Is there a way to group an artist's aliases as one ?

[Fivda]

Let's go with an example to be a bit more clear.
There's an artist named "Masumi Ito", who uses the alias name "Hikaru Nanase" in some CD releases.
What i'd want, is for my albums to keep the original creditted names from the releases (so for example, "Masumi Ito" for "SUPER METROID "SOUND IN ACTION"", and "Hikaru Nanase" for "Muv-Luv Alternative Original Sound Track Vol.1") all the while being able to search for "Masumi Ito" in my library while seeing "Muv-Luv Alternative Original Sound Track Vol.1" appear as well despite the different name value. Is there a way to sort an artist name the same as another specific artist name? I've tried going through some sorting options but I couldn't find anything like that.

[smann]

You could right-click on a song, select Edit, then hit the "..." next to Artist and add all the artist's different names there. This will cause them to show up when searching for either name. Make sure to use the one for that specific album first so it is displayed. Then change the sorting Album Artist to be all the same for sorting all in the same place in the library.

You could also use the more common name as Album Artist and whatever name used for that album as the regular Artist tag.

[Fivda]

Perfect, this works just fine. Gonna take a hell of a lot of time to retag my whole library like that though ahah

[smann]

Gonna take a hell of a lot of time to retag my whole library like that though ahah

I spent 3 months going through my entire library years ago to tag everything properly. It's easy to maintain once you've done that by just updating all newly added files right away. It's a pain in the butt initially, but totally worth it overall haha. I can now find anything I want with ease.

[Fivda]

oh i did the same already, but it's like every year i finish something i think "oh maybe i should have started doing XXX" and it's just endless work

[The Incredible Boom Boom]

You could override the <Sort Artist> or make a custom tag for this. I do the former. In the mid-'90s, Janet Jackson started using just her first name for album releases and then eventually switched back to her full name. So, while I use "Janet" in the <Album Artist> and <Artist> fields for those albums, her <Sort Artist> tag remains "Janet Jackson," along with her other albums.

This way keeps everything together, but allows me to continue using the proper album artist name.

[Fivda]

You could override the <Sort Artist> or make a custom tag for this. I do the former. In the mid-'90s, Janet Jackson started using just her first name for album releases and then eventually switched back to her full name. So, while I use "Janet" in the <Album Artist> and <Artist> fields for those albums, her <Sort Artist> tag remains "Janet Jackson," along with her other albums.

This way keeps everything together, but allows me to continue using the proper album artist name.

through the sorting opptions in the tag edit mode? That's what i did but it doesn't seem to work correctly

[The Incredible Boom Boom]

The <Sort Artist> tag. It defaults to "Last Name, First Name" if not manually filled, but if you add your own value, it will change.

[Fivda]

Where exactly do you access that?

[psychoadept]

Where exactly do you access that?

There is a Sorting tab in the Tag Editor which contains all the sort fields. But it looks like you've seen that already, so I'm not sure what you're asking about. If you don't have custom sorting enabled (which applies sort values for an artist database-wide, when you edit one track), then you have to tag all the files with the same sort value, and then use that sort tag in your sort order before you'll see the effect.

The <Sort Artist> tag. It defaults to "Last Name, First Name" if not manually filled, but if you add your own value, it will change.

MusicBee has no way of determining Last Name and First Name, so this doesn't actually happen automatically. Many databases, like MusicBrainz, will put Last Name, First Name in the Sort Artist, etc, tags, so if your tracks do this maybe it's from a source like that.  MusicBee will, however, take into account all values in the Ignore Words field of Sorting/Grouping preferences. And even if nothing is there, I think it will ignore The at the beginning of a field.

[The Incredible Boom Boom]

MusicBee has no way of determining Last Name and First Name, so this doesn't actually happen automatically.

Figured out what was going on - my Inbox view is Tracks and when I clear out the <Sort Artist> tag for soundtracks and compilations in MP3TAG, if the first track artist has any ignored sort words, they are displayed as such in the <Sort Artist> column. I noticed the comma, but never paid much attention to which tags were getting that treatment, so my assumption it was defaulting to "Last Name", "First Name."

[Fivda]

Where exactly do you access that?

There is a Sorting tab in the Tag Editor which contains all the sort fields. But it looks like you've seen that already, so I'm not sure what you're asking about. If you don't have custom sorting enabled (which applies sort values for an artist database-wide, when you edit one track), then you have to tag all the files with the same sort value, and then use that sort tag in your sort order before you'll see the effect.

Bumping because I still don't understand. i've tried using this feature to sort "Hikaru Nanase" as "Masumi Ito" in a specific album but searching for "Masumi Ito" doesn't find the album in question, so i don't really know what I should do.


I also can't use the artist splitter because i use it to display other kinds of artists who worked on the tracks, like that.

[psychoadept]

Bumping because I still don't understand. i've tried using this feature to sort "Hikaru Nanase" as "Masumi Ito" in a specific album but searching for "Masumi Ito" doesn't find the album in question, so i don't really know what I should do.

I also can't use the artist splitter because i use it to display other kinds of artists who worked on the tracks, like that.

You can't just add Masumi Ito as an Artist in the Artist Splitter? It doesn't need to affect any other artists you have tagged.  If the other artists make it hard to add a new artist value to multiple tracks, you can use the tag inspector to add a value to all selected tracks, without changing any others.

It looks like you don't have custom sorting enabled (the check box that says "enable custom sorting"). Do you have Masumi Ito tagged in the file as a sort artist? The fact that the value is grayed out makes me think not. You can verify with the tag inspector. Unless one of those things is true, then I wouldn't expect MusicBee to find this under Masumi Ito.

[Fivda]

You can't just add Masumi Ito as an Artist in the Artist Splitter? It doesn't need to affect any other artists you have tagged.  If the other artists make it hard to add a new artist value to multiple tracks, you can use the tag inspector to add a value to all selected tracks, without changing any others.

I could, but it's just not really meant for that. I use it for different artists and i'd like to keep it that way, especially if there's a better way to give off the same effect with the sort artist tab somehow.

It looks like you don't have custom sorting enabled (the check box that says "enable custom sorting"). Do you have Masumi Ito tagged in the file as a sort artist? The fact that the value is grayed out makes me think not. You can verify with the tag inspector. Unless one of those things is true, then I wouldn't expect MusicBee to find this under Masumi Ito.

When I click on "enable custom sorting" it automatically unchecks itself after like a second. I don't really understand what you mean for the rest though, sorry

[psychoadept]

I could, but it's just not really meant for that. I use it for different artists and i'd like to keep it that way, especially if there's a better way to give off the same effect with the sort artist tab somehow.

Actually, in terms of making the tracks appear under this artist such as in the thumbnail or column browser, it is exactly meant for that. And also the performers you currently have there. MusicBee can handle both just fine. Just do be careful about editing multiple files at once, because if all of the artists aren't the same, some could be overwritten. That's where the tag inspector comes in - see below.

When I click on "enable custom sorting" it automatically unchecks itself after like a second. I don't really understand what you mean for the rest though, sorry

I'm not sure why Enable Custom Sorting wouldn't work, that will take more digging. But when custom sorting is not enabled, MusicBee uses sort tags as set in the file. Which you can set by filling in the Sort Artist box, so that it appears in the same color as the Artist value rather than the faded color. You can check whether it's set by clicking on the Tag Inspector button at the top of the Tag Editor, and looking for Sort Artist.

More on the tag inspector: https://musicbee.fandom.com/wiki/Tagging#Tag_Inspector