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[Matt]

We had a long thread spinning a while ago about how to handle multi-artist CD's in version 9.

Well, we've read the thread and racked our brains some more, and here's what we've got.  Comments and advice are very welcome.

There will no longer be a database field "Album Artist"  Instead, Media Jukebox will intelligently be able to build two fields:

Album Artist: "Assorted" for mix albums and the artist otherwise
Album Type: will be either "Complete Album" or "Incomplete Album"

These two fields will be able to be used in searches, smartlists, and library view schemes.  So, for example, you could make a library view scheme that filtered out incomplete albums and grouped mix albums together.

Also, since the database will be fully flexible, you could always create an old-style "Album Artist" field and use it pretty much just like you did in version 8.

Does this work for people?  It seems like a fair middle ground that both adds some cool new stuff and avoids some of the mess of having two fields for the same thing.

Thanks for any advice, and all the continued support.

-Matt
JRiver, Inc.

[xen-uno]

Matt,

Related to this is how to name files when ripping off of soundtracks.
I use the format: CD title - Track# - Artist - Track name (i.e. Vanilla Sky - 11 - Sigur Ros - Svefn G Englar.mp3).
An alternative naming scheme option for 9 would be nice (something similar to EAC).

Xenno

[AlonsoN]

Ok, I like the Album Type idea and also very much like the Complete/Incomplete thing.  And I see how they would work together, but how about:

Album Type is Mix or Not Mix

Complete is Yes or No

It kinda does the same thing, but one would not naturaly answer "Complete" when someone asks "What is the "Album Type."  Also avoids having to know that "Assorted" is a magic album type & lets folks choose whatever they want to fill the Artist field.

I'm guessing you chose "Assorted" because lots of albums will get tagged as "Various" or "Various Artists" when ripped.  Question is why is that advantagious?

Question: I have several albums where there are two or theree artists, and I really care to know who they are (say Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis or Willie Colón & Ruben Blades) Currently I sometimes put both in as artist, or sometimes put one in the comment.  Don't really like either solution.

And can I just say how cool it is to have you guys ask like this?

[Matt]

So, how about three fields:

Album Type: Mix / Regular (not a mix)
Album Complete: Yes / No
Album Artist: if [Album Type] is "Mix" then "Assorted", otherwise [Artist]

We need that last field because it's pretty useful when building view schemes. (it does what Album Artist does in MJ

I'm guessing you chose "Assorted" because lots of albums will get tagged as "Various" or "Various Artists" when ripped. Question is why is that advantagious?

The idea is that you'll never tag a file with something like "Assorted".  Instead, you'll use the real artist.  Media Jukebox will just be smart enough to know whether "Assorted" or the real artist is more appropriate. (whereas you have to tell it in MJ 8 using album artist)

Question: I have several albums where there are two or theree artists, and I really care to know who they are (say Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis or Willie Colón & Ruben Blades) Currently I sometimes put both in as artist, or sometimes put one in the comment. Don't really like either solution.

Maybe just making a database field like "Extra Artist Info" or something would be the way to go.  It should be easy with 9.

An alternative naming scheme option for 9 would be nice (something similar to EAC).

Yes... perhaps a quick load / save deal would be slick.

Thanks for the help.  Please keep it coming

-Matt

[phelt]

Album Type: no opinion, won't use it.
Album Complete: no opinion, won't use it.
Album Artist: I sincerely hope that there will be an option to convert v8 Album Artist tags to a custom field, because 'Assorted' is not going to work for me. I have a lot of techno/trance/electronic mix albums, and I use Genre/Artist/Album as my view scheme. I use Album Artist heavily - sometimes to keep all of a DJ's albums together, somtimes to keep all of a series together.
(If you like, do an album search on allmusic for 'Global Underground' or 'Ministry of Sound' to see why this might not help organization for folks with schemes/albums similar to my own.)

[joe|PLS|mama]

So, I've read the posts in this thread a few times, and I'm not really understanding the new proposal, but sometimes I have trouble grasping the obvious. Anyway, what seems to happen for me is that if I put something in the Album Artist field it causes the Track Artists to disappear from the artist list in the Media Library and I would like both to be shown.

I'll try to explain (hopefully) more clearly with an example.  I have the album "Back to Basics" which is a DJ mix by Danny Tenaglia.  Right now I have the artist for each track tagged as the Track Artist and nothing in the Album Artist tag.  One of the Track Artists is Dubtribe Sound System.  In both of the default view schemes Artist/Album and Artist/Genre, Dubtribe Sound System is listed as an artist, which is great, because I can click on that artist and see all the Albums or Genres they belong to.  Now, if I add Danny Tenaglia as the Album Artist to all of the tracks on that album, the Track Artists (like Dubtribe Sound System) disappear from the artist list in both of those view schemes and only the Album Artist (Danny Tenaglia) is shown.  What I would like is for both the Album Artist and the Track Artists to appear in the same list.  Is there a way to do this in the current version of MJ that I'm just not seeing, or is this something that will be addressed in MJ9?

Also, as AlonsoN mentioned, a way to handle multiple Track Artists would be cool.  For example, a few of the tracks on the "O Brother. Where Art Thou?" soundtrack have multiple artists.  I would like to be able to put both Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch as artist for the track "I'll Fly Away" and have each of them appear in the artist list separately.

Anyway, if none of this makes sense and I'm just babbling, feel free to



Listening to: 'Where I Want To Be' from 'Chess' by 'Benny Andersson/Tim Rice/Bjorn Ulvaeus' on Media Jukebox

[BeetleX]

I use album artist field for handling compositor/ performer:
cd "horovitz plays bach"
artist=horovitz
album artist=bach

So the cd is listed under 'bach' in media view beside the other bach-cd´s.
The same is done with album artist=soundtrack, so I get a soundtrack collection.

I am quite happy with this album artist mechanism. How can I use it in V9?

[zigguratt]

While we're defining new tags, what about an "Author" field? I sometimes want to know who wrote the track as well as who's performing it.

[Doof]

I have to chime in here and state that I also like being able to customize the Album Artist name. I don't think a blanket name of "Assorted" would really work for me.

Here's what I do.

I have pretty much 2 types of "Assorted Artist" CD's. Compilations, like Encomium - which is a tribute to Led Zepplin (Album Artist : Led Zepplin) with different songs done by various artists. And Soundtracks (Album Artist : Soundtrack) with different songs done by various artists.

I like being able to say, "Hey, I'd like to hear Misty Mountain Hop by 4 Non Blondes" and scroll down to Led Zepplin, then choose Encomium and go from there, or say "I'd like to listen to I Stand Alone off of the Scorpion King soundtrack" and then scroll down to Soundtracks and then The Scorpion King.

For Soundtracks, I could use a Genre media view, but I'll be honest here... I've created many different Media Views, but the one I use almost exclusively day to day is the tried and true Artist\Album (using Album Artist in place of just Artist).

I guess I'm just saying that I kind of like how it works now. Granted, it's not the most intuitive feature that MJ has, but once you learn how it works, it's really really nice.

Maybe there could be a way to have MJ automatically fill in Album Artist with "Assorted" or whatever, but also allow us to manually edit it to get the results we have now? Or am I just misunderstanding the new proposal?

[s7uar7]

For me the way V8 handles Artist vs Album Artist is perfect.

For example, I have an album which is one artist singing duets with various people.  So in the Track Artist I put 'Jools Holland and George Harrison' and in the Album Artist 'Jools Holland'.  For compilations I have the actual track artist on each track, and then an Album Artist of 'Various Artists'.  I can then browse by Album Artist/Album/Artist as well as Artist/Album.  To lose this would be a great shame.

Or maybe I've misunderstood entirely.

SA