as long as it's still grouping as it should.  Common sense says that if you are grouping a lot by iterations A, B, and C....you shouldn't see any of those groups repeated for any reason.   

Using your formatting to convey my problem it would be like seeing two singles above the studio albums because their titles come alphabetically before "A Flock of Seagulls" (the album).  MB doesn't want to group true Album Artists  properly in that middle panel for me and it will be interesting to see if the same request sent to the left panel will be handled fine.  So far so go but I'll have a buttload more to add if I decide to give this the big push.  I'll probably add a few more albums just to test the waters further yet with this new avenue i'm going down



Bee-liever

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Group by is just Album Artist
Are you still using this as your Group By setting?

And what are you using in Sort By?

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musicmahn

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Yes group by Album Artist

Sort by - I've tried pretty much every option.  Album Artist/Album is what most of my screenshots are in this thread.

psychoadept

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Thought I'd mention that this whole discussion has led me to looking at ways of doing something similar with my own library. For instance, I created an auto-playlist of "local artists" using the "Album Artist is any of" rule. But that always leaves me kind of nervous that if the playlist is messed up somehow, I'll have to do all the work of remembering which artists should be in it again, which may also be a concern in your case.

But I've had a custom tag for a long time called "Playlist Filters" (actually, I had multiple custom tags for different types of playlists but I was running out of room so I folded them all into one), and I think I'll just expand the scope of that.  So instead of a rule of "Album Artist is any of..." I'll tag them with a playlist filter of "local" and make the rule "Playlist Filter is local".

Just something for you to think about, because it would make it easier to reconstruct the filters and playlists if necessary.
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Bee-liever

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try setting up a custom sort as:
Album Artist/ Sort Album Artist/ Album

keep your group by as Album Artist

you also might need to turn on sub grouping and use Sort Album Artist
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