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[RJC]

I've tried to figure this out but I'm stuck.

When you select Group By Album in a list, you get a heading above each group which shows 'Album' by 'Album Artist (Auto)'.  See attached example 1.  I think I've understood the concept of 'Album Artist (Auto)' http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Album_Artist_and_Album_Artist_%28Auto%29.  How do I change the heading to show 'Album' by 'Album Artist' (all my tracks have a tag entry for 'Album Artist')?

I would like to see the actual person/group/entity that created the album not the MC Auto version.  See example 2.

I hope this is clear 

Thanks.

[adamt]

Right click on the "Artists" view and select "customize view".  From there, click "Album Artist (auto)" and click edit.  Select the "Album Artist" field in the list.  I hope this answers your question!

[RJC]

Thanks adamt but It's already set to 'Album Artist'.

[marko]

In MC, if [Album Artist] is populated, then [Album Artist (Auto)] = [Album Artist].

The "Group by album" option offered by default is a special grouping hard coded into the program, that also adds the date at the right end of the group header.

You can group a list by any library field, and you can add library fields of your own, calculated from other fields in your library, so....

• Tools > Options > Library and folders > Manage library fields
• Add new field
• Pick a name for it. Note: You could end up making a few of these over time. Settle on a naming convention that will help you identify a field's purpose months or years down the line when you forgot why you added it! Remember that this field's purpose is not to hold data, but to group lists by, by so perhaps start all such field names with 'Group'. Group - Album - Album Artist for example.
  
• Select the Calculated data radio button, and enter [Album] by [Album Artist] into the expression field and then OK your way all the way out of options.
• Go to your list, hover over the tab to get the view header menu, Group by > More (sort groups a-z) > select the field you created above.

The default "By album" grouping applies some clever sorting to the list that is not applied when using custom fields to group by, meaning that your results may not be to your liking, in which case, you may need to tweak the custom field a little to get what you want with regards to sorting.

-marko

[RJC]

Thanks Marko,

[Album Artist] is populated in more than 95% of my tracks but as you can see from my example, 'Various Artists' is being displayed in the group heading.  Maybe this is a bug?

I'm very happy with the grouping, I just want to see the [Album Artist] in the heading.

[marko]

The "Group by album" option offered by default is a special grouping hard coded into the program, that also adds the date at the right end of the group header.

This is not user editable.
If it leaves you short, the only way to get what you want is to create your own 'Group by' fields. Unfortunately, this also means you have to sacrifice some of the finer touches of the default, such as the smart sorting and the date on the right edge of the grouping.

You must decide which is more important to you and make a choice. Sorry, but that's just the way it is. You could create a copy of the view you want to group in, and use that to experiment with my suggestions above to help with your decision. To copy a view, drag it over "Audio" and choose "Copy" from the menu shown when you drop. Right click the copied view, ending with (1) and choose rename to rename it, then mess around with it to your hearts content. If you land something you're happy with, you can keep it, otherwise, simply right click on it and choose the delete option. Only the view itself will be deleted, all data will be safe.

-marko.

[RJC]

Thanks Marko for the detailed explanation.

I understand the situation but it does seem odd that in this type of view you can't see the name of the band (or person) who made the album?  This is even more odd since in the docs is says "The Album Artist field itself becomes just a way to override Album Artist (Auto). 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." - This doesn't appear to be working?

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Album_Artist_and_Album_Artist_%28Auto%29

Thanks

[MrC]

I'm very happy with the grouping, I just want to see the [Album Artist] in the heading.

What do you want to see for your 5% case when Album Artist is not set.  Or when the album is a compilation (and AA is not set)?

[MrC]

Your above image doesn't show a set Album Artist (hence, you get "Various Artists" in the group header).

[glynor]

Grouping is weird.  Some of us complained about it recently here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=84869.msg580138#msg580138

[RJC]

MrC,

1.  I would be happy to see 'Various Artists' (which is what I have set in [Album Artist] for those 5%).

2.  All tracks in the image have an Album Artist set.

[RJC]

BTW I would really recommend '1 Giant Leap'

[MrC]

Create a custom user field, using the expression:

<font size="3" alpha="0" color="ffffff">[Album Artist (auto)].[Date (year)]<//font>[Album] by [Album Artist (auto)]/ / / [Date (year)]

and group by that expression.

This won't be fully left-justified, nor will the Year by right-justified.

[RJC]

Thanks MrC,

That's great.  My understanding is that this is how it should be displayed according to http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=84869.msg580138#msg580138.  Maybe this is a bug or maybe there is some confusion over the meaning of 'Album Artist'.

Thanks again.

[MrC]

The special "Album" grouping probably does not use Album Artist (auto) directly, as that would lead to headers with the artist listed as:

   ... by (Multiple Artists)

which everyone would probably agree is not too attractive (although it would be consistent with the rest of MC).  So, MC probably evaluates the Album Type field (aka AlbumType() function), and uses that to show either Various Artists or the single Artist.

So the special Album header is more like:

   [Album] by if(isequal([Album Type], Single artist, 7), [Artist], Various Artists)     [Date (year)]

but sorted as:

   [Artist], [Date (year)], [Album]

[RJC]

I think your making a good guess but my original point is that you cannot always know who made an album.  This seems like a flaw.

Who made this album (below)?

[RJC]

Dear MC developers,

Can we please have an option to show Album Artist on the group heading?  How hard can it be?

Thanks

[glynor]

I think your making a good guess but my original point is that you cannot always know who made an album.  This seems like a flaw.

Who made this album?

I think you're missing something basic.

The way [Album Artist (Auto)] works is this:

1. If [Album Artist] is blank, and all [Artist] tags match, then it gets filed under the Artist name used for the files.

2. If [Album Artist] is filled explicitly then it gets filed under that artist's name no matter what.  So, even if a few songs are by a different [Artist] then you can manually "force" it to be "filed" under a particular artist by filling in the [Album Artist] field and making all of the files match.

3. If [Album Artist] is blank, and there is disagreement in the [Artist] fields (a variety within one album), then they get filed under Various Artists.

So, in your example screenshot, if you wanted them to all show up under George Martin, for example, then you could just select all of the files in the album and set [Album Artist] to "George Martin".  Since you have it with [Album Artist] blank (probably) and the [Artist] field has various entries for each track on the album, then [Album Artist (Auto)] sets itself to Various Artists.

[glynor]

Also, using the View Header to choose Group By > More (a-z) > Album Artist, works just fine and won't show Various for things that have [Album Artist] explicitly filled.  At least in my testing...

Your issue is that you want to modify the "built-in" special Album grouping to use [Album Artist] itself instead of [Album Artist (Auto)].  For this, you need to construct your own calculated field as described by MrC and Marko above.

[MrC]

RJC is correct - the Album header does not do the right thing. See attached:

[RJC]

Glynor,

I have set all the [Album Artist] tags to 'George Martin' and it is still show Various Artists in the header.  That is my point.

'Group By > More (a-z) > Album Artist' is not showing the Album Artist in the header (on my PC).  I do not have a problem with groups at all.  I just want to see who the album artist is!

[glynor]

RJC is correct - the Album header does not do the right thing. See attached:

Ahhh... Well that thing is even more annoying then.

I have set all the [Album Artist] tags to 'George Martin' and it is still show Various Artists in the header.  That is my point.

Seems like it is broken in this case to me then.  That Group By > Album thing is weird, and (again) I don't use any of the groupings because they mess with my sorting.

'Group By > More (a-z) > Album Artist' is not showing the Album Artist in the header (on my PC).  I do not have a problem with groups at all.  I just want to see who the album artist is!

That works here, but it doesn't do what you want it to do, I think.  Here, I've set Group By > More (a-z) > Album Artist.  My Sort is set to:
[Album Artist] - [Album] - [Disc #] - [Track #] - [Name]

And then I set two songs from the Avett Brothers albums to different settings.  For one track (Pretty Girl from Michigan) I set [Artist] to something dissimilar, but left [Album Artist] set to The Avett Brothers.  It sorts and groups with the other Avett Brothers tracks properly, but as you can see, there are multiple albums in the grouping (not all of my Avett Brothers albums because I don't have [Album Artist] filled everywhere).

I also set [Album Artist] explicitly to "Cheesedoodle" on one of the tracks from Magpie and The Dandelion.  This caused this track to sort into a separate "Cheesedoodle" grouping, because I'm grouping by [Artist Album].



So, it works, but is useless if you want it to either:

1. Group the files by [Artist Album] AND [Album], and...
2. Not to have to explicitly fill [Artist Album] for all (or none) of the tracks by a particular artist.

[RJC]

Thanks everyone for your ideas and comments.

<font size="3" alpha="0" color="ffffff">[Album Artist (auto)].[Date (year)]<//font>[Album] by [Album Artist (auto)]/ / / [Date (year)]

Thanks MrC for the best workaround. I changed it very slightly by removing the dot and the escape characters.

It seems that we all mostly agree that this is a flaw.  How do we get it fixed?