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[jibbler]

I've downloaded MJ14 and MC16 for testing to see how they work and what the differences are with the aim to see if it's a good replacement for iTunes.

I got a free album from a blog site (notorious for not making tags as they should be) and I loaded it into MJ14 and it showed multiple instances of the album with a few tracks in each. I thought this was because they'd been incorrectly labelled so went through and tagged them all correctly but still there were a couple of instances of the album which I just could not resolve.

I then loaded the same, fixed tags, album into MC16 and it should a single album as it should proving that my tags were correct. I thought this must've been an issue with the free MJ14 and the full MC16 ha d resolved whatever bug it was. After some mucking around testing the software etc I had somewhere along the line deleted this album so I copied it back from the original zip download and took it straight into MC16 and noticed that there were 2 instances of the album, one with just a single track and the other with the rest. All the tag information is correct - the album is named correctly etc but it just will not merge into one.

Any ideas why and how to resolve?

[MrC]

Here is the way to test.

Open the Action Window->Tag.  Select all the tracks that appear in one of the "albums".  Examine the Album, Album Artist, and Artist tags for these tracks.  You should note (unless this is a various artists album) that the name of each is specified.

Now, add to your selection one of the tracks from the other "album".  One or more of these tags will now show "Varies", as there is some difference(s).

You can just copy the "good" values into the tracks which are in the incorrect album, and this will allow MC to show them grouped into the same album.

Take care to note small discrepancies - when MC indicates there are two albums, it is because something is different about some tracks vs. others.

[jibbler]

Sorry, just before I saw your reply I resolved it but not through MC. I (cringe) went back to iTunes and noticed 2 things....

1. The track# for this track was just 6 whereas the others were 6of10. I've only seen iTunes that can set the total track count. I can't see where/if this can be set in MC - can it?
2. Some of the tracks were not set to 'Part of compilation'. Again this is something I've only seen in iTunes. Can that be set in MC?

Either/both of those resolve the issue and they now show up correctly in MC.

I'd be interested to know about those settings and if they have an equivalent in MC.

Thanks

[MrC]

No worries.

Track # in MC is a single number (integer).  You can add your own database fields in MC (Options->Library & Folders->Manage Library Fields) if you want to manage how many tracks are on a disc.  MC has a field that indicates if an album is "complete", which is maintained by testing that there are no gaps in the numerical sequence of track numbers.

In MC, select your track, view the Tag action window, and then click on the file type which is listed immediately under the Tag window's "Tag" title.  MC will expand and show you the audio files actual tags.  You can see there what is stored within the audio file.  MC will map various tags to its own internal database fields, and can update the files physical tags also.

The part of complication tag is not necessary in MC, but you can add a COMPILATION field if you want.  Other software may use this tag (eg. Logitech's SqueezeServer uses it).  MC has some nice logic help out with multiple artists albums.