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[Rhendera]

Hey Everyone.

I just started messing around with this media center, and so far I'm really liking it. I have one problem though. One of my albums (compilation album) is showing up a lot of times in the Album view (I think once for every artist or song?) is there a way to fix this?

I included a screeny because wording this is pretty difficult.

Thanks a Bunch!

[Samson]

The short answer is to use  [Album Artist (Auto)]

Long Explanation of standard approach

Problem re compilations
Most albums have a single artist with all of the tracks on that album by the one artist.

Compilation albums have multiple artists so in  the standard view scheme, Customize View > Artist/Album, that album will be listed multiple times, once for every artist name on the compilation album.

MC cannot link a track to multiple albums [Edit] which means even in a strictly "Album" View (customize > choose a single category of [Album], you still require [Album Artist] or [Album Artist (Auto)] to be completed to group tracks into one Album. [/Edit]

Album Artist vs Album Artist (Auto)

The [Album Artist] and [Album Artist (Auto)] fields (tags) are designed for compilation albums where there are more than one artist per album.

If [Album Artist] is filled in manually that content is included in the [Album Artist (auto)] field as well. Each individual track will still have its own artist

 [Album Artist (Auto)] is a built-in automatic field. It auto-completes if the [Album Artist] field is empty ( detailed below).

Managing Compilations

The usual way to deal with compilations so as not to display multiple instances of the same album is  either:

   1) Rely on  [Album Artist (Auto)] field.
   If [Album Artist] field is left blank and all tracks have the same, non-empty, [Album] field value then [Album Artist (Auto)] will auto-complete as follows:
      ○ Artist's name in the case of a single-artist album.
      ○ "(Multiple Artists)" in the case of a multiple-(more than one)-artist album.
      NB In order for (Multiple Artists) to appear automatically the album must be in its own exclusive directory and contain only audio files
      ○  If you then structure your "customize view" > "view as" categories as Album Artist (Auto)/Album, it displays your regular albums like an Artist/Album view (where album artist and artist are one and the same). Plus it displays your compilations grouped together as "(Multiple Artists)" typically displayed first, at the top of the screen.
   
   2) Fill in the [Artist Album] field.

If you don't like the default of "(Multiple Artists)" then you can put whatever you want into [Album Artist] and MC will use that instead. Call it "My Compilation", "Best of 80's", whatever. Then structure your "customize view" > "View As" categories as Album Artist/Album. This will display your regular albums like an Artist/Album view (where album artist and artist are one and the same). Plus it will display your compilations by what you called them mixed with, in alphabetical order, regular albums.