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[lise]

I'm fairly certain that the following conditions should lead to an album type of "single artist", and yet MC displays it as  "multiple artists".

Album Artist (auto) = same as Album Artist: Bing Crosby Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee
Artist: sometimes Bing, sometimes Ella, sometimes Peggy
Band: empty
Year is all the same
All tracks in the same folder\subfolder:  Folder path: M:\Music\[Album Artist]\[Album] - [Track #] - [Artist] - [Name]

[wer]

Depends which category you are showing in your view: Artist, or Album Artist or Album Artist (auto).

If you are showing Artist, you have multiple values in that field and that's how it will show.

Try configuring your view to show Album Artist and standardize that field for all the tracks in the album.

[lise]

I'm not viewing Categories. I'm viewing with Panes. Multiple different Fields, Including Album Types.

[wer]

It doesn't matter that it's a Panes view, because you are viewing Categories. Panes are Categories.   (If you right-click->customize view, you will see under "View as Panes" it says "Show Categories in this order".) So [Artist] will behave as I described.

I suggest you try my previous suggestion, using [Album Artist] place of Artist.

By the way, it looks like you have your [Artist] field containing a list, with multiple values.

[lise]

It doesn't matter that it's a Panes view, because you are viewing Categories. Panes are Categories.   (If you right-click->customize view, you will see under "View as Panes" it says "Show Categories in this order".) So [Artist] will behave as I described.

I suggest you try my previous suggestion, using [Album Artist] place of Artist.

By the way, it looks like you have your [Artist] field containing a list, with multiple values.

Yes, I have my Artist field with multiple values. I thought that manually inputting something into the "Album Artist" field overrides MC's automatic "multiple artist" condition. 

In this screenshot I selected "Album Artist (auto)", and the "Album Type" field clearly shows that the Album is "multiple artists" instead of the single artist "Bing Crosby Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee" that I put in the Album Artist field.

[wer]

I thought that manually inputting something into the "Album Artist" field overrides MC's automatic "multiple artist" condition.

No, that's not correct. [Album Artist] and [Album Artist (auto)] are two different fields. [Album Artist (auto)] is automatically calculated from the [Artist] field on each track. If you want to utilize the values you've populated in [Album Artist] you have to use the [Album Artist] field. What you do in [Album Artist] has no effect on [Album Artist (auto)].

That "multiple artist" condition you refer to is the [Album Type] field, which like [Album Artist (auto)] is calculated based on the [Artist] field.

I hope this helps...

[lepa]

What you do in [Album Artist] has no effect on [Album Artist (auto)].

Setting [Album Artist] will change [Album Artist (auto)] field's "condition" like lise said and is used to override value in [album artist (auto)] which is calculated from albums [Artist] field

example:
album has 2 tracks where track 1 artist is "Miles Davis" and track 2 artist is set to "Miles Davis Quartet"
[Album Artist (auto)] = (Multiple Artists)
now set [Album Artist] = "Miles Davis" and [Album Artist (auto)] changes to Miles Davis

[lise]

Setting [Album Artist] will change [Album Artist (auto)] field's "condition" like lise said and is used to override value in [album artist (auto)] which is calculated from albums [Artist] field

example:
album has 2 tracks where track 1 artist is "Miles Davis" and track 2 artist is set to "Miles Davis Quartet"
[Album Artist (auto)] = (Multiple Artists)
now set [Album Artist] = "Miles Davis" and [Album Artist (auto)] changes to Miles Davis

Exactly. Thanks. I didn't want to get into explaining that, as I was too busy reading posts from as far back as v11 to figure out how Album Type worked.

I'll share the results of that research here for anyone else wondering about it.

Turns out that the Album Type is a hot potato, and has been since v11.
So it isn't a bug, and it isn't exactly clear anywhere how the logic of it works either, but I was able to determine a few things.

Seems that Album Type is strictly bound to the Artist field (unlike the Album Artist (auto) field which can be overridden by manually typing something in the Album Artist field.)
However, it all depends on *how* the artist field is entered.
If you use semi-colons in the Artist field (e.g., Joe; John) the Album Type remains "Single Artist"
But if you have Artist: Joe for 1 track, and Artist: John for another (in the same album of course), then Album Type switches to "Multiple Artists", *even if you have Joe and John in the Album Artist field*.

[wer]

Ah, I'd never noticed that relationship between Album Artist and Album Artist (auto).  I gave up on using auto long ago as I didn't like the results. Sorry for the misdirection on that point. But as you see, [Album Type] is based on [Artist].  That's interesting about the semi colons.