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[Denti]

I would like to have tracks on compilation albums appear BOTH under "[Various Artists]" and under that artist, but only if I already have full albums by that artist. Is that possible without duplicating the files?

[imugli]

It's not currently possible to assign multiple artists to a track.

[Denti]

I don't want to assign multiple artists. I want, for example, a track by Band X on a compilation album to appear as part of that compilation album (under [Multiple Artists]) and under the artist Band X.

[MrC]

Change your Artist category to an expression category which includes both Album Artist (auto) and Artist when Album Artist (auto) equals "(Multiple Artists)":

if(isequal([Album Artist (auto)], /(Multiple Artists/)), [Album Artist (auto)];[Artist],[Album Artist (auto)])&datatype=[list]

[MrC]

It's not currently possible to assign multiple artists to a track.

Can you elaborate on this?  Artist being a list field allows any number of track artists.

[Denti]

Change your Artist category to an expression category which includes both Album Artist (auto) and Artist when Album Artist (auto) equals "(Multiple Artists)":

if(isequal([Album Artist (auto)], /(Multiple Artists/)), [Album Artist (auto)];[Artist],[Album Artist (auto)])&datatype=[list]

Note that I already use Album Artist for Last Name, First Name sorting. See how here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=69332.msg472849#msg472849

I guess now would be the time to switch that sorting to a new field, maybe one called "Artist (Last Name Sort)." How would I do this and keep all else as is (display in theater mode First Name Last Name, etc.)?

[MrC]

The field Album Type or Mix Album will indicate if there are various artists across the tracks, so you can key off of those values instead of using Album Artist (auto).

[Denti]

The field Album Type or Mix Album will indicate if there are various artists across the tracks, so you can key off of those values instead of using Album Artist (auto).

How, exactly? Thanks.

[MrC]

See if this works:

   ifelse(Compare([Mix Album], =, 1), /[Various Artists/];)[Artist]&datatype=[list]

You can also create a hierarchical expanding tree under [Various Artists] which enumerates all such [Artist]s.

[Denti]

Where do I put this, in Custom View for Artist?

I don't want to add the hundreds and hundreds of artists from compilations I have whose only song is in that one compilation. I only want to see songs by artists for whom I already have an Artist field populated with albums.

Will this do that? Is that even possible? (Seems like a complicated request.)

[MrC]

What you're asking for is non-trivial.

I think I provided a solution once for this, using global variables, but it has to be setup per-view, and is slow.  It basically, for each track, tests if the track is part of non-mix album, and if so, uniquely adds the primary artist(s) to a list of major artists.  The view then displays that list of major artists.  It is semi-usable for small collections, but because it is very expression intensive, is not generally useful for typical views (good for, say, a maintenance view of some sort).

You might see if this is useful - it essentially adds your various artists under a collapsible tree:

   if(Compare([Mix Album], =, 1), replace(;[Artist], ;, ;/[Various Artists/]\), [Artist])&datatype=[list]

Customize the view, and replace your Artist or Album Artist (auto) category with the expression above.  This is under Show Categories In This Order (for Standard Views).

[Denti]

I figured it would tough!

So, where do I put this formula, exactly?

PS: So I couldn't do a formula like: "If Artist in Multiple Artist album exists already under Artist category view, then add this track there, too, otherwise leave alone."  Translate that

[Denti]

Where is Show Categories in this Order?

Never mind, I see...

[MrC]

See attached.

Modify the expression to remove the extraneous Unknown item, which is introduced due to a leading semicolon:

if(Compare([Mix Album], =, 1), removeleft(replace(;[Artist], ;, ;/[Various Artists/]\),1), [Artist])&datatype=[list]

[Denti]

That didn't work too well. But thanks for trying.

[MrC]

You mean, you don't like the presentation of the artists tree?

[Denti]

No, it doesn't quite work right. I have two sets of Multiple Artist categories. One is empty. The other is populated, and it's nice to have the songs sorted by artist there, but I miss having the compilations, too. Were they supposed to be in the first MA category?

[MrC]

It is hard to follow you, as you're intermixing terms.

The expression I gave will provide you with a "[Various Artists]" tree (not "Multiple Artists").  If you have a second section of various artists / multiple artists (or whatever), that's because you have manually specified your Artists values with that specific string.

I'm not following you regarding the songs sorted by artist there - where is "there"?  The expression above doesn't deal in the track level - it is artists only and has nothing to do with track sorting.

See the attached for how the expression works re: non-compilation albums and compilation albums for the artist Moby.

Screenshots would be beneficial.

[Denti]

I actually don't know how to do screen caps [shame]

OK, I have a single [Varies] group in the Artists view. This is where my compilations were before. When I double-clicked on that group I would get the compilations in order of release date. I had large thumbnails of the albums and could click on the album to get a track listing below. Nice.

Now I get one thumbnail only, so it's useless. I can click on it to see all the compilation records and tracks below, but that's it. And the same goes for each artist. All the albums are now lumped together.

I don't think this is what I'm supposed to see, but there it is.

[Denti]

I opened my JRemote after having made some tagging changes and found that for a short period it was doing exactly what I asked for here. Artists who had tracks on compilations that were sorted as [Varies], where all my multiple artist albums end up, had those tracks appearing also under Artist. But only those artists who also already had albums to their name. As soon as I shut down MC and restarted it went away. For 5 minutes I had it. So, maybe something can be done, after all?