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[michel]

First I would say I just "discovered" album artist (auto) and I found it very nice since I can remove some dedicated "compilation" view schemes I made.

I read somewhere in this board that 'album artist' concept will disapear in MJ9 but I can see it is ever here.

My question is: is it for compatibility with MJ8 or is there a real benefit to use 'album artist' field instead of 'artist' field ? If so, which one ?

[michel]

Answering to myself:

I understand that 'album artist' is useful with MJ8 but not anymore with MJ9 (except for compatibility) since MJ9 offers 'album artist (auto)'.

Am I right ?

[phelt]

hi michel,
Someone may jump in and correct me, but I think it goes like this:
The intended benefit is specifically for compilations such as you mentioned, so users with many compilations do not bear the burden of filling out all the Album Artist tags, and can retain individual track Artist info, and not have a Genre/Artist scheme scroll forever down the page.
It functions differently than the v8 Album Artist method, so it's not for compatibility. But v8 Album Artist tags get imported to custom tags when v9 is first installed, so freaks like me with 100's of compilations don't lose their data  

[phelt]

To hopefully answer your second post:
If you mean "does the existing v8 Album Artist tag data get used by v9?" - it gets imported/transferred to a custom field, but not used in the same way as v8.

[michel]

The intended benefit is specifically for compilations such as you mentioned, so users with many compilations do not bear the burden of filling out all the Album Artist tags, and can retain individual track Artist info,

I am not sure to understand.

We are talking about 'artist album' field, right ? So when you say the benefit to use it is do not bear the burden of filling out all the Album Artist tags I don't understand  ?

Recapitulating my question/problem:

With MJ8, I never used 'artist album' since I used 'comment' field' to set "compilation". So I filled only 'artist' field and I used dedicated view schemes (which included the following criteria: -comment="").

With MJ9, it seems to me that I don't need to set anymore 'comment'="compilation" for multiple artists album and I don't need anymore these dedicated "compilation" view schemes, thanks to 'artist album (auto)' key.

I fail to understand what you said about a new behaviour of 'album artist' field with MJ9.

[phelt]

Just as you say, v9's Album Artist (auto) is perfect for the way that you want your compilations sorted. No need to manually fill out tags, make extra schemes, etc.

As far as the change in behaviour for Album Artist, in v8 it could be used to identify and/or group specific compilations. Let's say I have a bunch of albums mixed by DJ Tiesto. All  tracks on each album have different Artists, but by putting "DJ Tiesto" in the Album Artist field and specifying Album Artist in the View Scheme, I keep all DJ Tiesto albums together, and separate from other compilations. Similarly, if I want all albums released by the record company Ministry of Sound to be together I would just put "Ministry of Sound" in the Album Artist field.

Anyway, if you're happy with the v9 method, that's all that matters, no?

[michel]

If I understand right, you could do it with a "normal" custom field (called 'Remixed by' for example) but you use this one because it exists already.

[phelt]

Actually v8's Album Artist is different from a "normal" custom field.
Let's say I have a view scheme of Genre/Artist/Album in v8.
Obviously a lot of compilations will make the Artist level of the tree very cluttered - many Artists listed with only one or a few songs each. But if I use the Album Artist as described above, and make the view scheme Genre/Album Artist/Album then I will see 'DJ Tiesto' or 'Ministry of Sound' in the Artist level.
v8 appears to process it like: Album Artist ELSE Artist
So I only have to fill in Album Artist tags for compilations.

[michel]

Actually v8's Album Artist is different from a "normal" custom field.

I was talking about 'album artist' V9. I saw your point about 'album artist' V8.

[mcphzgig]

Well, I am glad everyone else understands how 'Album Artist (Auto)' works - because I certainly don't !  

If its so simple, then explain these paradoxes in my current 'Album Artist (Auto)/Artist' view...

I have one album that seems to have two different Album Artists (Auto)'s, and another that has 18!

The first of these albums appears in the Single Artist (Complete) list with one of the Album Artists and in Single Artist (Incomplete) with the other.

The second album appears in Single Artist (Incomplete), despite actually having 18 different Album Artist (Auto)'s.

This also seems to be tied up with tags. Unfortunately, I don't see how to access all these tags using MJ9, seeing they aren't all accessible from properties.

Another post ( Separate Tagging Program necessary? - http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=beta;action=display;num=1037297767) indicates that MJ9 can do almost everything one wants with tags. I still can't find how. How can I use a Composer tag, for example, when there seems to be no access to it?

Is it possible to view the Album Artist (Auto) value for a track, other than through views?

With all these apparent paradoxes, no wonder I am confused.  

Dear All-Omnipotent Moderator-Developers (bless your cotton socks!). (Hope that got their attention)     Can we please have some clear statements on the algorithms behind Album Artist (Auto) and the various Multiple and Single artist types?

[michel]

How can I use a Composer tag, for example, when there seems to be no access to it?

MJ9 offers "default" tags such as 'artist', 'name', 'album', 'year',... and it offers also the ability to add new "custom" tags such as 'composer' or 'encoded by' for example.

To add a new tag you have to go to Options/Tree & View Setting (not a good place for that, I agree) and add a new one. It will appear in the main view and in the properties view.

I used in the past many tag editors and I can say that MJ is (at least) so powerful than any other one. But don't forget MJ9 is a beta version so there would be bugs which could difficult the understanding of MJ9 tagging.


I don't understand what you mean by "despite actually having 18 different Album Artist (Auto)'s" since 'Album Artist (Auto)' is not a tag but a key to build a particular form of view scheme.  ?

[mcphzgig]

MJ9 offers "default" tags such as 'artist', 'name', 'album', 'year',... and it offers also the ability to add new "custom" tags such as 'composer' or 'encoded by' for example.

To add a new tag you have to go to Options/Tree & View Setting (not a good place for that, I agree) and add a new one. It will appear in the main view and in the properties view.

Thanks for pointing that out Michel.  Now one of the light bulbs has come on, and I know where to go! So you are saying that the tags shown in Properties are all that currently exist for the track concerned.

I don't understand what you mean by "despite actually having 18 different Album Artist (Auto)'s" since 'Album Artist (Auto)' is not a tag but a key to build a particular form of view scheme.  ?

I should clarify my thinking.  I guess Album Artist is only a key that is automatically assessed for all the required instances when one expands the view tree.

Nevertheless, I still have an album in which each track is assessed to have a different Album Artist. I can accept that each track could have a different Artist, but a different Album Artist... for me, this is a contradiction of the concept as I understood it.  ?

However, if I knew the algorithm for determining Album Artist (Auto), it might clarify the concept to the point where I could use it to create a more orderly library.