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Topic: %album artist% seems to sort by %artist% erroneously (Read 2157 times) previous topic - next topic
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%album artist% seems to sort by %artist% erroneously

Hello!

I have this set for sorting in foobar:
Code: [Select]
%album artist% - %date% - %album% - %discnumber% - %tracknumber% - %title% - %subsong% - %filename%

I have a soundtrack album. In the properties window I see "album artist" field is empty for all, and all tracks have an "artist" field based on who performs in it. The result is that the order is by the "artist" field instead of the "tracknumber" field, which would be expected.
So why is this? Seems like an error.

Re: %album artist% seems to sort by %artist% erroneously

Reply #1 –
Quote from: mzso on
So why is this? Seems like an error.
No, it's the expected behaviour. If the album artist field is empty %album artist% falls back to the artist field. Either you tag album artist for all files of the soundtrack with a unique value like Soundtrack or Various Artists, which is the purpose of the album artist field, or you use $meta(album artist) instead of %album artist% to avoid the fallback to the artist field.

Re: %album artist% seems to sort by %artist% erroneously

Reply #2 –
Quote from: fbuser on
Quote from: mzso on
So why is this? Seems like an error.
No, it's the expected behaviour. If the album artist field is empty %album artist% falls back to the artist field. Either you tag album artist for all files of the soundtrack with a unique value like Soundtrack or Various Artists, which is the purpose of the album artist field, or you use $meta(album artist) instead of %album artist% to avoid the fallback to the artist field.
Well, this is far from predictable for me.
Thanks for the tip, but it doesn't seem to work. Using $meta(album artist) instead of %album artist% in the sorting config just makes it not work via album artist at all, they end up being mixed.

Re: %album artist% seems to sort by %artist% erroneously

Reply #3 –
Can we get a screenshot of the tags of 2 of these "badly" sorted albums?

Or you can temporarily add a custom playlist column with the same string you use to sort with. Then you can see exactly what strings it's outputting and see where it goes wrong.

Also if you are missing the ALBUM ARTIST tag entirely, how do you expect the sorting to figure it out for you? The solution is to fill out your ALBUM ARTIST tags where appropiate (compilation albums) and use the original sorting with %album artist%. This means things get sorted by ALBUM ARTIST if said tag is present, otherwise by ARTIST.
 

Re: %album artist% seems to sort by %artist% erroneously

Reply #4 –
Quote from: mzso on
I have this set for sorting in foobar ...
Where exactly do you have it set (under which Preferences) and what library viewer are you using?

Re: %album artist% seems to sort by %artist% erroneously

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Daeron on
Can we get a screenshot of the tags of 2 of these "badly" sorted albums?

Or you can temporarily add a custom playlist column with the same string you use to sort with. Then you can see exactly what strings it's outputting and see where it goes wrong.

Also if you are missing the ALBUM ARTIST tag entirely, how do you expect the sorting to figure it out for you? The solution is to fill out your ALBUM ARTIST tags where appropiate (compilation albums) and use the original sorting with %album artist%. This means things get sorted by ALBUM ARTIST if said tag is present, otherwise by ARTIST.
I know where it goes wrong. The AA sorting doesn't work, with the suggestion.
Obviouisly I don't expect AA sorting to work without the track. I tested this with different albums of course.
I'll try the column thing when I get home.

Re: %album artist% seems to sort by %artist% erroneously

Reply #7 –
Quote from: mzso on
(From memory) I think the section is named "Shell integration"
Just to note, that only applies to Windows Explorer (and possibly auto-playlists?)... Unless you are dropping folders / files from Explorer (aka the Windows "Shell"), that does not effect sorting.

Sending tracks to playlist from within foobar, the default sorting depends on which library viewer - are you using Album List? Facets? Columns UI? Or something else? (Each one has their own Preferences option for sorting)

Album List sorts based on the view pattern you are using ("by artist" etc). You can edit them under Preferences > Media Library > Album List.

So basically, make sure you are editing the correct sort string for your library viewer.

As others have said though, you just need an Album Artist tag. Or sort foremost by another tag that is album wide (the same for every track per album).

Cheers

Re: %album artist% seems to sort by %artist% erroneously

Reply #8 –
Quote from: anamorphic on
Quote from: mzso on
(From memory) I think the section is named "Shell integration"
Just to note, that only applies to Windows Explorer (and possibly auto-playlists?)... Unless you are dropping folders / files from Explorer (aka the Windows "Shell"), that does not effect sorting.

Sending tracks to playlist from within foobar, the default sorting depends on which library viewer - are you using Album List? Facets? Columns UI? Or something else? (Each one has their own Preferences option for sorting)

I do use drag/drop. On the rare occasion that I use the media library I have the exact same thing configured in Columns UI.

Re: %album artist% seems to sort by %artist% erroneously

Reply #9 –
So, I figured out how to use the $meta function.
Though I realize there's no good generic solution. Most albums have no album artist set, so either I have albums that are disordered between artists, or some albums will be garbled that have multiple artists.
I guess I have to sort some dropped albums manually, which I forgot that I can do, via the context menu.

Re: %album artist% seems to sort by %artist% erroneously

Reply #10 –
Still the easiest solution would be to tag the files properly, i.e. set album artist to a constant value for multiple artist albums.

Re: %album artist% seems to sort by %artist% erroneously

Reply #11 –
I dont really get what is the problem here.

You have 2 types of albums:
1) Generic albums that belong to a single artist. ALBUM ARTIST tag is empty. ARTIST tag is the artist itself for every track.
2) Compilation/multi-artist albums. ALBUM ARTIST is present and the same across the album. ARTIST tags are unique on a per-track basis.

If you use a sorting like %ALBUM ARTIST% - %ALBUM%, you get:
1) Generic albums sorted via the ARTIST tag (as ALBUM ARTIST is not present, therefore ARTIST is substituted in its place).
2) Compilation albums properly grouped together via the ALBUM ARTIST tag, despite various artists have contributed to the album.

The only thing you have to pay attention to is filling out the ALBUM ARTIST tag where it is appropiate and the sorting should work as-is.