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[okvaal]

Hi.
How do you folks out there handle tagging and file-naming of 'Various Artists' albums? To begin with, I'm not quite sure what is meant by 'Use 'Assorted' for [Artist] on multi-artist albums when using 'Rename Files Using File Properties'.
Personally, what I find most convenient, is to use the [Artist]/[Album] structure when putting things to the directory, but when dealing with VA albums, this results in creating folders for artists represented by perhaps 1 song on an album, while the album can't be found in the file structure at all.
Does anybody know what I mean? Has anyone a suggestion for a solution, work-around or whatever?

TIA.

[Quisp]

okvaal,

Here is what I do, seems to work pretty well.:

1. I use the filter [Artist]/[Album] and I check the 'Assorted' for [Artist] checkbox. What this does is create a folder called "Assorted" in your destination directory and places another folder with the album name inside.

2. For Various artists only, my file name is [Track #] - [Name] - [Artist]. This way, if something should happen to the MC database, or if I want to import the file elsewhere, I've got all the info I need to recreate the main tags.

This allows you to group by album and yet still find that one song by a particular artist.

-q

[okvaal]

okvaal,

Here is what I do, seems to work pretty well.:

1. I use the filter [Artist]/[Album] and I check the 'Assorted' for [Artist] checkbox. What this does is create a folder called "Assorted" in your destination directory and places another folder with the album name inside.

Thanks for your reply. Would renaming my VA-albums in this way be a smart thing to do?

2. For Various artists only, my file name is [Track #] - [Name] - [Artist]. This way, if something should happen to the MC database, or if I want to import the file elsewhere, I've got all the info I need to recreate the main tags.

This allows you to group by album and yet still find that one song by a particular artist.

Yup, I thought of that (only I would use [Track#] - [Artist] - [Name], do you think that would make much difference?).

-q

[okvaal]

Another question: to what extent do you use the 'Album Artist' tag? Do you normally enter the same as 'Artist', or only when these two tags are different?

[Quisp]

Actually, I did use track# - artist - name, but then I figured that since I use track# - name everywhere else, it made more sense to add the artist to the end, more consistent anyway. Technically it doesn't matter one bit. If later you need to update your library by the filename, just let MC know what your pattern is and it will take care of the rest.

Regarding the "Renaming" of your comps, they aren't actually renamed, they are just placed in a folder called, "Assorted". You don't need to use this mechanism if you don't want to. For instance, maybe you'd rather put your VA albums in a folder called "Compilations" or "Various". Then you would use Compilations/[Album] as your pattern.

The drawback for me was more typing. Though I'm not too crazy about the "assorted" name, since I can't think of anyone that refers to compilations as assorteds, I'm a big fan of saving what time I can. So, I keep my pattern as [Artist]/[Album] with the "Assorted" thing checked. This way I don't need to do anything special when I rip a CD. Incidentally, this works when you import compilations too.

Lets assume that you've got the following settings:

[Artist]/[Album] "Assorted" checked for compilations.

Lets assume you've got 2 CDs and you don't change the settings between rips, here is what you'll get

Non compilation - Artist: "Antipop Consortium" / Album: "Arrhythmia"
Creates:
Antipop Consortium/Arrhythmia

Compilation - Multiple Artists / Album: "Ultra Chicks"
Creates:
Assorted/Ultra Chicks

Best thing to do is give it a try with a comp. You'll see what it does, doesn't do and you can decide from that how best to proceed based on how you like things organized. I was a little confused at first at how to use this, but it actually works pretty well for me.

[DJMUK]

Another question: to what extent do you use the 'Album Artist' tag? Do you normally enter the same as 'Artist', or only when these two tags are different?

You might find the following thread has a good explaination of the concept - http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=17584

It's always worth doing a search on the forum as there are many messages on this subject.