Track Summary and Summary columns [#16600]

[Barry4679]

MM5 has a "Summary" column, and a "Track Summary" column.

This tooltip is incorrect, the control affects the "Track Summary" display, not the "Summary" display.

Why isn't the "Summary" column display configurable, ie. like the "Track Summary" column.

Example in this display, I have the albums sorted by Release Date ... but you don't show me the Release Dates, ... and I can't configure to correct this.

Also the "Summary" column appears|disappears from the Choose Columns dbox, depending upon what View mode I am displaying.
This is another of those things that make MM5 hard to learn .... it would be much better if the column list was constant, and inapplicable items were greyed out, rather than disappeared.

The names of the Summary" column, and "Track Summary" column are too similar. It would be more clear if the "Summary" column was called "Album Summary".

[rusty]

Thanks. Tracked fixes re. the misleading wording at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=16600

Re. the fact that Summary isn't configurable: I agree that it should be--it's just something that we deferred because it would be different depending on both conent Type and View.

Re. the ability to (re)configure sort order from/on non-displayed fields, you can do so by configuring the View (rather than sorting within the view). This approach was taken for Views in which fields aren't displayed.

Re. the 'Summary' column appearing/disappearing, it appears whenever the user chooses a view that's grouped 'by Album'. This approach (forcing UI elements related to Grouping when Grouping is enabled), but there's a lot of room to improve the manner in which grouping (and Views) is configured.

-Rusty

[Barry4679]

thanks for response

Re. the fact that Summary isn't configurable: I agree that it should be--it's just something that we deferred because it would be different depending on both conent Type and View.

Re. the ability to (re)configure sort order from/on non-displayed fields, you can do so by configuring the View (rather than sorting within the view). This approach was taken for Views in which fields aren't displayed.

Ok, but was an unfortunate choice IMO ... there is already a mechanism for handling differences due to different content type, ie. as deployed for the Track Summary column ... and I don't understand why changes of View creates complications ... ie. the column is either visible or not visible, and where is visible, can be served by a single layout config

My personal view is that the underlying issue is probably that the MM design team doesn't seem to include people whose focus is upon Albums, rather than just collections of Tracks ... examples

• Album Artist is not a 1st class citizen in Browser view for Media Tree collections

• AlbumArtist column is default configured to be invisible for collections ... no way to alter this default

• no columns at track level for consensus album_play_count or date_last_played_for_album ... so no way to create an autoplaylist to queue whole albums, where the criteria includes factors like "album I have played < 3 times" or "album I have not heard for a year"

• "Top 10 Albums Played" in the Library Statistic Report is sequenced from a Track Players' POV ... ie something like sum of (track duration * play count), rather than being sequenced by album play count

• grid footer summary shows stats for number of tracks, total duration and total megabytes, but not number of albums

• and the situation is worse in MMA ... can explain if you are interested .. I have MMA, but don't use it, because tools like Bubble UPnP, are better for Album focused people

Re. the 'Summary' column appearing/disappearing, it appears whenever the user chooses a view that's grouped 'by Album'. This approach (forcing UI elements related to Grouping when Grouping is enabled), but there's a lot of room to improve the manner in which grouping (and Views) is configured.

My point was that if I have the album grid set to be sorted by Release Date, you could presume that I am interested in this info ... but you don't display the date for me, and I can't adjust the configuration.

I agree that there is room for improvement in the column appearing|disappearing behaviour (vs being enabled|disabled) in the various config dboxes.

My overall view is that I am very pleased with the many improvements in MM5, but am disappointed that MM has still has limited utility for an album focused collector|listener.

[bdb484]

Just want to chime in with another vote in favor of the album-oriented approach.

The inability to rate albums manually is another thing that's always bugged me.

[lestrem06]

I agree, the inability to focus on the album as a collector and DJ may move me to other platforms. This is a key for me in how I use Media Monkey.

Uninstalling version 5 as it is not workable without this ability.

[noisebeam]

I am too album focused and always thought the limitation were because I didn't learn MM4 (and soon MM5) capabilities well enough.

For example when I group albums by Album Artist I'd rather have the albums under that Album Artist be listed in chronological date, not alphabetical.

When I sort Albums by Year it groups them my Album Title in alphabetical order under each year, not in chronological order. How do I list all Albums in chronological order?

Also how many albums do I have in my collection? I've been trying to figure that one out for a long time.

[Lowlander]

You can use multi-sort: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... ng_Sorting So you can sort on Album Artist > Date.

Do you have full Date or just year value for Date? If only year chronological wouldn't be possible as MediaMonkey lacks information.

File > Create Reports > Statistics will show Albums in Library. Alternatively Music > Albums in the Media Tree with the Grid View shows the Album count in the Statusbar.

[Not_tech_savy]

Just curious. What is the difference between artist and album artist? is AA just featured artists in an album?

[Lowlander]

Artist(s) are the performers of the Track, Album Artist is the performer the Album is released by/associated with. In case of compilations Album Artist would be something like Various Artists, Various, VA depending on what you prefer to use: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... erties/5.0

[yarguy]

Artist(s) are the performers of the Track, Album Artist is the performer the Album is released by/associated with. In case of compilations Album Artist would be something like Various Artists, Various, VA depending on what you prefer to use: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... erties/5.0

There are other cases where the album artist and artist might be different besides the Various Artist cases. For instance, I have Miles Davis as the Album Artist for all his releases so that they all show up together, but the artist is whatever is on the album cover: Miles Davis Quintet, Miles Davis All Stars, The Miles Davis Quintet featuring John Coltrane, etc. It also works well for single artist compilations. I have a number of Bix Beiderbecke collected albums. For each Bix is the album artist, but the artists for each track will be whatever the name on the original 78 was: The Wolverines, Sioux City Six, The Bucktown Five, etc. I don't how I would properly organize my library without both fields.

[Not_tech_savy]

Artist(s) are the performers of the Track, Album Artist is the performer the Album is released by/associated with. In case of compilations Album Artist would be something like Various Artists, Various, VA depending on what you prefer to use: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... erties/5.0

Thank you, I made this long request post and it was here the whole time just didn't do my research.

[noisebeam]

I use Album Artist for the name of the artist/band/performer on the Album jacket. One matched entry for every track on the Album. Artist(s) is the list of all musicians that performs on each track, by track.

[JoeChinnici]

I am too album focused and always thought the limitation were because I didn't learn MM4 (and soon MM5) capabilities well enough.

For example when I group albums by Album Artist I'd rather have the albums under that Album Artist be listed in chronological date, not alphabetical.

When I sort Albums by Year it groups them my Album Title in alphabetical order under each year, not in chronological order. How do I list all Albums in chronological order?

Also how many albums do I have in my collection? I've been trying to figure that one out for a long time.

To find out how many albums you have, you can use the Column Filter (formerly Column Browser). If you make select Albums as one of the columns, it will tell you how many albums at the top.

[Barry4679]

To find out how many albums you have, you can use the Column Filter (formerly Column Browser). If you make select Albums as one of the columns, it will tell you how many albums at the top.

And if you have enabled the EntireLibrary node in the Media Tree (requires Gold version), the total album count also shows in the footer of Display By Grid By Album View