Author Topic: Album Cover view, sort  (Read 2515 times)

casey

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 7
I incorrectly posted this on the Tips and Tricks page.
I have repeated it here, but do not know how to delete the other post?

I am trying to sort Album Cover view by disc.
I have an album with 11 discs, each with its own image.
Musicbee is sorting the Album Cover view by Setsubtitle.

I have grouped by Album and Sort by Disc#

Files are album files as ".flac" and are tagged with Album, Album Artist, DIsc Number and Set Subtitle.
Track and title fields are blank

The image shows artwork sorted by disc number, notice the wrong order.
][/url]
I could not use imgur.com. https://gifyu.com works.

Also why does the header for Album show 0-9 when the album field is not blank?

I have also shown a view of the tags for this album set from Mp3tag
][/url]

How can I sort by disc number for this multi disc album in Album Cover view?

I am on Windows 10 with MusicBee 3.4.7764

hiccup

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7785
How have you defined what is considered to be an  album under Preferences > Sorting/Grouping > grouping?
Are you sure that it is configured so that you will achieve what you want with these kind of box-sets?

Also I find it strange that you have the header showing 0-9.
If you indeed have set the grouping to 'Album', and the album titles do not start with a digit, I can't explain why that is.

Also understand that in many situations numbers will be treated as regular characters. So you could consider using disc nrs. 01, 02, 03 etc.

casey

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 7
Hi Hiccup,

Thanks for getting back. I will be out for a while, but for now...

I have Edit | Preferences | Sorting/Grouping "the following fields define an album":
Album Artist
Album Name
Custom 1

Where Custom 1 is defined as "Set Subtitle"

The "Set Subtitle" Field  is controlling the sort order because if I prefix the Set Subtitle field with "01", "02", etc for the order I want I will get the right sort order.
When I remove Custom 1 from the "Preferences" defining an album, all the tracks from the 11 CDs get grouped together separated by a space line between CD track groups , but only the first artwork is displayed.

So I guess the real problem is trying to group Volume 5 to show unique album art for each CD defined by "Set Subtitle" , sorted by CD number, but grouped as a whole as Volume 5, if that makes sense. Maybe I can sort by filename "outside" of the album definition.

I have tried using text "01" in lieu of numbers in other areas, as I thought this was an environment sort order problem, but it is not, and I know the text "01" is recognised and ordered correctly.


hiccup

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7785
It looks like sorting just won't work when you have selected 'Album' as grouping.
(I have no idea why that is)

Here is a way to circumvent that restriction:

Create a virtual tag named e.g. 'Album 1st letter':
$Left(<Album>,1)

Then for grouping, instead of using 'Album', use this virtual tag.
It seems like sorting then works just fine.

Steven

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 34312
sorting (definitely)/ grouping (probably) by Album automatically includes disc and track number, so any sorting criteria after that wont make any difference.
I guess when grouping by album it doesnt make sense for MB to include disc and track number (if thats whats its doing - i havent checked but sounds like thats what is happening)

casey

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 7
Hi All,

I defined a virtual tag  as Album_L = $left(<Album>,1) and sorted by Album_L and no change from previous out of order sort.

Note I had to re-instate Custom1 = "Set Subtitle" as part of an album definition so that I could obtain different artwork for each disk.

When I search for this album I type :"Bach 2000" V05

This allows MB to find the Album Volume and display all the 11 CDs in volume 5.

The desire is to order the album covers per CD independently of Album and Set Subtitle.

If possible I could sort by filename, but it seems sorting is ignoring any other fields once the album is defined by Album Artist, Album, Custom1.


 

hiccup

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7785
I defined a virtual tag  as Album_L = $left(<Album>,1) and sorted by Album_L and no change from previous out of order sort.
I said you should use the virtual tag for grouping, not for sorting.
I tested this yesterday and it is working for me. Sorting does not work when using 'Album', and it does work when using the virtual tag.

casey

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 7
Hi all, Hiccup,

Thanks for the feedback.

Your comments led me to bypass the inbuilt grouping and sorting default felds and use custom definitions and virtual tags.
I need the Custom1 definition to enable artwork per CD

I have succeeded in obtaining the layout I wanted for Album Art view and Album and Tracks view,  I have not yet figured out how to control the Tracks view. I did have to pad disc numbers with "0" to get sorting working.

I use the following configuration (others may/may not, find it useful):

Album Cover View
===============
To enable grouping, sorting and different album art view at the disk level for multi volume, multi disc sets

Create <Custom1> = Set Subtitle, to enable the use of "Set Subtitle"

Edit\Preferences\Sorting\Grouping
    Album Artist
    Album Name
    Custom1

Virtual Tag(s):
    Album_Artist | Composer, Album = $If(<Genre>="Classical",$IsNull(<Composer>")",<Album Artist>,<Composer>),<Album Artist>), <Album>
    Album.Disc0xx = <Album> $Right(00<Disc#>,3)
    Split.Subtitle1 = $If($IsMatch(<Custom1>,":")="T",$Split(<Custom1>,:,1),)
    Split.Subtitle2 = $If($IsMatch(<Custom1>,":")="T",$Split(<Custom1>,:,2),)

Album Covers\Group By\Virtual Tags\Album_Artist | Composer, Album

Album Covers\Sort By\Album.Disc0xx, Sort Ascending

Album Covers\Customise Panel\Views Artwork Layout,
, uncheck [merge fields]
 Split_Subtitle1
 Split_Subtitle2

I obtain the following layout




Album and Tracks view
===================
Album and Tracks\Sort By Album.Disc0xx

Virtual Tag:
    Title_Split = $If($IsMatch(<Title>,":")="T",$Split(<Title>,:,1),)
    Title [Movement] = $If($IsMatch(<Title>,":")="T",$Split(<Title>,:,2),<Title>)

I obtain the following layout





I consider the question closed, unless of course someone can offer a simpler solution.
I should add that I have no overrides and have tried to retain all basic features and functions.
I only went down this path to improve the view and hence navigation and selection of large box sets of discs in my collection.
Thanks Again, Casey