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[Drybonz]

I would like to ignore "album artist" when sorting.  I do not want to remove my album artist data because I like how it is handled in foobar, however I would like to know how to simply ignore this in JRiver when sorting.

Thanks for the help.

[BryanC]

You can try sorting using [Album Artist (auto)], which will use [Album Artist] when available and [Artist] otherwise. Or you can just sort by [Artist] if you prefer. You can add and remove columns in list view by right-clicking the column headings and then left-click the columns to set the sort priority.

[blgentry]

What kind of sorting are you trying to do?  [Album Artist] is normally used for something like a multi-artist album where you *do* want to sort based on that field.  So I'm wondering what cases you are running into and what result you would like to see.  With a bit more information, we can probably show you how to make MC sort the way you are wanting.

Brina.

[Drybonz]

I have a large library of music tagged in a specific way.  I want it to sort by "artist" and ignore "album artist".  I'm surprised this isn't a checkbox option somewhere as it's such as simple thing (or maybe it is an option... this is what I'm trying to find out).

[biblio]

You can try sorting using [Album Artist (auto)], which will use [Album Artist] when available and [Artist] otherwise. Or you can just sort by [Artist] if you prefer. You can add and remove columns in list view by right-clicking the column headings and then left-click the columns to set the sort priority.

Shouldn't doing this work? I can't see how you aren't able to sort by artist you can hide album artist from views and customise pretty much every aspect of the view.

[Drybonz]

Using album artist auto does the exact opposite of what I want to do.  It uses album artist when that field is tagged.  I want it to ignore album artist altogether.

If there is a way to remove album artist, as you say, please help me understand how to do it.  This is the very purpose of this thread, for me, is that I'm not sure how to do it.  Thanks.

[blgentry]

There are a whole bunch of places where you can sort and also where you can control display that relate to artist.  If you could post a screen shot of the place you are trying to change and talk just a little bit about it, I think we can help you out.

Brian.

[Negasonic]

Here is one example:

Select 'Customize View...' from either the Tree by right-clicking on the View or by hovering the mouse pointer above the tab of the view you are currently viewing.

In the 'Customize View...' window, under 'View As' make sure it looks like this:

View As: Categories
Show Categories In This Order:
Artist
Album

Click OK.

[Drybonz]

View As: Categories
Show Categories In This Order:
Artist
Album

This is how I have always had mine set up (except that I use "artist album year" instead for the second level).  The artists (in a grid view) are sorted by "album artist" (and the "album artist" tag is displayed) instead of "artist" when that field is tagged.  I want them to be sorted and displayed by the "artist" tag.  I don't simply remove the album artist tags because they are useful to me in other applications, such as foobar, which sort and display differently than jriver.

The super-simple solution would be a check box in options for "ignore album artist field when sorting".

[blgentry]

I just built a brand new view using "empty" as the template.  I then put in one category:  Artist .  The view is grouped by Artist and it is definitely sorted by Artist.  It has broken apart all of my compilation albums and shows each compilation album as a separate album by each separate artist.  These artists are sorted alphabetically (without respect to album title) at the first level.

Seems like what you want.  Perhaps try what I did:  Build a very simple view from scratch with only one level.  Then when it's like you want it, try adding on to it (with more levels or other customizations).

Good luck.

Brian.

[Drybonz]

Seems like what you want.  Perhaps try what I did:  Build a very simple view from scratch with only one level.  Then when it's like you want it, try adding on to it (with more levels or other customizations).

Good luck.

Brian.

Brian, thanks for the suggestion... it sounded like a pretty good idea, to start with a fresh library view so I just did that... the sorting was still the same for me, so I started looking at the tags in jriver, and I found some very weird stuff.  All of my files are tagged in mp3tag, very meticulously organized... what I'm seeing is that the "Artist" tag when I view it in foobar is shown properly... the way I tagged it for all files... when I view the tags for the exact same albums, files, in jriver the "Artist" field, for many of those files, is ALSO showing what I have in the "album artist" fields (the way I tagged them).

I'm kind of confused about all this and looking through things trying to sort it out... but, initially, it looks like jriver is not reading the "artist" tag the same way other players do, for me.

[biblio]

Are you using ID3v1 and v2 tags? It could be that. It doesn't seem like it's something you're doing in MC/Foobar and sounds like your tags.

[RD James]

Some items have "special" handling in the sort/group menu and need to be set via the custom/other tag list to explicitly use that tag only.

[Drybonz]

Some items have "special" handling in the sort/group menu and need to be set via the custom/other tag list to explicitly use that tag only.

This sounds like it could be the problem.  My sorting is set to "name"... by default I think.  Is this different than "artist"?  If so, how do I add "artist" to the sort menu?  If I go into "custom" I can add artist to the custom menu, but I don't see any way to actually sort by the custom selection... it doesn't seem to change anything.

[RD James]

This sounds like it could be the problem.  My sorting is set to "name"... by default I think.  Is this different than "artist"?  If so, how do I add "artist" to the sort menu?  If I go into "custom" I can add artist to the custom menu, but I don't see any way to actually sort by the custom selection... it doesn't seem to change anything.

"Name" is track name, not Artist.

[Drybonz]

Ok... so I'm using thumbnails view (categories?) so I guess it is jumping to other sorting methods like "album artist" since the tracks aren't present?  That would explain it.  I don't have an option to sort by "artist" in that view unless I go into custom... but like I said, I don't see a way to use the custom setting.

Thanks for your help in understanding this.

[RD James]

I don't have any of the default views any more, but I'd guess that the issue is the group type rather than the sorting.
Grouping determines the sort order for groups, while the sort order determines how tracks are sorted within groups.

Group By > Artist is one of the types with special handling.
If you want it to only use artist for grouping, use Group By > More (A-Z) > Artist

This is set via the menu on a view's tab (the dropdown menu at the top of the view).

[Drybonz]

Thanks again for the help... I've noticed that I don't have "group by" on my audio views, only "sort by".  Video views are the only place I get the "group by" option.

*edit*  I see that if I switch that view to "file list" instead of "categories" I then have the group by option and sort inside options you were talking about, but then I lose the layout style that I like.

[RD James]

If you're using a view which is split vertically, there should be an option on the divider.

[Drybonz]

Ok, I see it... thanks.  I usually keep the file list minimized on the top level so I didn't see that menu.

I changed it to group by artist... nothing changed.  JRiver doesn't read my tags the same way all other players do.  It's possible, as someone suggested above, that I have something in my tags I could change, but even if that was true I wouldn't re-tag an entire 3tb library just so that it shows properly in JRiver when they are displaying fine, in my opinion, in other players.

I'm gonna call it... thanks again for the help everyone.

[RD James]

I'm certain that it is possible to set up Media Center to match Foobar, but I'm just not really sure what the specific problem is, without seeing how the two are displaying files.