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Author Topic: Audio Album sorting  (Read 3776 times)

akira54

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Audio Album sorting
« on: November 29, 2016, 06:10:31 pm »

How does Album sorting work in Audio? I can't seem to figure it out. Whatever I do I never get the results I would expect. Here is what I do in Standard View. I add a blank Library View; View As Catergories > Album. Sort Album Ascending. That's all. What I get is a list of thumbnails showing the same album numerous times. When I check the Album name of these albums they are identical. So why are not displayed as one album? It makes no sense. Can anyone set me straight on this?

PS. I checked the Album name in tags. It looks as if Album Artists may have something to do with this, but I never specified this field.
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blgentry

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Re: Audio Album sorting
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2016, 06:14:44 am »

Sounds like you have the common issue of Compilation albums being broken into multiple albums.  The answer is to set [Album Artist] to those albums to a single value.  Something like (Multiple Artists) is a good choice.  Or Various Artists .  Or whatever you want, as long as it is the same for all songs on a particular album. 

Read the details in the Wiki here:

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Album_Artist_and_Album_Artist_(Auto)

Brian.
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akira54

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Re: Audio Album sorting
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2016, 05:50:27 pm »

Thanks for identifying the problem Brian. It is a little disconcerting though. It is a lot of work to (1) identify compilation albums (I probably have hundreds) and (2) even more work to set them all right. Do you know the reason for adding a hidden sort operator? Are there any other (sort) operations affected by such non-declared sort operators? Has this problem been solved in MC 22?

PS. The wiki you referred to has no text (any longer).
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blgentry

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Re: Audio Album sorting
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2016, 06:03:51 pm »

I'm not sure how to answer your question about sorting.  This is an album grouping behavior, not a sorting issue.  It's how MC works and presumably was a conscious design decision.  It's not a bug; it's an intentional feature.

I agree that it's a bit odd.  You'd expect it to "just work".  I only had to resolve maybe 5 or 6 of these on my initial installation and then more as I ripped more CDs, so it' was easy for me.  Hundreds of albums would be difficult.

As for the wiki article, it works, but JRiver's forum ate the last character of the URL.  So cut and paste this one and it should work:

Code: [Select]
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Album_Artist_and_Album_Artist_(Auto)
I wonder if there's a way for MC to help you find these compilation albums so you can tag a bunch of them at once....

Brian.
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JimH

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Re: Audio Album sorting
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2016, 06:07:56 pm »

The wiki you referred to has no text (any longer).
The closing parenthesis was missing.

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Album_Artist_and_Album_Artist_(Auto)
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akira54

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Re: Audio Album sorting
« Reply #5 on: November 30, 2016, 06:09:20 pm »

I just realised that there are many occasions where I cannot set the album artist to "various"(or whatever) since with classical CDs I use the Album artist field for the name of the orchestra and the artist field for the soloist. I am forced to solve it like this by yet another software programme (Sonos) because if I don't I will get such entries under Artists as Arturo Michaelangeli//Berliner Symphoniker, Arturo Michaelangeli//London Symphony, etc.

Classical music lovers have it tough since no one seems to cater for them properly.http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/Smileys/classic/sad.gif

Just saw your reply. You are right of course about album grouping, but that is a form of sorting too, isn't it? Moreover, it caters only for the type of compilation where you don't (need to) use the Album artist field. It is an odd way of programming.

So I gather from your reply that it has not been set straight in MC 22 either. If anyone knows how to start solving my problem I would be grateful.
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Dawgincontrol

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Re: Audio Album sorting
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2016, 10:54:28 am »

I just realised that there are many occasions where I cannot set the album artist to "various"(or whatever) since with classical CDs I use the Album artist field for the name of the orchestra and the artist field for the soloist. I am forced to solve it like this by yet another software programme (Sonos) because if I don't I will get such entries under Artists as Arturo Michaelangeli//Berliner Symphoniker, Arturo Michaelangeli//London Symphony, etc.



There is a tag available for "soloists". Available tags also under "Composer" and "Conductor".  So you could put that there.

What I have done for my classical works is put the composer as the album artist (ie. Beethoven, Mozart, Benjamin Britton, etc.).  Then use the orchestra as the artist. When it is a variety of composers played by a single orchestra I use the orchestra for album artist as well as the artist.  If it is a compilation of differing orchestras and/or composers I make the album artist "Classical Artists" which still keeps them separate. 

You can then add the necessary fields (conductor, composer, soloists) to your view.  You can add an expression to divide soloists when more than one plays with the use of the semi-colon.

You can shorten your information transfer with the Tools>Library Tools>Move / Copy Fields tool.

It's not perfect, but I can quickly find what I need in this manner.  I never use "multiple artists" or "various artists" because it creates too huge of a mish-mash when browsing.  I always use something that goes with the album theme if there isn't a true artist. 

For instance I have an album titled; "The R&B No. 1's of the 50's".  I made the album artist; "50's R&B Artists".  Easy to see and delineates what the album is for a quick browse.
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akira54

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Re: Audio Album sorting
« Reply #7 on: December 02, 2016, 10:49:36 am »

Interesting choice to put composer in Album artist. Why?

My problem is that I need to keep both Sonos and JRiver happy. We use Sonos throughout the house and MC in the media room. It is a balancing act.
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JimH

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Re: Audio Album sorting
« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2016, 11:24:45 am »

Interesting choice to put composer in Album artist. Why?

My problem is that I need to keep both Sonos and JRiver happy. We use Sonos throughout the house and MC in the media room. It is a balancing act.
If you can describe a simple change or two we could make to make this easier, we might be able to do it.
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