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[JustinChase]

I have ripped several compilation albums and only some of the songs on theses albums show up in the Album/Artist (auto) view.

the songs are on my hard drive, but only some show up as (Multiple Artist) and some don't.  Is there any way to tell MC which songs are part of a comp or am I just out of luck?

Any ideas?

[Matt]

You can fill in the "Album Artist" field to be anything you like.

"Album Artist (auto)" will use that if it's there.

[JustinChase]

Is there any way to force MC to fill in that field automatically.  It made some tracks on a comp album show under Multiple Artists, but other tracks on the same album are not shown there.  I'd rather not have to go back and try to figure out which tracks on an album are missing and update them one song at a time.

It seems like it kinda worked, but i don't want to take the time to finish.

Any ideas?

[Wobbley]

Justin,

I understand your plight as I have many, many compilation albums that I've ripped (and will surely continue to rip as I acquire more).  Here's my experience:

Put CD in tray, YADB lookup, sometimes recognizes CD, sometimes doesn't (about 60 - 75% of the time).  When recognized, and before I rip, I make sure the displayed columns include the "Album Artist" column AND the "Album Artist (auto)" column (BTW, I think this stinks that I have to have virtually the same column, but oh well...).  Anyway, sometimes, and only when the CD is recognized by YADB of course, the info comes back with the artist's name and song title (both) in the "name" column.  So, I have to cut the Artist's name out and past in the "Artist" column.  As you do this for multiple tracks where the "Album" value is the same, and the "Artist" value varies per track, once the tags get updated by MC, you'll notice that "Album Artist (auto)" will automatically show "(Multiple Artists)".  You cannot edit the "Album Artist (auto)" column values (hence the term "auto"), but you CAN EDIT the "Album Artist" column values, and once you do, that value will be shown in the "Album Artist (auto)" column, as long as the "Album Artist" value is the same for all tracks (otherwise, the "Album Artist (auto)" field will show the value in the "Artist" column for each track).

Hope this helps...

Wobbley

[JustinChase]

It does help, sort of...I thank you for your help, but this seems like quite a lot of work for an (auto) field.

Dear J River,

Is there supposed to be a better way, or should I just give up on having Multiple Artists work in MC?

I can just delete the view, but that gives me about 50-75 extra artists in the view I will then need to use.

It seems like there should be a fairly simple way to have MC 'look' at an album title and see if it contains more than one artist, if so...Multiple Artist, otherwise...the only artist it finds.

If I'm wrong, please let me know this isn't easy and I'll quit worring about it, otherwise, maybe fixed in the next build?

Thanks

Anyone else have any suggestions?

[jakobluck]

that's weird -- MC is picture perfect in dealing with compilation albums for me.

what are some of the problematic albums? maybe they're albums with bad YADB entries or something.

[Wobbley]

Justin,

Give me five or so artist/album names that you're having problems with and I'll see if I can replicate.

Wobbley

[JustinChase]

Lilith Fair - A Celebration Of Women In Music (Disc 1)
    Only lists songs 3 4 5 8 9 12 13

Lilith Fair - A Celebration Of Women In Music (Disc 2)
    Only lists songs 4 5 7 8 9 10 11

Now That's What I Call Christmas (Disc 1)
    Only lists songs 1 8 9 10 11 13 14

Now That's What I Call Christmas (Disc 2)
    Only lists songs 1 2 7 8 9 13 14 15 17 18

Singers & Songwriters - 1976-1977 (Disc 2)
    Only lists songs 1 2 3 7 8 11

I could go on, but you get the idea.  If you don't have any of these discs, which seems likely, let me know what genre to relist and I'll see if I have anything you also have.

As a bit of background, I recently (about 6 weeks ago) started re-ripping my collection in .ape format.  I really think I like the idea of lossless compression, it takes more space, but i'm tired of little artifacts on one or 2 tracks of a homemade comp cd ruining the whole thing.

So in order to have the room for all this extra space .ape takes I am ripping everything to an external hard drive.  I don't think this should matter, but it  might, who knows?

Of the songs that are missing from Multiple Artist listing, all are on the drive, just not listed under Multiple Artists.

Just seems wierd to me.  I would love to get it working right.

Thanks for any input or help you can provide.

[JustinChase]

Any ideas on this?

Anyone?

[Wobbley]

Justin,

Can you confirm for me that all the ripped songs are being placed in the same folder?  In other words, are all the songs ripped from, say, the "Lilith Fair" disc 1, are all in the same physical directory?  If they aren't, then that's your problem.  On that note, what are your "File Naming & Location" settings?  I'm sure you know where those settings are, but just in case, look under "Tools", "Options", then "File Naming & Location".  What do you have listed for the Directory and Filename rules? If you have "[Artist]\[Album]" as your directory rule, and you fill in the individual artist name for each track before ripping (either by manually filling this in or via the YADB info), then that's your problem, because what MC is doing is placing each song in a separate artist folder based on the individual artist's name. Thus, since each song is in a different physical folder, MC doesn't see it as a "(Multiple Artists)" album.  I know, I know, it sucks, but there are easy ways around this.  What I do, before I rip, is I make sure that I have the "Album Artist" (not the auto one) column viewable in the window that shows the tracks on the CD that I am about to rip.  I fill in each track's artist in the "Artist" column, and then type "Various Artists" in the "Album Artist" field.  By doing so, the "Album Artist (auto)" field will be filled with "Various Artists" (whatever I type in the "Album Artist" field).  

Then, you have to make sure that your "File Naming & Location" Directory Rule says "[Album Artist (auto)]/[Album]" so that all the songs will go into a physical directory called "Various Artists", and then in a "Lilith Fair..." subdirectory in the "Various Artists" directory.

Let me know if that's more confusing or if it actually helps.

Wobbley