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More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: edbro on March 15, 2005, 05:26:53 pm

Title: Assorted vs Various Artists
Post by: edbro on March 15, 2005, 05:26:53 pm
What is the difference between Assorted Artists and Various Artists? I have some compilation albums that get tagged as Assorted and some that get tagged as Various Artists. I can't tell the difference. I see in the "Album Type" tag that some are listed as "Single Artist" and that the Assorted are listed as "Multiple Artist". I also see that I can not change this tag, it is calculated.

If I do a rename files from properties on the Various Artists albums, they get seperated into folders under the individual artists. The Assorted do not. I want my Various Artists albums to be Assorted Artists albums.
Title: Re: Assorted vs Various Artists
Post by: edbro on March 16, 2005, 11:09:10 am
Anybody? I need to know the difference between a "Multiple Artist" album and a "Various Artist" album.
Title: Re: Assorted vs Various Artists
Post by: scthom on March 16, 2005, 08:55:25 pm
I think "Assorted" may be the new version of "Various Artists", but actually I can't say with certainty.

I had some of both and renamed them all to "Assorted".  I just picked one.

Sorry, I don't think that answered your question.
Title: Re: Assorted vs Various Artists
Post by: edbro on March 17, 2005, 05:59:14 am
I think "Assorted" may be the new version of "Various Artists", but actually I can't say with certainty.

The problem is that they are treated differently. I have some albums listed as "Multiple Artists" and others as "Various Artists". If I do a rename from properties using "[Artist]\[Album], the albums with Multiple Artists get put into a single album under a directory named "Assorted". The album with "Various Artists" gets split up into different albums under individual directories for each individual artists. Very messy. The problem is I can't find out what designates one album as a Multiple Artist album and one that gets designated as a Various Artist album.
Title: Re: Assorted vs Various Artists
Post by: NoCodeUK on March 17, 2005, 07:47:07 am
The field you are talking about is the auto album artist field.  If an album has multiple artists listed in the artist fields the auto album field calculates it as a Multiple Artist Album.  What I do for multiple artist albums is to have the correct artist stored in the artist field and then I store the string 'Various Artists' in the Album Artist field.  If it is a single artist album then the field is the same for both.  This way I can search Artist and find tracks for an artist that appear on both compilations and their own albums. I use the Album Artist field as the main sort field for most of my albums.  This means all compilations are lumpewd together in view schemes but I can still see the individual track artists when necessary.  Hope this answers your question :)  Any more help needed just shout!

Adam
Title: Re: Assorted vs Various Artists
Post by: slikvik on March 17, 2005, 07:56:15 am
This is exactly what I do and seems like a common sense way of storing music. I'm suggesting to JRiver that  they could automate the storing of 'Various Artist' or the Artist Name in the AlbumArtist field.

Do you know how time consuming it is to try and do that on 1000's of Albums and everytime a rip a new CD.  :'(
Title: Re: Assorted vs Various Artists
Post by: hit_ny on March 17, 2005, 11:56:03 am
IF we look at them in isolation , there is no difference between Various, Multiple & Assorted in terms of meaning.

But when you take compilation albums into account, i use Various Artists or just VA. Its what i see compilations listed under in many websites. I add VA to album artist for compilations albums or the DJ that mixed it. Gets rid of the (Multiple Artist) item that shows up at the top of the Album artist column in panes.

Assorted or Multiple Artists to me implies a bunch of tracks from different artists that may or not be in a compilation, more the latter than the former.
Title: Re: Assorted vs Various Artists
Post by: JONCAT on March 20, 2005, 03:05:17 pm
Is there a string we can use to pop in the correct artist name into the Artist field. I too,  browse for songs by Artist but then keep all Various Artist albums in a Various Artist folder so I can have a Disk Location View Scheme where all the comps. are located.

JC