Author Topic: Only Allow Manually Input Custom Sort Values  (Read 1455 times)

The Incredible Boom Boom

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Since no one seemed to have any suggestions or objections, quoting this post from a previous thread.

...

The reason it was my first thought is because I'm constantly having to go through and clear "custom sort value" artists added by MB whenever tags are changed or multi-value <Artist> or <Artists: Performer> tags are imported to the Library from the Inbox. One day I was going to get around to bringing this up in the thread where I discovered this feature, but since @phred experienced it, I guess now is good timing.

In my primary (Artists) view, I "Group By" <Sort Artist> and inside the <Sort Artist> tag is the artist's name in their original script. Using "custom sort values," I do this...

Code
...
石川綾子 :: Ayako Ishikawa
石野卓球 :: Ishino Takkyu
秋元薫 :: Kaoru Akimoto
竹内まりや :: Mariya Takeuchi
絢香 :: Ayaka
菅野よう子 :: Kanno Youko
菊岡検校 :: Kikuoka Kengyo
菊池桃子 :: Momoko Kikuchi
衛藤公雄 :: Kimio Eto
...

This is such a great feature, because before I found it, artists using non-Latin characters were all grouped at the very bottom of the view and there was no simple way to jump to them without having to switch keyboard languages. So, right now, I can start typing, "Momo..." and jump right to 菊池桃子!Awesome! But, the downside is as explained above. Whenever MB detects tag changes or I import new files from the Inbox, <Artist>s and <Artists: Performers> associated with the <Sort Artist> get automatically linked to that <Sort Artist>. For example, I just put an N.W.A album into the Inbox and then back into the Library and the below showed up in my "custom sort values" box.

Code
...
Eazy-E :: N.W.A.
Eazy-E and Ron-De-Vu :: N.W.A.
Fila Fresh Crew :: N.W.A.
N.W.A :: N.W.A.
Rappinstine :: N.W.A.
...

😣 If I type "Eaz...", I get pulled to "N.W.A." and not "Eazy-E." This isn't a deal breaker, obviously, but it can be hecka annoying, because over the last few months I've been replacing all my lossy-ripped files and downloads with lossless ones, so there's a lot of constant deleting or copy/pasting only the artists I want to "custom sort" back into the box.

Hopefully that all made sense.

Now, my question is, does anyone have any ideas on how to mitigate this continually occurring? My first thought is there likely is a definitive reason MB functions in this manner, so maybe it can't be easily be optionally on or off (or can it? @Steven) My initial assumption when first checking the box was the user would take over the delegation of "custom sort values," leaving MB out of the equation, but that's clearly not what is going on. However, whenever I remove all the auto-added artists, there are no negative side-effects, so my impression is that the "auto" aspect of this feature isn't necessary in the first place? Would anyone else more familiar with the feature like to provide more input, as I'd soon like to make a wish to have it disabled by default (if possible) if a way to nullify or mitigate auto-adds isn't possible.

psychoadept

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If I understand this correctly, +1. I would much rather manually input a sort tag once than be fighting this constant battle of sort artists/album artists/composers. Even with the addition of composer: to separate sort composer values, I still have to keep an eye on my auto playlist for catching Sort Artist errors, which are almost always related to composers.  I mean, I would still expect the ignore words and such to be applied automatically, but for custom values, it would be nice to trust that nothing is going to change without me knowing about it.
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Steven

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Not promising to implement this request but so you know how it works.

Apart from directly editing the sort tags in the tag editor, MB will only add custom sort values when:
- rescan a file
- move a file from the Inbox to the Library

What MB is doing is directly reading the custom sort tag from the music file and adding to the sort lookup list in your musicbee but only if there is no sort value already ie. it wont change any existing sort mappings.
@The Incredible Boom Boom, i am guessing you moved multiple files into your music library where the sort artist tag in each file was 'N.W.A.'

The Incredible Boom Boom

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@The Incredible Boom Boom, i am guessing you moved multiple files into your music library where the sort artist tag in each file was 'N.W.A.'

Yes, but also any time tags are edited, this also occurs, which makes it an annoyance (although it's not detrimental.)
What @psychoadept and I would prefer is to be able to exert total control over the sorting values. So, (if I understand correctly) MB would not write custom sort values when a file is rescanned or added to the library, but only read input values.

psychoadept

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I think I figured out what keeps happening with my sort values. Because with artists I use the literal artist value (Hank Williams instead of Williams, Hank), I don't tag the sort artist or sort album artist with Picard. Since I DO want composers sorted by last name, I was letting Picard tag the sort composer, though.

As a result, a file gets read in MusicBee with an actual Sort Composer in the tags but only an inferred Sort Artist/Sort Album Artist, and because the Sort Composer is an actual tag in the file it ends up being prioritized. That fits with what you said here, Steven: "directly reading the custom sort tag from the music file and adding to the sort lookup list in your musicbee but only if there is no sort value already."
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