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Topic: Managing compilation albums artists (Read 1153 times) previous topic - next topic
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Managing compilation albums artists

Hi folks,
I'm actually tagging compilation albums from my collection and i though i found a solution for not having ever single track artist to appear in my general artist list. But that doesn't seem to work.

I created a custom field named COMPILATION ARTIST, where i put the track artists, and left the ARTIST field empty. But strange enough, foobar seems to automatically import all the artists from my custom field to the ARTIST field, creating exactly what i wanted to avoid.

Is this a normal behavior and can't be avoided ? And, if i don't want this to happen should i populate the artist field with something like "Various", or "Rock Compilation", or is there a way around it ?

Thanks

Re: Managing compilation albums artists

Reply #1 –
I don't see how the Artist field would get automatically filled. But an empty artist field would cause difficulties with simple players that only support basic tags. Couldn't you achieve your goal of seeing only artists with a full release by browsing your general list by the Album Artist instead?

Re: Managing compilation albums artists

Reply #2 –
Hi there,

^ What they said. ;)  It sounds like you should just be browsing by Album Artist. And tag your compilations Album Artist field with 'Various Artists'. As long as Album Artist tags are present, you should not see any track artists in the library viewer list.

Also I think it would make more sense to just change the title formatting of your library viewer / view pattern if needed, instead of changing tags.

What library viewer are you using? (DUI/CUI?)

What view pattern (title formatting) are you using for it?

Cheers

Re: Managing compilation albums artists

Reply #3 –
That's really strange, because it keeps happening, even though i emptied the "autocomplete field" option, in advanced setting ->display.

By further checking, and i noted that when handling single file albums, the album artist indeed gets copied to the artist field, but when handling multiples files albums, it doesn't get copied but is still displayed on my library. BTW i guess i'm using the standard viewer, as i kept the default options.

Actually i use ARTIST for regular albums and  ALBUM ARSTIST for compilations and classical music, where i put "Orchester (conductor)". Therefore using this latter field for all artists would make my collection (classical & regular music) browing uncomfortable.

Re: Managing compilation albums artists

Reply #4 –
The Album Artist gets aliased into Artist for display purposes, but not copied into the files. No way a custom field would be used by default like this. You could enter a space or an empty string into Artist if you really want it blank. The Autocomplete Fields setting is for when you are actually typing something into those fields by hand, and it then offers previously used values gathered from the library.

Strange approach, to repurpose existing standard fields instead of recording the Orchestra/ Ensemble and Conductor somewhere else.

Re: Managing compilation albums artists

Reply #5 –
Hey @mrnike

I'm confused. Are you talking about browsing your list of artists in Album List, or writing artist values into the tags in Properties?

Maybe attach some screenshots to help clear this up...

Cheers

Re: Managing compilation albums artists

Reply #6 –
Hey,
both, actually. But i think i'll finally stick with the option i considered initially, i.e. copying manually the ALBUM ARTIST field to the ARTIST field, in order to be consistent.

Cheers
 

Re: Managing compilation albums artists

Reply #7 –
Ok, but there really should be no need to change tags. Just try changing the Album List view to "by artist/album" to see...

An %artist% view (which I suspect you are using) would show ALL artists.

An %album artist% view (the above) would show the Album Artist firstly and NO track artists on compilations, and secondly show Artists on regular albums.