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[amham]

I know this has been asked many times, HOWEVER this is a complicated program with many, many options.  I have an album (2 disks), Alligator 25th Anniversary with many artists.  Media Center displays an album cover for each artist rather than a single compilation for each disk.  I've asked before how to combine but the response was confusing.  PLEASE excuse me but I need a simple STEP by STEP instruction how to combine.  Also, do not assume I have knowledge of this program (just starting), I would requests an "idiots guide" to this problem.  Thank you!  BTW, iTunes solves this with one check box, does this exists for MC?

[MrC]

Start with this.

1. Open Action Window > Tag
2. Select your tracks for one of the albums
3. In the Action Window > Tag,  examine the Artist and Album Artist tags.  Artist should be each track artist, Album Artist should be either blank, or the single value you want for the entire album.  If the tag shows as [Varies], this means there are different values across the tag.
4. Examine the Album.  It should contain the album name.  Again, if it says [Varies], there are slight differences in the tag across the tracks.  With the tracks selected, set the Album name directly in the Tag Action Window.
5. While you are there, you can also verify Date and Genre if you care to.
6. Finally, verify that the tracks for the album are in the same folder.  You can examine the Filename (path) property to see this.

[amham]

Thanks, but this way to complicated!  There must be an easier way than this...
I can select tracks and view in the tag action window the info BUT, how do you update?  Nothing happens...

[MrC]

You asked for step-by-step.  I'm not sure what else to provide.

MC uses the tag information in views.  If the tag information is incorrect, the stock views will show albums as split.

In the Tag Action Window, just click a field to edit.

[amham]

I'm not finding fault with your help, please do not misunderstand, I am faulting the complexity of the program for this particular option.  As I indicated, iTunes allows this in one simple check box. I thank you for your assistance...

I select all or single track for disc 1, then view the tag action window.  I see the correct album name and disc number.  The album artist shows "Varies".  The artist is listed individually for each track.  In desperation I cahnged this to various artists thinking it would be grouped correctly by album.  However, nothing changes...still single ablum cover for each track.  I must not be following your directions properly?  Is there a command to enable changes made?  Thanks!

[steelman1991]

Highlight all the tracks in the album - Change the "Album Name" to the name of the album, pressing enter or moving to the next field will save the changes made. Leave everything else as is and change 'Album Artist' to Multiple Artists - then press enter. This should preserve your Artist details and give you a compilation album.

[nwboater]

Highlight all the tracks in the album - Change the "Album Name" to the name of the album, pressing enter or moving to the next field will save the changes made. Leave everything else as is and change 'Album Artist' to Multiple Artists - then press enter. This should preserve your Artist details and give you a compilation album.

Thanks for a 'Made Simple'.

It worked fine for me but no changes in the album view were noticed until I closed MC17 and reopened it. This can be disconcerting when you are trying to learn the program.

Rod

[steelman1991]

Agreed - I usually move between views Album to Artist then back to Album - which seems to have the  same effect of confirming view changes.

[rick.ca]

I'm not finding fault with your help, please do not misunderstand, I am faulting the complexity of the program for this particular option.

Along with an explanation of how this works, MrC's step-by-step will lead to an understanding of how this works. Without it, you'll likely continue to have problems. It's not complicated. The problem is your files are tagged incorrectly. If they weren't, this 'complexity' would automatically group your albums exactly the way you would expect—most of the time. The rare exception is when you want to use [Album Artist] to override the automatic [Album Artist (auto)] to change (Multiple Artists) to something specific.

...change 'Album Artist' to Multiple Artists...

The most likely problem is there are inconsistent values for [Album Artist]. The solution is to delete them all. This doesn't appear to be a situation where one would want to override the '(Multiple Artists)' result.