Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

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Almighty1000
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2015 12:27 pm

Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

Post by Almighty1000 »

Hi!

I am on the latest builds of MM (MMW 4.1.10 on the server, MMA 1.2.0.0605 on Android & MM8 1.0.4.62 (x86) on Win tablet). I have several mp3 files with multiple artists in one song. I have separated them with a ";" separator as suggested in the HELP of MM. However, in MMA the song is not searchable with individual artist names, rather the song appears under the entire artist 'string'. BUT the same song is searchable with individual artists in MM8 (Metro) on my Windows Tablet. NOTE- both the Android tablet (MMA) and Windows tablet (MM8) sync to the same MMW server where keep all my songs.

Example:
on MMW:
For Song12 I have the 'Artist' tag with the value "Artist1; Artist2"
For Song1 Ihave the 'Artist' tag with the value "Artist1"
For Song2 Ihave the 'Artist' tag with the value "Artist2"

On WWA:
Following list shows in 'Artists' menu
Artist1
Artist2
Artist1; Artist2

And when I search for Artist1, only Song1 shows up in the list OR when I search for Artist2, only Song2 shows up in the list

On WW8:
Following list shows in 'Artists' menu
Artist1
Artist2

And when I search for Artist1, both Song1 & Song12 show up in the list OR when I search for Artist2, both Song2 & Song12 show up in the list (as expected)

Seems like the setting on MMW is correct since MM8 works as expected, but why don't I get the correct result in MMA? Hope ; is the correct separator to use? and I am using the right syntax viz "artist1; artist2 "
Lowlander
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Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

Post by Lowlander »

How did you tag the separator? With MMW?
Almighty1000
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2015 12:27 pm

Re: Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

Post by Almighty1000 »

No. I use a program called "MP3 Tag Express" (v6). http://www.mp3tagexpress.com/.
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

Post by Lowlander »

Does it actually tag ; to the file as that is incorrect.
Almighty1000
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2015 12:27 pm

Re: Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

Post by Almighty1000 »

I don't know how it does it. It has an ability to edit dozens of ID3 tags such as artist, title, album name etc. I simply enter "Artist1; Artist2" in the Artist field and it saves it.
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

Post by Lowlander »

Every file type has an associate tagging standard (ID3 for MP3) and every tagging standard defines how multiple value tags should be saved. ; is just a way things are displayed in MediaMonkey, but not the way it is tagged to the files.
Almighty1000
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2015 12:27 pm

Re: Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

Post by Almighty1000 »

Sure, Lowlander. Understood. So 2 questions I have -
1. Consider you are importing a file into MM that has some specific tag values already present (so, you're not editing tags within MM itself). What separator character(s) is/are recognized as a separator(s) by MM, wherein it understands to treat them as two different artists if there is "this" character between them? This is regardless of how it displays it.
2. Why does MMA behaves differently than MM8 or MMW?
Lowlander
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Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

Post by Lowlander »

Peke
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Re: Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

Post by Peke »

Can you make screenshots of both MMA and MMW and supply us sample file from screenshot and we should analyze and better explain behavior along if there is a bug we would be able to replicate?
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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DukeMargiris
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 11, 2018 1:03 pm

Re: Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

Post by DukeMargiris »

I too created an account just for this exact issue. While testing nearly a dozen different MP3 playing apps recently they all have the exact same issue in that they just don't process multiple tags no matter what delimiter is used.

MediaMonkey is no different. It's actually frustratingly inconsistent since it handles multiple genres separated by a ';' delimiter but not multiple artists. Example: Nashville Skyline is a Bob Dylan album I have with both a country and folk genre. No problem showing up in both in MMA. But one song is a duet between Dylan and Johnny Cash. No matter how I separate the two, whether a slash, a semicolon, a comma, anything, it will still show 'Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash' as a separate artist from both, as though they had been combined into some sort of bizarre mutant mumbler. The craziest part is that in the view it will convert a semicolon to a slash. So it's somehow recognizing this is a delimiter that should be displayed different, but doesn't recognize the entire purpose of why it's there in the first place?

There are countless programs that can handle fields with multiple values, but for some reason music app developers just can't create a simple, workable solution for this. Enough of my complaining, anybody have any real solutions? These threads on other forums for other apps just go around in circles without any resolution. Is there anyone out there who is using MediaMonkey-or any other player, really-that is getting their multiple artist tags to work correctly?
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

Post by Lowlander »

There are several parts to this.

1) One is what the standard defines as delimiter for multiple values. This differs per File Type.
2) What programs actually implement of the standard. This is both regarding how a standard is implemented and which standard is used for any given File Type.
3) What programs use to display as separator, MediaMonkey uses ; by default, but this isn't what is written to the files metadata.
4) How files are added in MMA, if not by MMW directly you're relying on the Android Media Scanner and its capabilities (or lack thereof).

Two important limitations in MMA are the use of Android Media Scanner when not syncing from MMW (this should improve in MMA 2) and that MMA doesn't write metadata to the files (this is done by MMW on sync).
Peke
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Re: Separator ; doesn't list artists properly in MMA

Post by Peke »

To add that MMA 2.0 should address many Multi value fields, this is not new thing and it goes back for 9+ years. Where even standard exist it is somehow flawed in implementation for some apps.

One of posts that search found is https://en.community.sonos.com/music-se ... -etc-10379
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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