Can't properly control the Album Artist Field

[damonbrodie]

Hi,

I'm using version 3.1.2.1267, I'm a registered gold user.
Vista x64 SP1

I have FLAC files that I have imported that when I look at the tags in dbpoweramp shows the album artist twice with a semi-colon in between. For example "Madonna;Madonna". Since it is the same artist, I would like to be able to control how this field is populated, and instead just show the single artist in that tag. I would not normally care, but when I export my FLACs to MP3, and import in iTunes, albums with this funny album artist tag don't sort with the rest of that artist's albums. iTunes shows these albums as "Madonna/Madonna".

I would like to be able to have more control over how this field is populated in MM.

Thanks!

[JackH]

I have FLAC files that I have imported that when I look at the tags in dbpoweramp shows the album artist twice with a semi-colon in between. For example "Madonna;Madonna".

I can't offer a solution, but I have seen this also. It seems that MM inserts the double album artist whenever it updates the tags in flac files.

[nohitter151]

According to the MM help file that is by design because some apps and devices read only the ALBUM ARTIST tag while the standard is actually ENSEMBLE.

[DazB]

Hi,

Doesn't ALBUM ARTIST, ALBUMARTIST and ENSEMBLE get written by MM - the reason for the repeated artist names being dBpoweramp seeing ALBUM ARTIST and ALBUMARTIST as equivalent? I have to fix the duplicates (using mp3tag) in the MP3s converted from the FLACs converted using the dBpoweramp converter.

Daz

[damonbrodie]

Well, I'd still like to be able to control this field, since it has quite an effect on how my music is cataloged in certain third party apps.

Is this something that can go into a future version?

[nohitter151]

Well, I'd still like to be able to control this field, since it has quite an effect on how my music is cataloged in certain third party apps.

Is this something that can go into a future version?

Sure, I guess the point that I (and DazB) were trying to make is that this isn't really a bug as it behaves as described in the MM help.

[ckh]

Doesn't ALBUM ARTIST, ALBUMARTIST and ENSEMBLE get written by MM - the reason for the repeated artist names being dBpoweramp seeing ALBUM ARTIST and ALBUMARTIST as equivalent? I have to fix the duplicates (using mp3tag) in the MP3s converted from the FLACs converted using the dBpoweramp converter.

Daz, this is completely right!

Because MM writes the Album Artist information in both ALBUM ARTIST and ALBUMARTIST (for FLAC) and dBpoweramp sees ALBUM ARTIST and ALBUMARTIST as equivalent all my converted MP3's are tagged with "Album Artist/Album Artist" as BAND. As dBpoweramp however offers a basic mp3 tagging edittor during conversion I'm wondering how to setup dbpoweramp to avoid the hassle of correcting this manually using mp3tag.

Everyone, any suggestions? Or how to tell MM to stop using ALBUMARTIST (for FLAC files)??

[nohitter151]

Or how to tell MM to stop using ALBUMARTIST (for FLAC files)??

No way to do that at this point.

[Peke]

To clarify things up:
1. ENSEMBLE = is agreed/unwritten standard album artist and MM initially used
2. After complains that not all app read that correctly we added
ALBUM ARTIST = for compatibility with those apps
3. Then as some hardware devices read tags sequentially ALBUM ARTIST would need to be written before ALBUM tag or ALBUM would be filled with "ARTIST=Queen" instead just "Queen"
4. Finally due the same issue of blank space in ALBUM ARTIST some apps adopted ALBUMARTIST where again MM needed to be changed due the compatibility

Not all apps correctly handle these and use workarounds to make Multi Artists

[damonbrodie]

To clarify things up:
1. ENSEMBLE = is agreed/unwritten standard album artist and MM initially used
2. After complains that not all app read that correctly we added
ALBUM ARTIST = for compatibility with those apps
3. Then as some hardware devices read tags sequentially ALBUM ARTIST would need to be written before ALBUM tag or ALBUM would be filled with "ARTIST=Queen" instead just "Queen"
4. Finally due the same issue of blank space in ALBUM ARTIST some apps adopted ALBUMARTIST where again MM needed to be changed due the compatibility

Not all apps correctly handle these and use workarounds to make Multi Artists

Yep - all of that makes sense, I just wish (going back to my original post) that if the album has a single artist, that the album artist field only has a single entry. "Bush" instead of "Bush;Bush". OR at least the ability to control this a bit - existing behavior with a knob that lets me choose the alternate behavior.

[Peke]

MM handle that correctly, like nohitter151 said there is no way to do that I don't think that there is way to handle this.

Correct math would be:
If ENSEMBLE exists and = ALBUM ARTIST = ALBUMARTIST then "Album Artist" = ENSEMBLE
Else If ENSEMBLE exists and <> (ALBUM ARTIST = ALBUMARTIST) then "Album Artist" = ALBUM ARTIST
Else If ENSEMBLE, ALBUM ARTIST and ALBUMARTIST are all different then "Album Artist" = ENSEMBLE

Implementing Multiple Tag fields act as Multi-Album Artist is incorrect as Separator for Multi-Artist is ";" like you noted already.

[Guest]

No, MM handle that not correctly. The "ALBUM ARTIST" tag is obsolescent for FLAC and OGG files and the problem is that MM is copying the value from "ALBUMARTIST" automatically to "ALBUM ARTIST" and reverse. This is a big mess and makes MM useless for managing my music archive with my other tools dbPowerAmp and iTunes.

I need an empty "ALBUM ARTIST" tag after any file operation - no more and no less.

[nohitter151]

No, MM handle that not correctly. The "ALBUM ARTIST" tag is obsolescent for FLAC and OGG files and the problem is that MM is copying the value from "ALBUMARTIST" automatically to "ALBUM ARTIST" and reverse. This is a big mess and makes MM useless for managing my music archive with my other tools dbPowerAmp and iTunes.

I need an empty "ALBUM ARTIST" tag after any file operation - no more and no less.

That's a problem though because some portable devices require "ALBUM ARTIST" to display this field.

[paultaylor]

Media Monkey is treating Flac and Ogg Vorbis differentlly even those they both use Vorbis Comment.

Flac writes the value to ENSEMBLE,ALBUM ARTIST and ALBUMARTIST
Ogg writes the value to ENSEMBLE,ALBUM ARTIST , and Deletes any existing ALBUMARTIST fields , whatever MM does it shouldnt be deleting fields that it doesnt like. .

ALBUMARTIST is used by at least two popular taggers <a href="http://musicbrainz.org/doc/PicardTagger">Picard<a> and <a href="http://www.jthink.net/jaikoz">Jaikoz</a>