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[citysoundman]

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to MC but I am really loving it! Right now I'm revising my tags for my classical music collection. There's some fantastic info in old thread https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,86996.0.html that I'm using as reference. But one thing that seems unclear is how to best tag multiple artists on the same track.

It seems that different platforms use different methods, but for MC what I've learned is that if you separate artists with a semi-colon (no spaces, just a semi-colon) then that track is associated with all the artists in that field. So for a track played by Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, if I enter in the artist tag
Yo-Yo Ma;Emanuel Ax
then when I search either Yo-Yo Ma or Emanuel Ax I can see the track in question.

But other users in that thread use a comma or underscore to separate multiple artists. Such as
Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax
This seems to create a single artist entry named "Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax" which doesn't let me see the track if I'm looking at all tracks under artist>Yo-Yo Ma or artist>Emanuel Ax.
But it does create a unique artist which includes both musicians.
Then, there are all sorts of albums with more artists, let's say a quintet, that has 5 artists. Isn't it best to use the semi-colon method so each artist can be searched individually?

So I'm wondering if there's some consensus on this, or maybe it just comes down to personal preference.

Edit - just thinking now about Album Artist tag, which maybe is relevant in a situation where a duo like Yo-Yo Ma & Emanuel Ax have released so many tracks together. I'm not too familiar with using Album Artist and I thought it basically overrides Artist in most situations. But maybe here in MC it's better to make use of Artist tags for each individual artist (using semi-colon separations) then use the name of the duo or group in the Album Artist tag....

[blgentry]

It seems like the regular Artist field isn't very suited to what you are trying to do.  I would recommend using another field.  The existing "People" field might be more to your liking.  It's a "List" values field, which is really nice.  You can type in new values.  Or you can use a check box to select existing People from all the People that have been typed in before.

Alternately, you could create a new field named something like "Artists" (notice the plural), or maybe "Classical Artists". 

"People" is a search by default field, so anything you put in there will show up in searches you do in the master search box at the upper right.

Brian.

[EnglishTiger]

As both a Classical Music Fan and the Designer of MC's only TrackInfo Plugins that handle both Classical and Non-Classical Music Properly I would recommend the following:-

Where more than one Artist appears/performs on a Track make sure that their names are separated by semicolons
Where a Track is performed by something like a "Named Quintet" put the name of the Quintet in the Artist Field and the names of the individuals in the Quintet in the Soloists field/tag separated by semicolons.

NOTE - MC can do some strange things, including declaring an Album Incomplete, if it encounters Albums that have different values in the Album Artist field/tag.

[citysoundman]

Where more than one Artist appears/performs on a Track make sure that their names are separated by semicolons
Where a Track is performed by something like a "Named Quintet" put the name of the Quintet in the Artist Field and the names of the individuals in the Quintet in the Soloists field/tag separated by semicolons.

Thanks ET I like your suggestions and will give it a go. This sounds like a very good method.

NOTE - MC can do some strange things, including declaring an Album Incomplete, if it encounters Albums that have different values in the Album Artist field/tag.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say different values in the Album Artist field/tag...do you mean if the Album Artist field is different from the Artist field, this could cause problems? I hope this isn't the case, since Album Artist is typically used to provide a different name from Artist, to make sorting easier in situations where an album's tracks have loads of different artists.

[citysoundman]

The existing "People" field might be more to your liking.  It's a "List" values field, which is really nice.  You can type in new values.  Or you can use a check box to select existing People from all the People that have been typed in before.

Thanks Brian, I haven't tried list-type fields but this is good to know about. I'll definitely try it.

[EnglishTiger]

citysoundman - If Yo-Yo Ma & Emanuel Ax are the Artists  performing every track on an album then putting Yo-Yo Ma; Emanuel Ax in the Album Artist tag/field is a sensible thing to do plus it would give you the ability to search for Albums that either of them had recorded. But if there are other Artists performing Tracks on that Album the  Album Artist tag/field for every Track on that Album must have the same value.

Artist is a "List Type" Field - but unlike the Soloists and People field/tag it is easier, especially for new users, to use/edit

[citysoundman]

citysoundman - If Yo-Yo Ma & Emanuel Ax are the Artists  performing every track on an album then putting Yo-Yo Ma; Emanuel Ax in the Album Artist tag/field is a sensible thing to do plus it would give you the ability to search for Albums that either of them had recorded. But if there are other Artists performing Tracks on that Album the  Album Artist tag/field for every Track on that Album must have the same value.

Artist is a "List Type" Field - but unlike the Soloists and People field/tag it is easier, especially for new users, to use/edit

Thanks for the explanation!