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[Denti]

I would love to be able to see not just [Artist] but also [Composer] when I'm browsing my music. Is it possible (with some expression, perhaps) to have these displayed, even displaying an album twice if these two differ?

[blgentry]

I'm not sure what you are asking for.  Do you want to enter a search term like "Mozart" and have that match both the Composer field and the Album field?  Or do you just want to list composers as a column and sort by that column?  An example of what you want would be helpful.

For searches, it's very easy to write something like this.  You can type this right into the search box:

[artist]=Mozart or [Composer]=Mozart

That will find songs with artist or composer matching Mozart.  If this isn't what you want, please *do* give us an example (or two!) so we can try to help.

Brian.

[Denti]

If I have [Album A] with the composer field filled with "Ludwig van Beethoven" and th artist field filled with "Maurizio Pollini" I want in categories view to see [Album A] appear in the grouping for each of these.

I could use the delimiter ; and simply add "Ludwig van Beethoven" to the artist field, but that gets me in a whole mess with name order that I;ve been through and to which there is no solution.

[blgentry]

I think I see.  You don't have a Composer field filled out for most of your music.  Do I understand that correctly?  Either way, you'll need data in the Composer field in order to use it.  Once you have some there, you can add Composer as a Pane in Panes view and select and sort by Composer.  You can also select or sort by Artist in Panes view.  Or you can search by both simply by typing your search into the search box, as the search automatically includes Composer and Artist in default searches.

Is that what you are looking for?  You mentioned categories view and I'm not sure how you want to use Categories to examine Composer, Artist, or both.  There are other people here who are SUPER good at this stuff.  I'm just trying to help since none of them have responded yet. 

Brian.

[RoderickGI]

My understanding is that you want one record, [Album A], selected and displayed twice, based on two different search requirements, one search by [Artist] and one search by [Composer]. This would be like running two separate searches, then combining them where both [Artist] and [Composer] are treated as one Category for display.

It may be possible, but it isn't the way a database is used normally, which would be to pull out one record once based on multiple search criteria, rather than pulling one record multiple times based on multiple search criteria. But without creating multiple records for each recording that has both [Artist] and [Composer], it could be difficult.

But it would be easy to have a view which included both  [Artist] and [Composer], which could be grouped by either field.
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You could try creating a list type user field that combined [Artist] and [Composer], then Group on the contents... But I have no idea if that would work, and it would require lots of effort for me to test and develop such a view. Maybe one of those experts will come along and show how it could be done easily!

[Listener]

Denti,

I don't know which view you are using now.  I don't know whether you are using standard view or theater view.  I'll assume standard view.

I'd suggest that you geate a new view to fit your needs.  You can do that by right-clicking on "Audio" in the tree structure on the left side of the MC window.

You mentioned a Category view.  Category view present a list of values of one tag at a time.  In the Artist-Album view, first you see a list of artists in the upper half of the MC window.  You click on one artist and the upper then displays a list of albums by that artist.  The point is that the order in which tags are displayed for selec tion is fixed in the view.  A Panes view is quite different.  The upper half of the window displays a list of values for each of the tags you specify as categories.  If you have specified "Filter in both dirtections" when you create the view, you can select a composer or an artist as the first step.

Here is a view I created for classical music several years ago:



The view only displays classical music.  I defined panes for Sub_genre, Composer, Work Name, Artist and Version.  I might click on "Mozart" in ther Composer pane.  The Work Name pane then lists 327 works by Mozart.  That's a pretty long list.  The Artist pane lists 276 performers whose Mozart performances I have in my collection.  Another long list.  I might narrow things down by clicking on "Concerto, Piano" in the Sub_genre pane.  Now I've got 34 works and 59 Artists.  Much more manageable.  I might scroll down and  click on "Concerto, Piano No. 20".  Now I've got 22 artists to choose from.  I might choose "Bilson_Gardiner_English Baroque Soloists".  If I have only one version, I click the play button and the individual movements are played.  (If you like, I can describe how to sort the list of file so that movements play in order.)

I might sometimes decide to see what performances by Rubinstein I have.  I might click in the Artist pane, then Type "R" to skip to the first artist whose name starts with "R" and scroll down to "Rubinstein, Artur".  I might select the solo piano works by clicking on "Rubinstein, Artur".  That prodiuces a list of 17 Composers and 73 works.  I could select one of those composers and then a work by that composer.

I use similar views for other music for which Composer and performer are both important like Broadway shows and movie musicals and Great American Songbook music.

I've described the way I use MC.  That should give you some ideas about what's possible.  You may wind up doing something different to fit your own needs and preferences.